Travel Bite 55 - Beautiful but cold

Hi Traveler,

Welcome to Travel Bite 55 - Beautiful but cold

Have you been to Finland? In the winter?

The light is soft, the colors are subtle, the sounds are muffled.

And the cold gets your attention.

Let’s visit northern Finland for the next couple weeks.

I was fortunate to join a Kirsti Maki (affiliated with Hurtigruten) group one January a couple years ago.

We flew to Helsinki, then Rovaniemi on the arctic circle, and then 300 miles north to Levee, a ski area.

The temperature when we deplaned - minus 29 degrees.

It was a full week of dog sleds, reindeer sleds and snow mobiles, through the forest and over frozen lakes. 

We took hikes in the snow laden forest and spent one night (one night is plenty) in an ice hotel.

The sun never did rise above the horizon and the afternoon light made the snow topped trees look like pink cotton candy.

The attached photo was taken at 2:30 one afternoon. The evening shadows had begun to creep in.

The colors were pink. It would soon be dark.

But the shadows and light through the trees were mesmerizing.

Machu Picchu, Cusco, Lake Titicaca and La Paz, Bolivia, next fall. I’m working on it.

See you next week.

Duncan

 

Duncan MacSwain taught science at Redwood High School in Larkspur.