Finland

A 600-mile journey through one of the most world's most northern countries - Finland - from Helsinki in the south to Kemijärvi in Finnish Lapland. The line whisks passengers through the thickest of forests, past vast frozen lakes 63 times the size of Lake Windermere and to station stops where time has stood still. As the train enters the Arctic Circle, it calls at Rovaniemi, a place destroyed by German soldiers at the end of the Second World War. Now the town has been re-built, famously in the shape of a reindeer, serving as the official home of Santa Claus.

Gefrorene Seen, dichte Wälder und ewiges Eis – die 600 Meilen lange Zugreise von Helsinki zum arktischen Polarkreis führt durch die schönsten Landschaften Finnlands. Trotz eisiger 30 Grad unter Null arbeiten die Züge der finnischen Eisenbahngesellschaft dort jedoch fehlerfrei – und passieren Haltestellen, in denen die Zeit stillzustehen scheint, sowie Paläste aus Eis.