In the midst of a severe winter storm on Friday, January 10th, ten members of the Chattanooga Ski Club dashed through snow and ice to the Atlanta airport to embark on a much anticipated adventure to Finland and Ireland. Jim Mullenix, Janie Burke, Dave & Linda Drumm. Don & Jane Drumm, Jim & Ruth Scotchie, and Tim Porter & Julie Koeppen were the ten adventurers. Our group was joined by an 11th member, Carol Jaspin from New York City, and our Alpine Adventures Tour Coordinator, Max Jensen, in Finland’s capital city, Helsinki. We all had a very enjoyable and sometimes challenging trip to remember with a recurrent theme “It was going so well, but…” Actually, the “going well” part dominated our adventure.
Our British Airways flight to London and then on to Helsinki was delayed until after midnight on Jan 10th because the Atlanta airport had been shut down a good part of the day due to the winter storm. A few days prior to our departure, we had to jump through hoops and obtain on-line, newly instituted visas required to pass through or visit the United Kingdom. The UK’s time difference from Atlanta was 5 hours (ahead) and Finland’s was 7 hours. We had a late night arrival at the Hotel Indigo in snow-laden downtown Helsinki on Saturday, Jan 11th. Max greeted and welcomed us in the hotel lobby. After breakfast the following morning, our group took a panoramic bus tour of Helsinki with a local guide followed by lunch and dinner at local restaurants. Jim Mullenix nibbled on a “Finn-favorite” dish of bony herring while the rest of our group had decent meals including a delicious salmon soup. We found Helsinki to be a beautiful city where some residents take daily polar plunges in the Gulf of Finland for, if one can believe it, health-related benefits including a good wake-up call. We did not join them despite the fact that Finland is regarded as one of the happiest countries on earth – possibly because cold water immersion affects their brains and also because the Finns drink a lot.
The following day, our Finnair morning flight from Helsinki to Kittila airport near the village of Levi was cancelled causing our group to spend a good part of the day in the Helsinki airport. Finnair gave each of us a 17 euro voucher to fund a drink and snack while we played cards, read, and shopped before our rescheduled late afternoon flight.
We had a late evening arrival at the Design Hotel in Levi, which had very nice accommodations and fine dining that we all very much enjoyed. Levi (pronounced “Lev ee”) is located in Lapland about 120 miles above the Arctic Circle and roughly 50 miles west of Finland’s 900 mile long border with Russia. The temperature there was unseasonably mild and hovered around zero degrees Celsius the whole time we were there. The days in Finland were short and the nights were long with only about 6 hours of daylight (dawn around 10:00 am and dark around 4:00 pm with an increase of daylight 6 minutes each day). Many of us wore ice cleats on the bottom of our footwear in Levi and further north to keep from slipping on the ice-covered terrain during our outdoor treks. Our one planned excursion in Levi was a visit to a Snow Village where we walked in winter outfits, provided by our tour company, through a series of connected snow/ice caverns adorned with magnificent ocean-themed ice sculptures. We also rode a gondola to the top of the mountain above Levi where we toured a Sami indigenous people’s museum and met fenced-in reindeer up close and personal. Some of our group had planned to ski on the slopes next to our hotel on the third day of our visit, but it rained that day and icy conditions precluded us from doing that. Instead of skiing on ice, most of our group visited, via a no-charge town bus, a local, sprawling Elves Village while a couple in our group went to an Arctic animal park. Our tour guide Max led post dinner, late evening hikes in search of northern lights, which we finally encountered on our last night in Levi. We found Levi to be a quaint, hospitable village. Max worked hard to ensure that we had an enjoyable experience there.
From Levi, we ventured further north by bus to an Arctic Village in Kakslauttanen where we enjoyed dog sledding, a planetarium visit, and a reindeer sleigh ride under the stars. After our dog sledding and reindeer sleigh rides, we assembled in a large teepee and had a hot drink and snack while sitting around a fire and sharing stories related to our adventure. At the main lodge’s restaurant in the east part of the village, a young Italian waiter entertained us with his quick wit and great sense of humor as we enjoyed very nice meals. We stayed in glass igloos, separated some distance from the lodge with an up and down icy path. We were able to observe starlit skies and northern lights from the comfort of a warm bed in our assigned two-person igloos. Our experience in the Kakslauttanen igloos was magical!
On Monday, Jan 20, we left the Arctic Village at 5:00 am with a box breakfast, returned via a 3 hour bus ride to the Kittila airport, and took a Finnair flight back to Helsinki. After we checked into the Indigo Hotel, we made our way across the beautifully lighted city to the Bryggeri Brewhouse where we enjoyed a farewell dinner with our much beloved guide Max who was returning to her home in Utah the next morning. We had some good laughs that evening, and parting was such sweet sorrow!
Our departure the following day from Helsinki to Dublin was delayed due to a scheduling mishap with Finnair. That caused us to spend most of the day in the Helsinki airport with another 17 euro Finnair voucher. Our seasoned fellow traveler, Jim Mullenix, convinced Finnair to allow our entire group to stay in the Finnair lounge, which proved to be a welcome and extravagant relief. We arrived in Dublin late that night and were greeted by our driver Mick who transported us in a nice Mercedes bus to the Holiday Inn in Belfast. Mick arranged for the hotel restaurant to remain open and serve us a nice 9:00 pm 3 course meal.
The next day, we enjoyed a bus tour of the Catholic and Protestant sectors of Belfast and a visit to the fabulous Titanic Museum followed by a scenic trip along the Irish Coastal Causeway to Bushmills, complete with lunch at Fullerton Farms restaurant along the way. Because we missed our scheduled tour of the Bushmills Distillery the previous day due to our flight delay, our driver Mick used his Irish charm to arrange a VIP whiskey tasting session there, which proved to be a very educational and delightful experience. We sampled 3 different kinds of Bushmills whiskey and found that the 21 version was as smooth as an iced-over ski slope. After a group picture and ringing an ancient roof-top bell in the VIP room, we visited the distillery’s gift shop and returned to Belfast where Mick had to intercede and convince our hotel’s staff that a second dinner was included in our package. That resulted in a second late night Holiday Inn dinner, both of which were good – late but good.
On Thursday morning, January 23rd, we left for Dublin and stopped along the way at Tracey’s Farmhouse where we had a delightful 3 ingredient soda bread-making experience along with a feast of fresh bread & butter, jam, tea, and coffee. Julie Koeppen was recognized as our top bread maker with an award of a jar of homemade raspberry jam, and Jim Scotchie (“his mother’s favorite daughter”) was recognized as our group’s Pillsbury Doughboy because of the excess flour he used, some of which ended up on the nose of his smiling face. The hospitality we received at Tracey’s Farmhouse was superb and will remain a very pleasant memory for all!
Back in the fair city of Dublin, we stopped for lunch at the Harbor Master’s Pub where we met up with our tour guide Paul Burke followed by a visit to the appropriately named Epic Irish Emigration Museum. As fate would have it, our bus wouldn’t start, and so Paul arranged for 3 taxis to deliver us to our extravagant 5 star Ashling Hotel situated along the Liffey River that flowed through Dublin. We were treated to a superb dinner in the hotel that evening, complete with a perky, bubbly red-headed Irish Lass/singing waitress by the name of Julienne, who also regaled us with Irish songs the following morning at breakfast. All through the night and the next morning, Dublin experienced its worst storm in 80 years with 70-80 mph winds, lots of fallen trees, and power outages across the city. Most of Dublin was shut down during the storm. After the high winds subsided, Mick and Paul took us on a panoramic tour of Dublin that included lunch at Fitzgerald’s Pub and a tour of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was built in 900 AD. That evening, we drove to Taylor’s Three Rock Cabaret where we were treated to a fine dinner with drinks and entertained by a trio of Irish men and six young Irish dancers. The Irish music, humor, and dancing that evening were very entertaining. Jim Scotchie became an internet/Facebook sensation when he joined the Irish dancers with a performance that brought smiles to all. When we returned to the Ashling Hotel, we recognized Mick for the superb job he did in ensuring that our time in Ireland was a great experience.
On Saturday, January 25th, we flew on British Airways from Dublin to London and then on to Atlanta with a late night arrival. Of course, we experienced what seemed by then to be normal flight delays along the way. Despite a few recurring Groundhog Day type episodes of “It was going well, but…”, our tight-knit, adventurous travel family parted ways in Atlanta with an abundance of wonderful memories rooted in a unique and truly grand Chattanooga Ski Club trip.
Don Drumm
Finland-Ireland Trip Captain