Iceland Day 9: Reykjavik to NYC to DC

From Home …

At 7a we check out of Hotel Cabin and board the bus to Reykjavik International Airport. The Boston group is on an Icelandair direct departing at 10a. I’m with Sue and Don on Delta Flight 247 from Reykjavik to JFK leaving 90 minutes later. In New York we pass through customs. Then we’re on Delta Flight 5699 from JFK to Washington National. Collect bags. Get Uber. And home.

There’s a huge amount of planning that goes into these trips to figure out what to wear, how to pack, and what photographic gear to bring. But the best laid plans can sometimes go awry. This one got off to a rough start due to problems with our departing flights. We rescheduled for the next day and arrived on Monday morning instead of Sunday morning. We did miss the first day in Reykjavík, but we were able to catch up with the rest of the group.

And it was great to catch up with Mickey and Donna. It’s been a few years since our last trip to Israel together.

A few thoughts about this trip …

Seeing the northern side of the island is worth it. By bus, with stops every so often, it takes most of the day to get there. But along the way the scenery is incredible and spending a few days in Akureyri was a really great travel experience!.

Tour guides are storytellers whether the story is about the history of the place you are visiting or an interesting anecdote. Kolfinna is a gifted storyteller weaving the telling of the Icelandic Sagas with descriptions of day-to-day life in modern Iceland. She has a background in journalism and as a documentarian, so this makes sense! And the logistics of this tour go smoothly with very little wasted time. Ya, ya!!

Of course our coach driver, Jacob, got the bus safely down the road, but he also added commentary on the information about Iceland from Kolfinna, and suggested beautiful stops along the way!

When you are with group of people 24/7 for a week or longer it’s important that everyone is in sync and gets along. That certainly was the case with this group. A combination of new and previous travelers, the conversation was always engaging … and everyone wanted to hear about bread baking!

These trips are always a blur! And I’ll be honest, in the last few days before I depart for a trip I don’t look forward to the work necessary to post these daily updates. But once I get to a destination, see some incredible places, and start taking pictures I really enjoy the process of sharing these posts. I hope you enjoyed reading. Thank you for following along. Some of my favorite photos from this trip …