Europe

It turns out that downtown Reykjavik gets pretty rowdy on a Friday night! So we didn’t get as much sleep as we had hoped for and were a little sketchy as we got underway for the day.

We checked out of the hotel just before 6:00 am. We then dragged our suitcases down the street to where we had parked the car, loaded them into the boot, and headed off to the airport. Keflavik International Airport is about 40km from Reykjavik so we expected the drive to take around 45 minutes. We have had no mobile phone data in Iceland so we have been navigating with static Google Maps data while we have been here. This has mostly worked well enough but our trip to the airport took a more eventful turn when the instructions sent us off the highway onto a gravel road. We quickly backtracked and then decided to ignore all further instructions from Google Maps and navigate our own way to the airport. This turned out to be a good idea since Google Maps persevered with its attempts to get us onto a number of very ordinary looking roads.

We got to the airport in plenty of time to drop off the rental car and get into the terminal. The first order of business inside the terminal was to present our paperwork for a tax refund on our Icelandic purchases. This was quick and easy. We had to then wait for the British Airways desk to open so we could check in. At around 7:45 am we checked in for our 10:15 am flight and then headed off to the security screening point. We got through security, did a little more shopping, and then headed to the gate.

We had a longer-than-expected wait at the gate because the inbound flight was running late. We eventually got on board, stowed our hand luggage, and settled in for the flight of just under three hours to London. We had a nice meal on the flight, and after a little doze, landed in London. We had a driver waiting at Heathrow to pick us up, which was good because we didn’t feel like battling for a taxi to get out of the airport. The ride from the airport into the city took a bit over an hour, longer than usual due to the road closures imposed in preparation for the Queen’s funeral. We got to the hotel around 4:15 pm and checked in.

After checking in we went for a walk to stretch our legs before deciding on what to do for dinner. We thought we might have room service but we ended up at The Grill, a very nice restaurant in the Dorchester. We decided to have a relatively small meal but the staff apparently thought we needed a good feed and brought us a lovely soup before our main meal and a second dessert at the end!

After dinner we decided to go for a walk. So we headed to Buckingham Palace to take in the atmosphere in the lead-up to the Queen’s funeral. What would normally be a short walk turned into a much longer one as a result of the numerous road closures in the area. There were quite a few people around the palace and the mood was quite sombre.

From Buckingham Palace we walked back through Green Park. Most of the flowers left for the Queen had been moved to Green Park and had been arranged like huge flower beds in the park. The quantity of flowers was incredible. There was quite a crowd in the park, wandering through the displays of flowers and soaking up the atmosphere.

It was after 10:00 pm when we left Green Park and headed back to the hotel. We are heading to Oxford tomorrow to meet our friends Simon and Mags at the Blenheim Palace International Horse Trials, where they have a horse competing. We plan to be on the train at Marylebone Station just after 7:30 am, so it’s going to be another early start!