First place to "sit and wait" was the Air France lounge, which apparently maintains a guest agreement with Icelandair. French wines and cheese, beer, sandwiches, and desserts...perhaps we'll just stay here!!!
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| Icelandair Skjaldbreidur |
Our Icelandair 757 rolled in from Reykjavik just outside the Air France lounge and right on time. Icelandair maintains a quaint custom of assigning names to each aircraft, so we will be departing on the Skjaldbreidur, which is named after an extinct 9000 year old shield volcano located in South Iceland.
The Icelandair route map looks much like a bowtie as all east and westbound flights connect into their Reykjavik hub. Icelandair has a unique policy where they allow passengers the option to stopover during their connection in Iceland for up to seven days without any additional airfare cost. Perusing the inflight magazine with maps, photos and activities, it certainly looks like an interesting idea for a future "vacation within a vacation"...especially since the Icelandic fare structure appears to be priced somewhat less than other major US and European carriers. Their business class, named Saga class, offered many amenities that are long gone from US carriers, such as nice pillows/quilted duvet comforter at each seat, a large herringbone and leatherette pouch filled with a dozen nice travel amenities, and even lending noise-canceling headphones during the flight.
It is now nearly 11pm and we are just north of Halifax, Nova Scotia. From my west-facing seat, it is interesting to note that the sun has never fully set--there is still an corona of light on the western horizon. This portends much daylight in our upcoming days in these far northern latitudes!
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| Descending into Reykjavik after Sunday sunrise |
Zzzzzzzzzzzzz...mmphh! Awoke suddenly just beyond the southern tip of Greenland to a full sunrise. Had thought choosing a seat on the left (north) side of the aircraft would surely avoid sunlight pouring through my window, but we are so far north that the sneaky orb suddenly appeared on the north side of the fuselage! Within minutes the crew was serving coffee, juice and croissants--that was certainly a short night! Within an hour we were landing in Reykjavik, Iceland. The geology of this mostly flat volcanic island is quite striking with some extinct and other recently active volcanoes belching fumes. The outer half-mile fringe of the island is verdant green, however there is a quick transition inland to barren dark chocolate brown volcanic rock. Colors and textures in the volcanic rock are quite intricate. Will try to get some photos during our connection returning from Norway. By the way, currently using the crappy iPad camera but will upgrade to my DSLR tomorrow--so picture quality hopefully will improve.
During the two hour pit stop at Keflavik International Airport, we perused the extensive duty free shopping opportunities. Iceland's only domestically produced vodka (Reyka) is about the same price per liter as Stoly (2,599 ISK, or $22 in Icelandic kroner). The local dialect is Islenska, which sounds like a typical Scandanavian language. The Icelandair plane that will transport us to Bergen, Norway is named Herdubreid, which is a "tuya", a volcano formed under a glacier in North Iceland. Interesting that there are no announcements for flight departures, unless there is a significant flight delay. It would be easy to miss your flight unless you are watching the time and the queue as short delays (30 min) are also not announced. At the appointed time, passengers quietly queue up at the gate and the gate agent suddenly begins the processing apparently upon some silent signal.
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| Flying into Bergen |
Arrived in Bergen at 12:30pm local time, got lucky in baggage claim and found two bags that looked familiar and headed out the front exit to catch the Flybussen to the Bergen city center. The airport is several miles from Bergen city center and Flybussen (100 NOK=$17/pp)leaves every 15-30 minutes just outside the front exit to ground transportation. Our Hurtigruten ship line also runs a bus ($29/pp) from the airport to the harbor Terminal at 1pm and 3:30pm, but one must pre-pay and would have to wait for the next bus if you missed the 1pm departure. We paid the 200 NOK with a credit card (get a chip&pin card with NO foreign transaction fee!) and hopped aboard the bus. Closest stop to the harbor is the second stop within the city center at Christies Gate. The helpful bus agent at the airport told us that it was a "4 minute walk" to the harbor, however Kenny perceived it more like a 10 block death march. I tried to humor her that it had only been 13.5 hours since we left Clifton, however she reminded me she hadn't slept in 26 hours and actual crankiness was near.
A note about how EU immigration and customs: No visa is required for Iceland or Noway and immigration into the EU actually occurs during your flight connection in Iceland. It is a low-key affair where the officer simply looks you over, stamps your passport and says "have a good time". Upon arrival in Norway, you don't show a passport and simply walk through either a red doorway ( if you have something to declare) or the green doorway (nothing to confess) to freedom.
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| Hurtigruten Terminal |
We arrived at the Hurtigruten Terminal over an hour before we could check in for the ship, but they kindly took our luggage and we hung out in the Terminal waiting for the von Frickens to show up. Manfred and Linda took the same flight connections 1 day ahead of us and stayed in a Bergen hotel last night. Apparently they had been regaled by footballers partying and a flash mob celebration at 3am when the bars closed.
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| Arrival of the King Harald |
Our ship, the Kong Harald, arrived at the dock about 3pm, having completed the southbound leg from Kirkenes to Bergen. Manfred and Linda joined us at the Hurtigruten Terminal and we registered and sat through the safety drill before boarding the ship. We explored the ship and got settled in our rooms before having dinner. After dinner we attended an informational meeting in the Panorama lounge, which is a beautiful spot forward on the top deck. Tomorrow begins the first full day of the voyage through the fjords....
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| Panorama lounge |
For "map-aholic" travelers, one of the best bargains to be found in any Norwegian Tourism office (typical sign logo is a lower case "i") is a folding NORWAY Roadmap for 10 kroner (less than $1.50). It unfolds to 24"x 36" and shows the roadways of the entire country in very adequate detail. It also shows the exact route of the Hurtigruten ships as well as the the train routes. If you purchase this map early in your trip, you can follow your route quite nicely whether by car, ship or train. I'm sure there are better road maps, but this one was perfect for our needs traveling primarily by ship and train.
Posted by TBW Travel Today!
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