Feeling Blue

Today was sadly my last day in Sweden so I was feeling a bit blue about leaving!  Very appropriate that I was flying on KLM Blue!

Thankfully I’d booked on a flight late afternoon so we had most of the day together. We had a couple of walkies and I enjoyed the snow for the last time. Alice of course climbed on every rock and pile of snow she could find (see Extra photo). The picture doesn’t really do it justice - some of those snow piles are super high and she just runs right up, towering above us. I will miss her antics. And her poodle cuddles. The upside down picture in the Extra photo  was when she came to greet me first thing in the morning.  

We had fika (with english crumpets) and I finished the wrist warmers that I’d been making Elisabet while I was there - just in time!  Alice snoozed on the back of the sofa while we watched today’s skiing.

Today was the women’s 30k cross country ski race from Oslo. I was glad I was still there to watch it! The race was even more exciting than the men’s race yesterday!  Marit Bjorgen from Norway who had been trailing badly the whole race did some amazing skiing in the last few minutes and passed the 3 at the front and actually came first! She’s not called Magic Marit for nothing! Even more exciting for me was to see USA's Jessie Diggins come in second!!  The US has only recently developed a strong cross-country ski team, so it is super-exciting to see them do well and Jessie is just a joy to watch!  Elisabet was very gracious, but very disappointed to see her favourite, Charlotte Kalla from Sweden come in 4th when she was expected to be on the podium. It’s amazing that even in a long distance race, everything can change in just the last few minutes. 
See a few highlights of the race here. And the whole race can be seen here, but not with English commentary!

Eventually it was time to leave for the airport. It’s great to be able to fly out of a nearby, small and quiet airport. Linköping only has 3 flights a day, all operated by KLM. It was of course a very snowy view on takeoff, but we were soon above the clouds and I finally caught sight of the sun before it set completely. I had a quick change of planes in Amsterdam. I gulped when I saw the gate D4 and knew I had to get to D52!! But it wasn’t far in the end. It was a packed flight but it’s a short flight time to London and I was soon making my way through Heathrow (pink!!) and back to my car, and home by bedtime. The journey from Linköping to London only took 4 hours, with a bit of extra time at either end for getting to and from the airports. Much faster than driving!!

What a fab holiday I’ve had!  Thank you, Elisabet and Alice!  Miss you already!

You can read Alice's version of today here.