Friday, March 2nd. England-Iceland. The storm has been dubbed #BeastFromTheEast and we were extremely worried we would be stuck here for another day. Our car did not have snow tires and it wasn’t a 4WD. But the flight to Reykjavik was still confirmed and on schedule. We just needed to get to the airport.
And so, we left the apartment at 7:30. Leaving the driveway was easy but driving on the alleyway was slippery. After two right turns, we arrived at a larger two-way street. And we got stuck. The tires kept spinning but we weren’t moving. The street was sloping up and the tires were not gaining traction.
No car was coming the opposite way, but a car stopped right behind us. Sean got out of the car to let the driver know that she could go around us. Then, with his gloves, Sean tried to clear the snow off the tires and used his Swiss Army knife to clear the grooves, hoping for more traction. It worked. For another 10 feet. Then the car got stuck again.
I was worried. And Arthur wouldn’t stop screaming in his car seat. I took him out and held him to soothe him. I was feeling flustered enough with the snow situation; I couldn’t handle hearing a baby complaining about being stuck in a car seat. Or perhaps, soothing Arthur meant soothing myself.
Sean cleared the tires again and got back in the car to try to move forward. It worked. For another 10 feet. He did this about three more times and we finally got to the main street. We’ve survived. At least we were moving and the car was no longer slipping.
It was a busy two-way street but everyone was driving slowly. Sean followed the car in front at a safe distance. The road was still icy and there were some sliding every now and then but it was manageable.
We finally got to M4 and it was a smooth ride to Heathrow from there. We dropped off the car at Sixt and got on the shuttle bus to the airport.
Before we returned the car, I had changed and fed Arthur. But on the shuttle bus, he pooped again and he was showing his discomfort. As soon as we got to Terminal 2, we found a warm corner to change his diaper. We used the stroller (bassinet-style) to do the changing. We didn’t even bother looking for the bathroom for a changing station.
From there, the check-in process and security were straight forward. Arthur was awake the whole time through it all. The diaper bag did get flagged, though. The security officer unpacked the medicine container, took out the liquids, placed them in ziploc bags, and ran them through the machine again. After security, Sean had to reorganize the bag.
We came to the airport with our two large backpack, the diaper bag, a purse, and a stroller and car seat. After check-in, we had the diaper bag, a purse, and stroller and car seat. But after security, we had an extra bag filled with our jackets, hats, scarves, and gloves. I made a commitment to repack the purse once we were in Iceland so we wouldn’t have to carry a purse anymore. The important documents and wallet need to be combined together in the diaper bag. This would allow us to have more hands to take care of Arthur.
At the gate, Sean placed the stroller and car seat in the gate check bags. Then we were able to board early.
When I checked us in online last night, we had been assigned the window seats. The plane was in a 2-3-2 configuration. When I saw on the website that row 38 had 3 empty seats, though, I told Sean that I would change our seats to the two aisle seats on the 3-seater. Hopefully, no one would take the middle seat and we would have an empty seat in between us. At the airport, the lady at the counter said that the flight was full. Sure enough, when we got on the plane, someone was assigned to the middle seat. He didn’t mind switching with me, though. So, Arthur and I were stuck in the middle seat.
When the airplane door closed, two seats on the right by the window were free. The flight attendant offered our guy the seat so that we would have more space. The guy happily obliged. Through the entire flight, we had an extra space. What great luck!
Arthur actually did quite well through the 3.5-hour flight. Upon take off, we got him distracted with “How to Train a Dragon” on the monitor. Then, after he had enough of the movie, I fed him and he fell asleep. He woke up an hour later, and we changed his diaper. We placed him in the middle seat with the portable bassinet and changed him there. Afterwards, we left him in the bassinet so that he could entertain himself. When he got bored, we played with him and distracted him with his giraffe toy. When he has finally had enough, we tried to put him to sleep. An hour before we landed, he fell asleep. When the pilot got on the PA to announce our descent, I got smarter this time. I waited about 5-10 minutes and when I could feel the plane was starting its descent, I took the sleeping baby and nursed him. Good thing he latched on and started nursing. We landed with no cries nor screams.
This was a pleasant flight.
When we got to the gate, we found out that we could only get the stroller and car seat at the belt. Unfortunately, the infant insert for the car seat got lost somehow. We couldn’t understand how that happened. It was inside the red gate check bag. We didn’t bother reporting it to the airline. We just went straight out of the terminal to meet the car rental person who drove us to the car rental place where we got the 4WD Toyota RAV4 with snow tires.
This was the car that we needed in Swindon. We didn’t really need it here in Iceland. It is warmer here than in England.
After we got the car, we stopped by the grocery store to get one week’s worth of supply. This is our third time in Iceland and we are still surprised with how expensive things are here!
We then made our way to the Airbnb which was only an hour away from the airport. Arthur fell asleep throughout the ride.
Our day ended with pizza and wine for dinner. Arthur continued to sleep. It was so nice to have a crib at this Airbnb.
two backpacks and a diaper bag 