Tuesday 6th June 2017

It was really nice weather last night and we got some good almost midnight sun displays. This morning it was raining and we headed off south down the E75 to visit Santa's Office on the Arctic Circle just north of Rovaniemi.

Santa hangs out inside this mysterious door and is available for consultation 365 days of the year.

Neither of us had the guts to go in to see him and sit on his knee but we could watch his antics by video link in the foyer. Ann bought some postcards.

From Rovaniemi we traveled south down the quiet route 926 to the town of Kemi on the Gulf of Bothnia. We saw an arctic hare and a moose along the way.  During the day we left winter behind and arrived in Spring!

When we first arrived in Kemi it was misty and quite cold but the sun soon burned the mist off and it turned out a really nice warm day. We got our bikes out and had a ride around.

Initially we parked by the marina but it got very busy there so we packed the bikes up and sought somewhere quieter.

We found a really nice spot a couple of hundred metres further down the coast. Here's the view out of the side of our van.

It's really pleasant here. I saw these ducks just a short way from our parking place.

There are lots of small islands just offshore. We are so far from the open sea here that the water in the Gulf is fresh, not salty!

The birch trees are just starting to bud here. It will be a while before they have any leaves.

Today we traveled 125 miles (201 kilometres). We are at N65.72645 E24.55770