It was another cool day (7C when we woke up) but at least it wasn't raining. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant at about 7:45am.
This afternoon we'd be flying out of Helsinki heading to Iceland. At least we hoped we would. The flight was due to depart at 4:10pm.
Yesterday there was a message from Finnair informing us that there would be a short walkout by security staff this afternoon at about the same time as we would be wanting to check in.
The email suggested that we put any essential items such as medicine in our carry-on baggage which seemed to imply that our checked luggage might not make the flight. They also sent us messages emphasising that we need to comply with the limitations for carry-on bags.
This would be a challenge because we have suitcases full of warm clothes for the visit to Iceland. What's more, Finnair doesn't travel to Iceland every day - just three times per week. So we might be without our bags for two days or more.
By the time our bags arrive, we would be a few hundred km away on the other side of the island as part of our tour.
The email from Finnair seemed to imply that our flight might be delayed. Hopefully not by too long.
At about 10am, we went for a walk past the wharf area and up to the nearby Orthodox church (Upspenski Cathedral) high up on a hill overlooking the city and the harbour. The church is an impressive building with huge columns and ornate decorations.
The wharf area was just as busy as on the previous days. It was fascinating how many small groups of young children were out and about. Mostly they wore fluoro vests and some were held together as a group with ropes. Most of them seemed to be kindergarten age or pre-schoolers.
In anticipation of possible problems at the airport, we'd packed essential items into our carry-on bags such as medicines and spare clothes.
Also we'd decided to play safe and get to the airport early. So we asked reception to get us a taxi at 12 noon which meat we'd be at the airport almost four hours before the plane was scheduled to depart. We wanted to get through security before they went on strike.
The taxi that arrived was a Tesla. It was a very comfortable ride. On the way I noticed that petrol here costs more than 2 Euros per litre which is about $A3.50 per litre. We reached the airport at 12:30pm.
There was nobody in front of us at the Finnair priority check-in counter. My bag weighed 23.2kg and Suzy's bag was only 20kg. Luckily they didn't weigh our carry-on bags.
When we walked around the corner to priority security, there were lots of people. There were even more people in the standard queue. It seemed like everyone else had decided to do the same us us - get there early before the strike.
Just in front of us in the security queue, we noticed a woman who had a small dog in a purpose-built backpack. When she got to the front of the queue, she took the dog out of the backpack to show him to the security man. Then she put him back in the bag and took him through the body scanner.
When Suzy walked through the scanner, she set off the alarm and a female security officer gave her a full body pat down. She thinks this might have been caused by the metal plates in the arm she broke a few years ago.
We reached the Finnair lounge at about 1pm. It was very crowded and got more crowded as the afternoon went on. People found it hard to find a seat. This lounge was quite basic compared to most business class lounges. It certainly isn't luxurious.
Nevertheless we had a light lunch and a glass of red wine and relaxed while we waited.
At about 3:30pm, we headed off to the departure gate because it was supposedly an 8 minute walk to the gate. About halfway there, Suzy realised that we'd left our heavy puffer jackets on the coat track back in the lounge and so she dashed back to get them. It would have been a big problem not to have these jackets in Iceland.
When we reached the gate, there were signs about carry-on controls but still nobody weighed our bags. Within a couple of minutes, they invited us to board and boarding was completed by 4pm. Once again Finnair seems to be good at the boarding process.
We'd been monitoring the airtags in our checked luggage and we were relieved to see they had arrived at the plane before take-off.
Although we'd booked business class, the seats looked like economy seats - quite narrow and little leg room. However, there was an empty seat between us. It was only a small plane (A319).
The onboard menu listed a limited supply of snacks and drinks and it listed prices for each. I thought that business class should get a proper meal and not have to pay for it.
As it turned out, I shouldn't have worried. They offered us a drink (I had red wine and Suzy had a G&T) soon after take off and then they served us a delicious hot meal on a tray with cloth napkins, real cutlery and more wine. As usual, Suzy gave me part of her meat and some of her wine and so I was feeling quite full.
On the back of the seat in front, there were instructions on how to connect to wifi during the flight. It worked and took us into the Finnair app.
I continue to be impressed with Finnair. Mind you the seats in business class on this flight could have been better.
The plane landed on schedule at 4:50pm Iceland time (7:50pm Helsinki time). Our bags eventually arrived on the carousel and we took the exit to find the driver who would transfer us to our hotel.
It was cool (7C) with light rain. The trip took 35 minutes - mostly on modern motorways. The countryside was barren for most of the way to Reykjavik.
The van was spacious and comfortable. Our driver was very personable but had a heavy accent and so I didn't understand much of what he said.
We reached the hotel at 6:15pm. It was busy - possibly because there was live entertainment for the restaurant near the lobby. It seems to be a modern hotel.
Our room was at the end of the corridor on the second floor. It was close to the street and quite noisy with cars passing close by.
It had a king bed, small work desk, fridge, safe, carpet, open shelving, hooks on the wall but no wardrobe. There was no air conditioning but it did have heating. Wifi speed was about 60Mb/s down and 80 up.
In the bathroom, there is a toilet and a shower in the bath but no hand basin. The hand basin is in the hallway between the bathroom and the bed.
Perhaps the most unusual feature of the room was the light switches. Mostly they were in pairs, you use one switch to turn the light off and the one beside it to turn it back on.
There were a couple of master switches. When you press a master switch, it turns off all the light but when you press it again, nothing happens. You are standing there in pitch black. You need to feel around in the dark to find one of the other light switches to turn it on and then go around to turn on other lights that you want.
Although there was a safe, it wasn't locked down. It was quite light and so you could carry it around whether you like. Someone could quite easily pick it up and leave the hotel with it. We decided not to risk putting our passports in it.
Suzy decided that she wouldn't be able to sleep tonight with the noise from the nearby street and so we asked to be moved to a different room. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible because the hotel was fully booked but they said they could move us tomorrow.
The restaurant was also fully booked and so we went to a nearby supermarket to buy some sandwiches for dinner.
We got to bed at about 8:30pm (11:30pm Helsinki time). It had been an anxious day but we had at last arrived in Iceland.
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