The most rare dog bread in the 60s - Little Lion Dogs Löwchen

I have had the opportunity to live with an amazing dog breed the last 17 years. Our oldest boy died a month ago; he was almost 17 years old. Our three other boys, Skip, Spot and Leo are here with us and they are all from a Finnish breeder in West of Finland (Pohjanmaa). Check out our lions... they will not like intruders.... Leo specifically likes to eat intruders alive... The boys are all one year apart from each other, so there is lots of activity in our house

Weather in Dallas is dangerous

We went for the NHL ice hockey game today and I have to say that the icy roads made the trip to the American Airlines Center in downtown Dallas pretty interesting. Schools have been closed today, we have got some snow and the temperature has been below the freezing point around 25 Fahrenheit. This is not typical for our dear Dallas, Texas.

New York is getting winter

It is time to go home again. The weather in New York was very warm but now there is a cold front coming up.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to have dinner in the restaurant owned by Robert de Niro.... Sweet....

I stayed in my regular hotel Paramount that is close the Time Square on the 46th street. The hotel has an art deco look and feel and I very much enjoy the way it is. I hope the new ownership does not distroy the atmosphere going forward.

I am on a direct American Airlines on my way to Dallas.

Hotel Paramount, New York - I am back

This is the third time I stay in the Paramount art decor hotel that is very close to Time Square, New York. The hotel is on 46th street and I even found my regular addiction Barnes & Noble on the same street (corner of 46th and 5th Avenue).

I also tested out a Chinese restaurant Wu Liang Ye that can be found at 36 West 48th Street second floor. The place has won awards and I do not wonder why... very nice food and I had the local hot and sour soup, Tsing Tao beer and their flavor or Kung Pao Chicken....

I can not believe it is January as the weather is so warm...

Dallas, Texas under ice storm attack

My direct flight to New York was cancelled, but fortunately I got a new flight through Washington Reagan. I checked the monitor of departing flights and it looks like half of them al cancelled, so I am very lucky. The traffic in Dallas might go to standstill today if the weather continues to freeze.

Flight Zurich - Dallas was very long

The flight was longer than expected due to strong winds. As before, business class in Boeing 767 is not bad and I got to have a good and long sleep during the flight. Unfortunately, I have only two days as I have to fly to New York City for a conference. It is going to be interesting to see if I make my flight as they are forecasting an icestorm to Dallas, Texas.

Beautiful weather in Zurich, Switzerland

The landing by Finnair was beautiful… I can not believe how green the grass is in January… it looked almost like summer. The sun is shining…. This time Finnair landed and pulled in the same terminal as my American Airlines flight is taking off… This is the first time and I have flown Helsinki-Zurich leg multiple times….

Train from Rovaniemi to Helsinki

The trip from Rovaniemi back to Helsinki was uneventful. The only improvement that I would like to see is the restaurant section on the train…. It is far too small and they have only one person servicing the whole train. We could see multiple people with no chance of getting food or to eat so they returned to their cabins. Other than that, we loved the train trip!

Hui Long Chinese Restaurant in Rovaniemi not worth a visit

Unfortunately, we had our second bad experience with Chinese food in Lapland, Finland. This time the experience was more on the service side..... Unbelievable in fact.... No interest in giving any type of service... And it became obvious why... They do not have to..... I believe the other restaurant in town is under the same ownership, so they might as well act as anybody having a monopoly.... Who cares to give service...

Pentik Studio factory outlet in Posio, Finland worth a visit

It is worth while visiting the Pentik Studio in Posio. They also have a nice historical display (museum) of different typical Finnish artifacts. Posio is 50 kilometers from Kuusamo on highway 81 that takes us to Rovaniemi.

Departure from Aurinkopaikka, Ruka

It's -6 Centigrades and time to depart to Rovaniemi.... The cottage was perfect and in fact exactly what we would like to have. The cottage itself is on a very deep slope and we really enjoyed the view to Eastern Ruka slopes.... Very nicely built and located!

Waking up in a foggy weather in Ruka

Our last morning in Ruka.... The weather is very, very foggy with almost zero visibility. Today we will drive the highway 81 towards Rovaniemi. Our train will depart around 09.00 PM towards Helsinki (we have sleeping cabins).

I have to say that our rental car from Hertz rental has been more than pleasant. It is a pretty new Ford Mondeo. I really like how it drives and handles in the snow and cold weather conditions. Good choice from Hertz as a rental car.

Kuusamo has not changed during the last 10 years

I have to conclude that the city of Kuusamo is exactly same as 10 years ago, which tells me that the travel industry is not giving Kuusamo much of the success as Ruka an similar places are enjoying. We had late lunch in a local Chinese restaurant, which was a mistake.... expensive and poor quality. I guess if you are the only Chinese restaurant in town, you do not have to worry about the quality.

Year 2007 opens in deep fog on the Ruka slopes

The first day of 2007 opens very foggy with a temperature very close to zero centigrades. Today we are headed to Kuusamo, a small city around 30 kilometers from Ruka.... a perfect day to check out whether the place has changed during the last 10 years.