Forget Iceland

More than a week ago I wrote an entry which detailed my misgivings about my planned stopover in Iceland this summer... a couple of days which, due to the flight schedule, would surely be exhausting.  Well, it looks as if a frantic, jet-lagged, sleepless stay in Iceland is not in my future.

Today a friend emailed me with some news that I had not heard.  Icelandair is cancelling their direct flights from Cleveland.  First I went to the airline's website, and it still showed that I was on the direct flight, but apparently the website has not yet been updated.  I did some Googling and found several articles from Cleveland news sources saying that, yes, indeed, Icelandair was no longer flying out of Cleveland.  The reason given was that a portion of their fleet, including the planes used on the Cleveland run, consists of the grounded Boeing 737 Max 8 planes.  It may have been, however, an excuse to cut an underperforming route.  

People who already have reservations will be rescheduled to connect with flights leaving from Boston... OR... refunds will be offered.   If that is the case, I am going to opt for the refund.  The main reason I included Iceland in my itinerary is because of the direct flight.  So, once I have official word, I will cancel my reservation and instead head straight (with a layover) to Switzerland on United or Swiss Airline.

Iceland is supposed to be beautiful, but that chilly, rainy, expensive country with hordes of tourists is sounding less and less appealing.  

Will Iceland Exhaust Me?

(image taken from the web)

My airline reservations on Icelandair have been made for my trip to Europe in August.  I will spend two nights in Reykjavik, Iceland, before continuing on to Switzerland, and I have reserved an Airbnb apartment.  Besides taking advantage of the new direct flights from Cleveland to Iceland, and having the opportunity to see a bit of a new country, I thought that one of the benefits of this itinerary would be to cut down on jet lag by dividing up the journey across the Atlantic.  Now, I am starting to think that I will arrive in Switzerland even more exhausted.

The flight from Cleveland leaves in the evening and arrives in Iceland's Keflavik Airport at 6:30 A.M. (2:30 A.M. Cleveland time).   I am one of those people who simply cannot sleep on an airplane.  I can fall asleep on a bus or a train or in a car, but never on a plane.  So I will arrive at my destination after a short, sleepless night.  The journey from the airport to the capital city of Reykjavik is a fifty minute bus ride (perhaps a chance for a nap, although I will more likely be too eager to observe the passing landscape to nod off).  I suppose that it will be about 8:00 A.M. when I arrive at Reykjavik's main bus station.  Check-in for my Airbnb apartment is not until 2:00 P.M.  I sent a message to the owner of the apartment, and she said that I could drop off my luggage at her place.  It is about a 20 minute walk from the bus station to the apartment.  Looking at Google Maps is appears to be a pleasant walk passing through one of the city's public parks.  I can handle that... IF it's not raining.  I could splurge and take an ultra-expensive taxi, but, according to my guide book, you have call to and reserve a taxi.  They are not lined up outside the bus station.  

So after I drop off my luggage with the owner, I then have about five hours to wander around Reykjavik until check-in, and hopefully it won't be RAINING.  After I have checked into my apartment, the temptation will be to take a nap.  However, my strategy for combatting jet-lag is to never give in to the desire to nap, but to force myself to get used to the new time zone.  I could do some more exploration of the city, or, if it is raining I could just stay inside and work on my blog.  By 9:00 P.M. (when it is still very much daylight outside) I will allow myself to succumb to the arms of Morpheus. 

My next day in Iceland I will book one of the popular "Golden Circle" tours which take in some of the sights of natural beauty on the island.  Those last between six and eight hours, so it will be a full day. (Fingers crossed that it is not raining.  If I seem obsessed with rain, it is because I suspect that the climate will be similar to the northern, maritime climate of Bergen, Norway.  On my visit to that city, sunshine was a very rare commodity.) 

In spite of the long hours of daylight, I will once again have to turn in early.  The next day, my flight to Zurich leaves at 7:30 A.M.  That means that I need to be at the airport at 5:30 A.M. … which means that I will have to take the 4:30 A.M. bus... which means that I will have to get up by 3:30 A.M.!

I will probably be a very weary traveler by the time I reach Zurich at I:00 in that afternoon!   

Europe is On

As I wrote in my last post, my plans for a trip to Europe this summer were up in the air.  My cousin Gail and her husband Wes had booked a tour of Switzerland, and I was supposed to meet them there at the end of their tour.  They were going to stay on for a few days so that I could introduce them to our Swiss relatives and show them our ancestral village.  Then they were notified that their tour had been cancelled.  However, they found a tour with another company which ends in Zurich at about the same time.  Yesterday they booked it, and it is confirmed that it will not be cancelled.  So our trip is back on!

Right away I emailed my Swiss cousin Brigitta who lives outside of Zurich in the town of Uster.  I told her that we would be coming to Switzerland after all.  She is looking forward to seeing me again, and happy to meet another American cousin.  I will be staying at her house, but Gail and Wes have reserved a hotel room even though Brigitta said that they are welcome to stay at her place.  I also emailed my cousin Werner (Brigitta's brother) who lives in Madrid, Spain.  I told him that we would be in Switzerland, and he said that he would plan to be there too.  Brigitta is going to organize a family get-together at her house, so Gail will most likely meet a whole bunch of distant relatives.  I am sure that our cousins will be taking us under their wings.  They have always made me feel so welcome and truly a member of the family.  Werner has already said that he wants to take us to our ancestral town of Othmarsingen where we can see the house were Gail's and my great grandparents grew up, and the 17th century church where our ancestors were baptized, married and buried.

Fortunately for Gail, Wes and me, most of the Swiss cousins speak fluent English.  However, I should go back to Duolingo and study my German.  I was doing pretty well, but then I got away from it.

Last night I started planning an itinerary for myself.  Even though Brigitta told me that I could stay at her place for as long as I want, I don't want to be an imposition.  Besides, she is a teacher, and the new school year starts on August 19th.  I will stay there for about one week, but obviously I am not going to fly all the way to Europe for such a short trip.  This is going to be a chance to visit some new countries.  My readers will have something other than Mexico to read about!

Last year, Icelandair began non-stop service from Cleveland to Iceland. They offer airfares to Europe that include a stayover in Iceland at no additional cost.  So, I am going to take advantage of our new flight from Cleveland.  I will fly to Iceland several days before I am supposed to meet Gail and Wes in Switzerland.  I will spend two nights in Reykjavik, and I will get to see a bit of Iceland.  From there I will get an Icelandair flight to Zurich. 

Hotel prices in Reykjavik are outrageous.  The one hotel that is relatively reasonable is already fully booked for those dates.  However, I found several Airbnb apartments that are available and which are under $100 per night.  This would be my first time using Airbnb outside of Mexico.

After I have spent time with my Swiss family, and after Gail and Wes have returned home to Ohio, I will go to Zurich and take a train to Vienna, Austria.  I have scheduled seven days in Vienna.  There appears to be plenty to see there to fill up an entire week.  I will also want to take a day's excursion down the Danube, and it is an easy day trip by train to go to Bratislava, Slovakia.  (Another new country!)  From Vienna I will go by train to Munich, Germany.  I have scheduled five days there.  That should give me plenty of time to see the city, and take a side-trip to see the famous castle of Mad King Ludwig.

Happily, hotel prices in Vienna and Munich are not as sky-high as they are in Reykjavik (or Zurich).  I've found well-located hotels that have very good reviews that are under $100 per night.  The one in Vienna is right across the street from the train station.  I will be able to walk to the hotel when I arrive there.

Munich is served by Icelandair, so I can fly back to Iceland, and from there directly to Cleveland.  I am a bit nervous because the layover in Iceland is only 50 minutes.  However it will not be necessary to go through customs there.  If I miss my flight... it's the end of the trip.  If I get home a day later, it's no big deal.

Tomorrow I am going to start making airline, hotel and train reservations!

Travel Plans - Definite and Tentative

I have only been back home for a few days, but I have already made my flight reservations to return to Mexico.  I will return in the middle of July.  Alejandro advised that I should wait until well after the Presidential election on July 1st.  Prior to the election, campaign rallies may be a disruption, and, depending on who wins, protest marches afterward may also be a problem.  This time I am abandoning my favorite airline, Interjet, and going back to United.  The United fare was so cheap that I could upgrade to the more comfortable "Economy Plus" seats for all four segments of the round trip journey, and still come out ahead.

I have written previously about my cousin Gail who lives about five minutes away from me.  We first made contact when by chance she read about my genealogical research here on this blog.  She and her husband are talking about taking a tour of Switzerland next summer.  At the end of their tour they want me to join them and introduce them to our Swiss cousins, and to visit our ancestral town.

I am seriously thinking of flying to Switzerland via Iceland. This month Icelandic Airlines is starting non-stop service from Cleveland to Reykjavik.  Travelers are welcome to spend some time in Iceland before continuing on to Europe at no additional cost in airfare.  I could spend a few nights in Reykjavik, do some sightseeing, and then fly on to Zurich.  After spending some time with my Swiss cousins, I could then take a train on to Austria and visit Salzburg and Vienna.  

I don't know if this will happen or not, but today I bought guidebooks for Iceland and Austria, and I have gone back to studying my German.