The view from our hotel room at the Park Inn at the Oslo Airport. We can see a parking garage and the control tower at the airport. Even with planes coming and going, we couldn't hear them -- that's how well constructed the hotel is.
Rise and shine, and time to get those boots laced up. I am SO looking forward to wearing something other than heavy hiking boots.
The breakfast buffet was huge and varied.
We filled up, in fact I did it twice! Daddy was the first to wake and went down for his breakfast alone. Then Kelsey and I went down while Aubrietta (last to get up) needed more time up in the room to get ready. When Aubrietta came down, Kelsey went on to the playroom and I had a second breakfast with Aubrietta. I sat there savoring my 4th cup of coffee until the staff started clearing the dining room, and then I stealthily slipped some extra grapes and pastry into a plastic bag I'd had hidden in my shoulder bag. Those would come in handy for our long day of travel ahead.
The Park Inn turned out to be a really family friendly hotel. Upon check in the girls were given colored pencils and coloring sheets, and one wall in the otherwise tidy and stark lobby was festooned with children's artwork taped up for all to admire. There was a big playroom stocked with toys. They may have been toys for preschoolers, but that didn't prevent Aubrietta and Kelsey from spending an hour there after breakfast, building an elaborate block town.
Leaving the hotel and heading to the airport. What's that blinding light? Sunshine in Oslo? Impossible!
The long covered walkway connecting the hotel to the terminal.
Uh-oh. Long line at the IcelandAir check in. There was a bit of worry for us with our flight, because when I went to do online check-in and print our boarding passes yesterday there was already notice on the IcelandAir website that many of today's flights would be delayed, including ours. There was the real potential for us to miss our connection in Reykjavik and be stuck there overnight, as there is only one flight to Seattle from Reykjavik per day. The line above is due to the flight delays, as well as the self-service baggage-tag kiosks being out of order. A double whammy.
Thankfully we were at the airport 4 hours before our flight was supposed to leave, so after standing in lines for what seemed like half that time, we were finally on the other side of security and able to sit down for a late lunch. This cafe had to-go containers you could fill from a buffet with about 50 different items and cold salads.
The girls were happy to not be in a rush this time and be allowed to explore the Duty-Free.
With a long day and night ahead, I encouraged the girls to sweeten up the clothes they'd be in for a long time. They had fun choosing which scent to use, and ended up doing one fragrance on one side, and a different one on the other.
Well, our plane is at the gate, that's a good sign. Two hours late, but it's there.
Wait, what's this? Oh no, something wrong with the engine. A little door keeps popping open. Where's the duct tape? OK, I don't care about being late, missing a connection. Call in another aircraft or cancel it, I don't want to get onto that plane now.
Aubrietta finds one of the 3-wheeled scooters that the airport staff use to zip around. At the risk of being yelled at, she stepped on for me to take a quick photo. She really wanted to take it for a spin, but I wouldn't let her.
After another half hour delay while the engine was being examined, it was finally decided the flight should go on, and we were allowed to board. I snapped this photo as we boarded the plane. So our plane is named after a volcano. Let's hope it doesn't blow up like one.
Although it was a short flight (under 3 hours) the girls were offered a complementary full children's meal (Adults could order off a menu of overpriced items). They also got free headphones, colored pencils, and postcards to color.
With the children cheerful over their freebies, it was easier for me to relax, though I was still spooked about the engine and the possibility of missing our connecting flight to Seattle. I distracted myself by watching an assortment of Icelandic short films on the inflight entertainment center.
We touched down in Iceland after our Seattle flight should have departed. What lay ahead for us? Would IcelandAir put us up for the night in a hotel? Not likely, so I'd read on the travel review blogs. During the hundreds of hours I researched online in preparation for our trip I'd read nothing but bad things about Keflavik Airport and IcelandAir's poor customer service.
When we got to the gate we hustled off the plane and literally ran to our connecting gate, encouraged by the flight attendant on our last flight that the plane to Seattle hadn't departed yet, but we had to hurry! There would be no time to shop for more salty black licorice gum or pick up some Icelandic currency at the airport. I had stupidly used our remaining Icelandic Kronor to pay for lunch before our flight to Denmark last month, not even thinking about keeping a few coins as souvenirs for the kids. Stupid me!
Less than half an hour after we landed in Iceland we were in the air again. It was a miracle, IcelandAir really did hold the plane for us. Believe it or not, our checked luggage made it onto the plane, too. I'm not sure how, but it did.
Although the flight to Seattle from Iceland was half an hour longer than the flight from Seattle to Iceland (due to tailwinds), this flight felt so much longer. Perhaps it was because we'd already been on one flight today. The sun was with us the entire time we flew West.
Looking down at the ice near Greenland you could see interesting melt patterns.
It was pretty to look at, but sad, too. I thought about the arctic ice melting and the polar bears starving because of it. I kept my eye out hoping to see a polar bear, but either there weren't any, or they were really well camouflaged.
Kelsey was able to nod off, but Aubrietta stayed awake the whole 7 1/2 hours watching movies, just as I did. She even watched the Hunger Games movie, and she's not usually into such scary films. I continued watching Icelandic films (who knew that Iceland has a vibrant indie film industry?).
These are just some of the films I watched (follow the links and you can watch them too, some of them for free!):
There were some other films I saw as well but I wasn't able to find them online to share with you.
About 6 hours into the flight my lower back and legs protested and I got the worst case of "restless legs" I think I've ever had. I got up a few times to walk the aisle, but it didn't really help. Being as tall as I am and having to twist into a pretzel to fly coach is a real pain -- literally. Coming to the end of this trip reminded me that I will never have an adventure overseas like this again. Maybe this will be the last time I'll ever travel out of the country. When we get home I'll be looking for a job, any spare cash will be devoted to a college fund for the girls, and we're going to be living pretty frugally. Nonetheless, I was really looking forward to returning home. Stretching out in my own bed was going to be a treat, too, since it would be 3am Norway time when we finally got home, and I was really tired.
It was a gorgeous, warm, sunny afternoon in Seattle when our plane touched down. We were pleasantly surprized to find our bags waiting for us in the secure baggage area. Getting through customs at Sea-Tac was worse than any of the other airports we'd been through, though. The grapes I'd taken from the hotel buffet in Norway? I had a few left, and the customs agent made me go to a separate area for hazardous materials to dispose of them. The lines were really long and we overheard a lot of people being hassled over seemingly trivial things. Those customs agents appeared to be having a really good time torturing the weary travelers, especially those with foreign passports. Here we were, a family of four holding American passports, with local driver licenses and ID's, and they asked us all sorts of questions about where we'd been, why we went, how come we were returning today, etc. It just seemed a bit much.
Uncle Buck and Aunt Barbara were waiting to pick us up and deliver us home. It was strange to ride again in my 12 year old minivan just 41 days after stepping out of it at this same airport to embark on this trip. It seemed like another lifetime ago.
Thanks for reading along. I enjoyed keeping this journal, knowing that many of my family and friends were traveling along with us in spirit.
>>>>>>Click Here to Return to the Index<<<<<<