Day 15, Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Itinerary: Tutzing to Zurich fly to Reykjavik

Time awake:

Odometer (in kilometers/miles) at start:

Weather:

Steps: 8874

Asleep:

Map Link(s):

We arose early, ate early, and checked out early. As things would turn out, we should have slept in. The breakfast buffet at the Hotel Am See didn’t measure up to the delicious smorgasbords that had become a staple on this trip. Not that it was bad, it was sumptuous by Holiday Inn standards, but we had been spoiled.

We checked out of the hotel with the same fellow who checked us in, and then walked to our car parked about three blocks away. We were happy to find it there with no parking tickets. We loaded our luggage and began the drive to Zurich Airport. The drive via routes A1 and A96 was 194 miles, and we made good time getting there. We pulled into the Sixt car rental return garage a little before noon and waited about 15 minutes or so to get cleared and the paperwork processed. The final cost for the rental came to $529.76, or less than $41 per day. Not bad at all.

The garage was connected to the terminal by tram car, so after we found the boarding station, we hopped aboard. And voila we were whisked back to the Zurich Airport. In route to our gate, we passed by a food court and decided to grab a quick bite. There were several choices, and I have to believe that all the ones we didn’t choose would have been better than the one we did. The one chosen was the Autogrill Schweiz. The food there, or at least the food we ordered, was marginal. I recall it consisting of a pastry of some sort and a large latte.

Then we proceeded through security screening. So far this often excruciating ordeal hadn’t been that bad. This time it was, and then some. For one thing, it took forever. For another, the checkers rooted through everything. Sharon had amassed an admirable collection of toiletries from all of our hotel stays. They all had to go because they exceeded the allowable volume of liquids. OK, I’ll give ‘em that. But my homemade preserves from the Hotel Schloss Berg? Are you kidding me? But they wouldn’t let the preserves through, so out they went. In answer to the age old question of whether jelly is a liquid or a solid, to the folks at Zurich Airport security, it’s definitely a liquid.

Unfortunately, security would not be the last snafu of the day. Icelandair had another one in store for us, although they blamed it on air traffic control at Zurich Airport. And if the air traffic controllers at the airport were as slow as the security checkers there, then Icelandair had a persuasive argument. Boarding the plane was delayed by about 10 to 15 minutes, and then we just sat on the tarmac as the minutes ticked away. All the while the window on making our connecting flight got tighter and tighter until it was closed. Our flight was scheduled to depart Zurich at 2:00 PM and arrive in Reykjavik at 3:50 PM (local time), which left 1 hour and 10 minutes before our flight to Philly was schedule to depart. Due to the delay in takeoff from Zurich, whatever the reason, by the time we landed in Reykjavik, our connecting flight had departed.

During the flight, I watched the inane yet entertaining movie “Get Hard” with Kevin Hart and Will Ferrell. The most amazing thing about the movie actually had nothing to do with it and everything to do with Google. While writing this log and trying to remember the movie’s name, I typed “movie with” in Google, and “Kevin Hart” was the first thing to pop up. Ok, Google, what’s up? Are you reading my mind? Or actually my subconscious, since the actor’s name hadn’t yet come to me.

Once off the plane and in the airport, we stood in the line at Icelandair’s customer assistance desk. As might be expected, the line was very long since lots of people missed their connecting flights and we were one of the last off the plane and had to use the facilities before dealing with our situation. We were eager to get home as soon as possible and hoped to be able to catch another flight that evening. But the nice lady at the customer assistance desk informed there were none. What a bummer. Everything to this point had gone so well on the trip, and now we couldn’t get home. But even under this lonely gray cloud there would be a silver lining. Icelandair put us up at a nice hotel in downtown Reykjavik and provided vouchers for dinner that night, lunch the next day, and shuttles from and to the airport. So what we got out of the delay was one more holiday—in Reykjavik, a place I’d always wanted to visit. And now we could take full credit for having been to Iceland.

So with our vouchers in hand, we headed to the baggage area, where the shuttles were. We somehow found our shuttle, and directed a young woman in the same situation to it as well. About 7:15 PM while a light rain fell, the shuttle started on its way to Reykjavik. The ride took longer than I would have thought. For one thing, Keflavík International Airport is 31 miles from downtown Reykjavik. There’s almost nothing in between, so one wonders why the heck they didn’t build it closer. Maybe the planners were taking a long view, figuring that over the next few centuries, what with global warming and all, Reykjavik would expand enormously. The length of the ride was also lengthened by the fact that the shuttle stopped at about five other hotels before ours, letting off stranded travelers at each. Our stop was the last. And it left us about three or four blocks from our hotel, the Center Hotel Plaza. We started the march there along with about a half dozen others and reached the hotel by 8:37 PM.

We checked into our room, which was nothing special but plenty good for free, and headed out to get our free dinner. The dinner vouchers were for the Isafold Lounge & Bar, which was about a third of mile away, although we walked by it on our first pass making it longer than that. The Isafold was a swanky little basement restaurant with ultramodern styling, and although our dining options were limited to those allowed by our voucher, the food we ordered was excellent. And free. All but the beers that is. We ordered two beers, which came to 2600 Icelandic króna, which with the tip came to $23.71. That’s $23.71 for two local draft beers. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Munich anymore.

After dinner we headed back to the Center Hotel Plaza. I don’t recall if we considered stopping anywhere along the way and chose not to because nothing was open or because we were too tired, but we didn’t stop. It was close to 11:00 PM local time by the time we got back, making it 1:00 AM Central European Time. So we were pretty beat. And we had to get up early tomorrow to explore Reykjavik.