Iceland Christmas 2010 - Getting There
What unwittingly contributed to making Christmas in Iceland so memorable was the journey there. And I have no pictures to prove it so you will have to take my word for it and that of my wife and two boys who you have seen in the photos prior to this monologue.
Departure day, 20th December loomed and the Icelandair flight 451 from Londons '3rd world' airport (not my words) Heathrow was much anticipated not just by ourselves but also a considerable number of other Icelandair passengers that had been due to fly the nations international airport at Keflavik on the two preceding days. You may recall that the reason they had not, along with many other thousands of would be passengers was the liberal sprinkling of snow on the runways and taxiways of Heathrow that made planes fall silent until someone found the can of de-icer.
To avoid a catastrophic journey in vain on Monday the 20th we tweeted and called Icelandair in Reykjavik on Sunday 19th and they matter of factly; borne out of complete confidence in the airlines ability to perform whatever the elements confirmed that our flight would operate as scheduled on the 20th. At the time I admit our confidence was not quite as strong as the Icelandics.
So to avoid a nightmarish journey on Monday morning and tragically arrive late and miss the flight we set out for Heathrow's Premier Inn on Sunday afternoon, well actually, not the Premier Inn for there are two at Heathrow. And I have to say that the family room was excellent and the much vaunted breakfast was a big hit with the boys who took full advantage of the fine fare. Yes, I did say Premier Inn!!
So Monday morning grey and dark arrived with the promise of more snow later. We made the pilgrimage to the Purple Parking HQ in hope and slush and ice. We were duly dropped off at Terminal 1 or be it after queing for 10 minutes to reach the terminal entrance; this should have been a heeded warning of things to come.
We were graciously allowed entrance to the terminal upon producing the correct password- Icelandair 451.... only to discover that the normally busy terminal had been transformed into an inverse Tardis due to the huge number of people in the terminal all attempting check in or some other ritual. Our flight at the Icelandair check in was not apparently being checked in but another flight to Reykjavik. I struck up conversation with a tall Icelandic taxi driver vaguely hoping I could cadge a lift with him and avoid the pandemonium. Futility personified.
We decided the best thing was to the join the snaking check in queue and hope for the best. It was cheek by jowl and some lesser beings decided to skip the formalities and the queueing system (it is Britain after all) which led to irate exchanges. Not to be outdone, a Cypriot Airways crowd of would be passengers were on the verge of chucking the finest crockery but were perhaps deterred by the circling armed police patrolling the 1st floor gallery and making menacing pseudo 'cocking' motions with there hardware.
After much uncertainty and near death experiences we made the check in counter having diced with wheelchair bound passengers who had clearly not passed any kind of sobreity test and in fact were probably possessed by an evil presence. We discharged our luggage to the Icelandic gods and set off for departures and security and more queueing. Are you seeing a theme develop here?
In fact once through security the bad dream seemed to abruptly end as we were wafted towards Fat Face but a cursory check of the departures board indicated departure was imminent, so any thoughts of a duty free bargain in Harrods or some other luxury brand was firmly squashed. Amazingly normality was becoming more and more pervasive and we boarded the plane and well... to cut a long story short, Icelandair made our day with the friendly/effective service and childens extras including Christmas cards for them to make which the airline flew back to the UK to be posted to their friends/cousins.
The rest as they say is history and you have the photographic evidence in this blog.