My last night in Iceland was a rough one, thanks to my knees being truly angry with me. When my husband K and I woke before the alarm at 7:30, it was a grey day. Our daughter J came to our room at 8:30 to go down to the basement for the last time for breakfast. We were in no rush. Our pick up time wasn't until 10:30. As we waited for the elevator afterwards, I realized I had never photographed the random rock design on the wall down there.
When we'd been setting up the return trip on the Fly-bus at the bus station the other day, the woman had taken down both my email and J's. We were both supposed to get an email with the vouchers, although we already had some. Anyway, it only went to one of us with vouchers attached, but at least we got it.
We washed up and did the last packing and room check. We'd agreed to go downstairs about 10 to check out and wait. The check out was easy and we dropped the keys in the basket that was there. K kept watch on the giant glass door area and I had a seat on one of the seats in the lobby.
At 10:27, we decided to outside to wait and the bus showed up immediately. I noticed that the sky was clearing. I checked the Weather Channel app and it said it was 59°, felt like 57°. There was another stop or two before we reached the bus terminal at 10:50. K and J saw to getting the larger luggage out from under the bus and we walked through the terminal one last time to board the bus on the other side. It departed at 11:52.
As we drove through the municipality of Hafnarfjörður along route 41, there was a good view across the lava field to the mountains inland.
However, less than 15 minutes later as we headed west and neared route 43 in Sveitarfélagið Vogar, the scene was totally different. I'm fairly certain this kept us from seeing the plume from the volcano again.
At 11:50, Keflavík Airport came into view and we could see Rainbow by Rúrí.
For an international airport, this one is rather small. So, the bus made just one stop to let everyone off at 11:52. It was too early for us to check in. We were here so early to allow me time to deal with paperwork with Tax Free and Global Blue, which were to give me back some of the VAT I'd paid in some stores, once I hit the minimum 60 kr purchase. We also wanted time for lunch and shopping in the Duty Free store.
It wasn't hard to find where I had to go and it turned out that one counter dealt with both company's paperwork. There was only one person ahead of me. The young man behind the counter went through the papers carefully and found a spot where I needed to fill in my credit card number, even though it has said I didn't need to. He never asked to see the things I'd purchased, which was good, but, then again, I had gone through the trouble of making sure they were all together in my carry on. I was finished with him at 12.
We then went to find some place to park ourselves for a while, since a sign said we couldn't check in until 2. We found a seating area and plopped. We tried the self-check in that we saw, but they didn't work for us. We couldn't eat, because all the food places were on the other side of security. So, we read or walked around. The restroom was downstairs and the elevator was near the Tax Free and Global Blue counter and there were a lot of people there now. I changed into my shorts and put my jeans into the suitcase to be checked.
At 1:50, we decided to go get in line. There were several employees waiting with papers for each person to sign attesting to having tested Covid free within the last 72 hours. Then, when we got to the counter, we had to turn the paper in and show the QR code on our phone from the email we'd received with the negative result. She said that we might have to show it again, when we got to the states. Then, it was the regular show your passport, get the boarding pass, hand over the luggage. She saw my carry on and asked if I wanted to check it. When I said that I didn't because it had my CPAP machine, she agreed that I shouldn't.
Next up was security, where we didn't have to take off our shoes. At border patrol, he opened up to the exact page, where my entrance stamp was. Now, all 4 of my Iceland stamps are on the same two pages.
You actually are forced to walk through Duty Free to get to the rest of the airport. We took our time to decide what chocolates we wanted. They had the dark Lava that I'd bought in town and I got myself another and one as a gift for the neighbors who got our packages, while we were gone. We found some deals on chocolate bars, as well as lotion made in Iceland, that we found over in cosmetics. What really surprised us was that along with the Iceland products, which they are known for, and French products, there were things from Bath and Body Works and on sale at that. One of those stores is in our mall and I buy from them online frequently. Why in the world were they here?
There were several checkouts and we had our own bag. So, that didn't take terribly long. We saw this wonderful stained glass piece over a door by Leifur Breiðfjörð called Yearning for Flight.
As we walked through the terminal, it wasn't very crowded and most of the stores were closed. Good thing we'd stopped in Duty Free.
There was another stained glass by Leifur called Ikarus down here.
It was finally time for lunch. The only place open was one that had pre-made sandwiches and such. J got herself a Club California, which appeared on her receipt as Kalifornia Avokad, for 2,398 kr and Coke for 399. She got herself a Smoked Lamb sandwich for dinner for 899 kr. She thought that we'd need a bag to carry our dinner onto the plane, so she paid 39 kr for one. I got chips for the 3 of us, because there was a special price for 3-1497 kr. I got a Coke Zero to share with K for 399. His lunch would be Smoked Salmon sandwich for 199 kr., while mine was a Ham, Brie, & Cranberry (Baguette Sveitask) for 199 kr. I got a chocolate croissant for 499 kr. I also got us 2 Smoked Lamb sandwiches for dinner. We thought those would hold up best unrefrigerated for a while.
We took our trays to a table that was a bit away from other occupied tables. Unfortunately, some workers chose now to open the outside wall to work on it. It was way too cold for the shorts I was wearing. We had a relaxing lunch that we enjoyed.
It was after 3 and we had some time to kill before our flight. We found a bookshop that had a lot of books in English, but also ones such as one in German on the geology of Iceland. I was sorely tempted by that one. I did pick up one in English on Icelandic folklore and told K he'd be giving it to me in the future. I also got a lovely small bowl that had been made in Iceland.
We decided to mosey toward our gate area, when we saw a sign that they were boarding. We'd misread the boarding passes. We made quick restroom stops, when we saw how long the line was at the gate. I saw this great sign, when I came out. We'd been carrying bottles that we refilled all the time we were here.
We got in line at Gate D21. I stepped out quickly and got a shot of our plane.
We took a selfie in line and posted to Facebook that we were coming home, as we inched up to the passport and ticket check. We were checked at 4:18. The gates here are behind wooden doors. Inside, I was happy to see that besides the stairs, there was an escalator.
By 4:30, we were settled into 17 DEF, which were all together in the center of the plane. That is not what we had chosen and I was not happy. It turned out that there was a change of equipment, that is a bigger plane. We realized that they must have more people coming back on the flight out of DC. Since there were so many empty seats, the flight attendant told us we could move. J chose 15 A, which gave her 2 seats and the window. K and I took 15 F & G, which gave us the same. We tossed our coats into the empty middle row seats.
The plane was moving by 4:45 and took off about 2 minutes later (small airport). I settled in to watch Going in Style, which I enjoyed.
About 2 hours later, I took advantage of K being in the restroom to slide over and take photos out the window. My clever phone told me that these two photos are of the National Park of Greenland. I found that fact exciting.
These two are of the Davis Strait. I don't know if the spots are boats or icebergs.
When he got back, we decided that we ought to eat dinner. The sandwich was okay, but both J and I found that we were tasting the smoke for the rest of the day.
The flight was quieter and less bumpy than the one going over. I did not find that the attendants were terribly attentive. They'd walk by saying "water?", but they were facing the wrong way and didn't hear me say yes. I couldn't find anything else worth fighting my earphones in order to watch. So, I listened to some music, read, and dozed.
At 6:54 pm EDT, we landed at Dulles International. They had us in the terminal at 7:03, but we then had to get into special shuttles. We boarded one at 7:07 and J found a seat for me, while she and K stood. I was not thrilled by how many people they packed in there, but at least we were all masked, as we had been since we'd entered Keflavík airport, other than eating. (Well, we'd put on our masks before boarding the Fly Bus.)
The shuttle delivered us to Customs and Border Patrol. Thanks to the three of us having Global Entry, we were through there by 7:20- before the flight crew. My border agent was quite pleasant. He asked about alcohol, but I had none. K was not asked, but he still had the Jack Daniels bottle, albeit unopened, that he'd gotten the day we arrived in Iceland.
Our luggage did not take terribly long to come out. When we exited the baggage claim area, we discovered there were multiple food places on this level of the main terminal. We wished we had known, when we were leaving.
When we walked out of the terminal, the heat hit us like a wall. I was truly glad I was not wearing long pants. We found my car fairly easily and loaded up quickly.
Exiting the garage was a bit harder due to a bit of difficulty paying the $96 fee. But, eventually, it took the credit card and we left at 7:53, with the odometer reading 65,121 miles.
At 7:58, we were on the highway and still could find no way to avoid the toll road. So, at 8:04, we drove through, unable to pay the $1.50 in coins. However, as I said the other day, it read my EPass and charged it.
Traffic wasn't bad and we reached J's apartment building at 8:50 (65,153). She took her luggage upstairs, while we waited by the side of her building at the car. She came back down with all the things she'd kept up there for us while we were gone. Very long hugs good-bye followed, since we won't be together again until Christmas, when she comes home.
We left for our hotel at 8:58. We were staying at the same Courtyard by Marriott. We arrived at 9:06 (65,154). When we'd unloaded all of our stuff and got upstairs, we discovered we were in the room next to the one we'd been in before the trip. This one was smaller, but fine.
My phone said I'd walked 5,661 steps for a total of 1.9 miles today. I was surprised that it was that much.
Our bodies said that it was after 1, but we stayed up as long as possible to try to get back into this time zone faster. We've got two days of driving ahead of us.
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