Day of Reckoning

July 12, 2012

We had an uneventful flight, happy for business class with reclining seats for the long trip home and enjoyed the added bonus of seeing the mountains and glaciers of Iceland and Greenland from the air.

John calculated that it was 24 hours from when we woke up in Helsinki until we got into our car at LAX. While we were passing the time in relative comfort, John and Caroline were sharing their row with a man who had apparently not bathed or practiced any oral hygiene during his adult life. Since the plane was full, there was no seat change option. Naturally, they bolted from the plane when we landed. I wondered that they caught up with us so quickly in the airport.

Unfortunate seat mates aside, we will be thinking about our adventures for months to come. I am thrilled that in spite of the wonderful bread and consuming probably 10 pounds of potatoes, I gained no weight on the trip. It was absolutely the 130 miles of walking we did. The only issue was my slide back into copious amounts of caffeine. Except for Finland, the coffee was wonderful and they don't bother with brewed decaf. So there you have it. I will tackle that one once I'm back on PDT. It'll take a week or two to dilute the jet lag.

We were not in a car for two and a half weeks. Instead it was trains, boats, planes, buses, subways, streetcars and our feet. I met a Swedish cousin and her husband, spent an afternoon with our Norwegian friend and had an evening with two high school friends from Minneapolis. And the stars of the show were the wonderful Nordic cities of Copenhagen, Oslo, Stockholm and Helsinki. Tak, takk, tack and kiito.

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