The origin for this trip really lies in my 50th birthday that I celebrated in November last year and which is covered in the trip report I just completed. Graham had intended to treat me to a carriage ride in Central Park as part of my birthday present, for me to pick a gift at the Disney Store in Times Square and he was going to upgrade the photo package I had pre-purchased to unlimited digital files. I loved that idea. However, when I saw the prices for the carriage rides, I said “No, thank you”. I had some concerns about the welfare of the horses anyway and I don’t take kindly to being fleeced.
The second part of the birthday present did not work out either. When I visited the Disney Store in Times Square in 2016, I wanted to buy half the shop. They had a great selection of New York specific merchandise. I love Spirit Jerseys, and the remaining Disney Stores in London and Paris have special Spirit Jerseys. I had intended to get a New York Spirit Jersey. Unfortunately, it turned out that there was no such thing. What exclusive merchandise they did have, did not thrill me. They did have a selection of Disney Dooney and Bourke bags, which I have collected for years. However, the designs they had did not inspire me. I came away emptyhanded. I have reached this stage in life where I do not hesitate to treat myself to something that I really want but pass on stuff that I at best feel lukewarm about.
The plan with the photos did not work out either. Ever since they have no longer offered unlimited digital photo packages for prepurchase, they had offered an upgrade to unlimited on the ships for $99. Indeed, I was initially told about this offer on that cruise as well. However, a couple of days later I was told that they were not offering unlimited packages on this cruise, but I could add an extra 100 digital photos for $99. I politely declined. I was not too impressed with the photography services on this ship anyway and figured 100 photos would be plenty.
Graham was a bit floored that I did not get my birthday present. I was not bothered. I had an amazing birthday trip where I made tons of memories. I did suggest that I could put him in touch with the jewellery artist that I have worked with for years and he could commission a piece of jewellery for me. He did not bite, which in a way is a shame. This is one collaboration I would have loved to see the results of. Graham is quite a creative spirit and Kythryne is wonderfully creative and amazingly talented. I think she would have appreciated something other than my typically cryptic clues like “I would like a necklace inspired by glacier ice. “
I have to admit the whole birthday present thing completely slipped my mind between being extremely busy at work and with planning for the festive season. Towards the end of November, I noticed during my lunch break that Graham had filled my inbox. One of the emails asked what I thought about a trip to Iceland as my birthday present as soon as I could get some leave. One of my longstanding bucket list items was to see the Northern Lights. We had a cruise to Norway and Iceland booked for June. However, even though it is not impossible that Northern Lights are visible in June, chances are low due to long daylight hours. I was all over this.
In the process, we completely redid our plans for this year. We figured we did not have to go to Iceland twice in a year. We only paid £1 deposit per person for the cruise, which made this easy to cancel. We replaced this with two seven-day cruises in May and September, which works much better for us. In the process, I also get to tick off a serious amount of bucket list items.
It turned out that the best time to maximise the time off without having to take too much leave was around the middle of February. That our anniversary falls during that week was an added bonus. In the end we got a really nice package through Iceland Air that included the flights, 6 nights on bed and breakfast basis in a nice centrally located hotel in Reykjavik, transfers as well as a Northern Lights tour and a Golden Circle tour.
I was thinking that I would book a Blue Lagoon tour once we got there. The reason why I wanted to wait is as during the past year, this has often temporarily closed due to seismic activity in the area. I had no wish to waste even a minute of this holiday chasing a refund. This plan was a good one for more than one reason. Before we ever set foot on the plane, Graham suggested that we need to go back during summertime. Getting in and out of the Blue Lagoon will be a lot more pleasant then. I also spotted a tour to the south coast that visits a glacier and had a much stronger pull than the Blue Lagoon. However, we were still going to wait to see how things panned out once we were actually there. We both did some research and got some inspiration, but we purposely did not make any firm plans beyond the two included excursions. Between relatively short days and unpredictable weather, Iceland in February definitely is best experienced in the moment. Neither of us was sure before the trip if we would ever leave Reykjavik under our own steam.
With two days to go, I was thinking rather smugly how easy land-based holidays are compared to cruises. There was no element of having to pack for various climates nor is any formal wear required. Layers is the name of the game, and I have plenty of those. There was also none of the extra touches that make a cruise special to me required like magnets and embarkation shirts. My only prep-work for the trip was to get some thermal socks and leggings plus a woolly hat and some gloves, which had been accomplished in good time.
Then suddenly Graham asked me if I had waterproof boots. I used to have waterproof hiking boots, but I had not worn them for so long that I had put them into a charity recycling bin a couple of years ago. I remembered that I had a pair of Doc Martens boots that I bought years ago, but never got around to breaking in. I figured with the thick thermal socks; this would be OK. Fortunately, I did a trial run the following morning and found that with the thermal socks on, I could not get my feet into the boots. I knew that with ordinary socks, I would end up with blisters. In the end I bit the bullet and went into town to find suitable footwear.
Buying shoes is the ultimate nightmare for me. I always struggle finding shoes that fit. This time, it was no different. I had checked out suitable options on the Marks and Spencer’s app. Although I had checked that my favourite option was in stock, I could not find it. It would not have mattered anyway. I could not even get their so-called wide fitting shoes past my toes. Fortunately, there are plenty of other options in town including a branch of Deichmann. I have a pretty good track record with their shoes. I never made it that far though. Nearly opposite is another discount shoe shop. I struck out in the women’s section, but decided to check out their men’s section. After all, I was not after a fashion statement. I got lucky what supposed to be safety shoes. Not only are they waterproof and fit like a glove, but they also look nice. Best of all, they were only £25. I put them on straightaway and they were actually surprisingly comfortable apart from that there was a little pressure at the front of the leg. I soon got used to this.
After this unscheduled shopping trip, I definitely was ready for this trip. There was just the packing to do. That was easier than normal, too. I had a fair idea what I wanted to take. As we were sharing a suitcase, I just laid it out and Graham packed it. Then we were officially ready for the holiday.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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