21 December 2025
What can I say. Crazy day. Just very crazy.
We are heading back to Paris. It’s a midday flight, so no major rush or stress. Unless you wake up, trying your best to phathom where exactly you put the passports, and embark on a very nervous and fruitless search. Everywhere. Twice. Regroup. Deep breath. Perhaps I did leave it in Jean’s backpack afterall. Relief! I really didn’t need to start our day that way! But at least we then had a little time to just pull ourselves towards ourselves before we tackle the next hurdle. You see, it had been raining quite a bit. So now the brain start wandering again. Will all that rain now be some rather slippery ice on the road? I think I can report that it wasn’t. So the drive back to the airport was all good. Besides, the surrounding landscape is just so very beautiful. You cannot possibly not feel so very fortunate to be able to experience such magical beauty.
Tromso’s population doubles during this time of year. The amount of tourists that descend onto the ‘Paris of the North’, as it is known, is just insane. This, of course, means that the airport (which is not a very large one) is excessively busy. Checking in was not too bad, although it was clear that they had some system issues. But the queue to go through security literally ran the length of the building. And that was just the bit up to the escalator, which had to be stopped, to accommodate the lack of space on the first floor where the security control was situated. Once again, I would have to say – our 10-year old traveler, albeit not an entirely happy one, handled it quite well. He has learnt very quickly that, at times, you just have to deal with things. We do, however, have the odd disguised giggle at some of his sarcastic remarks about how things could have been better if only…
It’s been quite a rainy day, overall. Paris is also quite wet. We managed to get a bus from the airport to our accommodation in Meaux, just outside Paris. It was a short walk from the bus terminal in Meaux to our lovely little flatlet, but doing that walk with luggage, in the rain, in the dark (even though it was not even 6pm yet), was quite exhausting. And then to find that said luggage needed to be hauled up a rather old and wonky staircase to the fourth floor…. Needless to say – we were a tad buggered. That’s Europe for you. If you want to stay in special places, you have to deal with the discomforts of getting there. Besides – we now have the most stunning view of Meaux’s Saint Stephen’s Cathedral. And the quiches we had for supper was just devine.
I think we will have a good night’s sleep. We certainly did do our fair share of steps today.
