Tour skating along Lake Saimaa

This year we had a change to begin a tour skating in Linnansaari National Park and in Punkaharju already before the Christmas and now, when the days are getting longer, the skating is getting better and better :)

If you don't have our own tour skates, you can rent all the equipment from the starting points of the skating tracks: in Oravi - SaimaaHoliday Oravi, in Rantasalmi - Holiday Resort Järvisydän and in Punkaharju - Harjunportti Tourist Centre and holiday resort Punkaharjun Lomakeskus. SaimaaHoliday and Harjun Portti Tourist Centre provides also a skating diary, where you can check e.g. what is a condition of ice.

Tour skates in Holiday Resort Järvisydän

For now, the weather have still been a little bit chilly, but when it's not windy, the skating is really really nice! If you haven't tried it, but you have tried cross country skiing or roller skating, the tour skating is much more easier :) And of course you can always choose a kick sled!

Nature's own ice sculptures in Linnansaari National Park

By a kick sled, you can sit for a while and enjoy the views of Lake Saimaa...

In Punkaharju, they have even a skating event called "Torch skating" during the full moon !

So I guess I don't have any problems to decide what to do also during the next weekend :)

Check also the latest skating news and pictures from Facebook:
From Savonlinna with Love
Holiday Resort Järvisydän
SaimaaHoliday 
Harjunportti Tourist Resort
Punkaharjun Lomakeskus
Tour Skating in Finland, Linnansaari National Park

Driving in the Snowy Winter Roads

Sometimes it might be a little bit exciting to drive in our snowy and slippery roads. Of course the Finns are quite used to it and they even teach the driving in the slippery roads in the driving school, but still you have to be focused on driving in the slippery roads.

In Holiday Resort Kuus-Hukkala, they have developed a new product for tourists, company clients and for any groups, who would like to spend a nice day together and learn at the same time how to drive in a slippery and snowy road. And what's the best thing, you can drive by completely new cars! BMW, Subaru, Ford and Peugeot :)

BMW is an automatic and rear-driven, Peugeot and Ford are with the manual gears. 

My favorite!  Subaru with the 4-wheeler and a lot's of power ;-)

My friend is starting to speed up a car to 80 km/h and in the end she has to hit the breaks and dodge  all the barriers..

From here you can see a small video of the driving school :)

A Wonderful Christmas!

This year the Christmas season was just perfect. The weather was amazing - lot's of powder snow and approx. -20 c degrees and the quietness of the nature gave the peaceful Christmas feeling.

Chistmas Eve

After the short walk in the snowy winter wonder land, we had a Christmas sauna, wooden heated, of course... In the Christmas Eve, Finns usually bring the candles to the graves of the friends and the loved ones and on the Christmas Day's morning they have a service in a local church. In Savonlinna region the world biggest wooden church in Kerimäki provides the most amazing atmosphere in the Christmas Day's morning, as the church is in use only this one day in winter season and thousands of candles gives the soft light in to the church..   

One of the most important thing in Finnish Christmas is of course the food. We serve lot's of different kind of casseroles - made of carrots, meat, swedes, potato, liver... A big ham, different kind of fishes, Karelian pasties, plum soup, spicy cakes, ginger breads etc.. And you have to eat a lot and slowly..

Ham and swede casserole

Finnish salmon made of different ways - with pepper, cured and smoked salmon

Ham and spicy mustard :) Jam! 

And after a dinner comes the Santa from the Finnish Lapland and Korvatunturi :) This yera he could come even by a nice sledge, because we had so much snow! 

Dear Santa Clause brought again so nice presents :)

After the Christmas we begin the preparations for the New Year and welcome our neighbor friend from Russia to celebrate the coming year together. With the sayings of Russians "How you spend a New Year, you'll spend your coming year" - we wish you all lot's of happiness for the year 2013!