Finland

Rovaniemi, Finland. This is arguably the "Christmas Capital" of the world, and a reindeer sled seems like an appropriate way to get around here.

Rovaniemi, Finland. The Christmas Village goes year-round, but it's especially lively in mid-December. That blue line of lights marks the Arctic Circle, passing right thru the Village. This time of year it is dark about 20 hours a day here; in the summer it flips and is daylight for about 20 hours a day.

Helsinki, Finland. This is the Helsinki Cathedral as seen from Senate Square, home of the annual Christmas Market. It's a very lively affair with all kinds of Christmas bling for sale, along with lots of booze and of course every possible way to serve up reindeer.

Helsinki, Finland. The historic city center is a great place to walk. To be honest it's not the most exciting capital city in Europe, but it is one of the calmest, and very scenic too.

Lapland, Finland. After spending way too much time looking, over the course of many trips, we finally got to see a decent aurora. It was still just an 'average' sighting and all I had to capture it was my iPhone, but still...pretty cool!

Lapland, Finland. The Finns are pretty good at this whole aurora-spotting thing, especially since it can show up at any time of the night, and last anywhere from seconds to hours. That's a lot of waiting. So one of the best ways to look for it without freezing your tail off is to stay in one of these glass cabins : glass walls and ceiling, so you can just lay right there in bed and look straight up at the sky in total comfort. It's not much for privacy maybe, but it's so cold outside there shouldn't be anyone out there anyway!

Akaslompolo, Finland. This is ski country in Finland; Yllas, one of the largest mountains in Finland is only a few miles from here. In spite of this being a Nordic country and so far north, the skiing is not all that great because the terrain ranges from flat to mountains that are smaller than North Carolina's. But the hiking and wilderness areas are pristine. There's plenty of beautiful scenery and definitely no crowds in winter!

Lapland, Finland. The sky seems more interesting up here north of the arctic circle. Maybe because the auroras at night and the low sun angle during the day each create interesting effects. At only about a week until midwinter (shortest day of the year) the sun just grazes the horizon for a couple hours, then dives back down. The top photo shows the sun as high as it's gonna get on this day, not even clearing the trees. The bottom pic shows the cool colors that result from sunlight hitting the bottoms of ice-clouds.

Lapland, Finland. This is the land of the husky. These guys are taking a break from dragging tourists around, but after about a ten-minute nap they'll be ready to roll again!

Finland. A few scenic shots of the beautiful Finnish countryside.