England to the Arctic

Early-morning start – and probably largely unnecessary, because the Heathrow Express was uncrowded and fast, and apart from the miles to be walked at the airport, all went easily. 

The installation called SLIPSTREAM at Terminal 2

 It’s fascinating how machine-focused everything has become – apart from one guy at the gate, all the check-in, the baggage tags and baggage drop, and the transition through into Security, everything was done with either online or with scanners, and minimal personal interaction. I was early enough that Security was pretty quick and smooth, and then I had time on my hands. I’m not usually a breakfast person – coffee is the necessity – but this was a nice way to fuel up for the day! 

Really tasty avocado toast - complete with flower petals!

The first flight went smoothly; my seat-mate was about 3 (with his dad on the other side) and behaved really well, sharing his stickers with me! There was very little cloud over Norfolk as we passed over the coast, and the Norwegian coast was similarly clear, but flying over Oslo was a little bumpy and wet! I had four hours to kill between flights – it’s typical airport expensive “stuff” shopping, but I found a quiet lounge until my flight was called.

Moomins are obviously a tourist thing!

Leaving Oslo we got a sideways look at some pretty spectacular rainstorms that we managed to avoid.  

Too many window reflections on the others  :(

We got into Kirkenes pretty much on time – it’s fairly basic: a bit like the South Terminal, ten years ago. Through the flight I was aware of the sun high above us, but approaching Kirkenes we went through heavy clouds, and deplaning at the airport was a pretty soggy business.  It lies about 20 minutes outside the city – I suspect because there’s a limit to where you can find enough flat land to put a decent airstrip. There were four of us scheduled for the Thon Hotel, and the airport bus whisked us there pretty quickly through rocky terrain with what I think was mostly birch growth. 

Lakes and rivers everywhere – I would have taken more pics, but low-level foggy rain doesn’t make for good photos!  Fingers crossed for tomorrow...  At least tonight I have a bedroom that I can turn around in – sadly, my view is of the neighboring buildings rather than the sea, which is on the other side of the hotel.  And now to draw the curtains and make it really night-time!