Long Journey To England and First Night in Wales

For the first time, Nancy and I flew to Europe on Icelandair.  We booked these flights many months ago and secured excellent air fares. To our surprise, Icelandair is currently on strike. As a result our takeoff from  Denver was delayed nearly two and half hours. We were given good seats with additional leg room. The flight was from Denver to Keflavik Airport near the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.  After the seven and a half hour flight we had to wait an additional two hours before leaving Kevflavik to London Heathrow. This last 3 hour leg was most enjoyable as there were four Icelandic couples who were sitting around us and all were in a highly festive and gregarious mood. Being the flaming extrovert that I am, I commented to who I judged as the “ring leader” of the group who much I was enjoying their energy and seemingly very happy attitudes.  He smiled and we started a very genial conversation.

He was part of four couples who were going to Bali in Indonesia for a Holiday. Because of the lengthy delay in leaving Kevlavik Airport, they missed their connecting flight in London Heathrow.  They would not be leaving for Bali until late Tuesday evening making an extremely long day for their group. However, they simply laughed about the delay and simply embraced a very positive attitude. You talk about “glowing with the flow!” He went on to share with me about his life in Iceland since I was keenly interested in learning more about a country and people I honestly know very little about.

The first think I asked him was about his language. I’ve lived in Germany for three years more than 33 years ago. I still know a lot of German words because so much of our own English language comes from German. I also grew up with Spanish around me 24/7 because that’s the language of my parents and all of my preceding ancestry. Moreover, I learned a bit of Korean and learned to read and write Korean during the two years I lived there.  But Islandic?  It sounds like no language I’ve ever heard before.  Until this evening. More on that later.

This fellow traveler told me that the Icelandic language originated from the Vikings who first populated this island nation over a thousand years ago. Their language is more related to the ancient Norse people who have since evolved into modern day Norwegian. Therefore, if I understood him correctly, the current Icelandic language has more in common with the language of the ancient Vikings than the current day Scandinavian languages. They are also very informal people taking on no pretentious attitudes. From the lowest people in their society to the President of their Nation, everyone is addressed by their first name. They seem to be quite proud of that. When I asked what he does for a living I learned that he is a commercial fisherman in the second largest city in Iceland. He owns a 3,000 ton ship which is actually quite large. He employs a crew of 26. He’s a young looking grandfather of 2 grandchildren and four children. He showed me pictures on his iPhone of his family, home and ship. To keep their festive mood flowing I looked at them, knowing full well that they speak excellent English, that when they arrive in Bali they need to “party like rock stars!”  They all gave out a big, hearty laugh and agreed that they would make this Holiday memorable. I then followed with, “when you leave Bali, the locals should be asking each other, ‘who are those people?! Are all Icelanders as crazy as them?!”  Again, another big laugh from them all!

Isn’t it informative to us all that people from a completely different culture and language could have so much in common with us? Their sense of family, friends, their work and their ability to enjoy the fruits of their labor through a wonderful Holiday far from home. I know that not everyone can be blessed with the opportunity to travel abroad for leisure. I do know that those who can are so very fortunate. I never lose site of how fortunate Nancy and I are that we can take part in such adventures.

We arrived in London Heathrow nearly 6 hours later than scheduled but were greeted by our very dear and close friends, Carl and Marion. This will be the fifth “epic” Holiday that we’ve shared together. We safely arrived in their home near Portsmouth, England in which they treated us to a lovely dinner. This morning they made us a “proper” English breakfast which was both delicious and very filling. We repacked our bags and off we went for a five day trip to Wales. About half way there we stopped in the medieval town of Ludlow near the English-Welsh border. We walked around the very pretty town and stopped at a “proper” tea house for our afternoon tea and cakes. The tea was excellent. Carl and I had a Victorian sandwich while Nancy and Marion enjoyed scones with clotted cream and jam. The Victorian sandwich is not a sandwich but a sponge cake with a butter cream filling with raspberry jam and butter cream icing.  Delicious!

This is the first time Nancy and I have ever visited Wales. The Welsh countryside is beautiful with countless rolling hills and valleys in rich greens and sheep scenically dotting the rural countryside. Once in Wales all the street signs are both in English and the native Welsh language. Like the Icelandic language I mentioned earlier, I cannot make out a single word! We arrived at our destination at about 7pm in a beautiful bed and breakfast called the Glyntwrog House outside the lovely village of Betws-y-Coed. We have a lot of adventures planned for the week in which I will be happy to share with you.

Unfortunately, for now, I don’t have the right interface cable to download my pictures to my iPad Mini for this blog. Therefore, I must apologize for not having any pictures to share with you at this time. I will remedy that in the next day or so.

On to hiking in the region of Snowdonia!

Lord Mortimer and Lady Grey welcoming visitors to Ludlow Castle

Carl, Marion, Joe and Nancy in Carvell’s Tea Shop. Ludlow

Lovely English countryside outside Portsmouth.

Victorian Sandwich and Tea in Ludlow, England

Carvell’s Art of Tea Shop in Ludlow.