August 13 - Arrival

 

Tonight, we are leaving for Reykjavik. The airline we've chosen is a discount airline called Play Airlines. They fly out of Hamilton Ontario to Europe on a regular schedule. When we bought our tickets, it seemed like a good deal. Then we started paying for the necessary extras, such as luggage allowances and seat assignments. The final cost was pretty close to what you would pay for a regular airline’s flight to Europe.

Then yesterday we started getting bombarded with emails saying we could check in online, instead of the terminal counter. Guess what?  Their system doesn't work, and you can't check in online. Of course, there is no one you can talk to because it's all automated. Just another company in sorry need of an IT expert with classical training in software release management.

This afternoon we both nearly had a cardiac arrest at Hamilton airport. When we went to the check in at Play Airlines, we were told that our passports were invalid. Given that we had had trouble checking in online, we assumed that our vacations had been wrecked by a bureaucratic mistake. Then the agent laughed and told us that we had not signed our passports. We signed our passports and the rest of check in went smoothly. I’m sure that our faces gave her a good chuckle.

Our flight to Reykjavic was on an Airbus A320. If you should ever have the misfortune of being booked on one of these planes, cancel your ticket and go somewhere else. This was the worst passenger jet that I've ever been on. The seats were as hard as rock with no lumbar support. The chair didn’t recline to a more comfortable position. The legroom between our seat and the seat in front of you was about 25 centimeters. Marg was watching a movie on our tablet, so she lowered the food tray to hold that tablet. That left her absolutely no room to move.

The plane was filled with lots of young children. The small three year old girl sitting behind us was a real chatterbox. She didn't stop talking from the moment she sat down until the time she left the plane. I'm not sure what video game she was playing but I'm sure I know all the characters in that game by now.

I'm not sure why, but it seems that every flight we take, the arrival gate is the farthest away from the baggage pickup area possible at the airport. Keflavic airport was no exception. It was a least a ten to fifteen minute walk to go from arrival to the departure area. A little girl, in front of us during our walk, asked her mother if they were testing them to see how far they could walk.

Our trip into Reykjavik was very interesting. Until we reached the outskirts of the city, the landscape was very desolated with moss covered rocks, shrubs and volcanic soil. It looked like pictures taken on the surface of the moon.  Once we hit Reykjavik you began to see trees, lawns and gardens.

I also noticed that there were few single homes.  The city seems to have a large number of apartment buildings which are massive. They were not especially tall, so you don’t have the modern skyline. There doesn't seem to be an old village that you associated with European cities.

Rainbow Road Shopping Area

The weather is cold and damp.  There was a steady drizzle on our way in and temperature was 9c. The forecast calls for more of the same of the next couple of days.

Our room in Center Hotel Arnarhvoll is small but comfortable. We were able to get an early check in, so we did get a good sleep this morning.