ACROSS THE ATLANTIC AND BACK TO LONDON AND REYKJAVIK

My trip back to London was rather long as it involved three flights! Dear Louise, my new Quebec friend, even made me a lovely lunch bag to take with me. I flew from Quebec to Montreal and then on to Toronto where I had quite a long wait. The airport is huge and very interesting so I moved around and eventually got to the departure lounge where I found banks and banks of free iPads for travelers! What a good idea! The plane finally left at 7.30 pm for the seven-hour flight to London – which meant I arrived at UK 6.30 am, but my body clock 2.30am as UK is four hours ahead!

My first thought on arriving at Heathrow was – WOW! I’VE MADE IT – RIGHT AROUND THE WORLD! 56 flights and 45 beds ... so far! Not bad for a middle-aged lady with a purple wheelie case weighing 21Kgs (and some hand luggage) and carrying my worldly possessions around since June! Getting through passport control is super easy with a UK passport and soon, I was wheeling my luggage out and being met by my lovely friend, Jackie Tuson! She had braved the fog to come out from Woking so early in the morning. I taught with Jackie and her husband, Tony, at Woking High School in 2003 and they are also from Zimbabwe – so we get on really well! When I got to the Tusons’ house, it was time for bed and so I passed out until lunch-time! Then, there was lots of chatting and catching up! I was still battling with hay fever and nasal spray addiction – and so it was time to go cold turkey and just take anti-histamines! My health has been so good for my trip so this was not the end of the world, although obviously not too comfortable! And I was lucky to get into London, because the fog grounded many planes after my arrival.

I took it easy on Monday, slept late, watched TV and wandered around the local shops while Jackie and Tony were at school. On the next day, I made the long and crowded journey into London by train, tube and bus to go to the World Travel Market at the gigantic Excel Centre, very near the London City Airport. The long trip made me realise how lucky lots of us are to be able to just jump into our cars and drive ourselves to work. The journey there took well over two hours. My tour operator, Operation Europe, sponsored my entry and I am very grateful for that. When I finally got inside – wow! There were restaurants everywhere and huge halls with just about every country in the world displaying what it had to offer for tourists! It was exquisite; a traveller's paradise – and very busy! The displays were laid out in continents and I found myself spending most of my time in Europe! I went to see Tom Barrett who owns Operation Europe and we had a lovely long catch-up. I also found a lady from Kwa-Zulu Natal at the South Africa stand and felt quite at home! We ended up speaking more about Matric exams though! I attended two seminars – one on food destinations in travel and the other on women in travel – both interesting and informative. I know that my future lies in travel and I met many traders and got information on special tours and attractions. There are so many wonderful places to explore and there is so much more to see! 

On Wednesday, I spent some time at the Tusons' house and then my friend, Janice Schultz, who is a Zimbabwean who lived in East London where we met in 1983 and who now lives in Surrey, came to fetch me. We spent Thursday re-sorting and packing and left on the first of our two trips – to Reykjavik in Iceland! I only added this to my itinerary on the recommendation of Isabella, the German opera singer turned dentist, in Raratonga on the Cook Islands! Janice drove to Gatwick and we left her car in the car park and flew to Reykjavik at 7.30 pm. My seat was double-booked and so another man had it and I was moved to row one – very nice! I sat with a lady called Kate and her daughter, Rachel – Kate is a language teacher and a supply teacher from Leeds and she told me that she had had to take over at the school where a teacher was stabbed to death by one of the pupils about two years ago! The sad thing is that she wasn't even supposed to be at school on that day. We spent the whole three-hour trip talking – what’s new?!

Once we arrived in Reykjavik, the drama started! We had decided to hire a car and only found out that Icelanders drive on the right-hand side of the road on the day we left! My driver’s licence is in my safe in East London and so Janice was the driver! We arrived in the rain and were given a nice-looking Hyundai – which Janice couldn’t start! So I had to run back into the terminal in the rain to fetch the man from the car rental company. When he came out to us, he asked Janice whether or not she had pressed the clutch to start the car – obviously not! When she did, the car started! We had directions from Stella, our Airbnb host, and so we set off. There were very few lights on the road, lots of roadworks, we couldn’t find the wipers and Janice kept hugging the edge of the road on my side! I must add that she was very brave – I would have been abominable on the wrong side of the road. So my job was to scream from the passenger seat and keep Janice on the right (literally) side of the road!

We drove for well over 40 kilometres and followed our instructions with only a few wrong turns. By the time we arrived, it was 11.30 and dear Stella was there waiting for us. We stayed in the downstairs section of her apartment in a lovely warm flat, each with our own room. We were finally in bed by about 1am!

On Friday, we had a rough idea of where we wanted to go and so we followed the main road until we found an N1 – a sort of café next to the garage – and had breakfast. The Icelanders are all so friendly and helpful and we got good directions to go to the Golden Circle in the Pingvellir National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, for some sight-seeing. We soon found ourselves on the right road and stopped at our first place – a very pretty lake (called Pingvallavatn – Icelandic names are very difficult to pronounce!) with snow-capped mountains in the distance. We met a nice young English chap called Jamie who is working in Iceland. It was jolly cold and overcast, just as I had imagined Iceland to be. 

From the lake, we continued our drive to Geysir – where there are many types of geysers or hot springs. These were not the same as the bubbling mud ones I had seen in Rotorua with my friend, Penny Simpson. These ones were also very hot but water and steam was bubbling and spouting out of them. Iceland really is a land of fire and ice! We spent lots of time at a big geyser which boils up and shoots hot water up about fifteen metres high every five minutes or so. It is truly spectacular!

After some tasty lamb and vegetable soup and a visit to the museum which explained how volcanoes erupt and how glaciers are formed, we got back into the hired car. Janice was doing very well on the right-hand side and we made our next stop at the Gullfoss Waterfall – a really beautiful double waterfall. Then, I think we got too confident because we decided to get back into the city trying another route. We got very lost and ended up stopping for directions three times and missing the correct turnings twice! In the end, we had to phone Stella for directions and we still got lost – although we were so close to home! Poor Janice – we made it home eventually, had a rest and then walked to the shops close by for some snacks.

We decided to spend Saturday in town and thought it would be easier going by bus and giving the car a rest. We knew we had to find the bus station called Mjodd – which we pronounced “Mdgeodd”, but which is actually pronounced “myot” – short and nasal! We made the silly mistake of separating when I decided to run back for my borrowed wellies and Janice decided to keep walking. She found a tunnel and a subway and waited there for me – I ran on the grass next to the highway, found a bus at a bus stop and got a free ride to Mjodd to wait for her – not knowing she was in the subway expecting me there! To make it worse, my phone decided not to work in Iceland! A nice man at the bus station lent me his to phone Janice, but she didn’t hear hers ring! Eventually, Janice left the subway and asked her way to the bus station - I saw a red jacket in the distance – and we were happily reunited!

We had an interesting day in such a pretty city. First stop was a big, tasty breakfast in Café Paris – in Reykjavik! – fresh fruit, smoothies, eggs, bacon, pancakes and syrup – quite a pig-out and a very good de-stressor! We spent some time in the National Museum and learned something about Iceland – quite a mysterious country, ruled by Danes and Norwegians in the past and with an equally mysterious language. Some of the road names we had to deal with include: Seljaskogar, Seljabraut and Hafnarfjorder, which means place where the elves play in the lava! The Hallgrimskirkja was our next port of call. It is a very tall Baroque Lutheran church, designed to look like the basalt lava flows of Iceland and it is famous for its organ which has 5 725 pipes. It was very peaceful in there. We strolled around and popped into various places on our way down to the little harbour. After dinner, we found the bus stop and managed to get home unscathed and packed ready for a very early start the next day.

By 3.00 am we were on the road again – Janice only hit the pavement once or twice and we were actually glad to be on the road so early as there was very little traffic. We got to the airport and faced our next challenge – we had no idea where to leave the hired car! After some wrong turns and going up a one-way street the wrong way, we found a petrol station and filled up – and eventually we found the car park and we left the car there, both feeling very relieved. We had to walk quite far to the airport, but once we were there, all was fine and we checked in and boarded for our 6.45 flight back to Gatwick. There were two empty rows behind us and so, as soon as the seatbelt sign went off, we bolted and snoozed! 

It certainly was an adventure in Iceland and we were both glad that we went there and that we met all these challenges. We now have a very short rest, because we leave for Cairo, Egypt and a week-long cruise on the Nile on Tuesday night – and we are really looking forward to that! For me, it will be spectacular to be on a guided tour and not to be in charge! My suitcase is already packed with only summer clothes and it is time to be pampered!

Tony and Jackie Tuson - my Woking High School friends

The London fog descends

And it's still autumn in the northern hemisphere

World Travel Market in London

Dear Jackie lent me her boots, jacket and backpack for Iceland!

Ready and waiting for our flight

Talk about clashing colours - I just needed to be warm!

Janice waits patiently

Icelandic scenery

So nice to be on holiday with a special friend

Jamie and I with snowy mountains in the background

Quite barren mountains

This looks so Scandinavian

We thought this was a geyser from the distance - just factory smoke!

There are pretty, sturdy and friendly horses everywhere

The start of a geyser

Bubbling pool ready to explode....

I hope this video works - excuse the daft stage whisper
and the girl who popped up and down in front of my camera!

I found a troll!

Baby seal Christmas tree - what a novel idea!

Gullfoss Waterfalls

Janice concentrating on the road

I thought this was yoghurt - it turned out to be milk curd - but it tasted fine!

Now here's a good breakfast...

in the Cafe Paris!

Church on the square

Pretty ornamental cabbages

It was very cold - probably more so because of so much water

Reykjavik city 

This picture is made only of postage stamps

Early Icelandic drinking horns

Another pretty street

I'm sure I've seen this ventriloquist's dummy before somewhere - or is it a generic dummy?

There was a band playing in a bank? 

I found more trolls!

Another impossible street name!

Janice has a rest

Some private homes in the city

The iconic Hallgrimskirkja 

Organ pipes

Statue of Leif Erikson, the famous Icelandic explorer, in front of the church

It's only 2.00pm!

Here's the pretty harbour

Harbour shops and restaurants

A whole graffiti wall

What a nice Christmas feel this place has!

Janice has a good rest after all the stressful driving!

And we head for London...