Springing back to Iceland to see it in the green! COMPLETED 6/29 - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
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More great plans and I remember your hotel and the Sky restaurant from your trip last year to Iceland and how much the two of you loved it! Hope you get to see the puffins and have much better luck with the whale watch this time!
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Pre-trip report – part five: now where is that very safe place?
Frustratingly, not long after we went on our original trip, someone at work asked if I wanted to buy her Icelandic krone off her. I said knowing we were planning on going back, and they cost me about £100 ($130). Great – we have plenty of cash… except we don’t. I have no idea what happened to them. All I can tell you is the cash we had when I went to look at it was significantly less than £100, so I knew it was the remnants we bought back with us. Where on earth was the other cash?
Now I usually have a photographic memory. Sometimes it fails me. This was one of those occasions. Honestly, all I can tell you is that I remember bringing those darned Krone home and storing them in a “very safe place”. Like all very safe places, where the heck it is, I do not know.
We have seriously pulled all the places in the house apart that we can think of. We’ve even moved on to the darned stupid places that it could never be, and still nothing… it is the most bizarre thing ever, and honestly, this has been going on for about six months now. So what do you do when you’re drawing a blank?
You give it, and just order more currency. It really hurt to go into the travel agents and place that order, knowing I’d already paid once for this, but heck, this is the problem with money. It can disappear so easily. This is why I never carry that much cash at home, because if you lose it, it’s gone. You’re never going to get it back. Let’s face it, if it’s stolen, unless you’ve just taken it out of an ATM, you’re probably going to struggle to prove how much you had on you for an insurance claim. You get the idea…
I have been keeping a fairly eagle eye on the weather, given the shock I got when I first checked the forecast a couple of weeks ago. If you remember, this was the situation:
As I write this though, in early April, it’s not exactly looking promising. The long range weather forecast on Accuweather is saying that the real feel temperature will be around freezing (32°F) and predicts that we might get some snow and rain. Ok, not exactly what we were hoping for. I guess we’ll be getting those thermals and snow boots out again then…
I am very relieved to report that things have improved since then. The coldest temperature during the day is now in the mid 30s, and although there are various showers forecast, the snow seems to have largely disappeared, apart from the morning we fly out. Phew! As for the overnight lows, rather than the low 20s we’d originally seen, we’re now looking at the low 30s most evenings. I’m now feeling quite relieved that our April has been a bit on the colder side, as then we might be slightly acclimatised and ready for those temperatures!
In fact, not long after I wrote that, Mark read out this headline to me:
I’ve even included the link, just so you can see it for yourselves, as it’s just so coincidental, given what I was saying! Yes, we are in for quite the cold snap, although I think in fairness, in the south east of England, we won’t be quite as cold as Reykjavik, but by the sounds of it, it will still be quite a shock to our systems, but by the time we fly to Iceland, maybe we’ll be ready for what awaits us…
It’s now just a few days out and I’ve got the itinerary all printed out, and I figured I’d go and see if I could do online check-in, although I thought it was just 24 hours for British Airways, and so it proved to be. However, I did notice that apparently all my details were complete, but Mark’s weren’t. Uh-oh, that’s not good. I went in, and it was his passport details that were missing, so I went and added those. Now I thought that was a bit odd, given his passport was renewed before mine. Hmmm…. Maybe I’d better go and check my details to ensure they’re correct. Well, the giveaway was that you needed to put in your passport number and name to access your details. The system didn’t like my passport number. Ok, it’s definitely got the old one. On the third attempt, I finally got the option to put my birthdate in, and could update my passport details. Wow – close call!
As I said, I printed the itinerary out, so we have everything, and I’m lucky it all printed, as I went to replace the yellow cartridge, and only had one left, and no more blue. Oops… I quickly ordered some more to deal with that one. Of course, later on, I picked up a couple of guidebooks, and then I started to think “I could add that into the itinerary”, so I did, but I’m not sure if I’m going to print it again. I’ll have it on the computer, and I know roughly what I’d looked up, and in which guidebook… won’t I? Oh shoot, I’ll probably end up re-printing it…
I now have an idea of where to eat on the Saturday night, a café in the botanical gardens, which aren’t too far from our hotel, and we can visit the gardens as well at the same time. I think I’ve also found somewhere that we can have lunch at after our whale watching that hopefully won’t cost a fortune. Ironically, I had looked at it for Saturday night dinner, but they don’t take reservations, unless you have a table of four or more, so lunch would probably be better there.
I also bought some more blank CDs, as I only realised a couple of days ago that I was out of supplies. I went to put the photos of our garden, and from our recent trip to Northern Ireland on to CDs, and I had one spare. Oops! With 100 purchased, I think that should see me through this trip, and possibly our Scotland road trip in June as well…. I always back up my photos on to CD as a precaution, just in case anything happens to the laptop, and it’s worked for me, as I did have a complete crash, where I literally went to turn it on one day and the mother board was fried. Thank goodness I didn’t lose anything, as the photos were all backed up, and my documents are backed up on to a memory stick. That was a very good reminder of the importance of doing this.
In other news, I had the freakiest accident a couple of days ago. I have a weak Achilles in my right foot, which is why I can’t wear heels or ever ice skate, as the ankle gives way. I fell down stairs back in 2000, and it healed ok from that. However, a couple of years later, a lorry pulled out in front of me, and I literally had to do an emergency stop to avoid hitting him. I managed to do that, but as I went to brake, even though I had just a tiny heel, my right foot got caught in the car mat and I had to yank it. By the time I got him, I couldn’t put any weight on it, and that was the start of my problems that were only dealt with a good year or so later when I had keyhole surgery to fix it.
Anyway, it’s been twinging over the last few weeks, and I did ask the doctor about whether I should get on a waiting list for an MRI scan now to see what the problem was, as given the waits on the National Health Service, I figured it would be a few months for a scan. However, the doctor told me as I’d be doing less driving (I’m commuting less to work due to the strain it’s putting on my chronic fatigue ). All fine, until I went to unload the dishwasher. I went to put something in a cupboard, and a pizza tray came flying out, hit a small stool, and smashed straight into my injured Achilles. I knew all about that! As a result, I’ve decided to ask for special assistance with our flight, given it will be a lot of walking. I think it’s only sensible, given I’ve been on painkillers, have had to strap my ankle and put hot and cold on it. In all honesty, I don’t think we’ll be doing that much walking in Iceland, especially as we have the rental car, and it is the airports where we’re going to have the most to do. I just don’t want to risk it getting any worse. Can you believe my luck and the timing of this?
I’ve also enquired with British Airways about taking my crutch with me, as walking seems to be my biggest issue with right now. While we will have the rental car, I don’t want to be held back by not being able to get around, so I think it’s safest to have it with me. They’ve come back to me and told me I can take the crutch with me in the cabin – phew! Not exactly how I wanted this vacation to be, but heck, you have to make the best of whatever life throws at you, right?
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Catching up on the pre-trip.... yay!!
I didn't realize Iceland is the same time zone as UK, very cool. Our son loves puffins too. Hoping you get to see some!
Fwiw, we flew into Kalispell, Montana. Also a very tiny and very cute airport, looks much like Bozeman! The Vik beach looks amazing!
Well, somewhat on the same timezone. There's a lot of pressure riding on 1 May. I hope it all works out!!
You'll probably find the money when you return from Iceland. And sorry to hear about your Achilles! Of course it managed to get re-injured right before a trip. Dang it! 's for it to not be hurting!
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Tanya
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Oh, my! So sorry about your achilles. It seems like life just isn't treating you fairly these days. I'm glad the weather is looking a little bit better, though. Have a great trip.
Hope your achilles recovers quickly! I'm with you in regards to carrying cahs as I don't carry a lot on me either. That's some insane cold weather you are expecting in the UK! Here in CT temps were in 60's today and tomorrow and Saturday around 80 degrees,
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October 6, 2017-Enjoying an amazing dinner at Victoria & Albert's with PP's Dot and Drew
My TR from my most recent trip is now underway. Includes: Universal Studios Florida, Disney World and Sea World Orlando Trifecta TR -Updated December 10th! TR is now COMPLETED!
Hope your achilles recovers quickly! I'm with you in regards to carrying cahs as I don't carry a lot on me either. That's some insane cold weather you are expecting in the UK! Here in CT temps were in 60's today and tomorrow and Saturday around 80 degrees,
Wow. Very nice temperatures. They're saying we'll be back in the 70s when we get home. That would be nice!
We made it safely here, although I was very glad I had the special assistance, as it was a very long way at both airports. We've had a variety of weather, including a lot of rain, but we've made the best of it.
We had an amazing lunch with a server who was Disney mad, we've been blown to pieces and had sand blown all over us at the black beach. We're now at our hotel, which is beautifully rustic.
Not much more to update as the Internet is spotty and I'm having to do this off my phone.
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Hope you get to see the puffins and have much better luck with the whale watch this time! 
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that you get to see both whales and puffins this time. 
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knowing we were planning on going back, and they cost me about £100 ($130). Great – we have plenty of cash… except we don’t. 
I have no idea what happened to them. All I can tell you is the cash we had when I went to look at it was significantly less than £100, so I knew it was the remnants we bought back with us. Where on earth was the other cash? 
On the third attempt, I finally got the option to put my birthdate in, and could update my passport details. Wow – close call! 
Of course, later on, I picked up a couple of guidebooks, and then I started to think “I could add that into the itinerary”, so I did, but I’m not sure if I’m going to print it again. I’ll have it on the computer, and I know roughly what I’d looked up, and in which guidebook… won’t I? Oh shoot, I’ll probably end up re-printing it… 
Here in CT temps were in 60's today and tomorrow and Saturday around 80 degrees,
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