Travelog for: Rendolph

Hi again! 
I peeped in to put here some more pics of Lisbon I didn´t have time to put here yesterday because Henna told it was our "hora de dormir" which means bedtime. 



This is another one of those beautiful judas trees. Here they are called "olaia". The flowers smell wonderful too. 



This is from the same park. Guess what it is?
Wild asparagus growing here!  Henna told it is her favorite activity here in december - february to rummage through the forest and collect asparagus. They make wonderful dishes out of it here.



This is adifferent kind of elevator. Some of the streets in the city are so steep they have built this kind of elevators to help people, and no wonder.  In hot weather it really asks some strength to walk up the hills.






This nice statue I saw in a park too. There is not many donkeys left anymore but still some decades ago they were very important. I like this humble little statue - so much nicer than the pompous statues of kings and such.

Bom dia, dear mom, and everyone else too! 

I have been visiting Fátima, a small town about 200 km north from Lisbon, which is famous for the religious visions that  took place there in 1917.

We took a bus from Lisbon.



Here I am waiting for the bus in the bus station. There was lots of people going for their easter holidays.


We went to the bus stations bar to have "bicas" - small cups of strongish coffee.





Immediately when our bus started we dug out the food we had taken with us and spend the next two hours mainly eating. 






On the year 1917 three peasant children, shepards from the town of Fátima, saw an apparation, a woman glowing bright light. When the children asked for her name, she said "I am The Lady of The Rosary".
Since that there has been an evergrowing  flood of pilgrims coming to see the place of the visions.



This is the santuary of Fátima built on the place where the kids saw the apparition. There is some pilgrims walking on their knees to the sanctuary, like the woman behind me in the pic.









This is from inside the sanctuary.



This shell shaped font contains holy water, with wich people coming inside the sanctuary  can purify themselves before making the sign of cross.
It is also very effective in fighting against the vampires!  (Veronica, being a bat, was rather interested into that detail)



This is the place where people light candles when they come to ask for help from  "Our Lady Fátima" or to thank her for allready received help.



Of course peoples belief is also a good source of income for some entrepreneurs. The town was full of shops selling smaller and bigger statues of different saints.



Here are the statues of the shepard kids.


Then we went to see "Via sacra", a way along which there is "stations" where religious people stop to pray during their pilgrimaging.





There was beautiful flowers and sights along the road.







Here I am pilgrimaging too! 


Then we went to see a museum showing sights of the life of Jeesus as wax figures. 



Here is jeesus throwing the sailsmen out form the temple. Rather ferocious guy!



Here we are praying on the mountain.


Then we took the bus back home!  Look at the olive trees, mom!

Hello mom and everybody else following my adventures! 


We have been rather busy, travelling and exploring. I have many places to tell about, and it is a bit hard to decide where to begin.


Okke, I´ll show you some pics of a place called Sintra. It is a beautiful green spot about 30 kilometers from Lissabon. 



The central area of Sintra is totally crowded by turists in summertime, but it was enough to walk some hundred meters away along narrower streets and there we had the scenery all for ourselves.






We found a big house in ruins. Only part of the walls were still standing, but the old flower beds were waiting for us in all their glory.  



We even found these shower caps!  



We dived into the forest. It is hard to understand why most turists visiting Sintra just stay around the shops and bars - those you have where ever, but this magnificent forest.. oh gosh.



Look at these trees, mom! 

Just to see them makes you go a bit cuckoo!



There is also other mystical things in the famous Sintra forests..



Inside the forest there is an old moorish castle, where we climbed over very steep rocks.



Looking at this pic, mom, you can get a pic on what kind of rocks we were climbing. 






What landscapes, mom!  I have you bring you here too some day! 

Hello again, mom! 

Gosh we have been travelling a lot and seeing many things!
It is hard for me to find enough time to tell here about all the things I have seen.

Now I will show you some pics of our trip to Óbidos, a small town about 80 kilometers north from Lisbon.



We took a train from Lisbon, and then another train from Monte Abrão.



We enjoyed watching the different landscapes.
On this region there is lots of wineyards, like you can see in this pic.



This is the little Óbidos train station. It has been closed for years, and we were the only people leaving the train there.



The old stations here are very often decorated with beautiful tiles showing sights from the town and the
surrounding countryside. Here too.  



There was a road leading from the station to the mediaeval city itself, but we took this narrow footpath instead.



The path took us higher and higher, and we stopped every now and then to admire the landscape (and to rest!)  






At last we reached the wall encirkling the little town.



We went to see the city. It was very beautifull with the white houses, and there was lots of roses evreywhere.
And turists.  The place was packed with turists, which of course is very wellcome for the small towns economics.. but no one of them had come with the train! All of them driwing by their own cars. Not so good for the environment.









The town is from mediaeval times, but it suffered much in the year 1755 big earthquake. Most of the houses where rebuilt though just the same style they had been before, so the outlook of the city didn't change much. 








Then we climbed over the wall and walked along it, watching downwards to the city inside and the countryside outside.










Then it was time to get back to the little station and to take the two trains back to Lisbon. In a way I understand the people driwing they cars too.. the distance to Lisbon is only about 80 kilometers, but it takes over two hours to travel it using the public transport. 


I'll write you more as soon as I manage to get in front of the comp again!
Your adventurous little raindeer 

Olá, bom dia, mãe! 

Today we are staying home, becourse Henna has to "read to an exam". Meanwhile we toys are writing updates and fighting over the comp keyboard. 


I managed to lock Veronica and Zoe to the toilet and get the comp for myself, muhahaha, and now I´m going to show you some pics from palace and park of Monserrate.   



First we took the train from Lisbon to Sintra, from where it is about 5 kilometers to Monserrate.
Every sane people visiting there just tooks the bus from Sintra, but Henna is totally impossible, she never wants to do things like she is expected to do them. 
She put us to walk the five kilometers trough forests!



I´m not saying we didn't enjoy the walk, we did. We saw many interesting things too, but I just say that 5 kilometers for a 10 cm tall reindeer is bit different thing than it is for her!



We saw this interesting pond, which was full of frogs. We could hear their croaking half a kilometer before reaching the pond.



We spent some time chatting with them, but they were rather busy, it was their mating season going on.. 



But they told us where to find this little waterfall. 



(Gosh how Zoe and Veronica are banging the toilet door!  )



Our path was full of blooming, wonderfully smelling heather.
Henna wanted to collect some for herbal tea.



And wonderfull foxgloves.


When we reached the palace grounds we didn´t go trough the gate nor pay the entrance fee, but climbed over the wall in a seldom visited corner. 
Henna says that she is very willing to leave some money for Portugal in middle of its economical crisis, but because she visits these places so often, she would land into economical crisis herself too if she payed the fees every time.
And then she lectured half an hour about a thing called "everymans right" they have in Finland, according which everyone has a right to walk and collect herbs, berries and mushrooms where ever she or he he wants to, regadless of if it happens to be on privately owned land or not.
That´s why she is rebelling here against the high walls people put round their estates, she just is not used to such things. "Land cannot belong to anyone", she says. 


Well, anyway, over the wall we went, and here is the monserrate palace itself. 



Quite a pompous building! 



There was an older and more simple palace before this one, but it was destroyed in the year 1755 earthquake very badly, and this was built instead by the new owner Francis Cook hundred years later.



This is the only pic we managed to take from inside the palace, where photographing was forbidden.



So we went to see the gardens.
They say that Lord Byron who visited the place somewhere in the first half of the 19th century called the place as "glorious eden". But I guess he meant the whole Sintra area.



There was some magnificent trees. 



And nice little nooks to keep some shade.


(Oh gosh, now Zoe and Veronica managed to open the toilet door and they are clearly planning some revenge, I can hear them giggling in the hall.  )



Charles and Camilla visited in march here in Monserrate, and before that here was made huge renovations in a great hurry. The park is much neater now than it was before, says Henna. 
Charles and Camilla planted here a rose. We didn´t see it. Well, we weren´t searching either.



There was an chapel ruin from the time of the original palace.
The trees were growing inside it, and it looked very charming.  






Reminds me of some maya ruins the forest has overgrown.






We found a little spring surrounded by ferns and even fern trees!



Charming paths..



Camellias sailing by!  



Blooming Judas tree (Cercis siliquastrum)



And this wonderful smelling visteria!



Very decorative stairs!  



A decorative pond with some fat carps swimming in.  



And some hardy arums (according to wikipedia!) growing on its shores.  






And some more flowers



And then we had seen about the whole place, which is good, because Zoe and Veronica have just hit me with a balloon full of water, and it is clear they want to begin a water fight! 
So, see you soon again, mom!
Kisses from Rendolph!

Hi, dear mom! 


Surprise, surprise, we are now in Finland!
We flew here last tuesday because Henna became ill and we had to drack her here to see a doctor. Wasn´t an easy task! She can be very stubborn! 



This little red cottage is where Henna lives here in Finland!  And it is going to be our home too now during our stay.

The cottage is in the brink of a vaste forest area. We only need to take few steps and we are already inside the forest.
There is many lakes and pools and swamps too.



Veronica took us for a little stroll, so that we could see in what kind of place we have come to.
We took a path that lead us in to the forest. 



Soon we saw this nice little brook, which brinks were glowing with kingcups (Caltha palustris).   



We were following the little brook and came to the shore of a smallish lake, called Sahajärvi.
It is a good lake to swim in th moonlight, says Henna. 






On the other side of the lake we encountered a bit bigger stream. It is named Salakoski, because there is lots of bleaks, "salakka" in finnish, (Alburnus alburns), small fish which are jumping up streams in springtime to spawn.  



We were hopping from stone to stone in the stream!  






Then we had to get over the stream and we used a fallen trunk as our bridge. 



We continued our walk and saw many beautiful birches, and millions lilies of the valley which are going to bloom soon. I´m waiting for that! They smell wonderful!  



The bird cherries are already blooming, and their lovely scent is filling the whole forest. 



And the forest bottom is full of blooming wood sorrels. Did you know that the leaves of he wood sorrels are edible and taste good, mom?  We were eating a lot.






We saw the little Nuuksio school, where the brats are dragged their first six school years. Looks quite sympatethic. 



We were testing the school yard swings too! 


Then we returned to our litte cottage.
I´ll tell you more soon! 
Love, Rendolph

Hyvää päivää, äiti! = Good day, mom! 

How are you? I wish you are as well we are here!
The weather has been rather gloomy, cloudy and raining, and you cannot imagine the amount of mosquitoes hunting for us! 
But anyway, we have been having nice times roaming around the forests.

Now I will show you some pics of Helsinki, the capitol city of Finland.
It is not easy to drag Henna there, she likes to hide in her forests and avoids the city, but Veronica hinted that Henna is totally crazy for marzipane and does whatever to get some. 
So we are coaxing her with little bits of the stuff and that works! 



To get to Helsinki we have to take a train.
It is about 30 kilometers from Hennas cottage to Helsinki centrum.









We left the train on the last stop, in Helsinki main railway station. Here it is. 



These figures holding the lanterns are from finnish mythology, some kind of light bearers. 



From the station we walked first towards the Lutheran Cathedral, which we had heard to be beautiful.
This is a finnish tram, well, just for you to see if it is any different from other trams..   



We walked past this statue of Diana.
I wonder why on earth she is hunting naked? 



This is the lutheran cathedral we wanted to see.
Many of the demonstrations where people are marching start from here, in front of the cathedral. 






We climbed the stairs, and this is the view we saw from up there.  



There was many souvenier shops near the cathedral, and we went to watch some windows.
I was chatting with these Moomintrolls. They said they would love to become toyvoyagers too!   



We walked next towards the seashore along this esplanade.
It is very famous place to sit in summertime, and in "Vappu", the first of May, there is every year about half a million young finns drunk as skunks. 



I really liked this little statue on the esplanade. 



About this I´m not sure sure. What is the seal spitting like that for? Maybe it is trying to wash the girl standing in the middle? 
The statue is called Havis Amanda, and the finnish students have a funny ritual - every year the first of May they put a huge white cap on he head of the girl. 



This is my first glimpse of the Baltic Sea. 
We then started to follow the seashore.



On the island near the shore is a very popular restaurant called "Klippan".
We started to feel like having something little to eat, but Klippan was a bit too expencive to our budget, and so we walked along in hope to find a little café. 






We found the café we were searching for! 



Then we walked again with new energy, ready to get interested in whatever would come across!



The sailingboats always wake upp in me a yearning to get to the sea!
Maybe some day! What about it, mom? Couldn´t I become a sailor? 






Then we stepped into a park called "Kaivopuisto" to admire the blooming springflowers. 
There was lots of bird cherry trees everywhere and they smelled wonderfull!



The blue flowers are Muscari armeniacum, generally known as the Grape Hyacinths. A flower book Henna has says that they are edible!  I´m not sure if they are part of the toy reindeer diet.. 






This is a natural spring in the park, which works as a wishing well. I was wishing too, but I don´t tell what it was! 









These hearts are for you,mom! 





After admiring all the wonderfull flowers we climbed a narrow staircase up to the hill.






On top of the hill was this old observatory. 
It is still open for public every now and then, and people go there to watch stars or sun spots and whatnots trough the telescope.






We were wandering about this sundial, but the day was so cloudy it wasn´t showing any time.



This is the view from the hill towards the baltic Sea. 






We started to walk back towards the railway station..



..and suddenly we saw this sea monster! 
I guess it had just roamed from the sea. I wonder where it was going to?







This guy at least has clothes on! 
He is Väinämöinen, a mythical hero from the finnish national epos Kalevala, playing his "kantele".


Phew! My little hoovs are a bit tired from the writing, but I´ll peep here soon again!

Kisses! Rendolph 

Hip hei, mom! 

Today a Hennas friend was visiting here, and those two women were talking and talking politics and drinking tea liter after liter, and we toys we were getting rather bored. 

So we were behaving in a rather irritating way, and at last Henna said to us "Go and be irritating somewhere else!", and so we took Hennas friends car and went somewhere else! 



Zoe and me we where steering, veronica was down there handling the pedals, and when needed I hopped to take care of the gears. 



We were quite a team!
Some people looked a bit puzzled because we are so small they couldn´t see us behind the wheel and so they though the car was driwing by itself. 

We saw some of them taking their mobile phones and calling somewhere, and we started to feel a bit nervous.. what if they call the police!    So we ended into an interesting discussion about what would and could happen.. we decided that if a police would stop us, we would pretend to be mute, unmovable toys, just laying on the car seat innocenly by accident.. 



First time we stopped somewhere in Siuntio, because we saw a house with interesting writings over the walls. 



We could not read the writings because they were written in cyrillic letters. 



Veronica told us that afer the second world war the area was "rented" to Soviet Union.
All the finns had to leave the area, and some soviet troops moved into the old buildings, and the writings are from that time.
If anyone here is able o understand russian, we would be happy to hear what is written there! 



Next time we stopped the car when we saw a river and an old electricity generator on the shore of it, using the little rapid as its power source. 






I started to hope we had a boat.. ! 






Then we drowe again!
It was very nice to be ourselves deciding where to go and when to stop and so on!!! 



Then we saw a very interesing looking place! 
It was a greenhouse, trees growing inside, and at the same time a shop and a café.



We managed to buy café and buns..
.. the woman behind the counter looked at us and said "I´m in the ´Hidden camera´, right?" and sold the things to us. 



Then we went to see around us in the shop! 



They were selling a most amazing collection of items!  












We started to feel a bit dizzy and moved on again! 






This is Degerby church.



This is us repairing the car motor.. we had some troubles.. 



Then we get to Inkoo!  It is a VERY small town. I would not even call it a town at all!












We went to see the mediaeval church, bt it wasn´t open, although it should have been according to their time table. 



Then we went to see the harbour. Inkoo is very popular place to spend some summer days, and many people come in their boats.






So we were watching the boats, and that was really all there was to be seen! 





So we drowe back home to Nuuksio, and guess what, mom!  Henna and her friend they were STILL discussing politics and drinking tea and they had not noticed the cars disappearance at all! 


I´ll tell again of our adventures soon!
Kisses! Rendolph 

Hi, mother! 

After the happenings got rather wild we have been behaving very very beautifully lately. 

We have been visiting museums and making little trips and helped Henna in the carden and been so much like little angels that Henna got suspicious.    "What do you have in your mind now, you little brats?!" But of course she doesn´t know even half of the things we have already get trough!



Here we are wandering trough the magnificent forest, learning names of the plants and getting civilazed. 



The best thing in these forests are that the landscapes differ so much all the time - from a deep humid spruce forest we come to a swamp or to a lake or a river or into a very dry hill growing pines and anthills. 

Look at the dragonfly sitting on the leaf, mom! It is almost as big as me! 



Here we are playing to be cavemen - well, cave creatures. We were discussing what we woud be eating if we were living here. Zoe said she could catch som fish, and Veronica said there is lots of insects for her, especially mosquitoes, but I was a bit lost there, what could I eat? 
Until Veronica told me something unbelievable - guess, mom, what do real lappish reindeers eat?!



Lichen!!!! 
Yes, you get it right! Who would have guessed! This white thing that grows a bit like little clouds over the rocks, and which is somekind of symbiotic being both mushroom and algae..
I tasted it, of course, and it was very good!!! 
But anyway I´m happy the toy reindeers have a more varied diet.  it would be hard to go digging lichen out from under the snow in vinter time!



Speaking of diet, we are nowadays always dragging a coffee pan and some cookies with us in our trips, because never know when start to feel hungry.. well..  usually rather soon! 



it is so great to be able to make an open fire whenever we feel like having a cuppa! Almost like the cavemen.. although they didn´t drink coffee. 
We were discussing what did they drink, water, of course, and some herbal teas and sap from birches in spring time.. we were asking an ant passing by. "Maybe Coca Cola", she said. 






Sometimes we follow the rivers to see where they are running. 



And sometimes we encounter a small road and follow it, there can always be a surprise on the other end! 



Like an icecream booth!!! 



Sometimes we see traces of old houses and wonder who have been living here - in middle of the forest, and how they have been making their living. 



On the edges of the forest there is houses and folks living in them, like this very polite hen who was interested into hearing of our experiences troughout the world. 



And some boat sheds in the shores of the lakes.. no people living inside the forest nowadays, but boats, yes. 



This horse was amazing us at first - we were shouting "Hello" to him, but he didn´t answer, and we were wondering if it is deaf or just in bad mood, but when we get nearer we saw it was made of plastic. 



Sometimes there is surprises at home too. 
Yesterday when we came home Hennas toyvoyager Orkku Orava was there waiting for us. She had lots of things to tell, she had just come back from Singapore! We were delighted to meet her, but the cat Iuku was just muttering "One critter more!" 


Now I´m going to see if there is anything intersting in the fridge! 
See you soon! Your Rendolph

Hei mom! 

We have been on a big trip, mom! Trough Finland, mom! 
We went in this big car Henna loaned from a friend and we also slept in the car and  I have seen real reindeers, mom! Did you hear?
And then we went to the Arctic Ocean and.. but maybe I should start from the beginning? 

Well, one day, just after a new toyvoyager, Torsten, had joined our gang, Henna told us to pack our packs ad not to forget the toothbrushes, because now we are going to make a trip!

And we hopped a white wagn and drowe towards eastern Finland, where, near Mikkeli, we would spend  the first night in a sommer cottage of one friend of Hennas. 



We stopped in a small town called Kristiina, and from there Henna lead us into a path running three kilometers trough forest.









We came to the shore of lake Saimaa, which is the biggest lake in Finland, into a place called Astuvansalmi.



There we saw 5000 years old rock art! 
Can you imagine what kind of pics the people had been painting there 5000 years ago, mom?  Elks, deers, reindeers! 
That´s very easy to understand, of course! What could be more stylish and exiting object of art, hmm? 


Then we drowe towards Hennas friends cottage.. I  had my suspicions - I have seen some of Hennas friends! 



The cottage itself looked all right, though..





But when we had just settled down and where having some tea and bisquits Hennas friend called and asked if he had remembered to tell that the old main building is haunted. 
Henna said hah hah and was sure her friend was just teasing her, but no, it seems that the house really is rather famous ghost house, and there has been some investigators of supernatural filming and measuring and whatnot. 



This is the ghost house.
Henna said she doesn´t believe in ghosts and went to sleep soon after, but it didn´t look quite like that when we sneaked near her bed an hour later, Veronica flying over her wearing a white pillowcase and me making hollow sounds.. 
Gosh how she was screaming!



She was kind of pissed of still in the next morning and so we toys spent some time investigating the ethnologically interesting buildings.. 



We continued our trip after noon, and stopped to see some interesting things, like these steamboats in a town called Kuopio.



This is a lake called Seitenjärvi, where we spent our first night in the car. 
Henna had mattrasses and sleeping sacks and it was all very nice, although a bit packed. 






After a nice evening on the shore we packed ourselves sleeping into the car, there was lots of giggling and pulling and such before we really slept, but we all slept very well. 



Next day e saw this helicopter in Hyrynsalmi, and can you imagine, mom, Zoe was suggesting that Santa Claus flies with it!  Everyone knows Santa driwes a sleigh pulled by my cousins the reindeers! 



This pic is from Ranua, which is the cloudberry center of Finland. In late July and August the cloudberries are ripe to be picked on the swamps. 



In the evening we reached the southern Lappland and stopped to watch this rapid called Auttikoski before we roamed to sleep in the car again. 

This is a good point to stop today, but i will continue the story of our travels soon.
Your Rendolph. 

Hello, mom, I´m here again! 

I´m now coming to the most interesting part of our trip, mom, prepare yourself. 



  After driwing over this bridge we were really in Lappland and I started to feel this wonderfull spell-like feeling coming over me, I could feel so clearly that I had now entered the Land Of Reindeers! 



Then there started to be these traffic signs everywhere warning the driwers about reindeers!
I had not realized I´m THAT dangerous creature, mom! 
Had you?



I know we were in Inari, hiking kilometer after kilometer through wildernes, and the others were making a lot of fuss about the mosquitoes, but I was thrilled and entranced because everywhere I run I could see traces of my relations! 



The deeper to the forest we got the more dence the feeling was, and the more there was those proofs of their being near! 



I could hear them calling! 



I run around a swamp!



And there they were! Waiting for me! 

I spend rest of the evening with my reindeer relations - they were telling me about the beauty of the sunless winter nights, the polar lights on the sky and the singing of the snow under the hoofs, the wonder of lichen, and the central part we reindeers play in lappish mythology. 

I was mainly listening and learning, and hours passed by. I will never forget that evening!
Of course it then came time again for me to search the others and say good by to my relations, but now I know where in the sky is the constellation of Reindeer according to old sámi mythology. 



I found the others easily by following the smell of smoke - who else could it have been making fire in the wildernes? 
The others had decided to spend the night round the fire.
I slept whole night soundly, but at the same time I was running the fjells. 



Next day our hiking continued. I could hear the reindeers calling to me from afar, and now I was able to answer them too.  They were wishing us happy travelling.



We visited an old church in middle of the wilderness. It suited my mood well.





Then we hiked back to Inari where our car was waiting and drowe still more northwards.
But about that I´ll tell more tomorrow! 

Good night, mother!
Hug from your little reindeer!

Hihhei, mom!

It is your little toy poro (= reindeer) here again! (Rangifer Tarandus Toy  )

Let´s see how far in our trip we can get today!
Last time we were just leaving Inari.. always towards north.



So we drowe from Inari to Karigasniemi and from Karigasniemi to Utsjoki following the running of river Teno.

Teno is famous of its salmon, and there was already some salmon turists.
We stopped every now and then to admire the view. It was so beautiful that we were just staring mouths gaping. 



Every now and then we encountered more reindeers and I shouted Henna to stop the car so that I could exchange some words with them trough the window. 



After Utsjoki we crossed the river and entered Norway!
This is our first pic taken there.



We were climbing still higher upp and now the fjells around us had white snow caps on their heads. 



We left the car and hiked again into the wildernes, higher up on the fjells, until we reached a small cottage where we decided to stay overnight. 



It was a neat little cottage owned by the state where it is possible to spend a night free, just left behind you as uch ready chopped firewood than there was when you entered.



We lit the fire in the honor of the midsummer eve traditions and sat long in front of it talking about everything that came into our minds like often happens sitting in front of a fire. 



Then we climbed everyone upwards the fjellside until we reached the snow line and diwed into it. 



Next day our road took us trough the high fjell area towards the lower coastal region of Finnamark in Norway.





More coming tomorrow at the same channel. 
Your Rendolph

Hi, mom! 

It is Rendolph here again.
The past few days have been a bit sad here.
Hennas cat Iuku died out of old age (19 years) and Henna has been very upset. 
So we toys didn´t feel much like coming here to make our updates either, we have been mainly trying to console Henna, but today she said that the life has to go on and we better come and make our updates and be joyful little toyvoyagers again, because that is our natural way to be. 

So here I am taking the story forward. 



Here we are on the shore of the Arctic Ocean! 
We had to go to put our toes into the water to sea if it feels very "arctic". It did!


We reached Alta region. People there communicated fluently in three languages - sámi, finnish and norwegian.
We went to hop into a delightfull river that run from the fjells to the ocean. The water was so clear and fresh! 








Then we went to see a very famous rock art site. Most pics they had there were reindeers!   
What else, hmm?
There certainly wasn´t any pics of bats or kiwis or squirrels and we couldn´t spot any of dogs either.   





From Alta we turned our noses again back towards Finland and we were all a bit upset about it. Not because of going back to Finland but because we had to left the fjells. 
For me Lappland felt like another home country, and no wonder - it is where all we reindeers originate. 



Somewhere in the finnish side of border we went to see a "stone age village".  This is the road leading there over a swamp.



Here are the village boats. 



And this is one of the stone age house reconstructions they have built! 
How would you like to live in a house like this, mom?


Henna was driwing now very fast towards south because she needed to be somewhere on some certain date.. so we didn´t stop to see so many things as on our way up north, but some interesting things anyway. 




We climbed into a tower somewhere in Middle Finland to watch the views..



And overnighted in a hay barn too! 



And hopped in hays! 






When we came back to Nuuksio it was a late night and here in the south it even gets somehow dark, and that felt a bit odd! 


See you soon again, mom!
Kisses from Rendolph 

Hello, mother! 

I hope you are having as good time there as we are having here!

We have been lots of time in forest (what else  ), and now it is full of berries and mushrooms and we have a hunt going on all the time!
Some of the mushrooms are cunning and hiding under tree roots and between stones, and some are forming magical cirkles on the forest bottom. 



Here we are starting our mushroom hunt, walking trough a forest of butterburs (Petasites frigidus). 
In finnish they are called "ruttojuuri" = pestilence root. People were trying to made medicine out of their roots during the awful periods of plague. 



There is so many different mushrooms!  It´s hard to know which ones are edible and which are not.
There was a snail gliding by telling me that ALL mushrooms are good, but Henna told me not to listen to her - molluscs have different digestion system than toy voyagers or mammals and they can eat almost anything. 



These are kantarellis! (Cantharellus cibarius) One of the most popular and delicious mushrooms growing here.  These were the first kantarellis on this summer and we where rather exited about finding them. 



We were finding more and more mushrooms, and our little baskets were soon full and heavy, and we run every now and then to empty them into Hennas bigger basket.
She was checking what we brought and rolling her eyes for some of our prey. From now on, she said, we have to study her many mushroom books to learn to recognice at least few species.
Why not, it sounds fun! 









It started to rain and we tried to use a mushroom as an umbrella, but it was a bit too small.
My horns get wet and Torsten started to sneeze. 



We went to search for a better place to keep the rain and found an exellent little room between the roots of an aspen. 



We called the others there too and we were sitting very cosily in our nice nest. 
Poor Henna didn´t fit there, though. She was standing under a big spruce.



Then we came back home and next we are going to make mushroom food. 
I´m sure you would like to taste it too!


Kisses and warm hug from Rendolph 

Hello from Finland again! 

After making some trips to forest with us toys to pick mushrooms and herbs our host Henna has become rather worried about our weak knowledge on flora and fungi. 

So, she decided we have to study and try to learn at least a bit so that she can be sure we don´t go and eat something we shouldn´t in nature, because, as she puts it "we eat about everything that looks lightly edible". 

Today we went to the Kaisaniemi botanical garden in Helsinki to "study". 



Here we are all in the lawn of the botanical garden making plans for our seriousminded studying. 



Here we are learning to read the latin names of the plants and to use the Linné recognition system 

We then headed to different directions to do some plant recognising.



I immediately recogniced the apple tree! 



But we had to make it sure.. 
Yes, it definitely tasted like apples! 



The flowers were more difficult!



So I consentrated to them especially - I like difficult tasks! 









This is some kind of tobacco.



This is an european nut tree. 



But we had to make that sure too! 
Yes, they tasted of nuts! 



All the flowers and their latin names and families started to make my head a bit dizzy and I don´t think I learned much! 






We were resting a bit in middle of all the recognising. 



And then we were playing a bit of hide and seek - and how odd - we noticed that playing and singing and running it was much easier to learn the names of the trees and plants too! 
So - not more serious minded studying for us but having fun and learning by accident! 
Henna said that that is what she has been doing in the uni for a decade.. 






We ended te day in a café. 


I wish you remember to play too, mom! 
Your Rendolph