Honeymoon: London Baby! (Day 18)

We woke up really early on Day 18 to catch our plane to London at 7.40am, our airport transfer was arranged with IGTours for 6am and this time we didn’t experience any delays when they picked us up from the apartment (it was the same driver!). Our flight out to London was on Iceland’s national carrier, Icelandair, the ticket costs about 250 SGD. Check-in was done by self-help terminals which printed out the luggage tags and boarding passes, followed by a long but fast-moving queue to drop off our luggage; very efficient and fuss-free! Among the numerous tax-free shops in the airport, the most eye-catching is 66°NORTH, Iceland’s premier winter wear brand, which still costs an arm and leg even without tax. Boarding was done punctually but takeoff was delayed by forty-five minutes as the plane was waiting for a few transit passengers who were got delayed flying in; from what we know Icelandair has this ‘board all passengers’ policy, so delays are pretty common. Overall we preferred WOW air for the cozy environment and cheaper tickets, but take note that the timing for WOW air flight to London is an hour earlier (6.45am!).

Due to the delayed take-off, we arrived in London Heathrow Airport around 1pm instead of the scheduled 11.45am. The airport is well-connected to the city center by the London Tube and many other types of transport. Our hotel, Millennium Gloucester Hotel London Kensington was located right outside the Gloucester Road station on the Piccadilly Line, it took us about 45 minutes to get there. The front desk upgraded us to a Club Room but didn’t include the club privileges 😦

We were only in London for three days and we were not travelling extensively, so we opt to purchase an Oyster Card which is a much cheaper option than cash, our trip from Heathrow Terminal 1 station to Gloucester Road station only costs £2.20 by Oyster Card as compared to £4.70 by cash.

On our first night in London, we tubed to Piccadilly Circus station and made our way to Queen’s Theater to collect our Les Miserables tickets; watching musicals on the West End was one of the most popular tourist activities.

We had dinner in Chinatown’s many Chinese restaurants that specialized in all-you-can-eat buffets for 7£. We had quite a bit of time left before the musical started, so we also visited the humongous M&M store before heading to the musical.

Honeymoon: Goodbye Berlin and Hello Iceland! (Day 13)

On the morning of Day 13 we took the S-Bahn to Berlin Schönefeld Airport to catch our flight to Iceland via WOW air. Wow air is a newly formed budget airline specializing in budget flights to Reykjavik. We booked 10 months early and paid only 150 SGD for our flight from Berlin to Reykjavik. The stewardess were donned in bright fuchsia uniforms that gave off a very classy vibe and the inside of the aircraft was uniquely designed with catchy greetings on each seat and catchy phrases on the usual mundane objects; it really made the flight somewhat special and extra cozy. They also played ‘Ice Age 2’ on the overhead screen during the flight, unfortunately we didn’t have any earphones so we couldn’t really enjoy it. I didn’t manage to take pictures as the flight was pretty packed, so some of the pictures below are courtesy of WOW air Pinterest board.

3 hours later, we arrived at Keflavík International Airport around 3pm and it was already starting to get dark. We originally booked an airport transfer via IGtours and met up with the driver, he told us that one of the flight ferrying the bulk of the passengers sharing the bus with us was delayed, so the driver was going to wait for them. Unlike most airport transfers in Iceland, the minibus for IGtours goes directly to Siguron’s apartment without having to make a transfer at the bus station. The driver recommended us Iceland Excursions as a backup and talked to the staff there to give us a discount to make up for the trouble. We agreed as we didn’t make any upfront payment for the transfer and the driver seemed really apologetic about it. We also purchased a sim card (Vodafone) which activated immediately from the convenience shop in the airport and changed some of our Euros into Icelandic Krona (ISK) before heading outside to board the bus.

view from the plane

snow!

nice and warm in the bus

Iceland Excursions. all buses have wifi!

lots of snow

It was a smooth ride to the bus station, with a few stops at locations along the main road. We then had to transfer our luggage onto a mini-bus that could maneuver the smaller, narrower streets in Reykjavik which brought us to Siguron’s apartment! We tried our luck with SuperJeeps but they informed us that the northern lights tour has been postponed due to heavy cloud cover. So we bundled ourselves up and went for a walk along Reykjavik’s main shopping street, Laugavegur. Our last stop was the supermarket Bonus where we switched our protein from pork to fish, which is really cheap in Iceland!