Wednesday 17th
From Hampstead to Reykjavik
We left home about 9am with camo bag weighing nearly 18kg, and two others with 12kg each. Took underground to Heathrow T2, where we settled for a coffee in the Aer Lingus lounge.
A strange observation, going through the exclusive “fast track” security, was the incompetence of the travellers, who had many bags, not sorted, too many liquids and general slowness and incompetence. Give me the Stansted lot any day!
The Iceland airplane was a Boeing 757-200, and we were in the very comfy front bit! Snacks included Draumur (Dreamer) chocolate, with liquorice in the centre! Delicious!
Occasion to don warm jackets exiting the ‘plane on the cold, rainy runway of Keflavik airport. The airport is unrecognisable since I last visited – 32 years ago. Now it is huge, with many gates and throngs and queues to negotiate before making it to the carousels, to pick up our luggage.
We were met, landside, by Hurtigruten staff, giving us cabin number labels to attach to luggage, for Hurtigruten to later carry directly to our cabin. A coach took us on the 40’ish minute drive from Keflavik to the Foss Hotel in Reykjavik where we were to be vetted for Covid. Again, central Reykjavik was unrecognisable – many glass office buildings, shops, fast food places and high rise hotels. A pity – it seems the charm has been overtaken by modern life.
It was nerve-racking waiting for our Covid test result – but time flew by with filling in various health forms that had to be submitted and checked. A text arrived:- Negative! Phew! A short coach journey to the ship, where we were bundled into a car lift on the side of the ship to get to deck 2. Here we had to submit our luggage to an X-ray – we suspect to check we weren’t carrying any booze with us!
We had our ‘non-EU’ passports stamped, and we were fitted out with our shiny new red Hurtigruten Arctic jackets. It was getting late at this time, so we left our luggage in our cabin and repaired to Restaurant Aune for a buffet dinner, accompanied by a couple of pleasing glasses of house wine.
Concluding dinner, we were directed to the obligatory passenger safety briefing, held in the Explorer Lounge. Safety instructions were meted out in English, German and French, with instructions and a demonstration how to don emergency covering if we had to abandon ship. Then the bridge sounded the emergency alarm (seven short and one long signals), and we had to troop out to the lifeboat deck and physically view the lifeboats (two lifeboats with 150 people each, and four inflatable boats for a maximum of 160 each).
Then to today’s most daunting task – unpacking and stowing our luggage. MS Fram had earlier this year been extensively refurbished, and our cabin had benefitted with replacing the standard two single bunks on each side with a sumptuous double bed, orientated at 90 degrees to normal, with a lovely view out of the large window. However, with the new bed it was a definite squeeze to get round it, and even the maximised stowage space was quite limited. This in view of a long journey of 19 days comprising plenty of arctic clothing and layers.
Having found some sense of organisation, we were exhausted and concluded unpacking. We decided to explore the now seemingly deserted ship, with the primary purpose of finding where somebody could serve us a glass of bubbly – something we promised ourselves when we passed our moment of great danger – the Covid test.
All passengers having done the safety briefing, the ship quietly departed Reykjavik just after 9pm.
Look good so far. Have a save trip and we’ll follow you … by internet 😉