Nordkapp  Finland - Norway - Sweden  11d

We wish you arrive at your first hotel until 6 pm. Before welcome dinner, you can do what to Finns do... have a Sauna! At 8 pm you will have a welcome dinner with your tour leader. During the dinner we learn to know each other a bit and talk about upcoming days!

A very very Finnish buffet breakfast this morning with Kalakukko and Karjalanpiirakka! When your stomach is full we hit the road to the north! Most likely you will see also the first raindeers today! And you will see a lot of empty roads. For the night we park our bikes almost to Santa's doorsteps in Rovaniemi, the capital of Finland's Lapland! 

Go more north! And going more north from Ivalo means also that we are driving out from the forest area. Trees shrink to bushes before they disappear totally before we arrive at Nordkapp!

But before we drive anywhere, we visit Siida! Siida is a Sami Center, museum and nature centre! And Sami-people are the native people of Lapland! We change also the country today. But the only thing where you notice it, is a road sign saying Norge - Norway!

Today we say 'go south'! It is also the most spectacular driving day of the whole tour! North Atlantic and mountains are with us all day! And curves... many many many curves! :) After a full biking day, we stop at small Nordkjosbotn for the bright night! 

This is a great driving day with big curves, open roads, and small traffic! North Sweden is very sparsely populated like North Finland! In the evening we arrive at the shores of the Gulf of Bothnia and a small town whose name is Umeå! Not known for anything!? :) ... but it is a nice small city as they are in Sweden... and spotlessly clean!

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The tour ends and time to go home. But if you have a spare day or two, so in our opinion, it is not a bad idea at all to enjoy our big small capital, Helsinki!

Showtime. Our first stop is at beautiful Pulkkilanharju where you get the first contact with the lakes in Finland. Totaly there are around 60000 lakes in Finland, so we do not have time to see them all on this tour. Most of the day we avoid main roads and drive secondary roads which are much more fun for bikers. We end our day in Kuopio where you will have for dinner something that all the Finns love! Muikkus with Perunamuussi! You will taste also the local speciality, Kalakukko. That is something that half of Finns love!

Every day is a good day to visit Santa Claus! He is working at Santa park on Polar Circle 364 days a year! Santa's workshop is just a few meters north of Polar Circle! 

After Santa Park, we continue to north across Lapland's remote areas where raindeers are the most common inhabitants! Our hotel is on the shore of Lake Inari where you can have a very refreshing swim... with or without sauna! :) ... you are now also in the area of the midnight sun!

Today is a kind of a day off... however we ride after breakfast in the middle of magnificent views to Nordkapp, where we have no timetable! It means you can enjoy Nordkapp as long as you want and drive free-falling back to our hotel. After that, you can visit the small city of Honnigsvåg or maybe go hiking... or relax and listen to the wind! If you like hiking, there are many signposted trails... however, it is not possible to get lost!

Another extremely beautiful driving day! From Narvik, we turn east and to Riksgränsen, which means state border what it also is! And also a good place for lunch, if we do not take a late lunch in Kiruna! In Sweden, we have still a lot of curves, but the road starts to be more open! Overnight in Gällivare, which is still Sami-area!

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Breakfast at the hotel, a big buffet lunch on the ferry between Umeå and Wasa... and then we do not need much to eat before Helsinki and our farewell dinner! From Wasa to Helsinki we drive via Tampere, which is the second biggest city in Finland. At Tampere market square we stop for a very special local snack... Musta makkara! :)