When I'm going on vacation, my first true sense of  relaxation comes when the ground -- with all the cares of daily life -- falls away as the plane jumps into the air.  Ania and I were on our way to Portugal for the wedding of Emilia, one of Ania's sisters, and her fiance, Fernando, who grew up there.



We were to arrive in Portugal on Saturday, attend the wedding Sunday, then spend the week visiting with everyone and exploring the country.  After that, we'd spend a night in London at Emilia and Fernando's apartment on our way to Poland, where we planned to spend time at home with family.  Neither of us had ever been to Portugal, and it's been more than two years since Ania's seen her parents, and longer for me, so we were really looking forward to the trip.

We were having a pleasant, (we really like flying on Lufthansa!) uneventful flight, until sometime in the middle of the night, something compelled me to open my window shade and take a look outside.  I was not at all prepared for what I saw.  The flight was taking the polar route, since it's the most efficient way to get around the globe, so we were pretty far north.  I had heard about the aurora borealis, but never seen it, and it was one of the most amazing sights I've witnessed.  I woke up Ania and we spent the next twenty minutes or so gazing in awe.

Our camera wouldn't have done it justice anyway, but we were both so entranced that it didn't even occur to us to try to take any pictures.  Fortunately, many very nice photos of the northern lights are available on the web.

NOTE: We did not take this picture.  Source: Google Image Search, "Northern Lights"

One of the things that struck us was the movement of  the ghostly, glowing sheets, so slow and graceful we almost couldn't detect it.  The ethereal undulation of the lights was a remarkable counterpoint to the drama and power of this sight, which I can imagine might have inspired the word "heavenly".  I have never been so awed by nature, and I know we'll never forget this experience, a first for both of us.