Travel days have a similar character, but this one was more “fun” towards the end than the others have been.
We started at a fairly leisurely pace: we had to check out of our room in Helsinki by 12:00, but our flight was not until 15:45, so we had plenty of time. We taxied to the Central Station, rather than schleping our duffels and camera bags down the hill to the no. 2 tram. Good move. Entered the train station through the main doors, and then followed the signage all the way around to platform 16, one of a newer set that are used by the high-speed airport lines. Once we reached there we could see back out through the open portico the taxi rank where we’d just been dropped off. Could have saved ourselves ten minutes if we’d known to use that entrance (to the left of the station, when facing it). Used the transport app to buy two ABC tickets to the airport and then boarded the train as soon as the previous passengers had disembarked. We managed to pick the slightly slower route again. There are two: I and P, and I think we chose P again, which takes the western path. I goes to the east and is about five minutes shorter. Didn’t matter: we weren’t in a hurry.
Since we weren’t in a hurry, Helsinki airport responded by giving us a clear path through bag-check and even security. The departure gate was a long way down the never-ending hall. Gate 11 was the first one up a short ramp into what is clearly an extension building. Still, we got there eventually, there was an Espresso House with a fairly comfortable lounge just beside the gate and a “Naughty Burger” joint just on the other side. Needless to say we had coffee and then shared a burger and called it lunch. Not bad at all: bit of blue cheese dressing on the burger, nicely crunchy fries. These Scandies really seem to be pushing the burger culinary envelope (nothing like the saddest cheeseburger in the world that Cath had, leaving Berlin).
The flight was on time, but it was another little Embraer, and the boarding desk did a thing that it was clear half the passengers had expected: asked for volunteers to have their “carry on” checked, as there would not be room for it all in the tiny overhead lockers. Saved themselves the extra cost of checking their luggage, at the cost of a whole pile of additional kerfuffle and milling around. They had to take their “carry-on” luggage down to the tarmac with them, then deposit it on a rack near the front door, from whence handlers packed it into the hold. Apparently they reverse the process on arrival, which probably accounts for some of the delay between pulling up to the gate and eventually being let off the plane. Bit of snow at Stockholm Arlanda.
Our gate for the next flight was very close, and while it was an A320, we still had to board up stairs (the rear stairs for us steerage-classes at the back). Everything fitted and we were off to Kiruna only a little late, as we had to taxi down to a de-icing zone, where trucks with hoses attached to ladders poured some foamy gunk onto the wings. Not a lurid green as I’d seen before at Frankfurt, but odd-looking. Anyway, it seemed to do the trick and we took off.
Landing at Kiruna was where it started to get a bit exciting: there was clearly a snow storm in progress. I was very glad of instrument-assisted landings, and probably the pilots were too. Surprisingly gentle touch-down and we didn’t have any trouble breaking. Kiruna is a single-gate airport. We made our way across the tarmac in flurries of snow. Cool.
Collected our bags and then looked around for our transfer driver. I was just digging through email to find contact information when she showed up. We were sharing the taxi-van with a Hungarian couple who were staying at a different hotel a bit further up the road. The storm was intensifying, and the driver told us that the weather was dreadful, and that we should expect the trip to take two hours, double the usual one. Indeed visibility on the highway was frequently so limited that she had to slow down to about 40. She seemed confident of the vehicle’s capabilities, and indeed it didn’t flinch once.
There were almost no trucks on the road. As this was the road to Norway, she said there were usually a lot, and there had been a lot on her way from Abisko to Kiruna to pick us up. In a snow storm, trucks make it worse as they stir up the snow that’s already fallen, making visibility a nightmare. The absence of trucks ferrying goods between countries meant that the border pass was likely closed. Apparently the train had also stopped somewhere up the line. All inspiring confidence.
As we reached the 20km mark though, the snow and wind started to ease off and I thought that I could see a faintly greenish glow in the sky. A little later and a little clearer and sure: we were being greeted by aurora. We pulled over to allow us to get out and have a look. I only had my phone with me, but even that managed to snap an aurora-evidence shot. The kitchen had held our reservation and stayed open for us: we checked in and sat down to a lovely meal at about 9pm and then went to bed.
Travel day.
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