{"id":2340,"date":"2024-01-18T15:41:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T20:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=2340"},"modified":"2024-01-20T10:45:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T15:45:42","slug":"leaving-for-scotland-via-iceland-jan-17-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/?p=2340","title":{"rendered":"Leaving for Scotland via Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"

There have been a number of unexpected events surrounding the planning of this trip.\u00a0 Volcanos: \u201cno big deal\u201d was the word from IcelandAir. \u00a0737 Max 9 groundings: only listed for the return trip, so worry about that later.\u00a0 And the airline recently changed our departure airport from BWI to Dulles.<\/p>\n

Then had our own snowy weather coupled with the usual traffic backups on I-95, so we decided to leave plenty of time for unexpected events.\u00a0 And, it\u2019s a good thing we did.<\/p>\n

Paul was going to move the car to the top of the driveway, but came back in saying the battery was dead and he needed the battery jump starter.\u00a0 That did the trick, so with the car still running, he set out to get a new battery. Last thing we wanted to worry about was a dead battery when we returned to long-term parking from our trip.<\/p>\n

We were about to leave the driveway when the female mail person appeared down our icy hill and became very stuck on her way back up.\u00a0 Paul spent some time trying to get her unstuck, with a few nearly-made-its and lots of dirty slush to go around, but no success. At this point, the neighbors were helping as well. Knowing there were more capable hands on the task, we felt okay leaving her in the ditch (which sounds bad, doesn\u2019t it?)<\/p>\n

Finally on the road, we were making good time until we got nearer our destination and encountered the dreaded \u201cthere is a backup on your route caused by an accident\u201d. With only a few more miles to go, our traffic slowed to a crawl for at least 30 mins. \u00a0We finally boarded the plane and settled in for the overnight flight with a one-hour layover in Iceland.<\/p>\n

While we were in the air (but before Iceland), Paul was<\/u> planning<\/u> to add a concluding comment for our travel:<\/p>\n

Despite whatever challenges are presented en route, none of it can diminish one of the great thrills of modern travel: going to sleep in mid-air and waking up to another country on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.<\/p>\n

But the trip wasn\u2019t over yet!<\/p>\n

Our plane arrived a half hour ahead of schedule to \u201cwinter weather conditions\u201d at the Reykjavik airport.\u00a0 No terminal gate for us.\u00a0 We deplaned on the tarmac and were bussed in.\u00a0 All this took a good bit of time, with just enough left to pick up a yogurt and head to the connecting flight to Glasgow.\u00a0 Again, back on a bus and out to a tarmac boarding area.\u00a0 Once everyone was on board, the takeoff delays started, waiting for de-icing.\u00a0 First, one hour delay.\u00a0 Then, a second hour. \u00a0Finally, we took off 3.5 hours late. \u00a0(In case you\u2019re wondering, there are tarmac delay rules that airlines should follow. For domestic flights, it\u2019s a 3 hour limit, but international it\u2019s 4 hours, so someone was watching the clock to get the plane out in that time.) And, then let\u2019s not forget the pair of crying babies.\u00a0 You knew they would be all in on this long delay, right?<\/p>\n

I asked Paul if he wanted to re-do his earlier words of travel optimism and he said, \u201cit\u2019s still worth it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here are a few photos from the airport. \u00a0We\u2019ll check back on Iceland on our way home.<\/p>\n

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There have been a number of unexpected events surrounding the planning of this trip.\u00a0 Volcanos: \u201cno big deal\u201d was the word from IcelandAir. \u00a0737 Max 9 groundings: only listed for the return trip, so worry about that later.\u00a0 And the airline recently changed our departure airport from BWI to Dulles. Then had our own snowy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":2344,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[240,227,226],"tags":[54],"class_list":["post-2340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-240","category-iceland2024","category-scotland2024","tag-airport","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2340"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2362,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340\/revisions\/2362"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2344"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/debbiewebbie.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}