13th February 2013

Up at 0800 to start an early breakfast and make sure I filled my stomach, as I did not want to eat budget airline food on the flight home nor did I want to eat at the airport at extortionate prices. I took my time and ate a slow and fulsome breakfast, which included smoked salmon and a full English, I left my bags at the hotel and had one last walk through Tromsø during the day light and one last cup of tea at Kaia 11 to enjoy the view of the bridge and Arctic Cathedral for one last time as the morning sun glinted is momentary sun light on the snow covered hills in the background.

I Boarded the coach to get to the airport at 1315 and within a blink of an eye was checking in at the Jet2 desk. In the lounge my fellow passengers, still with grey hair, walking sticks to hand and hunched backs seemed much more familiar than when we started at Gatwick airports just a few days ago but there was something different in these people now.  They were more alive, they had made new friends and were excited and discussing the last few days experiences, Aurora chasing, Dog Sledding and so on.  New friends were exchanging contact details,  emails and telephone numbers being sapped like shares on the stock market in a rush to before they separated.

As the flight was chartered and all passenger were accounted for we took off early around 1520.