4xdog
Explorer
As the clock turned from June 21 to 22, Midsummer, and the longest day of the year, I had the chance to be standing on the Arctic Circle in Finland watching the midnight sun in one sky and the full supermoon in the other. Very cool.
The trip to the Arctic Circle has been on my list for almost 15 years, and it turned out this year on Midsummer I had the day to kill, so off to the circle it was. I'd been in Finland all the prior week. My company has one of our main plants in the forests of Central Finland. Air service from Helsinki to Jyväskylä isn't that great anymore, so it made sense to get a rental car at HEL. Napapiiri, the Arctic Circle, was an easy six hour drive north.
One can only imagine how long it would have taken, and how hard it would have been, to make the same trip from my home in the US Midwest. Probably at least 40 hours one-way, through gravel roads and tundra.
I was very happy to check off my fourth major latitude line. The Antarctic Circle the only one left... That will be a bit harder to get.
My rental car was a Citroen C1. A tiny four-door with gasoline engine and five speed transmission. A bit buzzy, but terrifically economical in a country where 95 Octane / 10% ethanol fuel is about 1.6 €/L ($8.25/gallon)
The roads of rural Finland are quite nice, with long stretches of straight flat terrain or gently rolling hills. Lakes and rivers abound. Many fields of hay.
The lupines were in bloom -- this is considered an invasive species in Finland after being introduced ornamentally in the 19th century, but if one ignores that point, it's quite nice.
The road signs of Finland are yellow, red, and black. They use yellow as the background color to ensure contrast with snow, which as one might expect, is pretty common during the long winter. Some of the things one is warned about are also a bit different than in other parts of the world. (And you'll see where I get my avatar, too).
The signs don't lie. I saw only one moose a long way from the road on this trip, but they're definitely out there. An advantage of driving this time of year is that the entire trip will be in daylight no matter when.
Motorway gas stations look pretty much the same everywhere, and Finland in some respects has more in common with the US than it does Europe. Lots of wide open spaces with development taking place fairly recently. Although Finnish is a near-impenetrable language for a non-Finn, it's pretty easy to get around just from the overall vibe and good English is spoken everywhere.
Pickups are pretty common in rural Finland, usually Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi, or Nissan models. Bed covers are pretty common too, often made of vinyl-covered fabric on a tight framework.
Rovaniemi, the gateway to the Arctic Circle and Lappland in Finland, is within a few kilometers of the Arctic Circle. They have a 24 hour McDonald's in the center of town -- the northernmost golden arches in the world per the plaque inside -- which near midnight on Midsummer looks just like every other McDonald's in the world. A challenging expedition this is not...
The midnight sun lives up to its name. Here it is a few minutes before midnight driving the 8 km from the city center to Napapiiri. In the opposite sky was the full supermoon.
For the record, I made it to 66° 33.609'N 25° 54.562'E. The "official" Arctic Circle tourist center is noted 66° 32' 35". Wikipedia has something else, noting the procession in the Earth's rotation moves the circle northward 15 feet per year. The Finns know that of course but conveniently ignore it for the sake of tourism. I can't argue. The globe is what, 8000 miles diameter? A few feet are well within rounding error.
I forgot to turn back on my headlights for a few miles on the deserted roads at midnight. It's that bright. This is as dark as it gets. There's not much to see at this point, except maybe the display on the GPS. The mosquitoes were still out and active. Little wimpy things that weren't really on a mission. As much as Finland has in common with Minnesota, the skeeters are not the same, thankfully.
There's a collection of shops and restaurants at the "official" Napapiiri. By daylight the next day there were a number of motorcyclists, campervans, tour buses, and random cars milling around.
It's pretty common to have auxiliary lights in rural Finland. With the long winter nights it's an important safety accessory.
The drive from the Arctic Circle back to Helsinki was a simple retracing of steps, with the same sights and sounds. From there, it was on to Stockholm by way of the Silja Symphony, one of several overnight ferries in regular service. But that's another story.
The trip to the Arctic Circle has been on my list for almost 15 years, and it turned out this year on Midsummer I had the day to kill, so off to the circle it was. I'd been in Finland all the prior week. My company has one of our main plants in the forests of Central Finland. Air service from Helsinki to Jyväskylä isn't that great anymore, so it made sense to get a rental car at HEL. Napapiiri, the Arctic Circle, was an easy six hour drive north.
One can only imagine how long it would have taken, and how hard it would have been, to make the same trip from my home in the US Midwest. Probably at least 40 hours one-way, through gravel roads and tundra.
I was very happy to check off my fourth major latitude line. The Antarctic Circle the only one left... That will be a bit harder to get.
My rental car was a Citroen C1. A tiny four-door with gasoline engine and five speed transmission. A bit buzzy, but terrifically economical in a country where 95 Octane / 10% ethanol fuel is about 1.6 €/L ($8.25/gallon)
The roads of rural Finland are quite nice, with long stretches of straight flat terrain or gently rolling hills. Lakes and rivers abound. Many fields of hay.
The lupines were in bloom -- this is considered an invasive species in Finland after being introduced ornamentally in the 19th century, but if one ignores that point, it's quite nice.
The road signs of Finland are yellow, red, and black. They use yellow as the background color to ensure contrast with snow, which as one might expect, is pretty common during the long winter. Some of the things one is warned about are also a bit different than in other parts of the world. (And you'll see where I get my avatar, too).
The signs don't lie. I saw only one moose a long way from the road on this trip, but they're definitely out there. An advantage of driving this time of year is that the entire trip will be in daylight no matter when.
Motorway gas stations look pretty much the same everywhere, and Finland in some respects has more in common with the US than it does Europe. Lots of wide open spaces with development taking place fairly recently. Although Finnish is a near-impenetrable language for a non-Finn, it's pretty easy to get around just from the overall vibe and good English is spoken everywhere.
Pickups are pretty common in rural Finland, usually Toyota Hilux, Mitsubishi, or Nissan models. Bed covers are pretty common too, often made of vinyl-covered fabric on a tight framework.
Rovaniemi, the gateway to the Arctic Circle and Lappland in Finland, is within a few kilometers of the Arctic Circle. They have a 24 hour McDonald's in the center of town -- the northernmost golden arches in the world per the plaque inside -- which near midnight on Midsummer looks just like every other McDonald's in the world. A challenging expedition this is not...
The midnight sun lives up to its name. Here it is a few minutes before midnight driving the 8 km from the city center to Napapiiri. In the opposite sky was the full supermoon.
For the record, I made it to 66° 33.609'N 25° 54.562'E. The "official" Arctic Circle tourist center is noted 66° 32' 35". Wikipedia has something else, noting the procession in the Earth's rotation moves the circle northward 15 feet per year. The Finns know that of course but conveniently ignore it for the sake of tourism. I can't argue. The globe is what, 8000 miles diameter? A few feet are well within rounding error.
I forgot to turn back on my headlights for a few miles on the deserted roads at midnight. It's that bright. This is as dark as it gets. There's not much to see at this point, except maybe the display on the GPS. The mosquitoes were still out and active. Little wimpy things that weren't really on a mission. As much as Finland has in common with Minnesota, the skeeters are not the same, thankfully.
There's a collection of shops and restaurants at the "official" Napapiiri. By daylight the next day there were a number of motorcyclists, campervans, tour buses, and random cars milling around.
It's pretty common to have auxiliary lights in rural Finland. With the long winter nights it's an important safety accessory.
The drive from the Arctic Circle back to Helsinki was a simple retracing of steps, with the same sights and sounds. From there, it was on to Stockholm by way of the Silja Symphony, one of several overnight ferries in regular service. But that's another story.
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