Travel - The Good, the Bad and the Very Ugly

Sue, Lilah, Itsani, Martha, Maren ready to rock!

It was finally time to go. We were all on time to SeaTac, very excited to be on our way. Little did we know it was not going to be the easiest trip ever. No, it wasn't. And it started with the Icelandair staff at SeaTac. 

Icelandair has very strict carry-on policies, apparently, more than we knew about. We checked the suitcases, that was no problem, and they did not hassle us about the isntruments, but then the Manager on duty at the time decided that my backpack, not anyone else's, was not going to go as carry-on luggage, and had to be checked. To that I said, "No, that's not possible." But she argued. And argued, and offered no solution. Thankfully, I have a most excellent travel partner who realized that she was not carrying a violin. (The argument from Icelandair was that I would be taking up more space than I was entitled to if I put my daypack up). Therefore, we could trade backpacks, and mine could go as her luggage. Now, this worked, but please keep in mind, that Icelandair also has a policy that if you are sitting in the exit row, you must put all of your luggage up - nothing can be under the chair in front of you. Plus, I was sitting in an exit row with NO chair in front of me. No, I had the bathroom! So legally, according to Icelandair, I HAD TO PUT MY LUGGAGE OVERHEAD. What *bleep* *bleep* idiots!! That problem solved, we headed to the gate. 

We had reasonable luck getting the wheelchair assistance that Sue had requested. But, there were no announcements from Icelandair that our flight was delayed. That is, I had to use a third-party app to discover that our plane was not only not at the gate on time, but was inbound to SeaTac half an hour late. This meant that it had to be cleaned, stocked, and cleared before we could board. But were there any announcements via the PA from Icelandair? Not a one. Seriously. They eventually did post a tiny notice on their board at the ticket podium. It ended up being wrong. Then we sat on the tarmac. We left 1 hour and fifteen minutes late...guess how much time we had in Reykjavik to change planes? That would be an hour and twenty minutes. And, they block the boarding door 15 minutes before takeoff. Uh-huh. Do you begin, dear reader, to sense a problem here? 

Mustard and Hugh.

In the time sitting waiting, we did manage to play cards, have a circle, and introduce Mustard to Hugh. These are a couple of wise old bears, who have traveled to many places! Mustard came to me from a very dear friend in the Netherlands perhaps 20 years ago. Hugh belongs to veteran Lilla lager Isobel, who sent Hugh with Sue. The two are very busy comparing notes on where to and not to travel. :) 

So, we were hanging out being mellow, and Sue looked at our tickets, and discovered that Icelandair had changed our seats for our second flight, and we were no longer all together. Itsani was in the back of the plane, Maren and Lilah were together and Sue was nearby. I was not. Even worse (can this get worse? Oh yes, it can...) our seat reservations for our return flights were deleted. Yes, GONE. And Sue paid for extra legroom. What the heck? Icelandair in Seattle said they could do nothing, so that was another thing to put on the list of things we had to take care of when we got to Voss. But back to the story...

We arrived in Iceland, no wheelchair for Sue, none in sight, and the line for passport control was at least 20 minutes. Never fear - this time it was my turn to step up. I asked a young man who was a sort of airport helper where we could find a wheelchair. I think he could sense our group stress, and he asked if we were about to miss a flight. We said yes. It turns out that this person, whose name is Benedict, was the Hero of the Day. He got on his phone, contacted the gate, told them to hold the flight, had a colleague bring a wheelchair, and zipped us to the front of the passport control line. He took us to the gate, and made sure we got on the flight. We managed to find space for the fiddles, and we were off! Last leg! 

Landing in Oslo, we contemplated whether the luggage would arrive. It did! That was terrific! We went to get our van from Hertz. That was not terrific. We did not know (we booked through a third party) that Hertz has a policy that you have only one hour of grace to pick up your car. So, the time we gave them, which was based on the flight we wanted, and not the one our agent booked for us, was wrong. And the van was gone. They were not terribly helpful. But with a little arguing, and tag teaming with other vendors, (Sue at Hertz, Martha looking elsewhere) they finally said that we could either go into Oslo and pick up a van, or we could wait 4-6 hours and they would deliver one. Well, we weren't going to wait, and I sure as heck was not going into Oslo. The last time I had to drive out of Oslo to Hallingdal I lost two hours in traffic, construction, and so on. That was NOT HAPPENING. Either option would have meant we needed a hotel as well, and in the Oslo area, that would have been a minimum of about $800. Plus, we would lose part of a day in Voss. But I did find us a car. It was a compromise, and it cost us, but it worked! 

The Lilla Bus.

This was the moment that Sue and I thanked God for all of you who donated. Because we knew we had enough money, we could go elsewhere although it had a steep price tag. We managed to get a car from Sixt. They call it a 7-seater, and technically, it can seat 7, but remember those old station wagons with the fold-down back seat? It works like that. With all of our luggage, fiddles, and daypacks, the entire back was STUFFED. We all fit in the interior, and the kids say it's comfortable, but it's a darn good thing we like each other because we are in very close proximity. The groceries we needed for this morning had to go under feet. Eeek. But so it was. It's a diesel, and we actually like that. 

We saw our first troll of many in Flå, got groceries, said hello to my good friend, Sigridmarie, and then it was off to Voss. We drove across Hardangervidda, in the rain, with low, low clouds, and sometimes fog that was pretty darn thick. But, there were moments when the clouds lifted, and we could see some amazing views. We did not have a chance to play in any snow, but that might come next weekend, we'll see. Mostly, it rained. And rained. And rained.

On Hardangervidda, 10PM. Itsani, Martha,
Lilah, Maren, Sue

As we rolled along, we sang tunes we knew from the places we drove through. That was fun. The kids played Go Fish in the back seat, and there was much guffawing. Sue and I used the time to make lists of various things we needed to do. Sue was having a hard time staying awake, and I had taken Dramamine on the long flight to sleep, and I had. So I drove - six hours to Voss. We arrived at 11:35 PM with whacked-out kids and grumpy, tired adults. We sent the kids to bed, but we couldn't find all of the sheets...we made alternate arrangements, then Itsani asked where the towels were. Hmmm. Good question. No towels anywhere. OK, now we are grubby, tired and can't even wash our faces and dry them? We found one. One was enough. The kids went to bed. Grownups stayed up to offload food to the fridge, post various things, and get organized for today. 

Bedtime for grownups was 1AM. So darn tired! 

- Martha