surreal weather....

finally at home for late Christmas celebrations this is today's surreal weather around our town:

northern lights....

after waiting for three nights now in Alaska without seeing anything i finally got lucky while departing from Anchorage eastbound and we saw a spectacular show of green northern lights!

merry christmas everyone!

layover in Alaska....

Hi everybody!

today i have a few pictures for you to show what you can do during a three day layover in Anchorage.
this time the two of us got a nice car and startet driving north towards Fairbanks, where we used to stay until a few years ago at the lovely Sophie Station and for a rememberance of the old times booked a room for a night, actually the longest night of the year on December 21st and the night does not get much longer than in Fairbanks, which ist with 64˚N only 120 nautical miles south of the Polar Circle, where the night doesn't end at all.
the reward for all the driving on ice and snow and the emergency breaking for crossing Moose was a great time on the road and really nice views and pictures of the seemingly limitless population free nature.
1400km in two days, 450 pictures and great time to remember!

here you go:

the tour:


some moose on the road...


the big dipper in the clear night-sky pointing to the north star:


the small Gulkana Airport under the moonlight:


the beauty of the alaskan nature:






the alaskan way of life - keep the engines running, its too cold to shut them down...

busy december...

while in the company a strike was barely avoided and pilots are still searching to regain trust into a management that stabed us in the back and basically deserves no trust at all, december passes by quickly and i was kept busy at home during vacation and off-days, to prepare christmas.
i will most probably not be at home with my family, but somewhere between hongkong, anchorage and chicago, exact location still open due to last minute changes on all routes during christmas.

that doesn't really help in planning a christmas party abroad since any friends i inform, would make plans and probably be frustrated by my last minute excuse.

to cope with any changes i packed a suitcase for 11 days and all temperatures from +30 to -30˚C,
planned trip is round the world with lux-baku-hongkong-anchorage-chicago-lux.
let's see what happens and if i can bring you some nice pictures to entertain your holidays.

brgds, cu
nuck


bonus:
sunrise over the atlantic ocean, flying mangos from Petrolina to Accra two weeks ago:

once every now and than...

we get the chance to be at special places at the right time and weather, and since you where waiting for a new entry for longer now i present some older pictures of one of those experiences:
it's the Ayers Rock in Australia shot on a flight from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne on a special day when we were planned to fly a little bit more south than usual due to winds and had a nice sunlight.
it was a great experiance to finally see it appear on the horizon and fly a turn passing it slightly south and we all gathered on the left windows to take a close look, knowing it's probably a once in a lifetime experience!

have a great week, keep reading,
brgds - nuck