29th – At Sea – 2 miles walked
Reading, resting, napping
All meals in the Haven – lunch outside – very pleasant
8:00 Show – “Icons” (David Dailey) OK but we have different ideas of icons and the choice of songs

30th - At Sea – 3 miles walked
Breakfast in the Haven but lunch & dinner in Savor – our favorites (Mousaka, lava cake, chicken parm, ribs & key lime cheese cake)
8:00 Show “Royal Flush” Brazilian Band – VG!
bought T-shirt, hat and Clinique in the shop

May
1st – At Sea – 4 miles walked, Joe sleeping & reading on deck
Lunch & Dinner in the Haven (Cuban Chicken special – VG)
Nice conversation with crew at dinner. Early to bed – no show for us since we have an early excursion tomorrow.

2nd San Miguel, Azores
Alvein brought our 1st breakfast as usual, coffe, bagels & pastries. I LOVE the almond croissants. He even gets me peanut butter for my bagel
8:00 Early tour to the Village of Sete Cidades – town in crater of volcano
Wine & cheese in hotel
Lunch – Haven – Scallops/Chicken Milanese
Dinner – Haven – Turkey Special
We LOVE the Haven restaurant. True, the menu is the same each day but there is also a “special of the day.” There was plenty of variety for us. At home we repeat favorite meals all the time.

3rd – At Sea – 5 miles walked but very windy
Breakfast in Haven & light lunch since planned champaign, cheese, fruit etc midday
Reading & relaxing
Dinner Rib & Shrimp for Joe, Vegetarian for me (excellent!)

4th – Still at sea – wind 22m/s = 48.75 mph
Too tough to walk

5th – Cadiz – 5 miles walked
Excursion – “Stroll Around Cadiz” very good. Cadiz is mile 0 of “El Camino de Santiago” pilgrimage walk that I have done virtually.
B/L/D – all in Haven. I had a “Brie Burger” Great! & I don’t even like burgers.
Dinner was Lamb Pancetta & that monster “tomahawk” for Joe
8:00 – Show – Andy Morris from UK – Billy Joel & Elton John – GOOD song choices

6th – Malaga
Excursion “Antequera & El Torcal” Fabulous – history & rock formations with Alveira as our guide
Local pastry & beer in the medieval town
Alvein delivered lots of PM snack food
Dinner – Chicken Cordon Bleu & Lamb Pancetta
8:00 – Saw Yuri & Nato again – some different stuff & still can’t figure out how she does it.

7th – Alicante
A 6 hour excursion to “Murcia” In retrospect this was NOT a good choice
Long bus ride with people coughing and unmasked. One guy in particular made no effort to contain his germs. Boring scenery, town rather ordinary (a cathedral, squares and an old Moor palace converted to a convent) Local pastry “Pastel de Carne” – a meat pie was tasty but this trip was not worth 6 hours.
Guide was fine, but coughing guy was even worse on the ride back to the ship.

8th – Barcelona
Our excursion to Monserrat was cancelled for lack of interest. Since we have spent so much time in Barcelona and seen all of the main sites plus even more, we just stayed onboard and enjoyed the ship and the Haven which we had pretty much to ourselves. Just about everyone went ashore in Barcelona

9th – Cannes, France
Excursion – “Guided Walking Tour” Again in retrospect we should have skipped this. Better to have done it ourselves with a map. Also I started to feel sick, allergies maybe? Covid self test was negative.

10th – Livorno (Florence-Pisa) – Change of Plans
Sore throat/cough/Sinus congestion – Started amoxicillin as a precaution
It is Covid test day for our flight to Barcelona tomorrow
I am POSITIVE! Joe is negative. Pretty sure “coughing guy” of 3 days ago is the cause of this.
I was moved to an isolation cabin (5706) by the Hazmat Team.
Joe stayed in the Haven probably since it’s only for 1 more night.
They gave me Tussin pills, Cepacol and a thermomotor.
Temp normal, oxygen level 97-99% (by my fitness band)

11th – Civitavecchia (Rome) - A Very Interesting Day
Feeling better than yesterday but not great – occasional cough, constantly blowing nose & sneezing. Felt like bad allergies but the test told the truth so quarantine for me.
Got lots of boxes of tissues and bottles of water. Glad I brought Vaseline along or I’d look like Rudolph.
We are supposed to go to a quarantine hotel but there was some disagreement with Italian authorities.
Rumors abound. Italians wanted to send positives to one hotel and negative partners somewhere else.
I counted 63 of us waiting in the “Supper Club” for about 2 hours. There were trays of sandwiches, cookies and drinks served by crew in hazmat gear. We met some nice people while waiting, all masked and no one looking particularly sick.
Suddenly we noticed that the ship was moving. Obviously, we were not getting off. Staff arrived to assign us new cabins.
We got one of the unpopular balcony rooms right over the azipods in the stern. Noise & vibration but OK with us. Most people got ocean view rooms. That would have been OK too.
Other stuff: Joe stayed in the Haven lounge most of the day while cabins were being sanitized for the next cruise. He reported that the new Haven people do not seem nice at all. Lots of demanding, angry people yelling at David the concierge that they want access to the rooms that they paid for. Sad because the crew is doing a great job and do not deserve abuse.
Also odd – repeated ship announcements for passengers to attend the required safety drill. There were 400 at one point and this was delaying our departure. Finally announcements were given in Spanish as well as English. Oops, lots of people probably didn’t understand what they were supposed to do. There were bilingual announcements from then on.
We are settled into cabin 9314. Our dinner order was sent to 5706. Food service didn’t get the word that I had been relocated. Once they found us all was OK.

Suddenly – CODE ALPHA – We know what that means – a serious medical emergency
Captain announces that we are turning around to meet the Italian Coast Guard. TURN is right! We turned on a dime! Massive vibration. Our cabin shuttered and shook. We felt it more than most due to location. Our speed is 20 knots.
7:45 – CODE BRAVO – Crew to deck 1&2 compartment 16. Uh-oh. Note that this ship had an incident getting stuck on a sandbar in the Dominican Republic on March 15 resulting in all cruises cancelled until April 16th while repairs were made in Florida. Did we shake loose a patch?
8:00 – Captain “A situation in a technical area in engineering. We are stopped assessing the situation.”
He gave us regular updates and by 8:30 we were “under control” and “normal operations resumed”

However, we noticed on the navigation channel that we are sailing slower than normal speed (14 knots).
Not the trip we planned but we are treating it as a new adventure. Ingrid cancelled our cruise on the Star (Barcelona to Southampton). Now we are just sailing the eastern Mediterranean. We are OK with this!
Read our books until 10 PM. Sent email to the kids about the situation. We have been given free Internet and movies. We order food from the restaurant menu. I am feeling much better, like I have a cold. If I had to get Covid, this is the best way to recover. No complaints here.

12th - At Sea – Sailing toward Santorini
Room Service brought the breakfast we ordered. They are not allowed to come into the room. We put our trash & towels outside in red hazmat bags. Same with laundry.
Captain – “The delay has caused us to be unable to make our port of call of Santorini. So another sea day and on to Athens for 5/14. We have been to Santorini, but it is unfortunate for those who were looking forward to it.
There is a cute little bird on our balcony. We are far from land. He must have landed here at our last port and now doesn’t know where to go. Pretty sure he will find food with all the outdoor eating areas.
We sailed by the Island of Stromboli. As we sailed the Tyrrhenian Sea and thru the Strait of Messina I remembered my Dad’s WWII diary aboard the USS Philadelphia - the “Terror of the Tyrrhenian” and the “Galloping Ghost of the Sicilian Coast”
Dinner arrived – Lots of food. Medical office called. I’ll be tested again in 4 days.

13th – At Sea – Sailing toward Athens
Very pleasant – Sailing, reading, word games, Internet, movies
Laundry error – Called David in the Haven to return Hanes PJs, size large – not mine. As advised we put them outside the door to be picked up. Someone must be missing them
Got new towels etc. Old stuff put outside a hazmat bag.
Got a photo our birdie stowaway on our balcony. He flew on in Italy and either flies off in Greece or stays on to return home unless he “jumps ship” on some passing island.
I’ve got my full appetite back. My lunch was soup/chicken parm/Banana cream pie. Food service sent a box of great chocolates.
Our ship’s speed has increased from 14.0 knots after “Code Bravo” to 15.4 knots by 3:30 today.

14th – Piraeus (Athens)
Restful day looking at the harbor. Lots of ships/ferries/cargo etc. A seagull came to visit us. Plenty of food around. I finished my book “New York” 5 stars! Even better than “Paris” probably since I know NYC better than Paris historically.

15th – Mykanos, Greece
There’s a Windstar (4 Mast) anchored close by. Looks like dolphins swimming around.
Great climate! Left at 2 pm doing 20 knots. At 4:30 sailed between Serifos & Sifnos. Got a photo of little dolphins. Sailing past many islands – big, small and tiny.
Enjoying the free movies. So far we’ve seen:
“Old” a thriller directed by M Night Shyamalan
House of Gucci, A Funny Thing Called Love, Enchanted and something starring Russell Crowe as “Lucky Jack– British Ship vs the French around Cape Horn and the Galapagos Islands

16th – Sailing to Corfu
Today is retest day but NOT for me. A guy came to test Joe only – different rules for close contacts.
Beautiful pictures of Corfu. We are docked but view is blocked partially by the Viking Sky which is bigger than we expected. We will be in Corfu during our Fall cruise on Windstar.

17th – Sailing to Malta in thick fog
7:30 – Both tested & both NEGATIVE! So we are released from quarantine.
The fog has lifted
We walked around the ship. It seems much more crowded than the TA. Seems more masks too.
Beautiful sailing into Malta just like Papa Frank would have seen in 1944. Took photos of the ramparts that we walked in during our 4 days here in 2019. We are docked opposite the MSC Meraviglia which is here in drydock. We will be onboard here for a TA back to the US in October after our B2B Windstar cruises in the Mediterranean. Note: there were supposed to be 3 on Windstar before Putin crushed travel on the Black Sea.
Lunch in the buffet was crowded. We got off the ship and I bought a hat.
Dinner in the buffet was also crowded and loud. It’s back to restaurants tomorrow. Sure do miss the Haven.
Our cabin 9314 is OK. Vibration not bad unless sailing at 20 knots. Still fine for us though.

18th – Sailing into Messina through the Strait
6am – We saw stream rising from Mt Etna
Breakfast in the Buffet – very nice and quiet this early in the morning. As we finished “perfume lady” sat down directly behind me. We discreetly moved. We took a lot of photos of Mt Etna. I felt so much better than going the other way on 5/12.
Statue at the entrance to Messina harbor
“ Vos et Ipsam Civitatem benedicimus” We will protect you and this city.
I remember this statue from our cruise in 2011 with Jeanne & family.
We discovered areas of the ship that we missed while ensconced in the Haven & then in quarantine.
H20 Spice – Very cool! Like a grotto. We watched the shore from comfortable chairs in the “Waterfront.” The ship is quite empty. All out on tours I think. We walked ashore to a nice square with church and clock tower. We bought postcards & magnet.
We were here in 2011 with a private guide for 7 of family for the whole day which included Mt Etna and nearby villages

Back on the ship for lunch at O’Sheehans – Very good – Will go back
Irish Stew/Reuban sandwich/carrot cake – Joe, gumbo & Coney Island Hot Dog & carrot cake
Afternoon – Rest & plan for transfer to the Star in Southampton
ITA Flight 204. Taxi Heathrow – SH – Inspire covid test appt 5/21 (3:30 ET but 8:30 local time)
Dinner – Savor Ziti/Asian Ribs & Sherbet/Banana Split

19th – Sailed into Naples
We have never been in this harbor. We took photos of Mt Vesuvius at sunrise. Remembering Papa Frank writing about being anchored here in 1944, watching the eruptions and shoveling ash off the deck of the Philadelphia. We hiked Vesuvius with 12 family in 2019 and looked down at the harbor.
Onshore in Naples – Very nice terminal
Joe bought 4 very nice short sleeve shirts (10 Euros each) 2 postcards, 2 magnets
Lots of construction at the cruise port. Will be nice when finished. Today quite congested. Viking & Princess ships here too plus 1 more I can’t identify.

Lunch – O’Sheehan’s – Dinner in Savor (Turkey medalions VG)
My only complaint about this ship – the shampoo/conditioner provided leaves my hair like glue. Can hardly get a comb through it.
20th – Livorno (Florence/Pisa) We are waiting for the pilot to dock here.
We do not plan to get off the ship. Most are going on tours. We have been to Florence and it’s 2 hours away by bus.

We will spend today packing. Good idea since today is a national train strike which will impact road traffic as well.
Lunch – O’Sheehan’s Dinner – Savor

5/21 Disembarkation 7:00-7:30
Up at 5:30 for breakfast. We don’t mind the buffet as long as we are the first ones there
Got our luggage & onto the bus at 8:00. Pleasant 1 hour ride to FCO airport

Very easy check in at Italian Airways (Used to be Air Italia I think) Much improved!
10:00 Called London Taxi to confirm (i.e. edit) our flight number to AZ 204.
Ate our cookies from the ship Sent texts to kids & Ingrid.
We found airport seats out of the way behind a piano. Good choice except when passengers let their kids bang on the keys, but that never lasted very long. No wonder the thing is out of tune.
1:20 Called to gate & boarding. K95 masks required onboard. Don’t have one? Go BUY one over there!
These guys are serious! GOOD!
Easy boarding, left on time & arrived in Heathrow early. Our taxi was waiting & the 1 hour ride to Southampton was pleasant enough.

The Star Hotel is very old and historic. Queen Victoria stayed here before traveling to Isle of Wright
An ancient elevator – Looks like Queen V could have used it.
We took our video covid test in a sitting area above the bar which had the best Internet connection.
A few odd people wandered through up from the bar looking for the restroom or taking the stairs to their rooms.
We are both NEGATIVE!

22nd – The Adventure Continues - Southampton - We board the STAR today
Before breakfast we walked the QE2 mile to see the history of the city. Note: The Pilgrims & Titanic left from here as well as the ships of the Normandy invasion in 1944.
Papa Frank was here in 1945 taking President Truman to meet King George before continuing to the Potsdam Conference. I showed the hotel staff his photos which included the Mayor of the city.
Typical English breakfast at the Hotel – very nice
Taxi to port – great driver with great knowledge of the history here, especially WWII.

On board the Star: Cabin 10000 – “Forward Facing Penthouse” Wow, we have lived in apts smaller than this. Back in Brooklyn the size of the balcony would be called a bedroom. Curtains draw all around the bed to separate it from the dining & living areas. There is a separate dressing area with a “walk through” closet. Bathroom: Toilet/sink/tub & shower all separate areas.
Lunch – Cagneys (perk because of our room category) Not open to general passengers
Dinner – Ginza – Asian (limited menu but everything we like.
Special tour of ship “behind the scenes” cancelled due to Covid precautions, so $25 OBC.
We didn’t even know this was a penthouse perk.

23rd – Rainy Sea Day sailing north to Scotland
Our butler Cassius from India wears a LOT of cologne. We open the balcony doors afterwards.
Breakfast 1 at 7:30 Breakfast 2 in Moderno - Lunch – Cagneys
(again a cabin perk not for everybody)
Internet Café – Fixed our Internet minutes – helpful staff person
The Internet Café is open to the Atrium below. We stayed awhile to listen to Carpenters Music from the
“ Duo Entice” – Very pleasant. We like the layout of this ship. It has STYLE!

A full afternoon:
4:15 More “Duo Entice” music They are from South Africa
5:30 Joe went to a Vets get together
6:30 VIP cocktails with same Duo – Officers were not there, again a Covid precaution. Not easy to replace quarantined captain and immediate subordinates.
8:00 – Theater Show – Duo aerialists – VG!
9:30 Ginza – We like their food. They recognize us by name

24th – Docked in New Haven (Edinburgh) 50 degrees – Nice weather
Daylight already at 5:30
Tender to Port and tour to the “Falkirk Wheel” - an engineering marvel
Also the town of Stirling and sites of Braveheart movie and Outlander TV series
Quick snack for lunch
Dinner - O’Sheehan’s while to listening a terrific trio “Three V Strings” in the Atrium below
We will do this again. This ship has style.
Dinner –Early to bed – another 7:40 excursion tomorrow

25th – Docked at Invergordon (Inverness) 50 degrees, nice weather
“ Edinburgh-Queensferry”
The harbor has natural gas platforms being decommissioned. The bases are to be repurposed for wind turbines. ‘Scotland gets 95% of its energy from renewable sources”
Great excursion: Culloden battlefield (Brits vs Jacobites & Bonnie Prince Charlie)
Lunch at a hotel near Inverness before walking a bit on the main street of Inverness where we stayed while traveling with JCS on our concert tour in 2018
Loch Ness (bought Craig/Black history stuff & a wool hat for Joe. Colder here than the Mediterranean)
Dinner – O’Sheehan’s listening to “Three V Strings” We love their music. 3 young guys from Argentina
8:00 – Theater – Nathan James – singer from UK. Quite good, nice variety of songs

26th – Sailing in the North Sea to arrive in Shetland Islands (Lerwick) at 10:00
Sent email to Oli (Reykjavik guide) regarding Covid test sites
Sea is rough. Chairs on balcony are tied down.
Wind speed – MODERATE GALE – 33.6 mph
Excursion in Lerwick – Bus to Mousa Island Ferry. Guide gave history of the islands. Originally settled by Vikings (Norway) but given by the king as part of his daughter’s dowry to the English king 500 years ago. (This reminded me of Baba’s village of Sambron, Slovakia which became part of Poland in the 16th century when the noble that owned it gave it to a Polish prince as settlement of a debt)
Scenery – SHEEP & lots of lambs, twins & even triplets
Ferry around Mousa Island to see an intact “Bragh” - a 2,000 year old tower. There are many in ruins on other island, all in site of each other. Perhaps used as signal towers? The tour was nice enough until the a sudden cloudburst with strong winds while on our uncovered ferry. So we were cold and wet on the return bus ride. Then a tender back to the ship.
Dinner in “Le Bistro” – We never do the specialty restaurants (significant added cost) but we had a free coupon because of our penthouse suite.
French Cuisine – I had chicken cordon bleu & Joe some kind of seafood. It was nice enough but the complementary restaurants are just fine with us.
We got an “early” anniversary cake which they delivered to our cabin since we already had ordered dessert.

27th – Bergen, Norway
GREAT EXCURSION!
Stave church & Grieg’s home/museum/grave
Maybe not for everyone but perfect for us. All wooden church similar to those Rusyn ones in Slovakia, except these are Protestant and this one was a reproduction (kind of like in Habura). The 16th century original one was burned to the ground in the 1990s by a satanist. True!
We bought headbands & gloves in town. Now Joe’s hands will be warm as well as his head.
Our “Ghostbuster” evening:
The captain announced “rough seas & wind ahead”
Ben, our cabin steward” came in to tie down our balcony furniture. Joe helped because the double steel doors were too much for one person pushing against the wind. We are in the bow heading right into it.
As they opened the door, the wind swooped in and the ceiling tiles started jumping around (Ghostbusters!). Several were displaced but Joe fixed them.
The wind speed is 28.5 meters/sec which I converted to 63 mph
(confirmed later on Internet – 63.75 mph)
The navigation channel reports “STRONG GALE” or “WHOLE GALE”

28th – Alesund, Norway – a cold foggy day
Excursion – Mount Stranda – A gondola up the mountain. Would have been a great but the fog obscured the view. Some just rode up and back down without getting off.
We got off in a near “whiteout” & watched some people making snow angels and a little snowman.
Lunch in a village – A buffet – lots of fish (it is Norway after all) I was concerned about cross contamination since people in line tend to use the same serving utensils for fish and chicken/veggies. So I ate salad and 5 desserts.
Back in Alesund we drove up for a view of the fiords. Visible but hazy.
Back on the ship the wind howled all night. Waves crashing against the hull sounded like cannon fire.
Dinner at another of the specialty restaurants (another free coupon). La Cucina – Italian food and LOTS of it. I was full after the appetizer. Then came this enormous lasagna. There must have been a half pound of meat in there. Great desserts too.
We relented and let the roaming photographer take our picture. We even bought it. We looked nice. We were given a coupon for another photo free. Must think about doing that

29th – At sea sailing to Iceland
Captain Stephan is so funny with his daily announcements. “
We will try to find that rock in the middle of the sea. I’m sure we can do it”
The wind continued as a “Strong/Whole Gale” again – more than 60 mph
Waves splashed up to our balcony railing and we are on DECK 10!
Staff came in to tighten our door seal using the wheel thing in the middle. This reduced the wind flow so no repeat of “Ghostbusters” experience.
The ship is prepared for even worse weather. Our huge floor to ceiling windows looking out on the balcony has hooks to attach steel panels. Glad the weather never got that bad.

Lunch in Moderno (or Cagneys) I get them mixed up. They are next to each other and restricted for breakfast/lunch to those with “Haven type” suites like our forward facing penthouse.
Scary incident: I was eating a salad when something triggered an allergy attack. Instantly I lost my voice and was constantly coughing. Staff thought I was choking. There HAD to be some fish oil in the dressing although the chef insisted that my salad was prepared separately. I returned to the cabin and guzzled benedryl right from the bottle which stopped the reaction. Then I was OK. This last happened decades ago in Williamsburg when my spaghetti had CLAM sauce. Maybe I ought to carry an epi-pen? Must ask Dr Luth at my next physical.
Before dinner we got our “free” photo taken in our NCL Star sweatshirts (bought in 2020 sailing the Star around South America) on the last cruise before the shutdown. A nice “welcome back”
Dinner in O’Sheehans again – very nice until I tripped on a step while leaving. I swung around and landed rather softly since I was grasping the handrail (always on a moving ship especially in bad weather). As a precaution we skipped the show (magician) to ice my knee.

30th – Sailing into Akureyri, Iceland
There is snow here! Long excursion today 8:10 – 4:30
Great guide – “Systa” History of the riots between the pagans & Christians centuries ago.
Waterfall of the Gods – Pagan idols thrown in when Christianity was declared the official state religion. You had to be baptized but after that people were allowed to offer sacrifices to pagan gods as well without punishment. End of the riots.
Lava Rock Formations – Yule lads, cave, throne etc. Photos tell the story
Geothermal holes – sulfur! Mask helped
Lunch at a town restaurant – Only FISH! They made chicken for me and potato soup not fish soup
I don’t remember any place to mention food allergies when booking excursions. Must look into that.
Back on the ship we picked up our photos. We look nice. Joe went to the Vets memorial in the Atrium (Memorial Day in the US) Lots of US passengers onboard
Dinner in Ginza again.
8:00 – Theater was the band “Ice Bucket” Back in Southampton we met a violinist just off the Star who told us that this was a great rock band. She was right. They were very good but loud. Of course, that’s what rock bands do. They played a lot of Queen which was fine with me. The audience sang along. The lead singer was a Freddie Mercury look alike.

31st – Isafiordur, Iceland – a tender port
Excursion – “Flowers & Fiords” Really??
Nice 3 hour tour with an Italian guide with an “Icelandic partner” that she met in Australia
1 – Village – church and singer of traditional songs
2 – village – bookstore & café (gave me non fish items)
True story of a cow who swam across the fiord to avoid slaughter. If we had little grandchildren, I would have bought the book.
2 – Garden with flowers. Erosion is a problem in Iceland and planting trees and other foliage tries to minimize this.
Lots of a plant called “lupine” to stem erosion. A better choice than the US made with kudzu that killed everything around it as it spread.
Back on the ship we met with immigration as required for disembarkation tomorrow.
Dinner in the Versailles Room (main dining room) Very good and very fast. These guys work very hard.
8:00 Theater – An ensemble show – “Paradis” scenes of an historical Paris nightclub – Very good and VERY energetic.
Ensemble shows have been curtailed since the Covid restart. If one performer is positive al close contacts must quarantine.
Dessert in the Garden Café

June 1st – Reykjavik
Easy disembarkation. We were in the “priority” group and could pick our time.
Joe decided on 8:00 but our taxi/guided tour was scheduled for 9:00.
He thought it might take awhile to find our luggage. It did not. So we sat on a rock for an hour. I bought a 5 way headscarf in the gift shop.
Oli, our driver, arrived on time and we had a great tour.
The Golden Circle (photos tell it all), a stop at a farm for ice cream & even a dip in the “Secret Lagoon” – a natural pool heated geothermally. I surprised myself that I really liked it. This is the same idea as the famous “Blue Lagoon” which is bigger, more crowded with tourists and BLUE (different minerals). We may do that on another trip but for this day hanging out with the locals was perfect.

We arrived at our hotel (Center Klopp) at 4. It is right in the center of town like its name says.
The room was comfortable but lacks convenient outlets to charge devices. We managed.
Dinner – a restaurant called “Best Burgers” Yea! No fish to worry about.
They were really good burgers, good sweet potato fries and local beer too. Great choice recommended by the hotel.
We walked center town and early to bed. We get our Covid tests early tomorrow which is required to return to the US.

June 2nd – Reykjavik
Nice included breakfast in the hotel lobby area. We are first in line because of our Covid test.
We made an appointment ahead of time for 8:45 at the Bus Terminal which was a 30 minute walk. Seemed a better idea than doing it at the airport before our flight in the afternoon.
A very efficient set up – in and out in 5 minutes.
We walked back to the hotel and were in the garden of the Cathedral when we got our email results – NEGATIVE! Our flight home is a go. More shopping at “Icewear” – Got stuff for Jeanne, Karen, Carrie & me. Joe – more magnets.

Hotel checkout at noon. Oli picked us up promptly at 12:30. It’s 45 minute ride to the airport.
Check-in and flight were uneventful. We arrived in Dulles on time and thought we might be able to pick up our car but there was NO WAY to call the local Avis office and now only a shuttle to it quite a distance away. So we called Best Western and took their shuttle to our regular hotel.
It was now after 9pm. We did not eat on the plane so needed some option for food.
Delivery is possible, but because we are “platinum” for BW, our free “snacks” included frozen dinners. Perfect! We microwaved them in the room. It was just enough.

June 3rd – Our 55th Wedding Anniversary
Historically, this hasn’t been a good day. “Stuff happens beginning with the priest not showing up to marry us back in 1967.
BW breakfast is always good, but some regular items were missing (like my peanut butter). Supply problems! (I learned about the Jif recall when we got home).
Joe took the shuttle to Avis, picked up the car and we had an uneventful drive home. Whew!