Day 2 was a little different to day 1. The weather was not on our side. Thomas didn’t want to head out until later in the evening to maximise the chances of seeing something. He met me at the hotel around 9:30 and we set off north. The biggest challenge tonight was to find clear skies, and to find them we were driving north.
One of the things I was most eager for on this trip was a chance to see the aurora borealis, or the northern lights. There are also the aurora australis or southern lights that occasionally pop up in the south of Tasmania, but due to geography and physics, they aren’t nearly as strong or prevalent.
When booking the holiday I looked around to find a guide to take me out to hunt the aurora. There were some options for self supported cabins in the far north of Finland, but that seemed a bit much. I found a guide, Thomas, who operated out of a town called Oulu, about halfway up Finland on the coast, that seemed to be a good compromise. I booked two nights, the theory being if we don’t have good weather on one of the nights I would get a second chance the next day.
Our last stop in Europe this trip was Zurich. Mum and dad had flown in via Zurich on the way to Barcelona. We were only here for a few days. We spent one of the days visiting Liechtenstein. Our hotel was in the middle of the city, above a square with a number of restaurants and walking distance to most things. Downstairs was a traditional Swiss restaurant serving fondue.
I’ve enjoyed collecting tiny European counties. In my last few trips we made it to Luxembourg and earlier this trip Andorra. Not far from Zurich, squashed between Austria, Italy, and Switzerland is the tiny country of Liechtenstein.
