My sister and I plan a trip together every year. In May, we finally were able to take our COVID-delayed trip to Scandinavia. Basically, we went from Stockholm to the west coast of Sweden to Copenhagen and ended in Norway. During our trip, we traveled by plane, train, bus, auto and ferry and stayed in 10 different hotels. It was a fabulous time.
Every year, when we get home, I always plan to make a trip report but somehow, it never gets out of Word. This time, I'm going to try typing it directly into the thread and break it up by segment. Hopefully, I get to the end of the trip this time. Here we go!
Icelandair Flights:
We left Denver on a Friday night and flew on Icelandair to Stockholm. We'd never taken them before and overall, it was a great experience. One of our requirements is that our first leg takes us out of the USA. Check. We also returned from Bergen, NO which worked very well logistically for us. We booked in November and got extended legroom seats. Next time, I will definitely look into Saga Class. Not knowing what to expect, I also pre-booked meals on each leg. We checked bags which worked well for us. Note: The airline was extremely picky about carry-on sizes/quantity in Denver and many people were forced to do a gate-check. It didn't seem as stringent on the way back.
This flight had good timing and left around 5 pm directly to Reykjavik. I even worked part of the day before leaving. The seats were worth it. On each leg, they brought the meals very soon after takeoff. We probably could have done without meals on the shorter segments but they were all good. The 7+ hour flight was comfortable and the movies interesting. As a side note, most of the bathrooms are in the back of the plane. We were in the front and nobody gave us a hard time for using the bathroom in First Class. My sister was pleased. The flight was completely full going out but much more comfortable coming back.
The transfer in KEF was not exactly what I expected. Ours were tight in both directions. Honestly, I hadn't expected bus gates instead of jetways. Be aware, there will be stairs to get on and off the plane. Make sure you can manage your carry-ons. When you jump off the packed bus, expect to walk for a long ways in a herd of people. There weren't a lot of bathrooms in the airport. Going through immigration was chaotic. My advice is to pay attention, listen up and look out for an advantage to get into a shorter line. It worked for us. Even though we barely had an hour to transfer, it all turned out fine.
The leg to Stockholm was less than three hours and passed quickly. It was a 7:45 am flight and hardly anybody was on it. Landing and picking up our bags went very smoothly. On to the city!