9. June 18, 2024: From Rovaniemi to Helsinki

Tuesday, June 18, 2024.

June 18, 2024

Following breakfast in Rovaniemi, we headed to explore the city before going to the airport to fly to Helsinki. As we got into our car we heard loud aircrafts –low flying jets—above. The bellman who was helping us with our luggage saw our curiosity and said, “Those are American aircraft.” We looked at him quizzically and he continued: “They are here to train Finnish pilots, now that we are in NATO.”

We decided to drive rather than walk around Rovaniemi so that we could avoid the rain and also leave from wherever we might be to get to the airport directly rather than having to stop back at the hotel. First, we headed to the public library and city hall which were both designed by Alvar Aalto (who also came up with the master plan for the city—the one that is based on reindeer antlers, so there are many dead-end streets and no grid to follow) in the 1960s. Given our disdain for “starchitects,” we never went to see these buildings on prior visits to Rovaniemi. Well now, they are under pretty major renovations and reconstruction, so we were unable to get inside, and the exteriors were blocked with mesh fencing.

We then meandered around town looking at various housing projects and then went to the Arktikum—a truly amazing science center and museum that focuses on northern nature, culture, and history. Normally there is a trail that goes along the shore outside the museum, but it is currently closed due to some flooding, but will reopen next week. The center is a linear skylit structure stretching the full 300 ft length. It is on two levels with a soaring atrium. There are exhibits on both sides of the walkways (on both floors) and then there are doors interspersed which lead you to large spaces with three dimensional exhibits of history and nature of the region. Currently there was also an exhibit of old maps which showed the evolution of the northern countries and land above the Arctic Circle. It was obvious from the text complementing the maps that the curator (and the museum) took great pride in the explorers, mapmakers, artists, and others from the north. Several text passages talk about the efforts and defeat of British explorers and the successes of the Norse explorers. Beautifully detailed exhibit design set inside an elegant, simple space that goes out of its way to be the backdrop rather than the focus of the experience. The architect for the building was selected through a competition. Oh… one thing I forgot to mention is that within the exhibits one can hear the chirping sounds of birds. These sounds are also often piped into public restrooms. Speaking of restrooms, the images pointing to different restrooms (gender, handicap, etc.) include one for the baby changing room and the picture is of a male with the baby.

We had a simple lunch at the museum (mostly vegetarian options) and by then it was time to head to the airport (lentoasema). We returned the Sixt car (totally caked with mud from yesterday’s drive) and then went through security which turned out to be a bit of a fiasco (for me). First, after I scanned my boarding pass on my phone, I walked through and pulled my rolling computer bag, but it got caught on the door and next thing I knew I was on one side of the security door and my computer bag was on the other side; the handle of my bag was still in my hand and attached to the bag. There was no way for me to go back and start again as the doors were now closed and an alarm was ringing and a red light was flashing. After what seemed like an eternity (but was probably about 4 minutes) security came to open the door so that I could get my bag. But she couldn’t get the door to open either; then she talked to a passenger who was going through the adjacent security door, and she had him get my bag and pull it through. All was good after that.. except I was pulled out to have my bags inspected. Given the U.S. policy with TSA, if you are PreCheck, I am no longer accustomed to taking off shoes, removing computer, and removing liquids. So, I needed to redo their security process.

The flight from Rovaniemi to Helsinki is short, like Oakland to LA. We landed at the Helsinki airport at about7:30 pm and taxied to our hotel (a hotel we had stayed at twice before), Hotelli Kamp, a former bank that has been a hotel for about 15 years. Continuing the theme about immigrants in Finland—the taxi driver was from Afghanistan. The Kamp is one of those hotels with impeccable service and has an air of elegance (just like us!!). At 9 pm we met up with good friends from the days we lived here and had dinner at Café Savoy. Lots of conversation about what has transpired personally, politically, professionally in the last 5 years. Much discussion about Finland joining NATO, Europe’s move to the right politically, and a lot of laughter about Finland continuously being named “the happiest country in the world.” And of course, much discussion on the political situation in the US, the religious right, Trump’s prospect, Biden’s situation, etc.

It is truly nice to have friendships where the relationship just picks up after each five-year period as if no time has lapsed. We closed out the restaurant and strolled to the hotel. We will meet up again tomorrow.

Happy Juneteenth.
Fern