June 3, 12:28am

…cloudy day.

Rovaniemi, Lapland, Finland is at the Arctic Circle–Land of the Midnight Sun. Sadly, it was overcast and cloudy almost the entire time we were there. But as you can see, despite the clouds, even after midnight in early June, still 20 days from the Summer Solstice, it was not dark.

Here’s that infallible source on the Midnight Sun and its Winter converse, Polar Night:

The Arctic Circle is the southernmost latitude in the Northern Hemisphere at which the center of the Sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for twenty-four hours; as a result, at least once each year at any location within the Arctic Circle the center of the Sun is visible at local midnight, and at least once the center is not visible at local noon.^[8]

Directly on the Arctic Circle these events occur, in principle, exactly once per year: at the June and December solstices, respectively. However, because of atmospheric refraction and mirages, and also because the sun appears as a disk and not a point, part of the midnight sun is visible, on the night of the northern summer solstice, at a latitude of about 50 minutes of arc (′) (90 km (56 mi)) south of the Arctic Circle. Similarly, on the day of the northern winter solstice, part of the sun may be seen up to about 50′ north of the Arctic Circle. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_Circle

Rovaniemi (pronounced, ROV-an-ee-mee; population 62,000) is the largest city on earth in the vicinity of the Arctic Circle, and is a delightful place to visit–though I would not want to be there during the Polar Night.

Our journey began at 4:30am on Wednesday, May 31. Our little regional airport –> ATL –> AMS (Amsterdam) –> HEL (Helsinki), arriving at the Holiday Inn Vantta-Airport Hotel mid-afternoon Thursday. We had our first Finnish vodka and a burger at the hotel restaurant, and crashed. Friday morning, back to the airport and the two-hour flight to Rovaniemi, arriving at the Arctic Light Hotel downtown just after 9am. Amazingly, our room–a loft–was ready!

So we checked in (at no extra charge for the additional half day) and then went in search of coffee.

Latte, freshly squeezed OJ, an Americano, and a cardamon bun at Sokos Coffee House. See the little blue packets on the saucers? Chocolate, for melting in your coffee.

From there, onto the market, getting our bearings, and finding the Alko store.

Beer at the hotel’s bar where we met John’s new best friend, Valdemar. Iskender takeout. Reindeer antlers are everywhere.

Friday was the coldest. That’s about 42˚F but the wind was from the north and it was frigid. Quite the change from Mississippi!