After a very late night to bed (12:45am) we were up bright and early to get ready for a huge travel day. Not too difficult as the usual pre-travel day "alertness" was in action. Bag mass checks revealed both were under 20kg as in my recollection this leg required lighter baggage than other legs, and we also needed to purchase baggage to travel with us as the budget fare I bought wouldn't even allow us to purchase them as ad ons online.

So, off I set for one last walk down to town centre in my winterent clothes as they were due for return at 9:30am. Of course, being pleased for arriving early, only to find that the shop didn't open until 9:30am...Bronnie was coming down with our bags into an uber and meeting me around the corner. But, it worked out fine and we had a nice uber/taxi driver take us to the airport. He was not overly enamoured with reindeer. I still am.

The fine snow that was gently falling on the walk and as we arrived at the airport was a nice way to end the Scandinavian leg, with a more modest temperature of minus 12C.

At the airport, we were able to purchase baggage tickets at check-in. There was some confusion about whether it was going to be a requirement for us to collect our bags in Bergen and recheck them through to the UK or not. The bag tag said it was checked through to Aberdeen, but we were still not convinced.

Flight 1 to Helsinki left ontime and arrived in good time for our connecting flight about 1.5 hours to find the next gate and flight to Bergen (Norway). As the transit time in Bergen was 35 minutes only, I have found it possible to see online not only the schedule updates on upcoming flights but also where the plane that you are going to be on is. With some dismay, I saw that our plane from Helsinki to Bergen was en route from Bergen to Helsinki and had left there 45 minutes late. Great...that would mean that we would miss our connection to Aberdeen!!! Let alone being able to maybe or maybe not have to get our cases or not.

In the end, we needed to transfer from gate to plane by a bus (just a little bit Dash 8 plane) as it didn't reach the walkway height. The flight from Helsinki to Bergen was uneventful and we made up some time, despite leaving 25 minutes late from Helsinki, ie potentially only 10 minutes to make connecting flight. By this stage, we had resigned ourselves to not having a suitcases for the start of our UK leg.

On landing, some more confusion about the need yes or no to collect bags in Bergen, with plane captain, service staff, not giving a clear answer. Hmm. We rushed through the airport to our relatively nearby gate and managed to arrive before the plane to Aberdeen had begun boarding after clearing the border check (grumpy dude) as we left Scandinavia. I asked at the gate if our bags were likely now to have been left in Bergen (again), and the lady said that if they were checked through from Rovaniemi that they would be fine.

So, onto a flight with not a single obnoxious Italian, Asian or other annoying person in sight. Just loads of Scottish men and an adorable baby Clara who was extremely cute sitting across the aisle from us.

Landing in Aberdeen ontime was good, and we've never seen a more loose customs declaration. And....shock of shocks...our bags arrived!!!!! We walked through the "nothing to declare" doorway, but really didn't even see anyone who could have checked our bags. Weird. My open bag of salted liquorice and other emergency lollies, wood products (gifts) etc. All into the UK without so much as a blink. We could have brought in anything!!!!!

Found the Alamo car rental office and were shown to our car. Odd not to be thinking about ice/snow underfoot, and 2C actually felt mild. The citroen was soon on the way to Peterculter and our accommodation for the next 2 nights. A very friendly host at the B and B greeted us and recommended 'the Ploughman' for dinner, some 2 minutes up the road. Off we went...good recommendation. A lovely atmosphere!