Our neighbor in Steamboat Essi is from Rovaniemi. She was a great help reaching out to friends for suggestions on what we should see and do while visiting Finland. Even better than that assistance was the offer to stay with her parents. How cool is that! The only challenge is that her Mom (Leena) doesn’t speak any English and her dad (Timo) only knows a few words. Not to worry she hooked us up with her friend and former co-worker Kaija.
As is tradition in Finland when we arrived (bringing flowers) we enjoyed a bit of conversation with Kaija translating before Leena brought out mushroom tea (no not that kind) and a delicious reindeer dish and lemon bars. We had a nice visit before packing into cars for dinner. There had been a slight miscommunication and Essi’s parents weren’t aware of the dinner plans but were happy with the idea, even if it was last minute.
After dinner we enjoyed a tour of Timo’s workshop and both Leena and Timo’s impressive handicrafts. On another visit we would get to see Leena’s two weaving looms.
After all of that eating we needed some exercise to burn off the calories, so the next day we hit the highly recommended Arktikum science museum (really a natural history museum) followed by a nice nordic ski right at the edge of town. The museum provided good history on the wars, damage, and history of Finland and Rovaniemi. And boasted a wonderful cafe for lunch.
No lack of great food during our visit!
We visited a number of local artistic shops and galleries. Sadly our trip was only three days and soon we had to say until next time!
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