Time to begin…

Tuesday, August 26

5:00 PM Central:  We made it to the Humphrey Terminal 2 at Minneapolis/St. Paul international with about 3 hours to spare. (Aside- A big thanks to the in-laws for being fantastic airport-shuttlers and dog-sitters for 11 days!)  I had actually never been to this terminal before- all of my previous flights were through Lindbergh Terminal 1 (as most mainline flights/airlines are at MSP). However, this time we were flying Icelandair to Reykjavik. The flight was to leave at 7:30.

At MSP (and later Paris-CDG), there were no Icelandair reps at the airport. Instead, the check-in duties at MSP were handled by Sun Country Airlines reps- who seriously could not have been more helpful or pleasant. We checked two bags, and with boarding passes and passports in hand, we headed towards security.

The whole check-in and security process took less than 30 minutes, so we had a lot of time to kill before take-off. Terminal 2 does not have many restaurants, but it does have some good ones. We chose to eat at Barrio, where I had my last (or so I thought) American-style Pale Ale for the next week and a half. Before we knew it, it was time to board.

7:30 pm Central: The flight left on time, and we were on our way to the meeting place of the North American and European tectonic plates. We were slightly worried about the imminent Bardarbunga volcano eruption, but our fears turned out to be nothing (even when the volcano erupted a few days later, the result was all lava and no ash).

Some fun facts about Icelandair:

1. All the in-flight messages were in both Icelandic and English (at least for Iceland-US flights)
2. All the planes are named after geographic terrain features. (Our planes were volcanoes, but I think they have waterfalls, too)
3. You get a very cool little bottle of Icelandic spring water upon boarding the plane

I had wanted to sleep on the flight to better acclimate myself to the time change, but that barely happened. As we skirted Hudson Bay and headed toward Greenland, one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen appeared- the Northern Lights! I wish I could have taken a decent picture, but the light glare of the plane cabin made that impossible. The lights were anywhere from a disorganized faint glow to a vivid, bright shape. They ranged from a greenish-blue color to a very bright yellow-green.  It was amazing to see how the lights “morphed” into different shapes. The Lights lasted until I could see the dawn on the horizon towards the northeast. I fell asleep for about an hour after that. (Megan didn’t sleep at all, but she watched movies the whole time).

I woke up when we started the descent into Reykjavik. We touched down onto a drizzly tarmac and taxied to our gate at Keflavik International Airport where we quickly disembarked and went through customs to enter the Schengen Area (a European border control zone).

7 am GMT:  At this point, the time for us felt like 2 in the morning, so it was hard to keep going. However, we had a 9 hour layover and plans for making the most of it. So, we would just have to power through and stay awake for most of the day- at least until our flight to Paris which left at 4:15 pm.

We wandered around like zombies through the terminal and found a place to sit in the main shop/restaurant area. Megan was not feeling well from the flight, so we stopped to get a Sprite- which sort of helped. Our next engagement was not until 8:30, so we still had some time to kill. We checked out the duty free shops in the airport, but didn’t buy anything. Though few in number, the shops do have some pretty neat authentic Iceland stuff. We figured that since we will take a for-real-actual trip to Iceland in the future, we would just get our Icelandic souvenirs then.

At 8, we exited the secure area of the terminal and went in search of our bus transfer to the Blue Lagoon. Yes, the Blue Lagoon would be our diversion for the 9-hour Icelandic layover. (This was actually planned because there was an available flight to Paris much earlier in the day for not much more cost. However, we really wanted to get a little taste of Iceland while we were there.)  Prior to our trip, we had purchased bus passes to the Blue Lagoon online through Reykjavik Excursions. They were about 30$ per person for round-trip transfers to the Blue Lagoon and back to the airport.

We found the Reykjavik Excursions desk and traded our email confirmation printout for two bus passes. We were told to take the first bus that said “Blue Lagoon.”  This was the slightly confusing part. There was a bus outside with a sign in the window that we couldn’t read due to the distance, but this bus was not painted with any branding of “Reykjavik Excursions”.  However, there was a group of people stowing luggage/boarding the bus. So, we ventured out into the swirling wind and 45 degree temps to see what the deal was. It turned out that this was indeed our bus- despite the camouflage. So, we quickly got on board and only waited a few minutes until the bus passes were checked and the wheels started rolling.

The bus trip lasted about 20 minutes or so. I had read that the area we would be travelling through was considered to be the “moonscape” area of Iceland- so I was not expecting much in the way of scenery. However, I was completely surprised to discover that the countryside in this little piece of Iceland was indeed very beautiful. The road cut a fine ribbon through what seemed to be impassible, porous stone formations topped by a bright green moss/lichen. This stone/moss geography stretched out as far as I could see with a backdrop of grey, rocky crags looming in the far distance. Seemingly out of nowhere, the Blue Lagoon appeared. At first, we just saw a very modern looking building complex, but soon after, we caught our first glimpse of the milky-blue water. At first look, it was hard to believe that “safe” water could be that color.

At around 8:50 am, we arrived at the bus stop for the Blue Lagoon. At the bus stop was a shelter with luggage storage for large bags. Since we had nothing but our carry-ons, we started down the stone path through the stone/moss to the actual entrance to the Lagoon. It was a bit chilly, and very windy, but the path was no longer that 200 meters at most. We took a few pictures outside of the Lagoon, and then entered the building to find that we were among the first people there.

The facilities opened at 9, and we were only 4th in line to enter. We took out our printed confirmation tickets (we had pre-purchased our “Comfort-level” entry passes through Blue Lagoon’s website), and we were given wristbands, towels, and bathrobes. We went to the changing rooms to change into bathing suits that we brought along in our carry-ons. It might be good to note here that the wristbands are basically your ticket to do everything at the Blue Lagoon. In this case, they were used to operate the small lockers- which were easily big enough to fit a person’s carry-on bag. After a bit of confusion with me not being intelligent enough to realize that the way to the lagoon was through the changing rooms and not through the way we came in, we made it out into the cold for our first look at the Lagoon itself.

Our first thoughts were, “Wow, this place is huge!” and then immediately thereafter, “It is freezing out here!”. We headed straight for the water. It was a mild adventure to try to navigate the steps into the water because the visibility is pretty much zero. Once we were in the water, we realized that this was an excellent choice. The strain of the red-eye flight seemed to immediately evaporate. The water was a perfectly warm temperature on average. There were a few cooler spots (that were never “cool”), and a few warmer spots, but nowhere were we uncomfortable at all. The depth of the water was about three to four feet at any given point.  We walked around the entirety of the Lagoon, and inspected the beautiful green mountain backdrop without the steam to block the view. We found buckets of the Lagoon’s signature silica sand and put it on our faces. After 10 minutes or so, the sand had worked its magic, and left our faces incredibly soft (which lasted basically the entirety of the trip. Unfortunately, a side effect of the Lagoon’s water also plagued Megan for the rest of the trip- it kind of destroyed her hair. I would recommend either wearing a bathcap or putting a ton of conditioner in your hair before going in the Lagoon.

Ok hair advice topic closed. We then took a break to get our one free drink as a part of our package. Megan got a coffee of some kind, and I of course had a beer. Specifically an Eglis Gull beer, which was not very different from a Landshark Lager- so meh. It was actually pretty refreshing, though. We drank and people-watched from indoor pool chairs with a view over the Lagoon.

We went back outside and waded over to the swim-up bar where we procured our last perk- the algae face scrub. This was exactly like it sounds- a face scrub with proprietary Blue Lagoon algae that turns your face an absinthe-green (more on that in another post!). Since we looked awesome with green faces, we had our photo taken by Una (who was awesome and was pretty much a dead ringer for Ygritte from Game of Thrones). She had the pictures sent to Megan’s email address (This is all done by Blue Lagoon staff- and is free). We talked to Una for a while about Iceland’s fjords and puffins, and we promised her that we would return to Iceland for a legitimate tour of the country.

By this time, it was almost noon. We had planned to leave the lagoon at either noon-thirty or one thirty, so we changed and turned in our wristbands. We got on the bus and went back to the airport. We had to go through security again, but since only 3 people were in the entire line, it did not take very long. At this point, we were starving, so we grabbed some hot food from a restaurant in the terminal. The fries we had were surprisingly delicious. The biggest surprise was finding bottles of Iceland craft beer readily available. I had an Einstok Icelandic Pale Ale- which was very nice and nearly identical in taste to any decent American Pale Ale. This would be my last American-style beer of the trip, but by no means my last beer. There was more variety than just wine awaiting me on the mainland.

We milled around the terminal for a few hours and then made our way to the gate to board the flight to Paris-CDG- which left on time at 4:15pm. The flight lasted about three hours, and I managed to sleep for about 1 of them. When we touched down in Paris, it was about 9:30 in the evening there (Central European Time). For reference, that is 7:30pm in Iceland and 2:30 pm in Minneapolis…Everything was a bit wonky.

It took a little while to get our checked bags, but within a half-hour or so, they both appeared.  At this point, I will admit that I was jet-lagged and a bit too tired for my own good. We had thought about taking the “Roissybus” from the airport to the Opera Garnier and then walking to the hotel from there to save some money, but we thought it may be best to give in and go for a taxi since it would be safer and faster.  We waited in the taxi line for about 10 minutes for our turn. It was here that I spoke my first french of the trip as I conversed with the taxi attendant and later the taxi cab driver himself. I don’t know why, but I was paranoid that I was going to get ripped off, so I asked the driver what he anticipated the fare to be. I was told around 45 euros. That sounded great to me (I had expected 55 or 60), so we hopped in and were on our way to the hotel.

The taxi ride was quite pleasant with classical music being the choice of the driver. We drove along the main artery that went through some of the “bad” parts of town to get to the inner city, but we were fascinated and star-struck by even the mundane sights along the way. Our first glimpse of the lit-up Sacre-Coeur to our left was our first “real” Parisian sight- and one that will stay long in my memory. We got off the main road and drove south along the Rue de Rome. From my pre-trip map studies, I knew we were getting close to our hotel. Driving parallel to the train tracks that led to Gare Saint-Lazare and surrounded by a whirlwind of lights, signs, and people out enjoying their Wednesday night, I was a bit overwhelmed but enthralled. We turned off onto the Rue de Vienne and quickly arrived at the corner of Rue de Vienne and Rue de Stockholm. Just a few feet down the Rue de Stockholm, we saw the welcoming entrance of our home for the next 10 evenings- The Hotel Wilson Opera.

It turned out that our cab driver was a wizard of some kind, because the fare came out to 45.6 euros. We just left him a 50 euro bill for the sake of ease- and for the good guess.(Note about tipping:  I had read everywhere that tipping is not expected, but appreciated. We tipped in most situations that we could if we felt as if the service warranted it- which 90 percent of the time it did!) With luggage in hand, we walked in the door to check in. As was the case for most of the trip with my awful French, our conversation with the hotel attendant lasted only a few sentences in French. (Nearly every person I encountered on the trip would ask me very politely- and with no condescension- if I would prefer to speak in English. It was very much appreciated).

This was the first in a serious of countless conversations over the next 10 days with (I think) every employee of the Hotel WO- as it is also called. I have to say that I was incredibly impressed with the geniality and professionalism of the entire staff. They were a major reason that the hotel felt so “home-like” when we returned each day.  Another reason was that the accommodations were superb.

We had originally booked the smallest sized room in the hotel, but when we arrived, we found out that we had been given a complementary upgrade to a larger room! We had read that all rooms in Paris were extremely small, so we were expecting a broom closet. Well, that was not the case at all. The room was huge compared to my expectations. There was plenty of room for our bags- and then some. The room was very tastefully decorated, spotlessly clean, and had a very nice, modern bathroom (with a “real” shower and not a handheld one!) We were situated on the “premier etage” which of course equates to the second floor in North American buildings. The room had a large window/mini balcony that overlooked the corner where we arrived- Rue de Vienne and Rue de Stockholm. To be cliche, it could not have been more perfect. We were incredibly tired, but ecstatic over our great find of a hotel. We had just enough energy remaining to unpack and get settled in. At midnight, we finally, finally went to sleep after being awake (mostly) for the past 35 hours or so.

I’m fairly certain that I fell into a deep sleep as soon as I closed my eyes, but 7am was fast approaching.