Skiing in Finland - vivid & magical

Hi,

At the age of 3-4 years , even earlier, a Finnish child usually gets a first set of cross-country skis maybe a set of downhill skis, too. It is easy to practise your balance and leg/arm co-ordination following a skiing route in your own garden or in a common place. Skiing is an excellent pastime during winter. Children have skiing days at school, you can go skiing after work or during weekend alone or with your family. Often this hobby continues well through your life.

In Kuopio region http://wikitravel.org/en/Kuopio skiing is made easy and there are excellent places to do it. The city provides app.200 kms of cross- country skiing routes. You can ski on the frozen Kallavesi lake and admire spectacular views or ski on Puijo area and go up and down hills in forest area. Some cross-country routes are lit in the evenings which makes skiing quite magical in snowy forests. Awesome!

After your fresh air experience go and have a lovely cup of coffee with a homemade bun, a slice of cake or a savoury pie in Kuopio Kauppahalli http://www.kuopionkauppahalli.fi/.

You can enjoy downhill skiing in Puijo or Antikkala slopes but for more adventurous and advanced skier Tahko slopes are a must. Tahko is situated 56 kms from Kuopio .There are 23 slopes, the longest slope 1,3 kms. The views are breath taking. Accommodation offered  is good: there are hotels, rental cottages and very good restaurants, too. You can ride a horse or rent a ski-do, test your car driving skills on ice. Lots of different after-ski entertainment is available. Relax in a SPA. www.tahko.com or skiing school www.luminetti.fi

Then again if you love skating there will be Finland Ice Marathon 18.2 - 19.2 for school children, 20/2 Moonlight skating with fire works.

21/2 is the Finland Ice Marathon race and fitness day .You can skate any length up to 200kms. www.finlandicemarathon.com

We all know that Father Christmas lives in Korvatunturi, Lapland. He is now very busy getting ready for Christmas 2015 but we can travel up to the north to ski on high peaks, hills and mountains of Lapland.

 In J.R.R.Tolkien's book Letters from Father Christmas (edited by Baillie Tolkien) Father Christmas tells about his chief assistant The polar Bear and his polar cub nephews Paksu (Fat) and Valkotukka (White Hair).They get up to all sorts of things and love the northern lights. The beauty of Lapland must be seen and felt.

There are so many great places to visit In Lapland not just for skiing but for all sorts of activities, among popular places are Levi http://www.levi.fi/, Luosto http://www.luosto.fi/winter_eng/ and Inari region http://www.lonelyplanet.com/finland/lapland/inari

Enjoy skiing in absolutely clean air, no fuss just lovely nature around you in snowy Finnish regions.

On recent positive art notes: There are/ have been  two excellent art exhibitions one at Didrichsen Art Museum on Edvard Much's work until 1/2 and another art exhibition in Joensuu Art Museum on Nikolai I which is closed now.