Lapland day 1

Day one was all about travelling. 

We took the train to the airport in Brussels, were we got on a plane to Helsinki. When I noticed that we were flying along the Dutch coast, I spotted the village were I spend the first 18 years of my life: Wemeldinge.

It lies along the coast of the Oosterschelde and a canal runs through it which connects the Oosterschelde (Eastern Scheldt) with the Westerschelde (Western Scheldt)

After a couple of hours we landed in snow covered Helsinki. Half way there; as we now had to fly to Ivalo, way up North. We had a few hours and spend them looking around the shops, it was great to see many handmade items and local foods there. Making a mental-list what to get on our way back.

 Once on the plane the pilot told us they had a problem with the navigation and they had to fix it. So we had all the time in the world to watch the snow being shovelled and technicians come and go.

Finally, after more than 2 hours, they had located the defect part and got a spare one and we were on our way. As we were flying much later now we hoped to catch a glimpse of the Northern lights above the clouds, but no such luck :(

Ivalo is a nice small airport, much better than these huge ones were you're walking miles before you get anywhere. Outside a taxi from the Wilderness Hotel was waiting for us. 

When we were half way to the hotel, he got a phone call, he had forgotten one more person to stay at the hotel, so we went back and picked him up. after a long drive were we saw less and less houses and more and more trees and snow we arrived. The crew of the hotel had kept a lovely meal for us of reindeer with cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes.

As it was so clouded we didn't go aurora hunting that night but straight to bed in our cosy room, ready for the next day with the huskies.