Where are we going now…
We elected for our own foot tour of the village checking the local shops and views ending at the local brewery for snacks. We returned to the Mars and conducted our Nordic bathing ritual at the spa. After dinner, our routine found us looking out of the explore lounge having a spritz.
Viking has a host of excursions daily and always one for free while some range from walking tours to helicopter rides to see the glaciers. You can signup for one of theirs or arrange with locals for others. We took our first and last big bus tour to see a local museum of outside houses displaying Icelandic living over the years with locals in character. Followed by afternoon tea.
We embraced the nordic bathing routine and developed a daily process including the hot tub, steam room, snow room and sauna while working in the breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
We woke to a tug boat outside our window and headed to the Grai Kotturinn, or Grey Kitten, restaurant. They only had 9 tables so we waited outside with our cappuccino coffees. After a great breakfast, we headed out to “the Church” on the hill. The main streets were barricaded off to get ready for the parade which made walking great.
A taxi picked us up at the hotel to deliver us to the Viking Mars. After the hectic driving and navigating thru the city, it was immediately more relaxing on the ship. The wait staff tried the best they could to anticipate what we wanted.
We had lunch outside overlooking the bay and enjoyed dinner at the Chef’s table.
We skipped the food service on the flight to try to take a nap with limited success. We exited for customs and to try to find the rental cars. We needed local currency so did extracted $100,000 Iceland dollars. Seemed like enough for a week. It was close.
I must have looked tired when we arrived at the rental counter because the agent would not allow me to have a car until I drank a cup of coffee. They warned us of taking the car off-roads and how traffic circles worked which we were well prepared for. We headed off for a day trip to tour the Golden Circle route. The road signage was of no help so the first place we recognized, we stopped for lunch. Because I had never had the Swedish meatballs at IKEA, we decided it would be perfect and it was packed.
We pushed on to see a lake in a crater which had beautiful water but too cold to swim. From there we headed to a location with geysers large and small. Another 30 miles to see a huge water fall followed by driving through a national park back into Reykjavik for the Edition Hotel on the bay.
I dropped BB off at the hotel to return the car to a place which had no appearance of a rental facility – it was a bus stop. I walked back the couple of miles of cool fresh air.
We took a walk, had a burger and saw a long line of folks at 10pm in line for at a hot dog stand. We ended the evening with a view from the roof top bar.
We arrived in NY with the plan to spend the day in the new DeltaOne Lounge. It was nice with an actual dining room serving lunch and dinner. After ordering desert, we asked, will there be the same menu tonight, they said yes so we started to plan our next meal which became a theme for several days going forward.
During dinner, we sat next to Stan and Jennifer trying to get back to Portland due to the storm after a Viking cruise and had several tips for us for the upcoming trip.
We did get out of JFK after midnight in our DeltaOne seats for the 5 hour flight to Reykjavik. Not much of a nap in the lay down seats.
The Evangelical-Lutheran church Hallgrimskirkja is a living and thriving church in the center of Reykjavík. Hallgrímskirkja is both a national monument, dedicated to the most renowned sacred poet of Iceland, Hallgrímur Pétursson, and a mid-town parish church with a vibrant parochial life and musical activity. Hallgrímskirkja is the largest church in Iceland and towers over the centre of Reykjavík. It also houses the largest organ in the country. The tower is 73 meters high. It provides a panoramic view of Reykjavík, the surrounding mountains and the ocean stretching west to Greenland and the Americas. The tower is among the most visited tourist destinations in Reykjavík. The church was built between 1945 and 1986, and the parish is part of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Iceland.
When is the best time to buy an airline ticket? Depends on your risk profile, it could range from 30 to 150 days out. At least, based on one case.
I was talking with a buzz-buddy friend about flight prices verses what I saw a year ago. I had quoted flight cost observed when I published the blog which seemed reasonable. I was looking at airfares back then which were 30 days in the future. Since then, we have seen much higher fares planning a year out. We did not like that.
With all of this AI stuff, I thought, we should be able to look at flight cost history somewhere to see how the airfare’s trended to determine when it is best to buy. This turned out to be harder than I thought to identify when was the best time to purchase. The reason is that airfares change hourly based on tickets sold, fare class, specific flights, market rates etc. Basically, the airlines publish list price rates up until they feel they need to be competitive to sell all the seats.
However, you can track flight prices as they change for a future trip similar to tracking stock prices to try to make the best purchase. Just like the stock exchange, nothing will tell you what the price will be tomorrow. In the link below, you can see a case where someone tracked flights to Iceland over the course of a year and see when fares dipped.
https://travel.stackexchange.com/questions/5046/how-to-find-historical-airfares
You can see in the chart when prices were most competitive over the course of the year flying to Iceland but it will have little to do with the best prices in future. My conclusion is that prices will remain high until the airlines say, hey, we need to sell these seats. If demand spikes, the airlines will raise prices thinking that they were too early.
For those who would like to track airfare prices for a route, below is a story of options to try to out perform the airline market.
According to a recent news article, the volcanic eruption in Iceland’s Reykjanes Peninsula is not expected to impact travel plans 12. The eruption is not posing any threat to life and there are no disruptions to flights to and from Iceland 2. However, the popular Blue Lagoon has been closed until December 27 due to the eruption 3. It is advisable to keep an eye on the situation and follow the latest updates from the Icelandic Met Office 3.
Two hour video of Volcano erupting in Iceland near the capital. It is almost like one of those video loops of a fireplace to watch on the TV.
The 5 Star K Club Hotel & Golf Resort is one of the best golf hotels in Ireland and is world famous for golf. When you come to the K Club Hotel in Kildare you are treated to an incredible golfing experience at this luxury Hotel & Golf Resort near Dublin. Located only 30 minutes from Dublin in a beautiful location in County Kildare, The K Club is a luxurious getaway that offers 5 star accommodation, incredible diningexperiences as well as an internationally acclaimed spa and world famous golf courses here in Kildare, Ireland.
