Who: Eric and Kim Detmer of Morrison, Shirley and Mike Detmer of Littleton, Colorado
Where: Santa’s Village at the Arctic Circle, Rovaniemi, Finland
Out and about: Genealogical research & simple curiosity prompted a 17-day tour of this rather uncommon destination. We started in Helsinki and drove around the entire country, staying at remote lakeside mokkhis (cabins) and visiting several surprisingly modern cities. The people are very friendly and most speak excellent English (which is fortunate, because Finn is an extremely difficult language!)
Travel tip: In the summer, plan on bathing in DEET! Definitely buy a good Finnish-English dictionary. Also, make sure to save receipts and look for signage regarding sales tax refunds for foreign travellers. Tax on certain purchases can be refunded at the airport before departure from Finland.
