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- Oct 28, 2006
ABD Iceland Trip Report – Saga of the Midnight Sun – 9/1/18 – 9/8/18
So here it is! My Trip Report about my Iceland ABD trip! I did the Adults Only departure in September of 2018, which was the last trip of the Inaugural Season for this trip.
I’d been to Iceland, briefly, in 2015. I went to London with friends, and we flew Icelandair. They had a program where you could stopover in Iceland for a while for no additional airfare, so I decided to take advantage of it on my way home from London. I spent a day and a half there, and knew that I’d have to go back. When ABD announced they were doing Iceland, it was a no-brainer, even though there was some overlap with my 1 ½ days.
Overall, this was an excellent trip. However, there were some definite challenges with it. I’m going to get this out of the way so that I can then get to the good and fun parts. As I’ve posted elsewhere, we had 37 people on this trip, and it was just WAY too many people. Except for the Danube River cruise, which had 140 people on it, I have never ended an ABD where there were fellow Adventurers whose names I never did learn. That was really sad for me. I do believe it was a combination of the number of people, and the large amount of time on the bus that caused this. As often happens, by the second day we ended up with set places on the bus, and there seemed to be very little mingling between the front of the bus and the back of the bus. On other trips, you have this same phenomenon, but you don’t spend such a large percentage of you time on the bus, so it doesn’t affect socializing as much. According to one of our Adventure Guides, this trip has the most bus time of any ABD (28 hours!!!)
The other problem caused by the number of people was the bathroom situation. Many of the places we stopped only had one or two bathrooms, and it takes a LONG time for 37 people to use the facilities under those conditions. It also took us a long time to be served at most places we ate. I just don’t feel like Iceland’s infrastructure is up to dealing with such a large group. I really, really think ABD should limit the number of people on this trip going forward. But that’s not going to happen.
Anyways, now that I’ve got that over with, on with the Report!
Days A & B, Pre-days in Reykjavik
So, like most European countries, it’s virtually impossible to fly to Iceland without doing an overnight flight, arriving in the wee hours of the morning. My travel to Iceland was not great. A few months before my trip, Air Canada cancelled the first leg of my trip from Columbus, OH to Toronto, and the only 2 options were to replace my 2 ½ hour layover with either a 45 minute layover or a 7 hour layover. As much as it pained me, there was NO WAY I was doing a 45 minute layover on an international flight through a foreign country, so I took the 7 hour layover. Thank goodness I had a pass for the Lounge in Toronto, but it still made for a LONG, yucky travel day.
I arrived in Reykjavik, and was met by a sweet woman and by my driver, whose name I’ve forgotten, but it was something like Thorman. LOVED the Icelandic accent already. They asked if I needed anything and I begged “Coffee!!” So we stopped on the way out at a small coffee shop so I could purchase the elixir of life. The driver and I then headed out to his car, where it had already started raining. By the time we got to the Blue Lagoon, I was starting to feel ill, and it was raining pretty steadily. The driver took me into the Blue Lagoon, and it took these folks way too long to figure out my reservation, seeing as folks had been doing this with ABD since the start of the summer! But it all got worked out, and we set a time for me to be out front again so that Thorman could pick me up & take me to the hotel in Reykjavik.
I found an open locker, got changed into my swimsuit, and then made my way to a shower to clean up & apply conditioner before hitting the Lagoon. Once I got out there, it was pretty miserable. The rain was literally blowing sideways. So for most of the time, all you could do was stand in places where you could submerge yourself up to the neck and try and block the rain at least a bit. There really wasn’t much else to do there, and the restaurant wasn’t open yet. I got some sparkling wine, wandered around for a bit, tried the facial masks, and then got out and went back inside. Lots of people would come outside run to the edge, go in for a minute or two, and then run back inside. It was *not* the lovely, relaxing post-flight experience I’d been anticipating. I started to despair. If the whole trip was going to be like this, it was not going to be pleasant.
I had lunch at Lava, the restaurant there. It was very pretty. I unfortunately wasn’t that hungry, and the fish was too salty for me. But the skyr-based dessert was quite nice.
I finally checked out and headed out to the parking lot (a bit of a walk) to meet the driver. It was still raining. He took me the 45 minutes or so to the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina. Unlike others reported, my driver got me as close to the door as he could, and insisted on helping me schlep my luggage into the lobby. I thanked him profusely, then checked in. I really lucked out, as I was told I could keep my same room for the entire stay. (I’d had to book the first of my two pre-nights myself as ABD had not been able to book a second day for me.) I don’t know if it was because I’d contacted them a couple of days before to make sure it was noted on my reservation, or because they just weren’t quite as busy at the end of the summer. The room was large and bright, but oddly set up. Turns out it was a Handicapped room. The thing I disliked the most was that the shower was defined solely by the shower curtain, which meant it was virtually impossible to keep water from going all over the small bathroom. And there was *very* little closet space, and no drawers. Oh, well, I’d been warned the place was “quirky”. It *did* have a lot of electrical outlets, including on both sides of the headboard. That was nice.
The Harbor view from my room. Also not encouraging.
I spent some time unpacking (if I’m in a room for more than 1 night, I like to unpack. I hate living out of a suitcase). After being warned by @kristilew and others about how warm the rooms could be, I made sure the heat was off and opened the windows. The room was a bit warm, and opening the windows definitely helped.
After unpacking, I knew I had to get out & do some walking, or I’d succumb to jetlag. Plus, I needed to get some dinner. I went down to the restaurant in the hotel, Slippbarrinn, but my stomach was still not great, and nothing there sounded appealing. So I asked at reception, and they directed me to a food court in a building walking distance from the hotel. It was still raining and was quite windy, but I figured I might as well get used to it. I *had* brought tons of rainproof gear. It was a little more difficult to find than it sounded, but I finally found it. However, almost everything there turned out to be various types of serious MEAT. Whereas normally this would have been great, I just didn’t feel I could stomach it that day. Finally, I found a Thai place in the corner, and had some summer rolls. That hit the spot.
I wandered around a bit on my way back to the hotel, and saw where the place for the Welcome Dinner was (Bryggjan Brugghus Bistro) and a teeny Aurora museum which I meant to check out later, but never made it to.
I finally made my way back to the hotel, and even though it wasn’t even 9pm yet, I gave in and went to bed, hoping things and I would be better in the morning. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be anywhere the next day until 12:30pm.
I woke up to a much better day, thank goodness. My stomach was fine, and there was sunlight, and I even saw patches of blue sky outside!! Yay! And it wasn’t raining! It’s amazing how much things like that improved my mood!
I went downstairs to the little coffee shop they had outside of Slippbarinn, and had a light breakfast of coffee, a scone and a skyr parfait. Yumm!! I then went back to my room to get ready for the day. I had a Walking Food tour of Reykjavik set up for this afternoon. It started at 12:30 at Harpa the concert hall, and took 4 hours. I figured I’d get lunch and dinner out of it (I did!!!)
As I walked, the sky cleared quite a bit more. It was still very windy, but getting pretty lovely otherwise.
Harpa was pretty easy to spot. It’s a beautiful, geometrically fascinating building made of multicolored glass panels. It was really quite gorgeous, especially in the sunlight.
I found a group of others waiting outside for our tour guide, who was a slight bit late. But after a bit, our guide, Thor, showed up. Ah, yes. The Icelandic accent again!
Continued in next post.
So here it is! My Trip Report about my Iceland ABD trip! I did the Adults Only departure in September of 2018, which was the last trip of the Inaugural Season for this trip.
I’d been to Iceland, briefly, in 2015. I went to London with friends, and we flew Icelandair. They had a program where you could stopover in Iceland for a while for no additional airfare, so I decided to take advantage of it on my way home from London. I spent a day and a half there, and knew that I’d have to go back. When ABD announced they were doing Iceland, it was a no-brainer, even though there was some overlap with my 1 ½ days.
Overall, this was an excellent trip. However, there were some definite challenges with it. I’m going to get this out of the way so that I can then get to the good and fun parts. As I’ve posted elsewhere, we had 37 people on this trip, and it was just WAY too many people. Except for the Danube River cruise, which had 140 people on it, I have never ended an ABD where there were fellow Adventurers whose names I never did learn. That was really sad for me. I do believe it was a combination of the number of people, and the large amount of time on the bus that caused this. As often happens, by the second day we ended up with set places on the bus, and there seemed to be very little mingling between the front of the bus and the back of the bus. On other trips, you have this same phenomenon, but you don’t spend such a large percentage of you time on the bus, so it doesn’t affect socializing as much. According to one of our Adventure Guides, this trip has the most bus time of any ABD (28 hours!!!)
The other problem caused by the number of people was the bathroom situation. Many of the places we stopped only had one or two bathrooms, and it takes a LONG time for 37 people to use the facilities under those conditions. It also took us a long time to be served at most places we ate. I just don’t feel like Iceland’s infrastructure is up to dealing with such a large group. I really, really think ABD should limit the number of people on this trip going forward. But that’s not going to happen.
Anyways, now that I’ve got that over with, on with the Report!
Days A & B, Pre-days in Reykjavik
So, like most European countries, it’s virtually impossible to fly to Iceland without doing an overnight flight, arriving in the wee hours of the morning. My travel to Iceland was not great. A few months before my trip, Air Canada cancelled the first leg of my trip from Columbus, OH to Toronto, and the only 2 options were to replace my 2 ½ hour layover with either a 45 minute layover or a 7 hour layover. As much as it pained me, there was NO WAY I was doing a 45 minute layover on an international flight through a foreign country, so I took the 7 hour layover. Thank goodness I had a pass for the Lounge in Toronto, but it still made for a LONG, yucky travel day.
I arrived in Reykjavik, and was met by a sweet woman and by my driver, whose name I’ve forgotten, but it was something like Thorman. LOVED the Icelandic accent already. They asked if I needed anything and I begged “Coffee!!” So we stopped on the way out at a small coffee shop so I could purchase the elixir of life. The driver and I then headed out to his car, where it had already started raining. By the time we got to the Blue Lagoon, I was starting to feel ill, and it was raining pretty steadily. The driver took me into the Blue Lagoon, and it took these folks way too long to figure out my reservation, seeing as folks had been doing this with ABD since the start of the summer! But it all got worked out, and we set a time for me to be out front again so that Thorman could pick me up & take me to the hotel in Reykjavik.
I found an open locker, got changed into my swimsuit, and then made my way to a shower to clean up & apply conditioner before hitting the Lagoon. Once I got out there, it was pretty miserable. The rain was literally blowing sideways. So for most of the time, all you could do was stand in places where you could submerge yourself up to the neck and try and block the rain at least a bit. There really wasn’t much else to do there, and the restaurant wasn’t open yet. I got some sparkling wine, wandered around for a bit, tried the facial masks, and then got out and went back inside. Lots of people would come outside run to the edge, go in for a minute or two, and then run back inside. It was *not* the lovely, relaxing post-flight experience I’d been anticipating. I started to despair. If the whole trip was going to be like this, it was not going to be pleasant.
I had lunch at Lava, the restaurant there. It was very pretty. I unfortunately wasn’t that hungry, and the fish was too salty for me. But the skyr-based dessert was quite nice.
I finally checked out and headed out to the parking lot (a bit of a walk) to meet the driver. It was still raining. He took me the 45 minutes or so to the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina. Unlike others reported, my driver got me as close to the door as he could, and insisted on helping me schlep my luggage into the lobby. I thanked him profusely, then checked in. I really lucked out, as I was told I could keep my same room for the entire stay. (I’d had to book the first of my two pre-nights myself as ABD had not been able to book a second day for me.) I don’t know if it was because I’d contacted them a couple of days before to make sure it was noted on my reservation, or because they just weren’t quite as busy at the end of the summer. The room was large and bright, but oddly set up. Turns out it was a Handicapped room. The thing I disliked the most was that the shower was defined solely by the shower curtain, which meant it was virtually impossible to keep water from going all over the small bathroom. And there was *very* little closet space, and no drawers. Oh, well, I’d been warned the place was “quirky”. It *did* have a lot of electrical outlets, including on both sides of the headboard. That was nice.
The Harbor view from my room. Also not encouraging.
I spent some time unpacking (if I’m in a room for more than 1 night, I like to unpack. I hate living out of a suitcase). After being warned by @kristilew and others about how warm the rooms could be, I made sure the heat was off and opened the windows. The room was a bit warm, and opening the windows definitely helped.
After unpacking, I knew I had to get out & do some walking, or I’d succumb to jetlag. Plus, I needed to get some dinner. I went down to the restaurant in the hotel, Slippbarrinn, but my stomach was still not great, and nothing there sounded appealing. So I asked at reception, and they directed me to a food court in a building walking distance from the hotel. It was still raining and was quite windy, but I figured I might as well get used to it. I *had* brought tons of rainproof gear. It was a little more difficult to find than it sounded, but I finally found it. However, almost everything there turned out to be various types of serious MEAT. Whereas normally this would have been great, I just didn’t feel I could stomach it that day. Finally, I found a Thai place in the corner, and had some summer rolls. That hit the spot.
I wandered around a bit on my way back to the hotel, and saw where the place for the Welcome Dinner was (Bryggjan Brugghus Bistro) and a teeny Aurora museum which I meant to check out later, but never made it to.
I finally made my way back to the hotel, and even though it wasn’t even 9pm yet, I gave in and went to bed, hoping things and I would be better in the morning. Fortunately, I didn’t have to be anywhere the next day until 12:30pm.
I woke up to a much better day, thank goodness. My stomach was fine, and there was sunlight, and I even saw patches of blue sky outside!! Yay! And it wasn’t raining! It’s amazing how much things like that improved my mood!
I went downstairs to the little coffee shop they had outside of Slippbarinn, and had a light breakfast of coffee, a scone and a skyr parfait. Yumm!! I then went back to my room to get ready for the day. I had a Walking Food tour of Reykjavik set up for this afternoon. It started at 12:30 at Harpa the concert hall, and took 4 hours. I figured I’d get lunch and dinner out of it (I did!!!)
As I walked, the sky cleared quite a bit more. It was still very windy, but getting pretty lovely otherwise.
Harpa was pretty easy to spot. It’s a beautiful, geometrically fascinating building made of multicolored glass panels. It was really quite gorgeous, especially in the sunlight.
I found a group of others waiting outside for our tour guide, who was a slight bit late. But after a bit, our guide, Thor, showed up. Ah, yes. The Icelandic accent again!
Continued in next post.
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