June 9th - Donald Duck's Birthday

One of the most popular of the Disney cartoon characters, Donald Duck made his debut in the Silly Symphony cartoon "The Wise Little Hen" on June 9, 1934. His fiery temper endeared him to audiences, and in the 1940s he surpassed Mickey Mouse in the number of cartoons reaching the theaters. Eventually, there were 128 Donald Duck cartoons, but he also appeared in a number of others with Mickey Mouse, Goofy, and Pluto. PHOTO from train THE LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT SUN His middle name, shown in a wartime cartoon, is Fauntleroy. Clearly, the most significant factor that led to Mickey's super-stardom was his optimistic, cheerful, resilient character -- one very much like Walt's. The original voice of Donald was Clarence "Ducky" Nash, who was succeeded after 50 years by Disney artist Tony Anselmo. A daily Donald Duck newspaper comic strip began on February 7, 1938.

Now, you might ask why I consider Donald's birthday worthy of note. Ah - let me regale you with the sights and tales of a Christmas spent above the Arctic Circle in Sweden - at Abisko TuristStation.
We flew to Stockholm from Paris and took the fast train into Central Station where we caught the overnight train to the far North of Sweden - a 16 hour trip. We were in a cabin with 2 young men who were going home for Christmas and although we were in berths, none of us slept much what with the train stopping and letting off the many holiday-goers.
Upon arrival in Abisko, the manager and his young son, took all of our luggage in his four-wheel drive while all of us staying there hiked through the snow up to the lodge. For Christmas all guests were in the main lodge - quite large and modern. The other buildings were opened later in February for groups of Japanese and others who would come for the cross country skiing.
We had a nice room with an ensuite - Garry soon found the sauna in the building - there was also one about a km down on the lake's edge but when the wind is blowing 15/metres a second you sort of use the closest one. There was a shop and you could rent or buy cross-country skiing equipment, clothing and all kinds of snacks, drinks and souvenirs. It PHOTO TAKEN FROM TRAIN ON WAY SOUTH was very cold (you are in the Arctic) but our clothes did very well. Nancy, I wore polar fleece pants with thermals underneath and a pair of nylon windbreakers on top and was toasty warm. Our ten dollar thermal boots from the sports shop in Houston worked a treat - the tread was perfect on ice.
As you can see from the photos - we thoroughly enjoyed the food, the surroundings and everything. We didn't get to see an aurora but there's always the future. We were supposed to visit a Norwegian town to go out on a whaling boat but the wind was blowing so hard that day that there was a white-out on the road and the bus couldn't get through. We visited a Sami village nearby which was kept for it historical value. The Samis herd their reindeer mostly by helicopter nowadays. The lake is huge and has good fishing in the summer months. They have a good program during their summer and lots of hiking. It's a lovely area.















PHOTO OF SOME FROZEN WATER FALLS

PHOTO OF THE LAKE AT ABISKO - TAKEN WITH COLOUR DIGITAL-IT WAS REALLY BLACK AND WHITE ON THE DAY