Retirement Celebration: A Visit to the Land of Fire and Ice, Sheep Islands with a Helping of Auld Reekie.

Gufufoss Waterfall, Seyðisfjörður Village, Iceland

May 2020 was supposed to be the preretirement celebration trip for my husband who planned to retire in December 2020. Our visit to Iceland "the Land of Fire and Ice", the Faroes Islands "Sheep Islands" and Edinburgh "Auld Reekie" had been booked. Covid 19 (or specifically severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)) put the kibosh to travel plans as well as his planned retirement.

Fast-forward to April 2022 and we decide to book and plan his retirement celebration for September 2022 when he would be officially retiring. We were not overly concerned about Covid because we had been through 2 years of dealing with it successfully while travelling within Canada. Summer 2022 or rather; if luggage could talk, what stories would they tell arrived. Add in the reported long queues, flight delays and cancellations and it is safe to say I was seriously questioning our sanity to travel this September.

Funningsfjørður, Faroe Islands

We could not do carry-on only as we needed to pack for warm, cold, and wet weather plus camera gear. We planned to use laundry services and did. The surprise (due to my lack of research) was laundry services at hotels are not self-serve in Iceland but are for a moderate fee. Fees do vary between hotels. I learnt I can wear clothes for several days if required. My friends are having a good laugh at this.

It is now October, and we are back home. We travelled through 4 countries via 8 flights arriving early or within 20 minutes of the scheduled time along with our one medium-sized checked luggage. We did not fly through Toronto Pearson or Montreal Trudeau International Airports. We travelled through Halifax Stanfield International Airport which is always a good plan when travelling to Europe from Atlantic Canada. Most of our flights were early morning or midday flights which helped us avoid the travel chaos. 

In all my travels over the last 15 years, I have never passed through customs in Europe as fast as I did at Heathrow (all 4 times). Around 5-7 minutes each time; shocked and pleasantly surprised. The only queues we encountered were at Hertz Car rental in Keflavík International Airport (about 2.5 hours for 20-25 rentals) and for security clearance at Halifax Stanfield International Airport (about 1 hour).

The Great Hall, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland

Next up is the processing of photos and accompanying blogs about this amazing trip.

Blogs in my Iceland Series: (to be updated as completed)
https://sandrawhiteway.blogspot.com/2022/10/iceland-day-1-reykjanes-peninsula.html

https://sandrawhiteway.blogspot.com/2022/10/iceland-day-2-rettir-or-rather-sheep.html