On 22nd January, I flew from London Gatwick direct to Keflavik, Iceland to attend the RSL Iceland International, my first ever trip to Iceland.
After a journey of approx. 3 hours, I arrived late afternoon in comparative darkness and when I stepped outside the airport building, the bitter ice-cold wind hit me straight in the face! Whilst I was expecting cold temperatures and snow, there was none of the latter (at least not yet!) A bus journey of roughly an hour took me to the wonderfully warm hotel which was to be by home for the next few days. After the briefing at the venue, it was an early night ready for the first day of competition in the morning.
On wakening, looking out of the window, to see between 12-15 inches of snow had fallen during the night! To some this might seem a lot, but to the locals this was nothing out of the ordinary and carried on with life as normal, totally unfazed.
The tournament was being held a short drive away where I met umpires from Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, Germany, Slovakia, Bulgaria, England and Scotland, working on 4 courts.
Long days, with no daylight (the sun rises about 10.30am and sets about 4pm) we didn’t have much time for relaxation except for a couple of beers in the hotel bar when we finished. One evening we managed to complete our schedule earlier than expected so we were treated to a visit to a local swimming bath – outdoors! – leaving the locker room barefoot wearing only shorts into temperatures of -2 degrees was a shock to the system, however a quick sprint to the hot tub with a water temperature of 42 degrees soon warmed us up.
On the Saturday evening, we were all treated to a lovely dinner in a nice restaurant in central Reykjavik, courtesy of Badminton Iceland – thank you very much!
All too soon Finals Day was upon us and I was selected to Umpire the Mixed Doubles Final between Denmark and France and it was time to bid farewell to friends old and new with a promise to meet up somewhere on court again sometime soon.
Thanks to Badminton Iceland for selecting me and to Badminton Wales for affording me the opportunity to visit an interesting country which I hope to revisit in the future with the hope of witnessing the spectacular Northern Lights!
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