August 21,2024 Reykjavik, Iceland
On our last morning on board Symphony, we woke to a steady rain, had coffee, said goodbye to Fernando, who insisted on walking us off the ship and proceeded to a tent to collect our luggage. There is no terminal in Copenhagen at the “old port” where we were docked, so the whole leaving was a bit chaotic …and the rain exacerbated things to the nth degree…to say the least.
Timmy took these photos as we waited in line, in a leaking tent, for 40 minutes for a taxi. I have no clue why I didn’t arrange for a car service to take us to the airport. No freaking clue.
…anyway we finally made it to the front of the line and made our way through rain soaked streets to the airport.
Our first time in Copenhagen airport…very interesting …the entire airport felt like a gigantic shopping mall…few places to eat, many places to shop. Very, very, very poor signage.
We wandered around for about 15 minutes looking for the Iceland Air lounge. Turns out they share the SAS lounge. The lounge is basic with comfortable seating. We saw several folks from Symphony waiting, including our friend Frank.
Around noontime I grabbed some pasta and beets. Very tasty. And the cappuccino machine produced a quality product.
At 2:00 pm we departed on time…by then the skies had cleared.
I have a love hate relationship with Iceland Air…here’s the love part…Champagne and yummy snacks when you board.
The flight was uneventful, I watched a movie, ate a few bites of the meal…
…and before you could say “Puffin” we were on the ground in Reykjavik.
The airport Duty Free grocery store is very popular because everything in Iceland is quite expensive.
We anticipated cooler temperatures, but were not expecting a “feels like” temp of 38 degrees…honestly…it felt more like 28. And oh that wind, though.
We’ve been to Reykjavik several times, and so whenever I see this house, I know we are close to the city.
When we booked this cruise last December, we decided to spend three nights at the Retreat Hotel at the Blue Lagoon at the end of the cruise. We booked our flight home with Iceland Air because they have a program where passengers can have a stop over in Reykjavik for up to seven days. This is a total win/win…it breaks up the long flight home from Europe…and the cost for Business Class seats when we booked was 30% less than Delta. At some point in January we became aware of a new volcanic eruption near the Blue Lagoon. The eruption subsided, then it flared up again in March and again in May…with each new eruption the Blue Lagoon was evacuated and closed for several days. In May we decided to cancel our Blue Lagoon hotel reservation and booked the Edition Hotel. The volcano lay dormant all summer, but the expectation, based on seismic activity was that a new eruption was imminent.
Our room was lovely, super high ceilings and floor to ceiling windows over looking the harbor and Harpa concert hall.
In addition to the espresso machine we had a tea kettle with a great selection of teas.
We unpacked and rested in the room and were happy to note the improving weather.
We had reservations at one of the hotel’s restaurants: Tides. Dinner was really yummy. We shared this appetizer…1000 day aged Feykir cheese salad…endives, pickled pears and walnut dressing.
The bread was amazing…like a popover…with olive oil and thyme inside.
North Atlantic lobster and homemade ravioli
Grilled Chicken
Some sort of delightful berry concoction
The lobby bar looked so cozy, but we were exhausted so headed to our room…
…just in time to catch the setting sun reflecting on Harpa.
Although our day began with a bit of chaos, our flight was smooth and we had a great dinner. Thanks for following along 💙
