Why do airlines make flights so early? I’m sure they do it on purpose just to annoy you! Anyway my alarm went off at 4.10 although I was awake before then like you normally are before catching a plane.
After my two PAs came and we packed the van we headed to Bristol airport leaving plenty of time before our flight because we knew something would go wrong! We managed to wrap my manual wheelchair up in masking tape so it would go through the baggage area. At the same time I was trying to avoid the special assistance team because they annoyed the hell out of me last year and I couldn’t be bothered to go through it again at 6.30 am. We managed to go through security without any major issues but I have a bone to pick with my welsh PA who is hopefully reading this. She was adamant that my bag would be fine to use as hand luggage when she packed it but because of security complained to my PA that it was too large and next time it wouldn’t be allowed through so thanks for that!
As a result of the hold up at security we were rushed on the plane and it’s worth mentioning that I hadn’t eaten since I got up so I had a easyjet breakfast if there is such a thing? The flight, which was 2 hours 50 went rather quick and soon we were landing at Keflavik International Airport with no sign of super bunny as we left the plane in my manual, however I had an idea that it would be in the baggage hall which it was, when we found him, we were greeted by an unusual sight of, what looked like some Nordic rope out of a Viking movie wrapped around the chair with no idea of how to unwrap it:
After successfully untying super bunny from his lead, we headed for the exit and were greeted by our taxi driver who was holding up my business name, oh well you never know what could happen now….
Keflavik airport is around 50 km from the city of Reykjavik so we enjoyed a drive through the lovely Icelandic landscape taking in the nothingness that was there. We arrived at the hotel expecting more drama as usual, even though I rang them last week to ensure two rooms were adjacent to each other which they confirmed, however this seemed to have got lost as we now have two rooms a short walk along the corridor and one on the floor below, the drama is still carrying on as we speak trying to resolve this!
As we had a small breakfast, we headed out in search of an accessible restaurant. Iceland is meant to be one of the coldest places in the world however it was actually warmer here than in Bristol today which is disappointing as I specifically went to Bridgend to buy winter stuff. However it is meant to snow tomorrow so it might prove useful in the end! For lunch, we had the traditional Icelandic meal of an Italian pizza and then headed for a walk around the city to visit some of the places that were on my to do list. During our walk we came across some commotion where people were standing in the middle of the road taking photos. At first I thought it was some Chinese tourists as I know they like to take photos of everything, even cows, as we turned the corner we were greeted by this:
Although this was exciting, the real reason for going up this hill was to see Hallgrimskirkju in all its glory :
After a wander inside we proceeded to be proper tourists and ask for directions to another building so that I can tick it off in my book ‘A Thousand an One Buildings’ which is a real book as it includes some random buildings that they claim you must see before you die. After all this excitement we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the evening to eat takeaway and chill out for the rest of the evening, hopefully there will be a takeaway somewhere around here! Oh and just to let you know that if you are on tinder you can of course find Icelandic women on there!
Tomorrow we are planning to go whale watching on a boat leaving Reykjavik harbour and there is a small chance we are going to see the northern lights in the evening however it is planning to snow all evening so let’s see what happens, the mobile network in Iceland is really weird as it won’t let me tweet anything it’s like being back in America again so I have to wait until I get wifi to do so.
See you tomorrow,
Nath