in Rovaniemi! I am not a dyed in the alpaca wool shopper. But when in Finland…

This is the young woman at the Marttiini shop at the mall in Rovaniemi inscribing grandson’s new knife.

The mall was at the city center. As we learned, grocery stores occupy the lowest floors at Finnish malls. That market was far better than the one we first shopped the first day.

The 29.95€/kg smoked fish is about $14.83/lb.

Rovaniemi is all about the reindeer. Understandably, as Rovaniemi is where Santa lives.

“Welcome to Santa’s hometown,” display at Rovaniemi airport.

Reindeer leather is very soft, and the antlers very hard.

A little window shopping…

I kept a journal and surprisingly kept up with it. I made note a couple of times about how Laplandian folk dress. Even on Saturday we saw women and girls in dresses and men and boys dressed up as they headed into restaurants. The woman’s styles were much the same as you see in the windows–lots of flowing and frills. Also noted that along the pedestrian street there were bunches of kids and teens “with no hovering adults in sight.”

Tomorrow we’ll do some shopping in Helsinki, after we take a walk along the river front in Rovaniemi.