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Eandd London, Iceland and Israel "Babymoon"

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eandd:
Three things I want to mention before I start actual report:
1. Please excuse any grammar and syntax errors, I had absolutely zero patience to read over and edit
2.Sorry if I ramble at times, I tend to write as if I'm talking  ;D
3. Want to give a big thanks to those on the Iceland forum for sharing their ideas and experiences!

Introduction:
I hope this will be helpful to anyone planning a winter Iceland trip. I did a TON of research before our trip, and found a lot of negative feedback on places like tripadvisor. Granted, we must have had a lot of luck with the weather. However, I am not one to want to travel to a destination twice, but would hands down be up for a repeat Iceland trip, there's so much we didn't have time to see! I hope I won't get tomatoes thrown at me for this, but I found Iceland an overall better trip than New Zealand.

Wanted one more big trip before baby and challenging school programs. Had originally planned a Banff/Jasper trip which ended up being cancelled for various reasons. After our previous two crazy trips, we figured that we didn’t something a little easier, and Europe sounded like a good idea (jokes on us!) Unfortunately by the time we got our act together to settle down and book the trip, our ideal dates were a little over a month away. This would not give me much time to decide on destinations, and plan out an itinerary which is one of my favorite parts of a trip-the anticipation. London seemed like the obvious first destination since we have family there and would have a free place to stay. At one point, I thought Switzerland, Venice, London and a day trip to Paris would be a good idea. My relatives in Switzerland nixed the idea due to unpredictable weather conditions this time of year. Then I got my heart set on visiting Israel (a lot of relatives there too), and settle on London, Israel and one more destination. It proved difficult though to decide on our third country, since I wanted to visit somewhere naturally beautiful and the timing was not good for many destinations. We went through Greece, Croatia, Hawaii by itself etc. It was proving to be very stressful, so we played with the idea of just London and Israel. I am so glad we didn’t.
Randomly, the idea popped into my head to add Iceland as our third destination. And once it was there, it would not leave. All of my research about end Nov-beginning of Dec trips to Iceland warned against dangerously icy roads, fatal car accidents, don’t drive a rental car take tours! After too much reading on Tripadvisor, I turned to the Iceland master thread where I was reassured that we would be fine. Thank you to all those that provided their input! Still, I spent a lot of time agonizing over tours vs self drive (this was up until the trip!) I was nervous about our safety, but wanted the freedom to stop when I wanted. The stress of planning such a last minute trip was getting to me; our travel dates were about two weeks away and nothing was booked! We decided to push it off for a week, and finally started to commit to booking flights and informing relatives we were coming. Flights to LHR and REY were easy, the second fiasco was finding a way to get from REY to Israel. We are a bit idealistic (and probably stupid) and decided to stop in Amsterdam for the day; this was a very bad idea. Flights back to BWI were also foolishly assumed to be okay.

BWI-PHL-LHR 22.5K AA on American to avoid high fees
LHR-KEF 12.5K AA on British Airways   
Paid the $75 close in booking fee, which was erased with $200 statement credit from the citi AA card bonus
KEF-LTN-AMS Easyjet
AMS-OTP-TLV Tarom Airlines 14.5k Flying Blue
TLV-WAW-ORD-BWI Lot Polish-42.5k United

Another stressful part of planning this trip was my pregnant state, and the worry that I would go into premature labor in a foreign country with no health insurance. I spent hours researching travel insurances, but to no avail; there was not a single plan that would guarantee coverage for childbirth and many pregnancy complications. I almost cancelled the trip several times due to unnaturally high stress levels, and this was one of the reasons. Finally, a week and a half before the trip I got email confirmation from world nomads that they would cover premature childbirth if I was cleared by my physician to travel, but they would not cover the baby. Additionally, with so many flights I was nervous about DVT risk (which is much higher in pregnant women as it is.)

Most of the planning done for this trip was for Iceland. I extensively researched driving itineraries, rental car companies, and must sees. After days of deliberation, we settled on staying the first night in Vik, the second in Kirkjubæjarklaustur, and the third in Reykjavik. Hotels were booked in advance, but we waited on booking the rental car (from Blue car rental) until the night before our departure to KEF as we wanted to make sure the weather would be fine. 
A lot of winter gear was obsessively collected for this trip, which in hindsight was unnecessary. We each brought a waterproof winter coat, waterproof snow pants, waterproof hiking boots for my husband and snow boots for me, thermal shirt and leggings, a wool middle layer, wool socks, waterproof gloves, hats, balaclavas, and chemical hand warmers. We ended up just needing the thermals, coat and gloves for during the day. Everything else was nice for our nightly northern lights hunting, but was not absolutely necessary for the weather we were lucky to have. We also packed up a suitcase of food.

London

Tuesday 11/20 – D Day
We were scheduled to depart at 7:10 PM. Right before leaving home, I happened to check my email and noticed one from AA that our flight was delayed by an hour which would cause us to miss our connection in PHL. A quick call rebooked us on a non-stop British Airways flight at 8:40. Off we go to Dunkin Donuts to add to our large plane food stash since we would not be getting kosher meals. Security at BWI was an interesting experience. Being pregnant, I opted out of the body scanner (I know, negligible radiation but it adds up!) and got a VERY thorough pat down. Additionally, one of the TSA agents insisted that every single food item in our carryon needed to be taken out of the bag and placed in a bin.
 
Wednesday 11/21
Flight was uneventful, and landed in LHR earlier than scheduled. LHR is known to have long slow lines in Passport Control, and today was no exception. After standing in line for a bit, I asked a random agent if there was somewhere I could sit. She said we could just use the special assistance desk, which got us through in two minutes, then breezed through customs and made our way to Hendon.
Napped for most of the day, then took the train after dark to Embankment. Took the wrong train, so instead got off at London Bridge. Walked toward the London Eye with lots of bathroom stops (theme of the trip). Saw the Tower Bridge, Globe theatre, and Big Ben under construction.
IMG_7194 by eandd, on Flickr

Thursday
Decided on a day trip to Windsor and Eton (saved Bath and Oxford for another trip), took bus to Paddington station, and then a train to Windsor with a transfer in Slough. Walked around the town, then crossed over the Thames to the tiny town of Eton to see the famous boys school. Walked illegally into the school courtyard before being politely kicked out. Train back to Paddington, then waited a while for the bus to Camden town, a very touristy area with tons of cheap souvenir shopping. Then tube to Golders Green, and Pizzaza. Fries are excellent, and so was the Belgian waffle. Walked back to Hendon, bad idea after such an exhausting day.

IMG_7228 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_7315 by eandd, on Flickr



Friday
Had booked the Westminster tour by free tours by foot the night before, and needed to be by Buckingham Palace by 10. Unfortunately we were a few minutes late, and could not catch up to the tour group. A cop recommended we go to the barracks to see the start of the changing of the guards event. Then we “marched” along to the front of the palace, where it was CROWDED. Walked towards Parliament, saw Churchill statue, Westminster Abbey, back to Buckingham Palace to get less crowded pictures. Shabbos was at 3:45!

IMG_7348 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_7368 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_7446 by eandd, on Flickr
Super crowded even in winter!

IMG_7483 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_7505 by eandd, on Flickr
Big ben under construction  :(


Saturday
Relaxing, very short day. After Shabbos, ate at Pizzaza, then picked up some expensive pastries from the bakery down the street.  Had been obsessively checking Vedur.is and road.is, and settled on booking a rental car for Iceland. Originally we had planned on spending more on a 4x4, but decided to just go for a Toyota CHR since it would be less top heavy and better for high winds. Best decision since we got an AWD car anyways (Nissan Juke.)

eandd:

Iceland

Sunday
Took one of the Jewish car services to the airport. Again, took advantage of pregnant travel and got put ahead of the entire security line 
BA flight to KEF uneventful, took short rental car shuttle to blue car rental. It's a really short walk, but it was cold outside and we weren't sure where to go. After returning the car we did just walk across the parking lot to departures. Also want to mention that I did a lot of research into rental car companies as "Scams" are very common in Iceland. We were very happy with blue car rental, but I also took out a seperate car rental insurance policy through roamright so that we would be fully covered.
Began our drive towards Vik. Road.is had the roads as orange (spots of ice), but the asphalt seemed totally clear. Was so cool to see the volcanic fields right outside the airport!

IMG_7594-001 by eandd, on Flickr
First stop Selijandfoss, it was too icy to walk behind the falls. Make sure to pay for parking!

IMG_7646-001 by eandd, on Flickr
I believe this is Eyjafjallajökull, that volcano that recently erupted and caused lots of havoc

IMG_7687-001 by eandd, on Flickr
Made it to Skogafoss after official sunset but before it was dark. Would recommend getting some sort of umbrella for your camera, since all of our closer pictures got lots of mist droplets on the lens

IMG_7705-001 by eandd, on Flickr
Forgot which glacier this is...

Drove to Vik in the dark. Everything I read online warned against driving in darkness during the winter; it ended up being completely fine, besides for missing the beautiful scenery on the way.
Stayed the night at the Puffin Hostel, which was cheapest accommodations we could find at $108 (in the low season!) We had booked the “upgraded” room that was supposed to have two twin beds side by side; instead we got one bed in one room, and the other bed was in an almost completely separate room/alcove. Bathrooms were shared, and on a completely separate floor. Do not recommend this place at all, and wish I had booked two nights at our next night’s hotel.

After supper and a nap, got geared up to go northern lights hunting. Vedur.is has an aurora forecast, and that night had a kp of 3, with most of the area covered in clouds. We noticed that the towards the west (where we just came from) there seemed to be less cloud cover, so we decided to drive back towards Reykjavik. After driving for close to two hours with no break in the clouds, we decided to turn back. Randomly we would pull over, point our camera at small patches of clear skies and take pictures. And eventually our efforts paid off with some green, that looked like wispy clouds to the naked eye. Unfortunately we did not take the time to become expert aurora photographers, and our pictures came out kind of blurry.

IMG_7876-001 by eandd, on Flickr
Here is a sample, all I care about is the green!

Monday
Want to add that everywhere online people talk about how short the days are during the winter. And officially, sunrise was at 10:30 and sunset at 4. But they fail to mention that it starts getting light outside much earlier at around 9:30, and the light stays until closer to 5.
Began our drive towards Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, and decided to skip Reynisfjara black sand beach to be able to make it to the lagoon as early as possible. Scenery was gorgeous along the way, and we couldn’t help but stop multiple times.

IMG_7933-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8048-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8052-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8056-001 by eandd, on Flickr

Moss covered lava fields, snow capped mountains with glaciers, waterfalls, the stuff dreams are made of! Having been to the New Zealand south island, I much preferred winter in Iceland scenery.
The glacier lagoon was incredible!  I wish my pictures would do it justice, it was just so breathtaking.
IMG_8092-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8119-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8131-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8167-001 by eandd, on Flickr

We then went across the street to Diamond beach, also insanely beautiful! We spent so much time here (and stopping on the way) that we didn’t have time to stop at the glaciers on the way back, where once can drive/walk up to the glaciers.

IMG_8234-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8259-001 by eandd, on Flickr

We did stop on the way back though to take pictures from the road before it got too dark. You just can't resist when you see scenery like this!

IMG_8358-001 by eandd, on Flickr

IMG_8369-001 by eandd, on Flickr

Stayed the night in kirkjubæjarklaustur, at Hotel Laki. Although cheaper than the hostel the night before, this hotel exceeded our expectations! Highly recommended. Ate supper, then drove out for more northern lights hunting. Again KP index was 3, with most of the country covered in clouds. We drove out for about an hour, but after seeing nothing gave up and drove back.

sam28:
thanks for sharing keep It coming .

ludmila:
Nice TR, thank you,waiting for the rest.

tmendy226:
Very nice! How many weeks pregnant were you if you don’t mind sharing?

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