The journey home

As you know, we had to make, cancel and remake many plans to get home from Spain. Our original plan involved traveling through Italy (they haven’t really reopened after their COVID-19 battle), Greece (they are strongly encouraging tourists but only from select countries; Spain did not make that list) and passing through Iceland for a few days. We planned to stop in Iceland because the flights were incredibly affordable and Oliver learned about some amazing things to see in his Geography class which inspired us to stop.

Plans B through F included driving to Portugal (they did not open their borders with Spain very late June), northern Spain (travel within provinces in Spain was not allowed until very late June), and going to Iceland mid-June (flights were cancelled until July). But finally, finally, we got a flight that wasn’t cancelled out of Spain (we are waiting for refunds on 8 of 10 flights that got caught up in all of the cancellations of Plans A-F).

Plan G took us on a flight to Denmark, where we spent the night, and on to Iceland for a week.

Our flights out of Spain to Denmark and Iceland went smoothly. The airport and security were nearly empty.

The plane was less than a quarter full. Everyone wore masks.

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In-flight service was extremely limited; they give you hand sanitizer and a bottle of water when you board and you bring any garbage to the front on your way out.

Upon arrival in Iceland Todd and I were given tests for COVID-19 (sorry, we weren’t allowed to take pictures). The test involved taking a swab of our throats and a swab of the inside of our nostril (or Todd would say the back of our brain). This part was not fun. The kids did not have to be tested (thankfully). In a couple of hours we received a text saying that we COVID free and good to go on an adventure in Iceland!

The most noticeable and shocking thing for us arriving in Iceland was the lack of people wearing masks, especially coming from Spain. Everyone in Spain wears masks, it is mandated by the government. Iceland had such an effective response to COVID-19, and such an isolated population, that there were very few cases (that is why we felt safe visiting). It was a refreshing break to store our masks for a week.

From the airport we rented a RV to serve as our lodging and transportation and were off for a week of remote exploration and adventure!