26th December 2024, Arctic Trip Day Seven, Norway To England.

 Well hello again my lovelies, and happy Hump Day! I hope that your week is going well so far? I have a few last photos and videos to share with you from our Arctic trip, and then I'll stop making you so jealous, I promise, haha! These were all taken on Boxing Day, 26th December 2024, as we travelled back from Norway to England. Since most of the day was spent in airports and on planes, there aren't as many photos to share with you, of course, but I thought you might like a few of these.

That day we were up too early to get breakfast at the hotel, but we still had some snacks in our room that we had bought on Christmas Eve, including some cake! That seemed like a fitting last breakfast, so we enjoyed that while we finished packing and tidying the room ready to leave. We got our pre-booked taxi outside the hotel at 07:30 and were driven the hour-long journey to the Harstad/Narvik Airport, Evenes. It was cold and dark and snowing again, and must have been a very quiet ride for our driver as Gareth and I were both dozing in the back, haha!

After checking in and dropping our bags off, we had some time to kill and took a wander around the terminal. Despite the fact this was a very small airport compared to others, it was another example of attractive architecture, cleanliness, and efficiency. I really loved that about both Sweden and Norway. Everywhere we went things just seemed to look and work better!

Rare Nacreous/Polar Stratospheric clouds.

Rare Nacreous/Polar Stratospheric clouds.

Rare Nacreous/Polar Stratospheric clouds.

We caught our 10:50 flight to Oslo, and were treated to another atmospheric phenomenon not long after leaving Evenes airport. This time we saw a small patch of rare Nacreous or Polar Stratospheric clouds, which neither of us had seen before. It was so pretty, but of course, once again, the camera doesn't do it justice. I felt that we really had been so lucky during our trip; we saw the Pilot's Glory on the way over, the Aurora Borealis three nights in a row while we were there, and then the Nacreous clouds on the way back. Incredible! I was feeling very sad that the trip was over, but this was almost like a last special goodbye from the Arctic, which was lovely.

Sunrise!

Sunlight!

Snowy landscape as we descended towards Oslo.

We landed safely at Oslo Gardermoen airport, and had plenty of time before our next flight to look around a bit and get some food. Once again we were amazed by how beautiful the airport was! The emphasis was on large open spaces, clean lines, and lots of wood, and there were some impressive sculptures as well as everything being decorated for Christmas. We wanted to get some lunch, and had a difficult choice between all the healthy and tasty looking options on offer. I felt like I could have spent a whole day just exploring the airport and trying different dishes. In the end we decided to get some sashimi, and sat overlooking the tarmac enjoying the last meal of the holiday.

Airport sashimi!

Enjoying the last meal of the holiday, Oslo Airport.

After our meal and a look around some of the shops, we went to catch our connecting flight at 15:00, and then we were officially leaving Scandinavia. We got back to London Heathrow on time, went to collect Gareth's car, and he drove us safely back to Shrewsbury. It was along day of travelling, and we were sad that our trip was over, but we had our own gifts to exchange with each other to look forward to. So we sat beside the Christmas tree with some music playing and got to open some lovely things!

Last leg, Oslo to Heathrow.

Flying towards the sunset.

The whole trip was so magical, truly what you would call a trip of a lifetime. Of course, now I can't wait to plan something else just as exciting!