The waking-up-at-3:15 part was somewhat complicated by us using our phones as alarm clocks, which meant we had to leave them on, so the text dump that came in at midnight was more than normally annoying. Lars' phone has some sort of glitch where if you don't at least look at certain texts, it buzzes every 30 seconds until you do. It's always some unknown and unwanted number.
We were the first stop for the shuttle, so at least we got seats. Not everyone did, and the driver eventually had to call for another shuttle to finish his rounds. We got to Keflavik by 5:30 and were all checked in within 15 minutes. Security was quick and efficient, though this seems to be our year to be pulled over for random checks. Sheila got the full treatment at DIA, Lars at Keflavik AND Arlanda.
We had a short time to spend in the IcelandAir lounge, where we had a bit of "second breakfast". We got to our gate in good time, and are happy to report that they have added a LOT of seating on the concourse.
Then there was a very long wait to board the plane. From where we were, we couldn't see if there was a plane or not. All we could see was that staffers were coming and going with concerned looks on their faces. Then several blinking vehicles drove up and parked. More concerned faces. No announcement at all. Lars finally went up and asked what was going on. "We have to complete boarding our priority passengers." Since we had upgraded to Business Class, we had thought WE were priority passengers...they had tagged our suitcases "Priority baggage". Finally we saw that one of the blinking vehicles was an ambulance, and realized that they had been loading someone with a major medical issue, plus 2 aides. If they had only SAID as much....??
Despite leaving half an hour late, we arrived at Stockholm/Arlanda just about on time, having been served our 3rd breakfast on the way. Sheila was surprised to find that her favorite thing was cold oatmeal. It had been cooked with cream and fruit juice and had nuts and seeds in it. It was good that we had made up the time, because we had another flight to Östersund in 3 hours, on a different airline. Passport control, pick up bags, walk 20 minutes through Sky City (airport shopping mall), check the bags back in, go through security for the 2nd time that day....and wait.
The flight to Östersund was PACKED! There's some sort of major ski event in Åre this weekend, and it's technically the Östersund/Åre airport so....lots of fit young folks with ski bags, plus the usual (we assume) batch of businessmen headed home for the weekend. (I now find that calling this "some sort of major ski event" is like calling the Super Bowl "something to do with sportsball". It is, in fact, the FIS Alpine World Ski Chamionships, aka World Cup Finals. So....pretty major.)
Picked up our rental car for the next 2 weeks...they upgraded us to a brand-new BMW 330i xDrive station wagon, with ALL the bells and whistles. We might actually know how to drive it by the time we get back.. A kind of cool feature is that it projects your speed AND the current speed limit on the windshield, so you never have to take your eyes off the road. And also you know if you're speeding...
Got the car parked in the garage a couple of blocks from Hotell Emma, where we have the same room as a couple of years ago. Staggered out to find dinner and ended up at the Greek Grill a few blocks away. Moussaka for Sheila, lambchops for Lars, and home to collapse into bed.
After sleeping for something like 10 hours, we had breakfast here at Hotell Emma (sorry, no pics. Check back tomorrow!) and set off to find the ski rental place....and get more accustomed to the car. We had some kind of bad info as to where to rent skis....Intersport has 2 locations here, and the first one we tried pretty obviously only SELLS skis. So we got more practice with the car, and drove to the one at the Biathlon stadium. Being Saturday, we had to wait a bit, as there were other customers. Once it was our turn, the guy was very surprised when we said we wanted the skis and poles for two weeks. Part of the problem is that this location will close for the season on the 27th, and we won't be back until either the 28th or the 1st (depending on which is the better day for driving). But he decided we could turn them in at the other location...he'll probably be there when we get back. After much discussion about the type of skis (they don't rent anything much like our own), we ended up with everything we need, and he gave us a discount since it's such a long rental.
Then, since Sheila's everyday boots proved no match for the ice at Station, we went back to the shopping center to get some ice cleats....which only come in way too small or slightly too large. So she has the larger ones, just in case we find more places where the ice is deeper than the gravel and cinders put down for traction. On advice from friends, we also stopped at Systembolaget to get wine and beer for the trip to Norway....alcohol is much cheaper in Sweden, apparently.
Sheila got to practice a bit with the car on the way back. The parking garage is a significant challenge, especially since the car hollers at you when it thinks you're too close to something. Once well into the parking space, it thought we were too close to things in front and on both sides. Yeah, well....it's a parking garage. It's just....it's a NEW car, and not a cheap one. Makes one a bit nervous.
We also did some basic grocery shopping, as the store in Glåmos, Norway, is most likely to be closed when we arrive, as they have limited hours on Sundays. We'll stop at the larger store on the way out of town tomorrow, to pick up a couple of things that need to be colder than the mini-fridge might keep them.
And of course, it wouldn't be a trip to Sweden without fika! A mid-morning or mid-afternoon coffee break, preferably with something good to eat. There is an excellent konditori a short block from Hotell Emma. Sheila had a chocolate/rasberry mousse cake, and Lars had a....frog. White cake and custard filling with a green marzipan shell. The green marzipan is most commonly associated with a Princesstårta (Princess torte), so he decided this must be the frog the princess kissed. This theory was confirmed by the waitress.
Not so many photos today, but tomorrow is a driving day, so we hope to get some nice pics of the fells between here and Norway.
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