Iceland And Home

The next day we checked-out of our hotel and waited with several other people (including the CT family) for the shuttle bus. Again, Icelanders’ lack of good numbering skills came into play. The tour company sent a 10 seat shuttle bus for 12 people. I made sure to get on with my mom right away (while my sister and dad took care of the bags and chair) and saved two seats for them. Two people - including one from CT – tried to take one of the seats, but I stood my ground and they backed down. When we got to the depot there was a larger bus that was almost filled to capacity. Again, I took my mom and we walked the whole length of the bus until I was lucky to find 4 empty seats together. I had to constantly tell the tour company woman that the seats were for my sister and dad (she kept wanting to give them to other people.) My sister and dad couldn’t get past the group from CT to get back to the seats and I mentioned that to the tour lady and she told the extra people to get off and wait for the next bus while my dad and sister got to their seats and we left. My sister told me that the driver was the same, nice one we had the day before which was good to hear.

We went to the Blue Lagoon Geothermal Spa. When we got there it was windy and snowy. We took our bags and chair off the bus and put them in a small, locked shed. We then had to walk about 10 minutes to the front door. My sister and mom went to the women’s locker room while my dad and I went to the men’s. The lockers were pretty small and it was a little confusing at first to learn how to open and close them with our wristbands. You then had to take a shower before going into the Lagoon. My dad was still getting ready when I went and found my sister and mom. We opened the door to go outside and it was beyond freezing. The short walk to the lagoon was awful. Then the water in the lagoon was lukewarm at best – I was expecting hot. After some time I got out and found my dad who took a picture of my sister and me swimming in the lagoon (my mom waited inside because of the wind and snow blowing on her – that is where we saw the guys from NYC again who gave us their table to sit down as there were no other ones available.) My sister kept seeing everyone put this white stuff on their faces and so she had me dive to the bottom several times where I kept getting black sand. We finally asked a couple where they got the white stuff from and found it was on the side of the lagoon.

We then got out, cleaned up and dressed. We had an hour before the bus to the airport and so we asked the woman at the restaurant if an hour was enough time to order and eat (vs the café) and she said it was. We ordered burgers and 15 minutes before we had to leave we asked where out food was and it came right out. My mom said it must be a game for the restaurant because several other tables had to complain for their food before it was brought right out. We quickly ate and then had to walk back to the bus in extreme wind and snow (it was so bad we had to keep our heads down and just walk fast.) I could have skipped the Blue Lagoon as it wasn’t much fun for me – my sister liked it though.

The bus took us to Keflavik Airport where we checked-in. The Departures section of the Airport is a lot better than the Arrivals. We had no problems through security although we did have to take off our shoes – which most European Airports don’t make you do. We were in the central waiting area. I found all the Haribo candy I wanted and a lot of Kinder Chocolate (although no Kinder Eggs) in the Duty Free Shop. We then tried to use up the last of the Kroners we had and bought some drinks. We were 20 Kroners short and I said I won’t get one of the drinks when the nice cashier woman gave it to me. We then did the VAT Refund and actually got a good amount of back. We have always done that in Ireland, the UK, Germany, etc and never got anything back. It was nice to finally get something back – although it was in Kroners.

We then headed to the gate 15 minutes away. We went through Icelandic Immigration and started walking past a desk where two women were talking and had no signs. Apparently they were there to make sure only people headed to the US went beyond that point, but there was no way to know that just by looking at them. We waited by the gate for Boston (where I saw the NYC guys waiting for their flight to JFK.) My dad and sister did some more shopping. I told the gate people again about pre-boarding and was told it was a full flight.

When it was time to board a woman took us to an elevator and then left. The flight was basically the same as coming over only no bags dropped on us. The CT family was on-board (I was glad when we finally landed and never saw them again) as well as a bunch of students from Harvard Business School who were annoying as they won’t make room down the aisle. I did take some nice pictures when we flew low over Greenland.

When we landed we got our chair right away (the guy thought we had a connecting flight although I never told him we did) and headed to Immigration. We went through a special lane where the guy was very nice, friendly and funny – he told us a story about an American family who came back from Iceland and couldn’t pronounce things. It was very fast and efficient. We took the elevator down to baggage. All the bags except my dad’s came out pretty quickly. We then went through Customs and then headed to the covered walk-way to the Hilton. We spent a night there since my sister had an early flight home the next morning. We had dinner at Hilton Restaurant and had a very lazy waiter who we had to keep complaining to for everything. We then went to our rooms and went to sleep. The next morning we walked to the airport where my sister checked-in for her direct flight home (there was a large group of middle schoolers on front of us who slowed everything down.) When my sister went through security we got our car and drove 3 hours home in the pouring rain.

For the most part the trip to Iceland was a lot of fun. It was nice to go someplace with my dad and sister (and of course my mom who always goes with me – since she pays.) It would have been nice if my brother and his family could have also come.