ok. here is the scoop.

Working off the Hilton computer...with a weird keyboard. Nice hotel and is walking distance to the Grand Hotel -- almost across the street -- where all the Regent folks are staying. The Grand looks very nice...a large, glass high rise. The service at the Hilton is lovely and lounge is very nice. They have a very nice spread of food out. It is surprisingly warm here. I almost didn´t need a coat. Perhaps a coat will be needed at a higher elevation?

As Leslie said, the trip was easy. My only snafus compared to the Burnside´s trip was that my luggage was not checked through by BA and the shuttle service forgot to pick me up at the airport in Iceland. Neither were catastrophes. My luggage came out completely and quickly in London, there were free carts to put the luggage on, people helped me on and off the train and Icelandair was very nice about all the luggage even though I was flying coach. Once I called the shuttle service, they sent along a private taxi for me and I got to the hotel directly.

I was through security with baggage in 15 minutes....by 3:15...in Iceland and would have been at the hotel with a taxi by 4. The shuttle told me to to expect to be on the road by 4, and they got me by 3:45, so it really was fine.

We were 1 hour delayed taking off from Kennedy due to fog and arrived at 8 instead of 7:40, then Heathrow delayed us another 20 minutes, so we didn´t land until 8:20. I stayed in the BA arrivals lounge until 10:30 and then made my way over to terminal one and my bags were checked through by 10:45. I misunderstood Leslie´s note about lack of bathrooms and hung out by the ticket counters and the bathrooms until 11:30. I zipped through security in less than 10 minutes and then cooled my heels as the board said that the gate would not be posted until noon. Terminal 1 is really nice and also has nice bathrooms and I just should have spent time on this side of security. It is a really comfortable terminal with nice stores and sitting areas. At noon, the gate was posted (21) and it was a hike. I was one of the first to arrive. They boarded us about 12:15...so it wasn´t that long a walk and the doors closed at 12:50. I fell asleep and awoke to notice it was 4:15 and we still had 30 minutes to go and that´s when I realized that Iceland was 1 hour behind England. We arrived 15 minutes early.

As you fly in, you can see the blue lagoon and the steam rising from the waters. The island is very barren...volcanic and brown. My taxi driver gave me a tour...a benefit to being forgotten. He told me that it doesn´t get very cold in the winter; in fact, Reykjavik rarely gets snow. He said they should really call it "Niceland" as the weather is quite agreeable. Only the mountaintops are covered in snow. It is blue skies and springlike.

Food: Food can be purchased on Icelandair and it looked tasty. There were decent looking sandwiches.

I met a nice couple at Heathrow while killing time celebrating their 40th anniversary by taking their grown kids to Israel, Turkey and Greece and we talked about traveling. I am listening to a pediatric surgeon from Boston chatting up a family from Sweden here in the lounge talking about childen and adoption. Tonight, I´m meeting up with Leslie and Brad for dinner.