the welcome

Tuesday night we boarded our flight for Iceland around 9pm. This was after spending about seven hours laying-over in Newark. Yes, that Newark.

We had anticipated accessing the Polaris lounge for the long hours. Since all of these super fancy lounges are closed for now, we made the best of it. We accessed a couple of 2nd tier United lounges, but we found safe spacing was better outside the lounges. So we found an open seating area where we could hang out with all the people going to Mumbai.

It was fun listening to all the announced flights going to cities around the world.

Returning to the lounge, there was now space enough to stay for awhile as we continued to wait…

At last it was time to board. A wonderful welcome awaited. Our seats made into beds and all manner of bedding and other items to make us comfortable for the night flight were offered.

Including slippers which could be used to make a headphone fit properly.

On our way; the moon lighting the sky and the sea.

The “moon over sunrise” view early the next morning to begin the day. Another welcome. We are back!

At the Reykjavik airport there are no jetways, so you grab your carry on and bounce down the stairs. Hop on the waiting bus quickly!

A short ride and everyone clamors off to race up the stairs to the waiting line of people already standing in line to be processed into Iceland.

What awaited us was a wheelchair for me. Talk about priority seating! We were whisked off and away. Down corridors, up the elevator. Twists and turns, always taken to the front of each line. Suddenly we were at passport control. Documents at the ready, we were welcomed to Iceland with a big smile!

Next up Hertz. “Welcome back Ms. Heckel. Because you have rented from us before, we have upgraded you to a KIA hybrid.” A short walk to the car and we were off!

It was a blustery, rainy day. We didn’t care. Exiting the airport, we headed south to drive along the coast as we made our way to Hveragerði , about and hour’s drive away.