Page 35 - Seniorstoday May 2022 Issue
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We had a 16-course curated tasting meal After a bit of rest, we travelled to a
at Ravin tola Palace. The best restaurant is restaurant Poropirti, which is about 20/25
Ravin tola Demo. If you’re a vegetarian, it’s minutes from the hotel. The restaurant was
a good idea to let them know in advance the booked for us only, but a smaller group
no. of vegetarians expected. It’s a good idea of people can book individually as well.
to book the restaurants in advance which While we were drinking, eating & dancing,
are easily possible from here. There are a someone shouted that the Northern lights
lot of other choices if one does not go the were visible. We were fortunate to see the
Michelin route. lights which were dancing in gay abandon,
The flight to Rovaniemi is about an hour. as we were before the sighting. Initially one
We landed there surrounded by fresh just saw streaks of a clouds cover, and the
snow everywhere. There are a lot of hotels cameras of our phones captured the colours.
there. We stayed at the North Arctic hotel, While green was most prominent, we saw
a boutique hotel. When we arrived in the the pinks, the reds & the oranges as well. As
evening, we had dinner & rested for our time progressed, we had seen enough for
next day’s adventures. During winter around 20 minutes capturing the vibrant
perhaps not later than the end of March, colours in the sky, we walked back to the
one can go on a snowmobile & ride it on the restaurant to dine. Suddenly there was a
river, it truly was a great experience. Lunch call asking to come out fast. What we saw
was at Amarillo a Mexican restaurant, very the spellbound us completely. The colours
close to the hotel. From there, our bus took were very visible & the cameras captured
us to Santa village about 20 minutes from more; the lights were dancing & regaling us
the hotel. A visit to the Santa Village is quite with their antics.
interesting, with a post office where one Some of our friends went further on to
can send postcards to their grandchildren chase the northern lights. They did see
as we did. There is a separate post box for some but nothing as spectacular as we had
Christmas greetings & normal postcards, already seen. We were elated returning
one can post a Christmas greeting in March back & danced & sang on the ride back to
& it would be received by the recipient the hotel.
around Christmas time A few souvenirs & The next morning, we went on a long
were off to the hotel. drive into Sweden & went on an icebreaker
ship, seeing the ice being broken as we
moved forward. This ship is an engineering
marvel. The first ice breaker ship was made
in 1917. The one we sat on was made in 1976
& had everything original including the
electric panel. The ship runs on 2 engines
of 8 cylinders each & creating 10,000
HP to move forward while breaking the
ice. We stopped after about an hour & we
went in the water (a created area) with
our floatation suits. Lying there watching
the sky was an exhilarating experience.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #35 | MAY 2022 35
