A first – let’s fly away!!

Some time ago, I was offered the opportunity to join a small group tour to the south of Iceland and, after some hesitation, decided to accept the place offered, so here I am… sitting at a desk in a very pleasant hotel in Gullfoss having enjoyed a delicious meal of Icelandic salmon and ready for a good night’s sleep.

With all the grousing we hear about testing to travel I was surprised at how easy and efficient ( if expensive!) the whole process is. I went to ExpressTest at Heathrow and had left before my appointment was due to start – all very easy and results through the next day. Booking a Day Two test was straightforward but I slipped up by not buying a test to take with me to prove I’m fit to fly to return: totally my mistake and you can’t buy these, they have to be delivered to your UK address.

With all the news about COVID and all the uncertainty attached to it travelling has become something about which we hesitate and I understand why. My trusty chauffeur and his equally trusty wife will tell you that I was a tad nervous when they picked me up this morning. I needn’t have worried: the airport was very efficient both in London and here in Keflavik and I enjoyed the marketing references to enforced change like this display greeting travellers at Terminal 2

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Neither the seating areas nor the cafes were full so I was surprised to find the flight nearly at capacity.

For us, too, there had been additional complications with flights. BA cancelled both our flights so we ended up transferring to Icelandair and nobody was complaining this evening: all very smooth and we gained a day in which we have seen some amazing sights.

Once everyone had gathered ( there are six of us including the tour leader who is a professional photographer and tour leader) we moved to the ‘car’/minibus and began our journey towards the night’s accommodation. What a drive! Although it’s not Winter yet, there is snow on the mountains and the contrasts in the scenery are phenomenal. Our leader’s policy is to stop where his group want to stop, where someone has noticed something of interest. So our first stop was to take photos of our first Icelandic church (I have a sneaky feeling we’ll see lots!)

We’re assured that it’s luck and we shouldn’t expect these conditions every day – but it’s not been bad for the first day of a holiday – and the unplanned ‘extra’ day at that.