May 10, 2019
Flight: Vagar, Faroe Islands (FAE) to Copenhagen, Denmark (CPH); SAS; economy
Flight: Copenhagen, Denmark (CPH) to Luxembourg, Luxembourg (LUX); Luxair; economy
Hotel: ibis Budget Luxembourg Airport; $67
Today was my last day in the Faroes before flying back to Copenhagen and continuing to Luxembourg. I still had all morning free and luckily it was another gorgeous blue skies day. I had another yogurt and mueseli breakfast and left the B&B. The owner had said just leave the key in the room. I had left them the KOKS Raest Fisk beer bottles in their fridge as I couldn't carry it on the flight. I drove down to the port, hoping to get some drone views of the city. I'm a little self-conscious about using it in city areas, and there were some guys loading up a ship nearby. I got a few shots of town but they came out too overexposed.. I'm still trying to get the hang of it.
I left town via the mountain road. The snow from two days ago had all melted so it was interesting to stop and get some comparison photos. I stopped at the gas station for a candy bar and yet again at the KOKS parking lot (for the 4th time!) and walked down to the lake. A perfect view with the snowcapped mountain reflected in the water. And had to skip a rock or two.
Difference two days makes
I continued on back through the subsea tunnel to Vagar island. The next stop was going to be Trøllkonufingur, a pinnacle of rock. It is accessed up a narrow and bumpy road from Sandavágur to a parking area then a few hundred meters trail. The trail was undergoing construction with steps, etc. Unfortunately it was early in the morning and the wrong lighting to get the best photos. I continued back into town to visit the beautiful red-roofed church.
This would have been an excellent morning to do the Traelanipan hike and I was half tempted to do it again.. I still had plenty of time before the flight. I continued on towards the town of Gasadalur. This town of 18 people used to be very isolated, only accessible by the Postman's Trail over the mountain until a new tunnel opened in 2004. Now it is 20 minutes from the airport and has become instagram famous with a view of a waterfall and the town behind. I was lucky with the weather again as the sun was still out with blue skies, though the clouds were starting to move in.
Gasadalur
Mykines
There is a new parking space in town which was a bit of a walk back down to the trail. I saw an Avis van here this morning and wondered if if was the same one I had seen in Kalsoy and Vidareidi the day before.. they must be going around doing deliveries. There were about 5-6 tourists already at the waterfall viewpoint. There was also a clear view across to Mykines island.
I drove back to Sørvágur and filled up the tank. They assumed I was going to the airport and ended up giving me a bunch of coins as change. The Faroes use the DKK but have their own paper currency that is worthless elsewhere. I then drove the short distance to the airport. I was grabbing my bags out of the car when I ran into Anna again. She was on the Copenhagen flight as well. We were still way early so sat down at a cafe and chatted awhile. She had been to Mykines the previous day but hadn't really seen any puffins as they are currently all out feeding in the ocean. She also mentioned some guys had gone over but then didn't want to pay the new fee to hike... that would have been a boring long day in town (6 hrs)! I grabbed a coffee and sandwich for lunch with my remaining DKK.
Faroes currency
I remembered the American and Scottish women were flying to Edinburgh today and ran into them as well. The airport was a lot busier than I expected. The Copenhagen and Edinburgh flights leave about the same time but there were a few other flights including one to Roskilde. Security was easy but once through there wasn't a place to sit. I should have bought postcards earlier.. the only place I had seen them was in Vestmanna tourist office but did manage to find some at the duty free.
Finally the flights started boarding and it was somewhat fitting that it had started raining... despite the fickle weather in the Faroes I'd been very lucky overall. If I'd had some more time it might have been nice to get to some of the outer islands accessible only via ferry.
The flight to Copenhagen was uneventful and I had a fairly long (4hr) layover before the flight to Luxembourg. There are two different Priority Pass lounges in Terminal 2, the Aviator and Aspire lounges. I went into both for awhile to wait out the flight. I may have waited too long as the Luxair flight left out of A28 which was a hella long walk from the lounge. Got to the gate just in time as a large group of French-speaking students turned up.
Apire Lounge CPH
LG CPH-LUX
The flight to Luxembourg was on a Luxair DH8, a new airline for me. The flight announced a delay though, at first just 20 minutes but ended up being longer, they claimed air traffic delay through German airspace. We ended up arriving almost an hour late. I grabbed some Euro at the ATM. My hotel was close by, the ibis Budget Luxembourg Aeroport but they had stopped running the shuttle at 11PM. I would have walked but it was raining so ended up grabbing a taxi. He wasn't too happy about the short ride, less than 1km was 6.60 EUR.
The ibis Budget desk was closed so had to go to the main ibis hotel to get checked in. The ibis room was tiny of course, with three beds (bunkbed), but clean and quiet. I was back in Luxembourg for the first time since 1985!