Along the west coast of Sweden they really know their oysters.

Oysters from the west coast of Sweden rank among the best in the world, because they grow slowly in cold water. They are exported in small amounts to first-rate restaurants all over the world.
Most Swedish oysters come from Bohuslän, and are hand-picked mainly near Grebbestad, which is also where the oyster safaris leave from.
          
In 2004 the non-profit Oyster Academy was established, for oyster lovers all over Sweden. One of its aims is to realise the huge potential of the exquisite Swedish oysters, and to support and encourage oyster lovers, restaurateurs, fishermen, suppliers and divers.

Start of the Oyster season celebrations.
To celebrate the start of the Oyster season there will be the Oyster Day on 2 September in Grebbestad (approx 2 hrs north of Gothenburg) on the West Coast. All restaurants will have special Oyster menus with Oyster Champagne. At Tanums Gestgifveri (click here for hotel details) , there will be Oyster weekends including a 5 course gourmet dinner in conjunction with the nearby celebrations in Grebbestad. There will be special boat trips to the Oyster banks and tasting of Oysters on the boat , departing from they jetty in Grebbestad.
On 3 September they will be Oyster Golf on the local Golf course.

    
The Västsvensk Mersmak culinary certification body
In Western Sweden, the language of the local cuisine has a particularly powerful resonance, and the inspiration and raw ingredients for this are drawn from nature’s well-stocked pantry of delicacies from the sea, forest, field and lake.
The Västsvensk Mersmak culinary certification body Was launched in 2000 by the Tourist Board of Western Sweden with the aim of further developing the already highly recommended cuisine of the area. It is forging a strong partnership between restaurants and producers of raw ingredients, and it is enriching the gastronomic experience of visitors to the region as well as a detour. As anticipated, this initiative has been a great success from the outset, with restaurants and food producers of the region demonstrating the excellent form they are in.

To date the region boasts 33 accredited restaurants and a large number of committed producers of raw ingredients. All accredited restaurants display our Västsvensk Mersmak plate edged in blue as a mark highest quality and guarantee to you of a gastronomic experience to remember.

For further details of a gourmet tour of the region click here.

Is the long hot dry summer is taking its toll on Laplands berry crop?

The hot dry summer has had an effect on the usually bountiful supply of berries in Finnish Lapland. Forest berries have been part of the Finnish diet for hundreds of years. Everyman´s rights in Finland allow people to walk and pick up wild berries even in forests and swamps that they do not own or without any permission from landowners provided that they don’t damage the environment. During August and September Finns make frequent visits to the forests and fells collecting berries for their own use or to be sold by the kilo / litre to berry traders that take up residence in market places throughout Finland for the berry season.

About 67 % of adult people pick up forest berries in Finland. When the crop is good, people pick up about 50 million kilos of berries. Of these 35 million kilos are for personal home consumption and 15 million kilos are used commercially. Berries collected include lingonberries, cloudberries and bilberries / blue berries.

In recent years berry pickers from Russia, Ukraine and even as far a field as Thailand have arrived in Finland during August and September to collect berries, all being paid by the kilo. In the past they have been able to pick enough to cover their travel, accommodation and food costs and still make a profit.
The drought and dry summer, have resulted in a poor berry crop this season in some areas of Lapland creating problems for the foreign berry-pickers. Many Russian and Ukrainian berry-pickers, who have travelled to Finland with high hopes of earning money by picking wild berries feel cheated and would like to go home, but have no money for a return trip or for food.  They are turning to local authorities for help.

Locals agree it is a poor year but those with a good local knowledge are heading to the “wet” areas where berries can still be found and are finding enough for domestic use. Even more of a worry to the Finnish forest food pickers is the lack of mushrooms, another highlight on the Finnish calender.

For areas traditionally offering good berry and mushroom picking

In Finland click here.

In Sweden click here.

When are the Aurora Borealis most likely to appear in Finnish Lapland?

The particles causing the Northern Lights come from the sun, from which they are catapulted out into space at speeds of up to 1000 km a second on the so-called solar winds. The Northern Lights typically form at a height of 100 km as a result of charged particles (electrons and protons) accelerating in the Earth's magnetic field and colliding with air molecules. These give up part of their surplus energy in the form of light. The phenomenon is rather similar to the formation of an image in a television tube, or to the emission of light by a neon lamp. The usual greenish-yellow, and occasionally reddish, appearance of the aurora is produced by the oxygen in the atmosphere, whereas the blue and violet light is due to nitrogen.

The Finnish name for the lights (revontulet) comes from a Sami, or Lapp, legend whereby the tail of a fox running along snow-covered fells strikes the snow drifts, sending a trail of sparks into the sky. Revontulet literally means "foxfire".

The systematic observation of the Northern Lights began in Finland in the mid -1700’s. From the 1970’s the Finnish Meteorological Institute has operated auroral cameras at several stations allowing them to compile extensive statistics, images and monitor seasonal variations.

Today, the FMI maintains a modern digital all-sky camera system that takes the auroral pictures without film directly to the memory of a computer. At the moment there are five cameras in operation. The pictures are transmitted, principally in real-time, through Internet to be seen everywhere. Due to light nights in Lapland during spring and summer, the auroral cameras have been switched off. The photographing begins again in autumn.

Where and when are the Northern Lights most seen?
Statistics reveal that the most Northern Lights are observed in the Kilpisjärvi region of Lapland. With a clear sky during the dark period of the year on average the auroras is seen there on three nights out of four.  The 100 % (every night) level is only attained in northern Norway, along the shore of the Arctic Ocean. Further north still their occurrence again decreases. As one travels south, the incidence diminishes so that in the Sodankylä region the Northern Lights are seen every second night, and in the Oulu-Kuusamo area every fourth night.  On cloudy nights, of course, it is not possible to see them at all.

 
At 9 pm in the evening, Finnish time, the average probability of occurrence in Lapland exceeds 50 %. It reaches a peak at approx. 11.30 pm, when there is a magnetic midnight and the disturbances in the Earth's magnetic field that the lights depend on are at a maximum. After midnight the incidence of the lights dwindles, so that by 4 am to 5 am the probability of occurrence falls below 50 %.
In North-Finland, north of the Arctic Circle, the best season for seeing auroras is December - January. During the summer, the nights are too bright for observing auroras.

For the best locations to experience the Northern Lights this winter click here.

Good reasons to be in Finland according to the Helsinki Times!

1. Sauna - the Finns have invented it and despite many imitations they're still the best at it.
2. Suomirokki (Finnish rock'n'roll) - "mun mummoni muni mun mammani, mun mammani muni mun": simply ingenious.
3. Juhannus (Midsummer) - a day when the whole country goes to the mökki (summer cottage) to grill sausages, drink beer, fight the mosquitoes, and in a few unlucky cases, drown in the lake. National spirit condensed!
4. Nights - bright, crispy and tempting in the summer; cold, dry and wrapping in the winter.
5. Public transport - irritatingly punctual (although drivers in Helsinki could smile more often).
6. Snow - its shapes have inspired architects like Aalto, its presence continues to amuse thousands of kids (and annoy as many drivers).
7. Wednesday night - the "pikkulauantai" ("Little Saturday") defeats all foreigners who try to go to work early on Thursdays, and makes them understand how superior Finns are at recovering from hangovers.
8. Ferry boats - a perfect way to combine avoiding tax with extreme partying. The boat to nowhere concept (a ferry that wanders in the middle of the sea for 20 hours just to go back to where it started from) is still unequalled in the whole world.
9. Loska (slush) - what would winter in Helsinki be without it? It has the outstanding capacity of forming puddles slightly longer than the average human step (Helsingin Sanomat).
10. Sandals - best when worn at work, especially in combination with black suit and tie.
11. Tuparit (housewarming party) - the Finnish housewarming parties are usually announced to neighbors by a handwritten note hung near the main door of the building. The note usually invites neighbors to join the party if they think it's too noisy!
12. Lapland - a truly wild region, (un)populated by the proud Sami people and by assorted fauna (thousands of reindeers, millions of mosquitoes and the occasional Norwegian seeking for cheap alcohol).
13. Alko - it was born as the retail chain of State monopoly for alcoholic beverages. In times of euro, globalization, and frequent ferries to Estonia the monopoly will soon be a thing of the past, but the Alko managers understood it long ago and created a pleasant environment with an outstanding selection.
14. Hernekeitto (pea and meat soup, usually eaten on Thursdays) and perunalaatikko (potato pudding) - Finnish gastronomy at its best.
15. Pullonpalautus - the biggest queues at Alko shops are not for buying wines, but for returning bottles. And at 10 cents a piece, it's worth the wait.
16. Women - the most beautiful are said to come from Turku, but certain foreign tourists do not seem to be particularly picky about the city.
17. Walking on the frozen sea - never has man felt so powerful (save for those unlucky ones who drown).
18. V and W - a country where these two letters are eqivalent (and names are mixed accordingly in the phonebook) cannot be too normal.
19. Wappu or Vappu (May Day) - the biggest student party in Finland, where the Havis Amanda statue in Helsinki is the first to receive a graduate hat and the only one who can stand up properly the following day.
20. Finnish - a language that counts 15 case endings, has almost no prepositions, no future tense, and where "pencil" is translated as "lyijykynä" (pronounced: lew-you-kew-ner) deserves due respect.
21. Silence - in the countryside, in the sauna, on buses (at daytime), something we Southerners cannot simply conceive.
22. Nokia - was it not what brought us here in the first place?
23. Design - ubiquitous as mobile phones, it's what makes Finns sell mobile phones.
24. Architects - Saarinen and Aalto have been the greatest, every Finnish family man tries to be one when building the mökki.
25. Mökki (summer cottage) - the traditional summer house is built in wood near a lake and has the obligatory sauna. A place where Finns reconciliate with the world during the summer.
26. Jokamiehenoikeus (Everyman's right) - a law allows anyone to walk in any property, even if private, provided that no disturbance or damage is done. What in other countries would cause serious social unrest is here considered perfectly normal.
27. Coffee - Finns are the keenest consumers in the world. And it's not as tasteless as in America!
28. Taxes - don't you also love boasting that you pay the highest taxes of Europe in front of your foreign friends?
29. Noise - during ice hockey matches (moderate), on charter flights to the Canary islands (high), on night buses back from the bars (extreme).
30. Houses - simple, cozy and warm (yes, even in the winter).
31. The Helsinki-Vantaa airport - the best in the world (IATA survey, 1999), and the only one where the baggage almost invariably comes in five minutes - try & see yourself.
32. Lakes - as many as 187 888, according to official counts; sometimes numbers say it all.
33. Trust - Finns trust other people so much that even Italians start to do the same!
34. Queueing for a club - so common that it's almost a way of living, especially in the winter.
35. Järjestysmiehet (bouncers) - the doormen deserve respect for the temperatures in which they have to work and for the customers they often have to face (or, in some cases, drag out).
36. Beer - oh, yes, and lots of it.
37. Taxi drivers - many of them are graduate students, most of them speak English and practically all of them accept credit cards for any amount. The fact that they are ludicrously expensive doesn't matter so much.
38. Mobile phones - nowhere else they are so ubiquitous, yet so discrete.
39. Pussilakana - the bag-like sheet that wraps the blanket is something so ingenious that even we Southern Europeans will copy it one day.
40. The national anthem - one of the few that still makes people cry.
41. Outdoor queueing at the burger kiosk in 20 degrees frost at 4 am after a night out drinking - no other population does it with such a relaxed style.
42. Finns - they have withstood a Russian invasion (November 1939 - March 1940), had the same president for 25 years (Urho Kaleva Kekkonen, from 1956 to 1981), won an ice-hockey world championship (in Sweden, against the home team, 1995) and got rid of the 1 and 2 cent coins (January 2002): an outstanding people!

To find out for yourself first hand click here.

Climate change leads to healthier reindeer and large salmon in Lapland.

SHORTER winters, longer summers and a slight rise in temperature in northernmost Europe are proving a boon for arctic wildlife, agriculture and tourism.
In spite of dire warnings about climate change, the most northerly reaches of Scandinavia are basking in good news: reindeer are growing stronger and the salmon larger. New possibilities are opening up for tourism trade and even for wine-makers.

In Rovaniemi, Father Christmas’s Lapland home in northern Finland, reindeer are putting on weight. Jan-Eric Paadar, a herdsman’s son in the northerly Inari region, said recent shorter winters meant Finland’s 200,000 reindeer had longer to graze on grass and lichen. “It’s easier to find food when the winter comes later and later all the time,” he said.
The same applies to Norway, where the government reindeer department has reported four bumper grazing years. “They are in good condition. Last year there was a very good market for reindeer meat,” said Christian Lindman, a spokesman.

Salmon farmers are also benefiting. At Volden, a family-run salmon and trout producer in the coastal town of Alta, an employee said higher water temperatures made fish eat more and grow faster.
Professor Eystein Jansen, of the Bjerknes centre for climate research in Bergen, said changes in the North Sea ecosystem were among the clearest signs of climate change.
Norwegian fishermen can now net bigger cod and herring catches as both species migrate further north. An increase of 1C had made Norway’s waters the optimal temperature, the professor said.
According to Inger Hansson-Bauer, of the Norwegian Meteorological Institute, farming patterns are also changing because of a rise in spring temperatures of 1.5C in the past century.
“There is a very clear tendency for spring to come earlier and autumns to be warmer,” she said. “In some areas there is a positive effect for farming. Where there was just one hay harvest, they can now harvest twice.”

As holidaymakers swelter in the south, northern Europe’s tourist industry is set to gain. Norway’s holiday home market is booming, with good coastal properties fetching £500,000 to £1m each.
Watersports are also drawing more followers. In Finland, there are 10,000 windsurfers and 1,000 more take it up every year. Pasi Rahikka, the manager of the Surf.fi windsurfing company, said climate change was making a difference.
“The summer seems to last a month longer than five or 10 years ago,” he said.

Richard Bisgrove, a plant scientist at the University of Reading and author of a well-regarded report on climate change, agreed that tourism would extend north with the onset of climate change.
“I’m in my early sixties and maybe when I retire I will go further north rather than south,” he said.
Denmark is already nurturing a wine industry. Although still in its infancy, it exported wine to France last year.
“Warm temperatures and long summers are helping us to mature the grapes,” said Jens Michael Gundersen of the Danish Wine Association.

Experts warn that while looking at the advantages of climate change is “refreshing”, the damage will far outweigh the benefits overall. “There will be gainers in this but the cost on a worldwide basis will be astronomical,” said Bisgrove.

NICOLA SMITH, BRUSSELS. THE TIME ONLINE.

To for reindeer activities in Lapland click here.

Santa visits London to check up on Christmas department.

Father Christmas and Debra the Zebra arrive at Harrods department store in central London, Tuesday Aug. 8, 2006. Taking a break from a safari holiday, Father Christmas opened Christmas World, the store's Christmas department on Tuesday.

Have you planned your Chrisitmas yet?  For ideas click here.

A record 1370 athletes - 739 men - 631 women - from 48 countries will compete.

48 is the highest number of countries ever to compete at the event, beating the record set in Munich four years ago by one. Only Armenia and Liechtenstein will not be represented in Gothenburg. 1370 athletes represents over 100 more than competed at the 1998 and 2002 Championships.

The biggest team is Russia with 118 athletes (56 men and 62 women) and Germany (90), Spain (87), France (85), Great Britain (85) and Italy (83) all also have teams numbering over 80 athletes.
The host nation Sweden will have a team of 69 athletes which is their biggest team ever in a European Atletics Championships.

On Sunday 6 August at 8.00pm, Göteborg will treat everyone to a spectacular opening ceremony for the European Athletics Championships 2006 at Götaplatsen in the city centre. This will be the first time that the championships have been officially opened outside the stadium. Ronan Keating and several other popular performers will be entertaining the crowd. The orchestra for the evening is naturally the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, and Helena Paparizou will be performing the official championship song, “Heroes”.

Alongside the athletics taking place at Ullevi stadium, the city is putting on an impressive programme of entertainment that has something for everyone. The big City Festival stages will transform streets and squares into festival venues. The championships themselves begin at Ullevi on 7 August, but the City Festival kicks off earlier on 4 August and continues until 13 August.

For further details about Gothenburg click here.

The 30th World Gold panning championships takes place in Tankavaara, Finnish Lapland this week.

The event attracts contestants and visitors from around the world. Competitors in various categories are set the task of locating a set number of gold flakes in the fastest time. The winner of last years mens competition Veikko Keranën located the allocated 11 gold flakes in a fraction over a minute!
Visitors to the Tankavaara gold museum can try their hand at gold panning throughout the summer.
The museum is located south of the resort of Saariselka.

For our nearest accommodation to Tankavaara click here