Blogs from Dulles, Virginia, United States, North America

We hoped the late spring of 2022 would be the time to begin to travel abroad once again. The Covid-19 pandemic had shut off foreign travel for all of 2020 and 2021. Iceland was a place we wanted to visit, especially since we had visited Greenland in 2019. Iceland dropped its incoming Covid test requirement at the end of February. We booked the 8 day Iceland Adventure tour with Globus. Icelandair flight 644 departed Washington Dulles International Airport at 8:30 p.m. on Saturday evening. We opted for Economy Plus seating. The Boeing 767 aircraft afforded 2-abreast seating which was very nice. On Icelandair, one purchases meals in economy class. We purchased the "Three-course Hot Meal" in advance. It consisted of a parma ham, tomatoes and mozzarella appetizer. lasagna and tiramisu. It was not bad at all. ... read more

Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647We were on time and, once again, were very thankful to have our Global Entry memberships, as the lines for immigration were the longest I have ever seen. We arrived right at 3:00pm, in the midst of all the international arrivals from Europe. We were through in a breeze and, as usual, had to wait for the bags. The Customs line was just as bad, but again we were able to bypass it, and in under 30 minutes after landing we were in a cab on our way home.... read more

Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647When I originally booked our award tickets for this trip, there were multiple connection options for our return leg, to include Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Munich, and Frankfurt. I'd selected Brussels for the overall time savings, not to mention its easy connections. I purposely avoided Frankfurt, as connections there can be so cumbersome. For our rerouted return, beggars could not be choosers, and I was happy to have seats at all. Our connection now stretched to nearly 4 hours, which we would need, as the distances within the Frankfurt airport can be extreme, and then you have to factor in the second full security screening, which was understandably extra thorough in light of the still-recent Brussels attacks. We passed the time shopping and reading, and then ultimately dealing with the masses at the gate. As ... read more

Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647In very unexpected fashion, our flight was less than half full. I cannot remember the last time I was on a flight, let alone an international one, when there were near any empty seats. The load factor, however, did ultimately explain why I was able to snag the Business Class seats at the reduced mileage threshold. All of the seats around us were empty, and with so few people, we ended up spending a lot time chatting with one of the flight attendants. As soon as we finished the extended lunch service, I helped Katherine set her seat up into a lie-flat bed. I literally tucked her in and she was asleep almost immediately, waking up a couple of hours before we landed at Dulles. I watched a few movies, slept a little myself, ... read more

Geo: 39.0095, -77.4647Once we cleared customs and immigration and entered the departures area of the airport, we saw a section we'd completely missed upon arrival. The airport had the largest and highest-end airport shopping I've seen anywhere outside of Dubai. The stores stretched across three terminals and ran the gamut from kitschy souvenirs to Hermes to Austin Martin cars. My only explanation might be the extraordinarily high taxes in Denmark, which might make duty-free shopping lucrative. Whatever the case, the airport offered plenty of opportunities to fill the few hours before our 12:20pm flight back to Dulles.The rain became consistently stronger as departure-time approached, and there were even passing thunder storms. While we boarded on time, we were soon advised by the pilot of a "technical issue," which though resolved within 20 minutes, meant that ... read more