Thanks, Leslie. Sounds like everything is going great so far. Glad the shuttle thing worked out. We leave Monday am, but we connect with Icelandair at JFK. I know they share the BA Business Class Lounge there, so I figure they go out of the same terminal at JFK that BA does. We have about a four hour layover, so we should have plenty of time to find it.

Thanks Leslie, very helpful information. See you on Tuesday. Tom.

On BA flight waiting to take off. They refused to check my baggage through to Reykjavik. Go figure.

SEE you Tuesday Andi - safe travels -

Hi! First time I've checked in on LCT since arriving here in NYC on Wednesday. We've had a fabulous pre-cruise visiting family and friends and having a ball. We've seen plays, walked miles, eaten like there's no tomorrow and had so many fun laughs our sides ache.

See all the VIKINGS soon...we fly out of JFK tomorrow with Joanna & Tony and Peggy & Jerry !

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.

Met up with Andi in the lounge when we returned from our tour around 6:30 PM - now we are waiting for her to freshen up.

We took the Thorsmark excursion today. Great scenery and lots of hiking, including a trek down a glacial valley to a hidden waterfall where we crossed freezing streams multiple times, and finally scrambled up boulders to see a hidden waterfall. Unfortunately Brad,s camera fell out of his case into a roaring stream on the way down. Our guide actually took off his pants and crawled in and retrieved the camera which was wedged between some rocks.

We are hoping when it dries out that it will be OK. A nice guy from southwestern Colorado, over here to dispose of used aircraft, whom we met in the lounge yesterday and saw again tonight, actually is lending us his camera for the next few days.

Leslie and I just finished dinner. The sun is just starting to set. It feels like 6pm. The skybox still bright blue and the sun is still out. It is 10:45 pm. It is only 7:45pm NY time so I really feel confused. I better go to sleep. I have a tour tomorrow at 8:45. Can't wait for you all to arrive!

Leslie I hope Brad's camera is OK - Tony would be sooo upset!!! We fly out at 9:30 am tomorrow I finished packing early this afternoon and have one large bag definitely under 50 lbs and one small roller thing which fits under my seat no purse - Tony just finished, altho he claimed this am he was almost done, big tale, he has one large that seems very heavy to me, another medium very heavy, and his carry on which is packed beyond belief - same old every time he packs - I pray I can check in at Jax and send all the way to Rey without having to recheck at JFK and get from one terminal to another with HIS bags - will send seamail -

Andi - believe me Reykjavik gets snow in the winter. I remember walking with snow to my knees through an outdoor exhibit at the art museum with snow falling like crazy. I was there one February.
Question - do most of the natives still wear black?
Sorry I don't have a photo without me in it. This was taken at the top of the Pearl in Reykjavik.

Hi Leslie,

So sorry to hear about Brad's camera. I do hope that both the camera and photos taken are salvagable. Over the years, Brad's taken the most fantastic photos from journeys all over the world with that great little camera.

I hope the rest of your journey is "mishap free." Enjoy!

We checked Brad´s card in my camera and his pictures are fine! It doesn´t appear his camera survived, but a nice gentleman lent him his camera for his Iceland stay and we were able to contact Doug and we are bringing and extra camera for Brad to use, so all is well.

Today, was a glorious day weather wise. The sky was robins egg blue and the weather was really comfortable. Brad, Leslie and I took a Golden Circle superjeep tour where we saw waterfalls, geysirs, powerplants, glaciers, volcanos, all sorts of landscapes, flora and fauna. There are loads of gorgeous horses everywhere. All of a sudden a group of horses dashed out into the road and ran right towards our jeep head on then went thundering around us. I got a picture of it. It was amazing.

I am still having a hard time getting used to the continual daylight here. It is 10:30 and there is a sunset...the sun is still above the horizon. However, it doesn´t drop below long and stays light almost continually. I awoke twice last night thinking I had overslept because it was light.

Sitting here in the lounge, we can see the snow capped mountains and the sea and it is a pretty view. The Grand Hotel across the street has the same view.

We had lamb soup for lunch today and it was quite tasty and went to a seafood restaurant for dinner tonight. It´s quite a hike--even by cab--to town. It was about a $10 cab ride. The town is very cute and is very reminiscent of Norway villages. In fact, the entire area around Reykjavik is very Norwegian.

The landscape has few trees. The ones it has have been planted and are not very tall. Animals consist of loads of horses and some sheep, ducks,fox and swan. Minks were introduced here to farm and became loose and have become terrible pests to the farmers as they kill for fun.

Well, must get to bed, as I have another full day of sightseeing tomorrow. Brad and Leslie head off in a rental car to the far end of a peninsula and I am staying around and will meet up tomorrow night with the LCTers who arrive in the next wave tomorrow. Doug will arrive on the 20th.

Well the pictures survived, amazingly, but not the camera. It was in the water a good 15 minutes before the guide finally snagged it so we weren´t particularly hopeful about that. Time for a new one.

It is really pretty amazing that someone we just met would be comfortable to part with his camera (and it is a nice one.) We are renting a car for two days and he is fine with us dropping it back at the Hilton on Thursday before we return the car and board the ship. I almost think he´d be OK with us mailing it back to him in the US. He is over here to do due diligence on a purchase of a 757 by Citibank who will then lease it to an airline. He told us that he has a dozen large file boxes to review - maintenance records, flight logs, etc.

We had a great super jeep tour yesterday which Andi has described in detail. Brad & I actually met our driver/guide, the owner of Nature Explorer, last fall at a temple in Bhutan. He was there with a photography group and we got to chatting and we mentioned that we would be visiting Iceland at which point he whipped out his business card... He is quite the accomplished driver - he trains the Norweigan army in offroad driving, did some training of drivers in Afghanistan. During our drive on the glacier we all felt sure he wouldn´t get stuck!¨

It is another beautiful day today. We are off around 9 AM to the western peninsula (which I can neither spell or pronounce...)

Greetings from Reykjavik. Mona and I arrived this afternoon. All the flights were early. Everything went smoothly. We already had made reservations and paid for the Flybus so we took it instead of the shuttle. There were no problems with it except it took a long time. We were on the bus for an hour and 45 minutes. We had to wait about 25 minutes for the bus to depart, and even though he dropped us off at the Hilton it was the last stop.

Tomorrow we take the Grand Circle Tour. The weather here is exceptionally good. Looking forward to seeing everyone again. Tom.

starting a sea mail thread since almost everyone is due to arrive by today.