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.

The last day of 2006 in Ruka, Finland

We spent the whole day skiing in the beautiful Ruka slopes .... this is the last day of 2006. It feels funny that the sun really does not get up completely and it is already dark at 03.00 PM. It is also completely dark in the morning until 10.00 AM so the effective daylight is only 5 hours and even then it is not as light as one would expect. The temperature has been aroun 0 Centigrades today and it has been snowing the whole day with almost 0 visibility on the top of the moutain.

Finnish sauna is world famous

I have to say that not having a sauna in Texas is a sad thing to me and I need to fix this soon. The nice cottage here in Ruka, Finland has a nice sauna and we have warmed the sauna 2 or 3 times a day, every day.... This is true life, living it in the way everyone should.....

Ruka winter is beautiful

The weather here in Ruka, Finland is very nice with -8 Celsius centigrades, but with the wind, I am sure it is even less than the car's temperature meter shows....

First day skiing the slopes of Ruka

I am a happy camper. I have not forgot how to ski! I was able tob get around like before without any problems. I think all of the time I spent skiing in my youth has made me to remember things forever.

Ruka has grown dramatically during the last 10 years

The last time I visited Ruka was around 10 years ago.... So things have changed dramatically during the years. The changes are for the good as there are more offeringd, the slopes are good and I really like the way things look like. The main center of Ruka has so many new buildings that one hardly recoqnises the place.

Rovaniemi - Kuusamo highway 81 (there is nothing there)

The road between Rovaniemi and Kuusamo (with Ruka ski resort) was pretty booring with really nothing to see. The only opportunity is to visit Aarikka factory shop in Posio, but the place closes already at 5 PM.... Go and figure that out.... I guess they do not want to sell their stuff...

Rovaniemi - Artic Circle on my mind

We spent almost a full day at the original Santa Claus park that is located by the artic circle in Rovaniemi. The place is a commercial heaven for the shops (it is expensive), but our kids seemed to like the place a lot.

We also visited the famous (formerly the thing did not fly) cave that is built around the Santa Claus brand. We paid 70 Euros for two adults and two kids.... That is close to 90 bucks....

Intercity Helsinki - Rovaniemi as a new experience

I have never experienced the train connection between Helsinki - Rovaniemi train. We had two sleeping cabins and the train departed Helsinki around 7.20 PM and we were arrived to Rovaniemi around 7.15 AM the following morning. I have to admit that sleeping in the train was kind of shallow..... the movements of the train caused our sleeping uneasy.

Ylimmainen, Kalaksuen kyla by Christmas

Our cottage by the Ylimmainen lake is where we have spent our Christmas for the past 26 years (I have not during the last 8 years), and this Christmas is kid of odd as there is no snow on the ground at all. According the weather forecast, the weather is going to get colder tonight with the possibility to -8 Celsius. It remains to be seen if this happens.