Home sweet home

Last night after supper we went out to seek the aurora borealis. Most people in our group had various apps that let you know the possibility of sighting the aurora, and last night it was high, plus there was no cloud cover, so it was a 'dead cert' that we would see it. We got to the location and obviously others had also got the memo as there were quite a few coaches and cars with people all expecting to see the aurora. As we parked the car we could see the tell tale sight of the green band snaking across the sky, but after that not much happened....we waited standing in the cold until long after 11pm and then decided to call it quits and go to bed! These things don't always happen as expected, and while we did see it it was not a great sighting - see extra. I was not too fussed about seeing it, my intention in going to Iceland was for the landscape photography and not for a tourist holiday to see the aurora, but it would have been a nice bonus - another time then!

This morning we got to the airport in good time, and then we sat around waiting for our flight. Due to high winds in the UK the flight was delayed by an hour, but Iceland was also expecting bad weather coming in today with severe bad weather tomorrow, so we were anxious to get our flight home as we heard that all flights from Iceland were cancelled tomorrow. As a result our flight was extra full, they filled the empty middle seats one usually has in Business Class. Our landing at Heathrow was exactly as has been seen on BBC and Youtube during the latest storms with the plane wobbling from side to side as it landed - the pilot got a round of applause from the passengers when he finally landed the plane!

We then had an our and a half wait for our baggage to come through, which wasn't bad when I heard that some flights yesterday had a 3 hour wait. Poor Gavin was waiting patiently in the arrivals hall to greet me, and I was very happy to see him again and be home safely. I was more than ready to come home after 10 busy days and did not fancy another night in Iceland due to cancelled flights.

Of course Xena was delighted to see me - Gavin reports that she was quite miserable and a bit lost in my absence. Gavin spoilt me by cooking this amazing dinner while I was unpacking and putting on my washing - pine nut encrusted salmon on a bed of lemon flavoured lentils and watercress, it was absolutely delicious and he excelled himself as he does not usually cook. No photos taken today so this is a EB.

It is lovely to be home again, its also good to no longer be living out of a suitcase, as with 5 hotels in 10 days I did not bother unpacking. It is also great not to be wearing all those layers of clothes anymore, I felt quite well padded and restricted all the time. However it was an excellent trip, I met some really interesting and lovely people, and have come home with good memories and hopefully also some good photos.

Back to normality tomorrow!