Norway,
by the fjord.

Astrid had us at a Bergen waterfront hotel with a top-floor view across to the Bryggen warehouses. The Geiranger morning was the best three hours of the trip. A private fjord boat at six AM, no other vessels, the cliff faces lit from one side only. The Flåm Railway carriage was reserved at exactly the right window seat. Three years of European travel and this was the trip we still talk about.

The aurora came on night two. Tibro's hunter, Magnus, drove us forty-five minutes out of the city to a place he had chosen because of the cloud forecast that afternoon. Three hours of lights. The Coastal Voyage on night four was a quiet ship; the studio had picked the off-peak northbound carriage. Everything was timed before we arrived.

Four Tromsø nights followed by five in Saariselkä. The handover at Kirkenes was the part we were nervous about and it was handled by one driver who has been doing that cross-border run for fifteen years. Aurora both halves, no logistics stress. Tibro thinks about the transitions; nobody else has done that for us.