About 13 years ago, I started talking to my daughter about traveling someplace together. In fact, we started making plans at that time, but then when she got pregnant with my now 12 year old granddaughter, we had to cancel. I brought the subject up again last year. She had just finished her first year of med school, so this was a way to give her a break and for doing so well in school. I gave her the choice of destinations, and she picked Iceland, Sweden, and Norway.
Originally, she said she could only be gone for two weeks, but I pointed out that with three countries, we would need at least three, and she finally agreed. I planned 95% of the trip, although she would occasionally give me some feedback when I would forward potential itineraries to her. Mostly, though, she concentrated on her studies, and I concentrated on the trip. Our travels began in early July, when we flew to KEF airport. We stayed in Iceland for seven nights, Stockholm for three nights, and Norway for eleven nights. I also kept an online journal with more detailed information about our travels and lots of photos. The link is in my profile.
This story comes to you in three parts: Iceland, Stockholm, and Norway. Here are links to the second and third trip reports: Stockholm Trip Report and Norway Trip Report
Special thanks to mikliz97, who gave me great advice about Iceland, and everyone who helped me, including Skyegirl, Badger, mnannie, jeanm, and everybody who gave me such great advice.
GETTING TO ICELAND:
I chose Icelandair because it has a stopover program where you can spend up to 7 nights in Iceland before traveling on to someplace else. There were issues with the airline, though. Their website was difficult to use (and I am pretty tech proficient). I tried to add information to my profile online, but it was hard to find where to add the info, and once I found it, the data kept disappearing (including my Known Traveler Number). But the worst was the comfort level on board. The seats had almost no cushioning and were quite hard. For someone used to Delta’s seats, it was a real trial.
It also annoyed me that Icelandair gave nothing away for free except water, coffee, and tea.I had to pay for wifi, there were no free drinks, and no food at all unless it was paid for. If this had been a true discount flight, I would not be complaining, but I paid as much for this seat as I’ve paid for seats on major airlines, so I did expect some gratis items. The staff was pleasant, though, and the plane got us to our destination in good time. In fact, we wound up getting to Keflavik in Iceland about twenty minutes early.
KEFLAVIK AIRPORT: Our flight arrived around 6:30 am, and I'd heard some stories about people having to wait forever in the security line there, so I was a little worried. But we actually got through in about 20 minutes. There were lots of EES machines that were obviously not being used. Instead, everybody was queued up to go to the security booths. When I got there, they asked me one quick question about my destination; I answered and went on my way.
Unfortunately, my daughter hadn’t looked at the itinerary in awhile, so when they asked her where she was staying the first night, she had no idea. They kept her there for about ten minutes asking her more questions, which she couldn't answer. I was wondering what was taking so long when I heard a loud whisper “Mom, what town are we staying in tonight?”. I cautiously crept back through the door marked No Re-entry, hoping I wouldn’t be arrested, and quickly gave her the name she needed. That must have done the trick because she soon walked out.