We left Hotel Bethel around 730am and began the short walk to the Metro station in Kongens Nytorv, which thankfully we had scouted the night before. Copenhagen's Metro has 4 different lines and they all happen to converge at Kongens Nytorv.....meaning it's a lot easier if you know WHICH Metro entrance to take around the square. It's like a small city down there, with shops, escalators, elevators, and a lot going on.....and a lot of extra walking if you take the wrong entrance.
We took the right elevator down to M2 and grabbed tickets from the machine.....in about 90 seconds, as the next train arrived. While it was unfortunately very crowded and we had to stand with all our luggage, we were in the very front car and had a picture window view of the subway line ahead and even points where tracks diverge in different directions.
In just over ten minutes, we arrived at Terminal 3, and made the short trek over to Terminal 2, where we found coffee and croissants at a 7-11. We were fairly early, so had to wait to find out where our check-in was......then wait again to find out where our gate was....and then they changed it on us last minute. Luckily it wasn't too far. They never weighed our bags, which was good - overall we knew we were under the limit, but might have had to do some re-arranging on a per bag basis.
To our surprise, at security they even let us keep the two jars of Norwegian honey we bought from a roadside stand north of Kongsberg. It was at various times a liquid and a solid, so we knew it was a gamble, as it well exceeded 100ml.
In the interim, we checked out the Duty Free (again unsuccessfully) and had a quick and expensive lunch and beer at another Gasoline Grill location in the terminal.
The flight to Iceland left a bit late after the gate change, and was only 3.5 hours, but ended in a rather rocky landing amid heavy rain and extremely strong winds. As we attempted to touch down, the wings twice did a rather disconcerting waggle....and Jane almost broke my hand. The plane was literally rocking as we sat still on the runway.
Once on the ground, we also realized that we would be shunted to a "remote" gate, meaning that a series of buses would be picking us up in the wind and rain to ferry us to the terminal....annoying AND time consuming.
We hurried through passport control on the way to our departure gate - what had been a 1.25 hour layover became a direct dash to our next boarding gate, without even time for a washroom stop. Thankfully, once on the plane we both had time to visit the loo before departure.
The flight to Hamilton was nearly 6 hours into a headwind, with some nice views of Greenland, Labrador, and even Barrie and Lake Simcoe. This landing was smooth in perfect weather, and Customs was mercifully swift. Our clever plan had also worked - the best way to avoid having your car stolen at Hamilton airport, is to leave your dented and damaged car beside a much nicer one!
We hopped in the car just after 6pm and started the 2.5 hour drive home, with our internal clocks thinking it was midnight. A quick coffee and food stop in Woodstock saw us the rest of the way.
On the drive, it occurred to me that I had actually logged more miles in Winston (2997 km) than I had driven in our new used Bronco Sport....and at this point in the trip, Bucky definitely felt more foreign!
We had one last scare as the headlights illuminated five deer standing at the side of the 401 near Ridgetown, providing a shot of adrenaline with which caffeine cannot compete. We arrived home just before 9pm (but 3am to us) to very long grass, happy cats and full litter boxes.....and even managed to stay up for a bit! Epic Trip, Part Deux....in the books!
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