Day 13 and 14 - Alpe di Suisi to Venice to Geneva to Reykjavik to New York to Denver...

July 3
Days 13

We left the Airbnb just after 6am. The car was due back by noon, and they charged $64 an hour if you were late returning it. After the fiasco we had getting there, we weren't risking it. We had programmed the gps to get us back to the Venice airport.

In yet another shocking turn of events, the gps routed us on some super sketchy one lane road that was obviously not the right way to go. WTF with all the directions being off??

Anyway, we managed to find the autobahn, and we made the drive in just under 4 hours, speeding along at a glorious 130kmph most of the way. We had opted to return the car at the airport instead of where we rented it near the bus station.

We found the garage where we had to return it, but accidentally drove past the return area for Avis. In an incredibly frustrating turn of events, the floor where the returns were was only one way. Yet it wouldn't go full circle, one way. Which meant we would need to exit the garage and then come back up. Only you need a ticket to exit the garage because they also rent cars from the same location. BUT HOW DO YOU GET A TICKET IF YOU HAVE ALREADY DRIVEN PAST WHERE YOU NEED TO GO AND THE ONLY WAY OUT IS THROUGH THE EXIT WHICH IS ONE WAY. For the first time, I finally broke down and started crying. We had so many problems the last few days and this was apparently my breaking point.

Maureen walked across the building to talk to the Avis people, got us a card, then we had drive around and come back up. Returning the car took another half hour. Luckily we were not charged for anything additional (which reminds me, on our drive back to Venice a BIRD flew into the windshield - luckily it did not cause any damage).

We were all "over" our trip by now, and opted to spend our last few hours at the airport instead of lugging our bags around Venice.

Our flight to Geneva left right one time, and was short, only about an hour. On to the NEXT problem. The hotel we had booked was actually across the border in France, about 5 miles away. They were not going to be able to accommodate us checking out at 4 in the morning (plus we were concerned about border crossings), so we had to spend the night in the airport.

There was a Swiss Chalet where we spent about an hour having beer (or wine for Maureen) before we tried to find chairs where we could stay for the night. Maureen and I found a little shop that would give us alcohol to go, which we hoped would help us sleep.

Third glass is for... A?

Steps - 11,778
Miles - 0

July 4
Day 14

We (or at least "I") did NOT sleep. Our flight was supposed to start boarding at 6, so we started heading to security around 4:30 (since Maureen still had to check a bag).

We had breakfast at the gate (stupid small coffee and a croissant) before boarding our flight to Reykjavik.

That flight was about 4 hours (?) long. I have absolutely no recollection of how I passed the time, but I think A and I watched Netflix.

Arrived in Reykjavik with about 2.5 hours to catch our next flight. We got through customs with no issues, got our boarding passes from the Delta counter, then picked up a ridiculously expensive wrap (to share) and a souvenir for our neighbor who was watching Batman and Robin while we were gone.

The flight was almost 6 hours to JFK. I watched Patriot's Day (and I was surprised at how emotional it made me) and most of The Girl on the Train. Dozing off in the middle of the movie was the only "sleep" I would get.

Arrived in JFK on time, and headed to customs. The line was INSANE. In the tradition of "things that only happen to me," I got a black "X" on my receipt. That meant that we had to go in a special line. I assumed this was random and they would ask more questions. Well the only question we were asked is if we bought anything. (Outside of food, we seriously only bough about 4 magnets and a patch). I then was hit with another "additional screening" - which meant we had to go in a tiny room with no windows or bathroom, and no cell phones allowed! After about 75 minutes, finally released, without ANY questions being asked of me, or an explanation of why I was flagged.

We exited the airport and opted for a taxi instead of Uber to take us to La Guardia for our last flight. We found some cheap pizza by the slice and a salad bar for dinner. Our flight actually landed about 40 minutes early in Denver, about 8:00.

Light rail took over an hour (presumably because of all the 4th of July chaos in the city), and then we still had to go to Maureen's house to get our car. It was after 10:30 before we got home.

LONGEST DAY(S) EVER EVER EVER (EVER).

Steps - 18,402
Miles - 0

THE END.

Day 7 - Reykjavik to Geneva

June 27

Day 7

We had an early morning (again) to drive back to the airport to drop off our rental car before our flight. In yet another frustration, the GPS unit could not seem to locate the address of the airport OR the rental car company. Luckily, Iceland is basically one main road and I was savvy enough to get on it and be headed the correct direction.

There were no issues with returning our car and we made it to the airport in plenty of time. One of the things we discovered, however, was that the airline we were flying throughout Europe, EasyJet, only allowed us ONE bag (including a purse). So basically like Frontier or Spirit. Oy. I am way to cheap to pay to check bags, so A and I had to somehow cram our smaller carry on bags into our big bag. THAT WAS NOT FUN.

The flight to Geneva was about 4 hours, but it left on time, so that was nice. Customs in Switzerland was no big deal, however, they only give you 90 minutes of wifi at the airport, and you have to scan your boarding pass to get it. The ticket machine for the train tickets to get into town where our hotel was located was infuriating. We had no idea which tickets we actually needed to buy, as there were so many different options. Luckily a man helped us out and we were able to get the correct ones. The train ride was only a few minutes long. It was SO HOT, especially compared to Iceland.

After wandering the streets for a bit, we found our hotel with little effort. We checked in, I took a quick shower, and then we decided to wander around the city to look for something to eat. We must have walked for over an hour before we realized that we had absolutely no idea where we were. We had to ask for directions to get back to the lake, ha.

When we finally found a place we all agreed would be good to eat at, we realized it was actually the restaurant right below our hotel (after alllll that). I got a delicious sandwich, some sweet potato fries and a beer. Ah, nice to sit outside on a patio and eat, even though everyone in Europe smokes.

We went back to the room for a bit and decided that we would do our short run just before it got dark - because it was so hot. We only wanted to run a mile, so we did an out and back along the lake. So pretty!

Finally ate my dessert when we got back to the room, then to bed early.

Steps - 20,048
Miles - 1.1

To be continued...

Day 5 - Seljalandsfoss, Gljufrabui, Skogafoss, Vik

Sunday, June 25

Day 5

We were out the door by 7:15, as we had a long drive to Vik ahead of us. We were greeted with some blue skies for a nice change.

When we had gotten directions to Vik, we were told that there were some pretty cool waterfalls on the drive down. We stopped at ALL of them. First up was Seljalandsfoss. The cool part about this one was that there was a very short hike that walked BEHIND the waterfall. We all got pretty wet walking under this one, but it was worth it.

Kinda looks like we showered - nope, just walked behind a water fall

There was another short walk to get to the next "famous" waterfall - Gljufrabui. This one was a waterfall in a crevice of rock, off a small beach. I was smart enough to think, hey, I should walk in the river on these rocks where other people seem to be going. Looked pretty nifty from the inside too.

Yes, that is me under there, no, I'm not a ghost

We were cold and there was a pastry/coffee shop at the bottom. I had a delicious and decadent chocolate brownie and a coffee, while A had a big chocolate/vanilla muffin and a hot chocolate. Have I mentioned how great desserts are lately?

Not much further down the road was yet another waterfall, Skogafoss.

This one was pretty magnificent from the bottom and also had about 500 steps to get to a viewing point. We assumed that was all that was up there. Turns out there was also a pretty awesome hiking path. We walked along for about a mile before it started raining hard enough that decided it was best if we turned back.

 

Half the fun of the hike was seeing if we could get any good pictures of all the sheep we saw. The way back was incredibly rainy and wet and muddy. None of us were incredibly happy by the time we got back to the car as we were all soaking wet. We still had the drive to Vik, although by the time we got there it was still raining and none of us especially wanted to get out of the car. We did walk briefly to the black sand beaches, however.

We attempted to do a tour at the wool factory, but the "tour" was really just a store with big windows where you could look at people working. On the way back we stopped a big parking lot. There was nothing to be seen, but we were told that there was an abandoned airplane somewhere. Even though it was raining, we decided to go out and see it anyway. After a mile and a half of running (yes, we decided to run this even though it was supposed to be a short walk/hike) we started asking people who told us we were only halfway there. We were all sick and tired of being wet, so we turned around. Oh well, we got a 3 mile run in.

We didn't get back into town until almost 6:00. We made a quick stop by the mall, walked around, didn't see anything of interest. Dinner was leftover Domino's (yes, again) and beer.

Finally, later in the evening, it was actually not windy and warm enough to sit in the garden. We did laundry and got caught up on our social media.

Steps - 23.522
Miles - 3.0, plus a hike (2.0ish miles)

To be continued...

Day 4 - Reykjavik, Hallgrimskirkja

Saturday, June 24
Day 4

I had the brilliant plan to get up early so we wouldn't "waste the day." Turns out, after having such a busy day and then a half marathon, and then staying up until 2 am, left us all exhausted. I hit the snooze button time and time again, not dragging myself out of bed until 10:30. I quickly got in the shower, then we all had to pack and clean up. We checked out of our Airbnb at exactly 12:00.

We needed to check into our next place at 2, so we were somewhat limited on what we were going to be able to get done. We opted to drive into "downtown" Reykjavik, which meant a frustrating drive on narrow streets looking for parking. MY big goal was to find a liquor store, in hopes of finding some beer that would a). taste good and b). not cost $12 a pint.

Tourism building

We first visited the Reykjavik tourism building, wandered around looking for a brewery (which unfortunately didn't open until after 4), then miraculously found a liquor store. I found 6 unique beers, and spent "only" about $30. My favorite directions given by a local included - turn at the rainbow unicorn painting:

On the way back to the car we looked at the main town square and Parliament building.

Church next to City Hall

We had to find a place with Wifi to message our next Airbnb as we could not locate the place through the system. We arrived just after 2, met with the owner and checked in. We all really enjoyed that we would have a resident cat, Sushi, staying with us!

After an hour or so we decided it was time to find something else to do, specifically, finding our dessert for the day. We drove along the water and stopped at a nature reserve, although it was closed for a month for re-vegetation.

It must be said that those are fish heads hanging from this really cool wooden structure

We stopped at a few places before we found a local bakery that had pastries we were interested in. Man, I really love dessert and it's going to be tough NOT having something every single day when I am no longer on vacation.

By this time, it was after 4:00, so we decided to go to Micro Bar, which was supposedly a craft brewery. We were there in time for happy hour, although they did not have any dark beers, and I'm pretty sure the beer I had was not even brewed there. Oh, and it was stupid expensive.

After the brewery we drove to Hallgrimskirkja, probably the most famous church in Iceland. I believe it is also the tallest building in the city. We were able to find parking very close by, took pictures outside and then took an elevator to the top where we were able to get some very cool pictures from the top.

Everyone needs to get their picture with a giant copper Viking?

Domino's still sounded good, and we opted to do a different special - buy one pizza and an order of breadsticks and get another pizza for free. Yes, I realize that we are in a different country, but Dominos's seems to be the only meal we can have for under $20. Since we had bought beer, we were also able to sit at home and relax with beer that did NOT cost a fortune.

Steps - 14,413
Miles - 0

To be continued...