Last Day In Porto: Flight to Iceland

We had an agenda for our last day in Porto. It included doing anything we wanted. First, was get a swimsuit for Sheila so she could use the Icelandic thermal pools. We had found a promising shop Monday that was not scheduled to open until Tuesday at 9am. We arrived shortly after 9 and amazingly, fairly easily, found a swimsuit that fit.

We celebrated that triumph by going to our favorite coffee shop, Combi. For some reason no other Combi photos load.

After Combi we went home to be very Euro and have late morning wine aperitifs before going to lunch. We had decided to have lunch a few doors down from Combi where we have watched, though the window, the cook grilling meats on a large smoking hot grill. Sheila had cod and I had baby back ribs. Both were quite flavorful, as were her roasted sliced potatoes in oil and my bowl of rice swimming in a spicy oily broth.

After walking for about 45 minutes we went to the apartment to prepare for the 6:30 pickup for a ride to the airport for our 9pm flight to Reykjavik Iceland, scheduled arrival 10 minutes after midnight. All was well until the notice of a 50 minute flight delay due to technical difficulties. It turns out the delay was a good thing. Our driver was 38 minutes late. At the airport we stood in a long line to check bags, and also found that the tickets in my email would not download on my phone. Some combination of Samsung and T-Mobile has haunted my phone, to some degree, since last November in Mexico, except for the month of April when we were in Spokane.  With all of that going on we would have missed our deadline for checkin and baggage check if not for the delay.

The flight ended up being delayed for about 2 hours and 25 minutes. The boarding process was like a cruel joke. Our plane was huge and they started checking people through just before the plane landed. The people who checked in had to stand in a long line for a very long time waiting for the plane to land, passengers to deplane, cabin cleanup, luggage to be removed from the hull, new luggage to be loaded, technical staff to give the thumbs up before they were allowed to get on the plane. We had waited to almost the end of checkin so we stood in the line a bit less, but still for, I estimate 20+ minutes.

We boarded and found antiquated tiny seats with minimal leg room – for a 4+ hour flight counting the hour time change. Sheila and I lucked out because on an almost full flight the passenger next to us did not show. This let us stretch out in semi-sideways positions offering some relief to or otherwise cramped legs. The airline is named PLAY and Avion Express was the operator. We got off the plane before 3am, got our luggage and were on our way by bus to Reykjavik 45 minutes away. Then came a second struck of good luck. Our AirBnB hostess had insisted on having us call and wake her to come get us whenever we finally arrived. Shortly after 4:30am we were in our new home for the next 5 days. Not bad for a midnight flight arrival!

I understand why many people book pre-planned vacations. The stress and busy work of flexible self booked travel can wear a person out. I will hesitate to travel like we have the past 80 days in the future. But, I am grateful for all I have learned about travel.

Oddly we only slept in until about 10am. Our hostess graciously took us with her to shop for food. We spent the afternoon walking about downtown Reykjavik. From the airport until now we have been astounded by the cleanliness and the spaciousness of what we have seen, but that is tomorrow’s post. Below see photos of some Icelandic mountains across the sea. Separate note, a series of earthquakes and a huge volcanic eruption began almost exactly when we arrived at Reykjavik bus station last night. If you haven’t seen them yet google the photos and videos for some pretty incredible nature footage. We will not be affected by these events.