Last Leg: Iceland and beyond

We left Venice, via train to Verona, then on to Munich. This was a beautiful day and beautiful ride through northern Italy, Brenner pass into Austria and Innsbruck then to Munich. We had a nice dining car, complete with tablecloths and enjoyed goulash soup.

You can really see the transition from the Italian countryside to the tidy Swiss type villages as you head north.

 Snow already has a good start on the Alps and soon we will be in cold temps. 

We spent 1 night in Munich, room 58, right next to room 57, which apparently was not a good room. In the morning, we managed to walk to the central plaza, Marienplatz, to see the big clock tower and hung around for the 11:00am "showing" of the clock, like a giant cuckoo clock. It runs for about 10-15 min and is pretty cool, knights jousting, men dancing, such an old clock

So, now on to Frankfurt, nothing new here, except we fly out on IcelandAir for our final days in Reykjavik.

Iceland, 10 years since we've been here and it has changed. Not the landscape or it's features, but the tourist at the sites. We drove our little Chevy Spark, room for 4 people and 1 suitcase, to the waterfalls that we first visited. They are still the same but in 2008, the government gave out lots of money to develop tourism. Now there are bus loads of people at the sites, eateries, hotels, shops. We practically had the whole place to ourselves years ago. The day was overcast, cold and snow in the distant. We weren't that prepared, clothes wise for the big change, so got outfitted with a scarf, sweatshirt and socks at a local general store. It would work for 2 days. The falls were still beautiful and the hills covered with snow. Also stopped by the geyser area , a mini Yellowstone. Strokkur, the geyser name is still going strong, spouting about every 2-3 min. FYI, the word geyser comes from the Icelandic language.

Woke up the last day with a skiff of snow on the ground and Shirley was not amused about the snow. This is departure day, not till late, so we went to the Blue Lagoon, giant, outdoor natural seawater hot spring. Same as last time, just very crowded and twice the price.  A swim up bar has been added, $10 for a glass of beer or wine! The prices in Iceland are still very high, but not as high as before. It cost us $48 USD for about 12 gals of gas, $60 for some beer and food at a nearby pub.

 Then to the airport.
That proved interesting. It appears the only place people deplane and board at the same gate is in the U.S. Here, most of the waiting is in a central area, no seats at the gate. First the flight was delayed 30 min, then we all stood in line for at least another 30 while they fixed an entertainment unit. And just like the Italian airports, no jetways were used and everyone when thru the gate, regardless of seat assignment. Pretty snarly on the plane finding your seat. Icelandair has joined the world airline business at cutting services. We did have pillows and blankets, no charge for the toilets, a little roomier seats, but no food for an 8 hour flight, unless you bought from their menu. They did have specials on wine and beer so we used up the last of our Krona or Euros. And had goodies in our bags, loaded up at the duty free store.

All in all it was a fun, interesting, relatively problem free trip. I think the highlight was Greece.  We were getting a little road weary and ready to come home. We've had our travel fix for a little while, not sure where to next.

Strokkur