Day 66 – July 24, 2025 – Hveragerdi/Keflavik, Iceland to HOME!!!!
We all met for a walk before breakfast and ate around 9ish. There was no rush this morning as our flight didn’t leave until 4:45pm. Finished packing up, got the car packed and took one last walk around before heading out.
John drove to the airport just to get used to driving on the correct side of the road (lol!). The drive to Keflavik is about an hour plus we had to drop off the rental car. We easily got checked in, got through security then headed to the Saga Lounge. The lounge was wonderful as they had food and drinks at your disposal, so we were able to get a few nibbles before boarding the plane. Michelle and I also managed to get two rounds of mahjong in so we can say we played in all the countries we were at (Italy, Scotland, Ireland, and Iceland). We all played golf, a card game they taught us, for a while before it was time to get on the plane.
We boarded and had a 6-hour flight to RDU. We started off with a glass of champagne once boarded and then had lunch. John got work done and I read. We love flying Iceland Air as the service is top notch, and the prices are a lot cheaper. The caveat is that you have a layover in Keflavik, but we feel it’s worth it.
After a great flight and smooth landing, we arrived at RDU and of course our bags were almost the last to come off the belt. John and I just laugh about it now because anytime we fly into RDU, ours are always almost last. Our driver, Eugene, picked us up and we headed back to our home sweet home!
We walked through the door about 9 pm, happy to be home! I’m ready for a long shower and a good night’s sleep in my bed! It was a fantastic trip, one for the record books, and we saw/did a lot. I’m ready to just be in my house for awhile now and not go anywhere, lol!
FINAL THOUGHTS:
This trip took a long time to plan and John did a WONDERFUL job planning everything for Italy! (He should be a travel agent for another job, lol!) John and I also spent a lot of weekends with Michelle and Vance planning the three weeks after Italy to Scotland, Ireland, and Iceland, so kudos to them as well! This was a LONG time to be away and we will most likely not do this again any time soon. While we would not trade any of the time we spent those last three weeks, we did get tired of being on the move constantly and eating out every single day.
John did the majority of the driving while in Scotland and Ireland, which is stressful as you’re driving on the wrong side of the road, well, that’s how I look at it. The roads there are VERY narrow, so you really have to be aware of your surroundings. Thanks to Vance for being the driver while in Iceland!!! John thinks we put between 1800-2000 miles on the vehicles for the entire trip, aka, lots of time in the car!
We appreciate Steve and Patty, Catherine and Scott, and Michelle, Vance, Kristen and Kevin coming out to visit us while we were in Italy. You made our trip even more memorable! We enjoyed a lot of good fine and even better wine!!! A shout out to our driver in Italy, Barbara, who went above and beyond to make our winery trips the absolute best!
We saw so many amazing things and I tried to put as much of it in the blog as I could. (It took me far longer to finish the blog this time and I apologize.) We laughed so much about anything and everything! It was such a fun trip, regardless of the stress and we wouldn’t change it for anything! I will say that we did not go out to eat for over a month once we got back and enjoyed cooking at home and just being in our house. You don’t realize how much you miss it until you’re gone; especially that long!
Another big shout out to ChatGPT (Michelle’s boyfriend, lol!) for helping me remember some of the places we went/saw. It’s hard to keep up with all of it and it came in so handy for the times I could not quite remember certain things about the places we were. (We got home July 24 and I did not start going through pics for a couple of months, so the memory was shot, lol!)
Cheers to the end of this trip, but stay tuned for the next adventure, which is coming up soon!
