For Jón it was the first trip out off Iceland in his whole lifetime and I think he was rather anxious about it. We told him to pack as little as neccessary and just buy a bit of new clothes in Austria. Took us a bit of time to make him buy things, but in the end we succeeded .

The first obstacle on our trip was the firealarm at Keflavík Airport just 30 minutes before boarding. First I thought it was a joke, but then got rather stressed when I realised it was for sure we had to leave the building. At least they discovered shortly after that there was no fire and we were allowed to go inside again. Of course we had to do the Security Check a second time...

Finally on board I could relax a bit and enjoy the trip to Copenhagen and then to Vienna.

My dad fetched us from the airport and we got a delicious meal at my parents' place. We stayed at their second flat in the same building. To our surprise Jón, who usually denies to drink alcoholic beverages, instantly said YES, when he was offered a glass of beer. A day later, he even tried some snaps after dinner! We had actually thought that we could use his Duty Free amount on the way back, but he used it all alone.
We did a lot of sightseeing the following days, went to St.Stephen's, The Museum of Nature History, The Museum of Art History, Schloss Schönbrunn, the zoo and so on. I think it was very interesting for Jón to see all the architecture and walk through such an amount of history. Sometimes I had the feeling, it was a bit too much for him, so many different impressions. But I really hope, he enjoyed it. We spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with my family, enjoyed delicious food and had fun watching the kids unwrapping their parcels (not so many for the grown-ups). On 26th of December we took a drive to Kahlenberg, Leopoldsberg and Klosterneuburg before we cooked a delicious fishdinner for my family. We had 3 different courses: fried cod, catfish and shrimps in creamsauce and halibut with garlic. Think everybody liked it.

Of course we didn't forget to visit some of the numerous Christmasmarkets, had Punsch, fresh Krapfen and a lot of other delicious stuff. 

My parents took us for a drive to our summerhouse in Waldviertel and I think both the old buildings in Zwettl and the big trees in the forest were quite impressive. Prater was another "Must see" during our trip and of course we went for a ride with the Giantwheel to enjoy the view.

Time, as usual, just flew and far too soon we had to say Goodbye. I was rather unnerved about Austrian Airlines as they technically can check our luggage through, but don't allow their groundpersonal to do so when you haven't booked all flights at the same booking. This has never been trouble going from Iceland, but nearly every time going back. At least we had booked the flights that way it wouldn't matter too much in Copenhagen. There we were lucky and able to check in straight again after arriving and we were allowed to go through the fast lane at the Security Check. Think I've never been that fast there before! We got some seats at the Quiet Zone and relaxed a bit there before boarding the plane to Iceland. We arrived there safe and sound at the right time, went through the Duty Free Store, fetched our luggage and off we went to Reykjavík, where Jón left us to stay with Ína, Haukur and the kids. We continued our trip North and it was good, we did so as we just escaped the bad weather that stopped all travelling on 30th of December. 

I attach a few pics and will put a few more in an album for you!

At the Museum of Nature History

Skál!

Art is all around you...

Winterapples at Waldviertel

Who's watching whom?

You got some sweets in there?

Always good to check out some trees

Delicious Icelandic halibut

Enjoying the view over Vienna from the Giantwheel