In which we camp out in a couple of hotel rooms waiting out the weather and unhappy travelers.
May 17, Friday – Second Departure Day
Everyone slept extremely well; girls in one room, boys in the other. Since we did not have our suit cases had to buy a toothbrush (1) and small tube of Colgate $1.50. I wonder did we all use the same toothbrush that morning? No shave, no change of clothes, everyone showered so we don’t smell yet! Looks like our scheduled stop over in Iceland is out for now, maybe on the return trip. Morning uneventful in a motel, hotel in suburban Chicago; what else can one say? Had a nice breakfast and lunch courtesy of Icelandic Air. Bus took us back to O’Hare at 1:30 pm. The schedule for the plane had been changed so only a short stopover in Iceland and we will arrive in Luxembourg at approximately 6 am on the 18th. The Icelandic people were extremely helpful and nice. Plane was loaded at 3 pm; we spent about 1 hour on the runway and finally took off at 4:10 pm – 19 hours late!
It is amazing the difference a good night’s sleep makes on one’s disposition. Last night while waiting in the plane the crowd was hot, mad, unruly, ornery and tired. Today everyone is happy and relaxed and they have graciously accepted the delay. Many applauded when the plane finally took off. A case of musical chairs occurred in the row in front of us. The 2 toughies mentioned earlier turned out to be quite nice. They were at the same hotel as we. They had made arrangements to change seats and the flight attendants had also made arrangements to change their seats. That added a little humor to the departure. One lady refused to go back to her seat because she had just had stomach surgery! Never did figure that one out!
A side note: while walking around the hotel, we noted that the staff was setting up for a big luncheon. We all noticed one employee standing next to a large cart full of pieces of pie; he was busy picking small pieces of pie off of all of the pieces of pie set up for the banquet. Glad that we weren’t eating at that luncheon!