Surprising Sunday of Stupendous Sights !

I was up, packed and out of the Room for 9 a.m. for a day that was to reveal all… firstly Breakfast, return my Thermal suit and Boots, then hanging around before the coach came to return everyone to the airport. As I wandered around the complex in late morning I finally noticed a big ‘Red thing’ in the sky…the Sun ,finally! It popped up behind a hill, hung in the sky for a short time, soon disappearing behind the hills again, leaving mystery in it’s wake

 

 

 

 

 

Lunch was soon over, the coaches arrived and off I went across Finland, immediately into Sweden, passing through a frozen wasteland, in a snowstorm, as the coach hurtled along…with little other traffic on the road, and soon at Kiruna Airport, which almost looked closed..we seemed to be the only flight being dealt with..

Shortly after 5 o’clock the Jet2.com aeroplane swooped out of the sky, onto the snow covered runway, quickly disgorging it’s passengers, replacing them with us, and by just after 6p.m. it was ready to take off… de-icing of the plane, and runway, engines at full revs at the end of the runway, whilst it was tested for cohesion…and.. everything stopped ! The runway was too slippy, so would have to be cleared of the heavy snow building up all the time… again the plane was de-iced and we were at the end of the runway powering up, as again we were not allowed to take off, and had to go back to the Apron, then a passenger decided she was too frightened, and demanded to be ‘let off’ ! So the plane was returned to the terminal, as she was taken off the aircraft along with her husband and bags ! And again we all waited, watching the snow build up on the aeroplane and runway, wondering whether we would be able to take off !

Eventually just after 9 p.m. we were again de-iced and at the end of the runway, with the engine’s at full blast, and suddenly, the brakes were off and we shot along the runway, up into the snowstorm as all the passengers cheered glad to be on our way…the best was yet to come !

Shortly after taking off, and going through the cloud layer, the Captain announced ‘Those on the right hand side (me!) of the plane should be able to see the Northern Lights, followed a couple of minutes later by…those on the left side etc.. As I looked out the windows I could see the Lights in all their magnificence dancing and prancing in the sky..above,below and around the aeroplane – this is what I had come to see…brilliant As you can guess I wasn’t able to take these pictures, but it gives you an idea of what it was like !http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2093199/Aurora-borealis-A-glittering-gallery-northern-lights-past-seven-days-thanks-biggest-solar-storms-years.html A large solar storm had caused the lights to ‘dance’ in all their glory…and they were following us back to Britain, as the article shows !

We had over an hour watching the lights appear,dance,disappear all round, with the cabin lights of the aircraft off.. what can I say, a great end to the journey, and the rest of the journey home..…is a blur !

A happy Jotown returns home, to plan his next adventure……. wherever !