The January Moon The January moon made a hell of a show Over Helsinki all covered in snow Between the buildings, the midnight glow, Then early morning way down low Tangled itself in power lines – oh no! Played with the street lights all a-glow, Then dropped out of sight – it had to go. But the moon over Helsinki made a hell of a show.

Homeward Bound ... Today I head home from the journey of a lifetime, a richer (in experience, definitely not purse), wiser person, hardly able to believe I am lucky enough to have completed such an amazing trip. From those first few tentative steps off the plane in Beijing, across many, many kilometres of Mongolian deserts and Russian tundras, through places so cold your toes and nose felt they may drop off, with people so lovely that their friendship warmed you...

Rovaniemi is a lovely city situated close to the Arctic Circle where the Kemijoki and the Ounasjoki Rivers meet. Our hotel was on the banks of one of these rivers and central to the city area, so we were in walking distance of most things we wanted to see. The city plan is set out in he shape of reindeer antlers, the streets are decorated with Christmas lights in the shape of antlers and the gift shops are full of souvenirs made of reindeer antlers. Guess which a...

Maybe I'm a sucker when it comes to Santa, but I had a great time at Santa's village - the real Santa's place, I might add, just north of Rovaniemi in Lapland. Our Travel Director's tour through China, Mongolia and Russia ended in Helsinki, so we couldn't leave Finland before a quick trip to the north to see the jolly gentleman. The ten hour train journey was lovely and relaxing after our tiring travels. The time actually went too quickly for us. We had our own p...

Just when I thought things couldn't get any better, they did. We arrived in the beautiful city of Helsinki blanketed in fresh white snow gleaming under sunshine. During our orientation tour the light kept changing as the clouds changed and the sun shone through in different strengths and angles. As the light changed, the landscape seemed to continually make dramatic changes, each moment more breathtakingly beautiful than the last. The climate is cold and icy, bu...