jpalbny

Still waiting for them in Iceland! Conditions look great...

Greetings from Iceland Air. We're on a daytime flight from Logan to Keflavik. Less than 1h30 until arrival. We grabbed a rental from ALB last evening after work and got going bright and early this morning. The Mass Pike was a mess of construction but traffic was flowing smoothly until Framingham. Then it took another hour to go the last 20 miles. We were still early and got to the BA lounge by 10:30. Had a nice hour plus there before going to the gate on time, where it was a long wait until boarding. But we paid attention and were the first two on the plane. Despite the late boarding we pushed back only 7 minutes late and we are still on track for an early arrival. Loving the gin menu on board. That's a big reason why we did a daytime flight! So far I've tried Lundey gin which changes colors from blue to pink when you pour the tonic in, and Himbrini Old Tom which was thick and flavorful. Round 3 if I can stay awake long enough... The food was good too. We both had a duck salad for our entrée which was very generous, with huge chunks of thigh and leg meat. Yum! The lamb carpaccio was great too (IMO) but Chris said no way. The seat belt light just came on, as we are flying over the southern tip of Greenland. We are a little too far south to see the coast. More to follow. Hoping for an Aurora sighting. The solar storm looks strong and maybe the weather will cooperate? 🤞

Wednesday night. Officially on vacation! We picked up the rental clunker from Albany Airport tonight after work. When you're flying out of Boston but returning to JFK, it's what you need to do. Originally, we were flying RT out of JFK. But Iceland Air stopped flying the daytime route out of Kennedy a few months ago, so we needed to change to Boston if we wanted to keep that daytime flight. Our return flights on AF to JFK were already set and we didn't want to change them. Bags are fully packed. The Silversea parkas are out. The cats are moping around because they have seen the suitcases and they know the routine. Tonight I brought out the automatic feeder. That didn't help their mood either. Our cat sitter is fantastic so I know they will be in great hands. We're hoping to get on the road by 7AM at the latest. Traffic around Logan can be a disaster. Once in 2016 we came very close to missing our flight to Madagascar but hopefully that was a one-off because there was a Sox playoff game in town that night. None scheduled for tomorrow morning at 9AM, I'm sure. But rush hour around Boston still gives me the shivers. I'll probably be up at 3AM, ready to go. Looking forward to updating you from Reykjavik! Good night for now.

Have fun! As the others have said, it's surprisingly not difficult. And once you do it a few times it becomes a walk in the park. Chris had a Mazda 3-series back in the 90s when we were in school. It was a great car and we had lots of fun "zoom zoom" -ing all over the place in it. Lots of fun road trips! Do you still have a Miata, or is your CC name based on a former car?

Thanks! We were just bummed that we couldn't walk to the port (if it were in the Old Harbor). For our last cruise out of Reykjavik in 2019, we stayed at the Konsulat and walked to the ship for embarkation. We'll have the hotel arrange a cab this time. Sounds like you're on the cruise after ours - we are back on board from December 11-20 for the Baltic Christmas Markets (and culinary) cruise. Your cruise looks great! We visited some of those stops last year on Silversea and they were great out-of-the-way stops with interesting things to do. They will be different in winter, for sure! Time to finalize our packing tonight then only two more sleeps!

You missed it by a day! Short ribs with chimichurri, but still tasty.

I wish I had a good answer, but our shared language is quite confusing. It's called Football, just like you can drive your car on a Parkway but you park it in the driveway...

Prologue We spent some time this weekend packing, in preparation for our Ocean Voyage in the mid-Northern Latitudes. We've wanted to try this beautiful ship ever since its launch and now we're less than a week from boarding! I have been eagerly following along on another site, as this amazing vessel traverses the Arctic Ocean back and forth, from Nome, to Svalbard, and now back to Reykjavik. The Aurora and Polar Bear pictures are nothing short of spectacular and I am a bit envious that we're "only" on board for a short Ocean Voyage. I don't think we will be as lucky during our trip but one can always hope. We are picking up a one-way rental car from Albany Airport on Wednesday after work, then driving to Logan on Thursday morning. We have a daytime flight on Iceland Air which leaves at 12:30 and gets into Keflavik just before 10PM. I'm excited about the daytime flight which seems quite rare. Most of Iceland Air's flights are overnight, but the short duration of the flight from the East Coast makes for a less pleasant red-eye experience. We already bought tickets to catch the FlyBus to our hotel (Reykjavik Edition), where hopefully we will find something to eat, and get some winks shortly thereafter. On Friday we have a full-day ice caving tour so we have to be ready to be picked up at the painfully early hour of 8AM! After a full day of touring we'll have a nice dinner back at our hotel restaurant, which was recommended to us by an article that Google presented us, shortly after the computer overlords learned that we'd be in Reykjavik. The targeted ads are getting scary good! All kidding aside the place does look very nice. On Saturday morning we'll eagerly await our friends' arrival before the four of us board in the early afternoon. Unfortunately the ship is scheduled to dock at Skarfabakki Harbor, instead of the Old Harbor right next door to our hotel, so we'll have to get a shuttle or something. We should be able to go carry-on but we'll finalize our packing scheme tonight or tomorrow. Hopefully nothing too formal but I did bring a blazer and a tie just in case. Lots of warm clothing, and some warm Silversea parkas since we don't get Ponant parkas for this trip. We will add those parkas to our collection in December when we're back on Le CC out of Helsinki. I'll try to post some food pictures and stateroom pictures from the ship, as well as our time in Iceland and in Tromso pre- and post-cruise. We splurged a little for a Privilege suite on deck 8 which looks like a very nice place to spend a few sea days. Until then, I'll be following the ship through the Arctic as it draws closer to Reykjavik to meet us.

It sure is expensive there. About the only place worse than Iceland, for prices, is Norway. Talk about "out of the frying pan and into the fire"! I'm curious too, about how the negotiations will play out. Interesting times!

It does look nice! We usually stay a little to the west of there, either in Covent Garden or further out in Westminster. Looking at the map though there are two interesting places right near that hotel. Sir John Soane's museum is small but worth a look. And the Hunterian Museum is really interesting (to us) because there are all sorts of medical artifacts there. Though it may not be your thing. London is one of our favorite cities. We have spent hours wandering the Embankment, especially on the Southwark side. And the food is great too. And the markets. So many choices!

Yes - they had a status match program going on a while ago. Not sure it still exists but if you were VS 100+ days they matched you to their second-highest tier (Grand Admiral) which includes free laundry and some other nice perks like OBC and a decent discount on cruise fares. https://us.ponant.com/benefit-from-the-status-match

Welcome back, and I agree with Lois - great to see you! We started back up with the cruises in late 2021 and have not stopped.

They're going to need some bigger shovels...

I vaguely remember some of those...

It's time for us to slow down. We're both running ragged and we don't need to. Time to enjoy it while we can. We didn't leave any time for the spa, but we did make a reservation for the tasting menu. I guess that gives away our priorities...lol. Ron, that could happen at some point. I will definitely miss the teaching. My pulmonary fellows are saying that they will miss me, at least for the moment... And I'm a little younger than you were, at what may be my first retirement. Locums is tempting. Will see how I feel next year, and whether any part-time opportunities materialize. Thanks DW. We will have to use some of our free time to come visit! On occasion, Iceland Air uses lie-flat 767s which make a world of difference! No such luck on our route. But it's scheduled for 5h15 which probably means 4h30 in the air. Agree, their food isn't great but we'll have lounge options at Logan, and a few hours of dieting won't hurt us. From what I remember, the G&T "tasting" is like you described it. A number of options, and choose what you want to try. We are ready!

Hi Coolers, less than a week until we fly to Reykjavik for our next cruise! We fly out Thursday at noon, from Boston, and get in around 10PM. I'm excited about this daytime flight. Iceland Air Saga Class isn't great for sleeping, and the flights are super short so a red-eye is really unpleasant. We've done that too many times, and it's hard to get more than 2h or sleep. So the day flight is perfect. I hope they are still doing their G&T tasting menu in Saga Class! On Friday we have an all-day tour lined up for an ice cave, and then a late dinner at our hotel. We're staying at the Reykjavik Edition, which supposedly has a great restaurant. Then we board on Saturday. Too bad the ship isn't in the Old Harbor, where we could just walk, but it will be OK. This cruise will be an ocean voyage on Ponant's Le Commandant Charcot, from Reykjavik to Tromso. We're using it as a test voyage to see if we can handle a bunch of sea days in a row. Think of it as a mini-Transatlantic, only 5 days in length. We are looking forward to a few days of doing as little as possible. Our friends from Toronto are joining us and we will have fun catching up, and spending our OBC on the premium wine list, no doubt! Then we have a few days in Tromso together, where we'll do a dogsledding and Northern Lights tour one day and hang out in town the rest of the time. When we come home we'll have only six more weeks of full-time employment. Time will tell if we go part-time after that, or retire completely, but negotiations are ongoing.

I saw that - Silversea sent out an email about it last night! Pretty impressive that they plan to have it ready for the next Antarctic cruising season.

Oh darn - Google translate says "nitpickers" as well. With a secondary definition of "pedantic persons" added. But I think I understand the literal translation because I know what the second word is... One of my professors told me that they used to call old people "Alte Ka**ers" in Yiddish and being a five-year-old boy at heart, I tend to remember such references!

Sorry Les, I combined two different thoughts in consecutive sentences. It made sense to me, I promise! First, the taxis were easy to find upon disembarkation at Harbourfront. They were waiting when we exited the building. Since there would have been a change or two to get to the hotel we just took a taxi. We did NOT dock at Marina Bay as we were on a small Ponant ship at the time. When we left Singapore and flew home, we did take the Metro to Changi. Green line direct, right by our hotel, easy. Just had to make sure to be in the front half of the train because the back half split off part way through the route (intentionally!) to go somewhere else while the front half continued to the airport. I also like researching these options, and we travel light enough to use public transport almost everywhere.

They've even heard of the film in an isolated village in Indonesia. From our March 2023 cruise: This cutie was taking our picture for her IG account. But look at her top! Badas, Indonesia

Speaking of odd flavor combos, I made a recipe with shrimp and a chocolate based sauce last year. It was really good!

Autocorrect is quite pesky at times. I'd love to explore more of Morocco! I hope you get out into the mountains from Fez; that part looks beautiful.

For sure; we travel carry-on which allows us to take the Metro or other public transport to/from the airport in many cities. Forgot to mention that when we took the green line to Changi, we had to be careful to be seated in the front half of the train because it split before getting there and the front half went to the airport while the back half went to a different station. Good thing we knew that in advance! Thanks for the tip on reloading our cards. We have ours from the last trip, as we got back to the airport too late to return them. So if they are still good for the next trip we can hopefully reload them with the leftover S$ we also have from that trip.

The taxis were easy to find when we were there last March. We took the metro to Changi airport, as it was just across the street from our hotel and no changes were involved.

The hamburger, especially.