Today being the last full day in Iceland became sort of a universal putz around day rather than anything planned. I think with the brutalization caused by the two days of tours with no recovery period no one wanted to really do anything killer active. I woke up first pretty much but forced myself to stay in bed from 6 to 8am when I did actually start moving trying not to wake anyone else up. I made what I would eat for breakfast and slowly the rest of the crowd started to rise. We made an easy morning of it and basically just used the day to wander around Reykjavik rather than to do anything totally active.
We visited the culture museum which had a very cool exhibit on the old saga texts of Iceland then headed down to get lunch at the burger joint on Burgerjoint corner. It was a reasonably good burger. I got mine with bacon and cheese because I just ordered whatever Dee got. After lunch we sort of split up for a bit and went to see the big church at the top of the hill and go up to the top of the tower. The view was really nice up there but it was rather windy. After the church Dee and I headed down to the waterfront because I wanted to get pictures of a couple statues we had passed in vehicles that I hadn't yet gotten a chance to photograph but I knew I wanted. After that it was a double wander through town to pick up a few souvenirs that need to be bought before we get out of town. Since we were split up we made plans to get back to the house by 5pm for dinner plans. I chose to get back early and have a quiet beer.
After everyone arrived we spent a few minutes deciding where to eat and after looking through a couple pages of a book we chose Hofnin down on the waterfront. We walked down and got seated right away. We had an appetizer that was basically bread and a few different types of fish and Dee and I shared a bottle of white wine. I ordered the mussels which turned out to be a mistake as they were horribly overcooked. Everyone else seemed to like their food at least. I didn't finish the mussels. I had their carrot cake dessert which was really good and accompanied that with a priest's coffee which has brennivin in it. That was actually very tasty. I hadn't had brennivin before that. After we finished we sort of just wandered around the city a bit, even ending up back at the viking ship statue on the waterfront for a short while. After wandering about we eventually made it back to the house and finished up the night.
The pictures from today can be found here.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Iceland Day 4
Today started with about an hour turn around from the day before for rest we got assembled and headed over to the Hotel Holt to be picked up for our Vestmannaeyjar trip. The Holt is basically 2 houses away from where we are staying so it wasn't much of a hike to get there. The bus was perhaps a couple minutes late but we made it down and signed in for our trip and then our driver started the two plus hour trek over to the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar which means Westmann Isles. They are a 15 island archipelago of which really one is inhabited. The drive was basically uninteresting and a few of us nodded off during the ride. We did drive out of fog into the ferry port which was out in the sun basically when we got there.
The ferry ride over was quite easy and took about a half an hour or so to get there. From there we were brought into the Cafe Kro and set up for the first part of the trip which was a boat ride around the isles. The boat ride was fun and the sun stayed out but the wind really picked up as we went along. We got to see puffins and other birds as well as a lot of the interesting lava, basalt and other rock formations that made up the isles. We also pretty much passed right by the fish packing plants which smelled significant. As the wind picked up the water got rougher and it basically became impossible to stay topside on the boat without getting soaked. I get seasick on the inside of small boats so I had to stay out there and did literally get soaked top to bottom. Dee remained outside also. Fortunately some portions of the trip weren't so windy as the islands provided shelter but the final run into the harbor was insane and there were a few moments I felt I could easily get thrown out of the boat, and I am pretty steady on my feet in the boat. There was also a short stop into a sea cave where the captain played the saxophone for the excellent acoustics inside it. Overall the boat trip was fun but I was drenched by the time it was over.
The brought us back into the Cafe Kro where we were fed warm bread and cauliflower soup which was a touch salty. It was dry inside and Dee got lucky because the place noticed how drenched she was and the provided her some temporary clothes while they sent hers to someone's house to be dried. Some of us found the lone gift shop and bought some dry souvenir clothes which we changed into in the Kro bathrooms. They then took us on a bus tour around the island where we saw Heimaey which erupted in 73 amongst the main highlight. They also had a small excavation of some of the houses that were buried by the ash. To put it in perspective as we think about eruptions, this was basically a 4 month pouring of ash more than it was anything like we typically think of volcanoes. Most of the approximately 800 houses lost or damaged were basically buried in the ash. The other perspective item was realizing that we were standing on land that was younger than us as it was created in 1973. It isn't really something you can say often. That's kinda cool to think about. During the bus tour the wind really picked up which did help dry out my clothes a little bit but not really enough at least for my pants.
After the bus tour we found dinner at the Cafe Maria at the suggestion of our guide "Willy." Pete and I split a Special pizza which had ham, pepperoni, mushrooms and jalapenos and was really good. They even presliced it for us so we could eat it like Americans. I had a Tuborg Classic to accompany which is of course a Danish beer but they had the Egils Gull as their Icelandic offering and I had it the night before. After the pizza I had one of their ice cream dishes which had straciatella, caramel and whipped cream. It was also quite good. We apparently were a bit long in eating but did manage to get on the ferry before it left. The ferry ride was very rough as the winds were still very high. We did make it back in one piece however the guide left his keys on the island by accident in the process of loaning Dee his jacket. This meant a few extra minutes of wait when we boarded a standard bus which got us to a bus stop in Reykjavik where we were picked up by another bus guide from the tour company who got us to the Hotel Holt. He wouldn't listen to us when we asked him to stop in front of our house instead. From there it was basically wind down time. The two days felt like one giant combined day. It was very exhausting.
The pictures from today can be found here.
The ferry ride over was quite easy and took about a half an hour or so to get there. From there we were brought into the Cafe Kro and set up for the first part of the trip which was a boat ride around the isles. The boat ride was fun and the sun stayed out but the wind really picked up as we went along. We got to see puffins and other birds as well as a lot of the interesting lava, basalt and other rock formations that made up the isles. We also pretty much passed right by the fish packing plants which smelled significant. As the wind picked up the water got rougher and it basically became impossible to stay topside on the boat without getting soaked. I get seasick on the inside of small boats so I had to stay out there and did literally get soaked top to bottom. Dee remained outside also. Fortunately some portions of the trip weren't so windy as the islands provided shelter but the final run into the harbor was insane and there were a few moments I felt I could easily get thrown out of the boat, and I am pretty steady on my feet in the boat. There was also a short stop into a sea cave where the captain played the saxophone for the excellent acoustics inside it. Overall the boat trip was fun but I was drenched by the time it was over.
The brought us back into the Cafe Kro where we were fed warm bread and cauliflower soup which was a touch salty. It was dry inside and Dee got lucky because the place noticed how drenched she was and the provided her some temporary clothes while they sent hers to someone's house to be dried. Some of us found the lone gift shop and bought some dry souvenir clothes which we changed into in the Kro bathrooms. They then took us on a bus tour around the island where we saw Heimaey which erupted in 73 amongst the main highlight. They also had a small excavation of some of the houses that were buried by the ash. To put it in perspective as we think about eruptions, this was basically a 4 month pouring of ash more than it was anything like we typically think of volcanoes. Most of the approximately 800 houses lost or damaged were basically buried in the ash. The other perspective item was realizing that we were standing on land that was younger than us as it was created in 1973. It isn't really something you can say often. That's kinda cool to think about. During the bus tour the wind really picked up which did help dry out my clothes a little bit but not really enough at least for my pants.
After the bus tour we found dinner at the Cafe Maria at the suggestion of our guide "Willy." Pete and I split a Special pizza which had ham, pepperoni, mushrooms and jalapenos and was really good. They even presliced it for us so we could eat it like Americans. I had a Tuborg Classic to accompany which is of course a Danish beer but they had the Egils Gull as their Icelandic offering and I had it the night before. After the pizza I had one of their ice cream dishes which had straciatella, caramel and whipped cream. It was also quite good. We apparently were a bit long in eating but did manage to get on the ferry before it left. The ferry ride was very rough as the winds were still very high. We did make it back in one piece however the guide left his keys on the island by accident in the process of loaning Dee his jacket. This meant a few extra minutes of wait when we boarded a standard bus which got us to a bus stop in Reykjavik where we were picked up by another bus guide from the tour company who got us to the Hotel Holt. He wouldn't listen to us when we asked him to stop in front of our house instead. From there it was basically wind down time. The two days felt like one giant combined day. It was very exhausting.
The pictures from today can be found here.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Iceland Day 3
I am the first to admit my vacations are forced marches but to call today long is really an understatement. Sure it didn't start out to terribly early by my standards with our guide (Stefan again) picking us up at the house at 8am. We had time for breakfast and a short trip to the bakery beforehand. The ride didn't end until 4:30am the next morning.
We started out by visiting a couple spots in town. The famous house where Gorbachev and Reagan met, stuff like that. We saw the house of the only Nobel prize winner from Iceland, Halldór Kiljan Laxness (it was for literature). We the started our way through the meat of the tour which was the ring road and gold coast (we then added the glacier lagoon on the fly). It will take me a while to sort out any names for these places as I don't really have a map to work with, plus they need special characters, plus I am really tired right now.
We visited their national park, Þingvellir, which is basically a representation of the fissure of the two continental plates that Iceland is made up of. Yes, Iceland is part North American and part European. The fissure is very obvious there. We drove up to the overlooking the Parliament Plains (where the ancient parliament used to meet). Fortunately it was early enough before all the big tour buses and were able to get out before they arrived. They had to close off the walking path because a rift formed and part of the path fell away. We were driven down to the lower area where we saw a couple waterfalls from a distance, walked up to the church and then walked along the river to the van before we drove out.
Our next stop was a geyser field that had a geyser named Strokkur that fired every 3-8 minutes. There were a few others there but none of them erupted at all. Like anything unpredictable and quick it was tough to get good pictures of the of the eruptions but we tried as best we could. This park had a gift shop and snack shop.
The next stop was the very impressive waterfall Gullfoss. I've not been around a waterfall that big (not even Niagra). All the same we were basically right on top of it so it was made even more impressive. The idea of that much water running through speeds like that is something that can't really be described. I should mention that the weather we had all day was basically perfect. We started with this waterfall up above and then walked down to it then eventually walked back towards the van and headed on to the next stop which was also a waterfall. Named Seljalandsfoss. It is not near as big but is impressive in a different way. It falls over a cliff and you can walk behind the water flow, which we did. Yes we basically got soaked and there were few spots the camera was in danger but it was very awesome.
The next stop was another waterfall, named Skógafoss which we could not walk behind but was more powerful than Seljalandsfoss but also fell down a cliff in spectacular fashion. I got thoroughly soaked by walking up to the waterline of the river at the bottom as close as I could get. The spray it was creating was incredible.
After the waterfalls we had a quick stop where we got hot dogs and then we did our glacier hike. This was on the Sólheimajökull Glacier Tongue. We had to strap on crampons and walk around with ice axes and we climbed up and around the glacier. It was definitely an awesome experience. The glacier we walked on can be black or white depending on how much volcanic ash is out at the time so it is kind of an ugly glacier. All the same it was strange getting used to the crampons. It was just as strange getting out of them after it was over. Our guide was apparently named Helgi although that is not what I heard. I could not hear it properly as it was said quickly and with a strong lilt. He was obviously a very experienced climber and does a lot more than tromping on the nearly flat ice when he isn't working. It was a very cool experience. No pun intended.
After the glacier hike it was a very long ride to the glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón. It took hours to get there. It was a very incredible area. The small bits of iceberg where breaking up if you watched them long enough. The sun was setting by that point. I think it was around 11pm or so. There are seals in the lagoon. It is the deepest natural lake in the island. It sits right underneath the tallest mountain on the island. The lagoon is a mix of fresh and salt waters as the ocean tide comes in to meet the glacial melt off. There were seals in the small inlet. Apparently there are some good fish to catch there.
After the lagoon it was a hideously long ride back to the house. I did manage to catch some sleep during the ride but most of us didn't. We got back at 4:30am as I said. The Day 4 stuff set to start at 7am. That meant writing this, posting pictures and maybe a small nap before we had our quick turn around to start out.
The pictures are posted here and it looks like I have to sort out some issues with shutterfly handling the organization of them.
We started out by visiting a couple spots in town. The famous house where Gorbachev and Reagan met, stuff like that. We saw the house of the only Nobel prize winner from Iceland, Halldór Kiljan Laxness (it was for literature). We the started our way through the meat of the tour which was the ring road and gold coast (we then added the glacier lagoon on the fly). It will take me a while to sort out any names for these places as I don't really have a map to work with, plus they need special characters, plus I am really tired right now.
We visited their national park, Þingvellir, which is basically a representation of the fissure of the two continental plates that Iceland is made up of. Yes, Iceland is part North American and part European. The fissure is very obvious there. We drove up to the overlooking the Parliament Plains (where the ancient parliament used to meet). Fortunately it was early enough before all the big tour buses and were able to get out before they arrived. They had to close off the walking path because a rift formed and part of the path fell away. We were driven down to the lower area where we saw a couple waterfalls from a distance, walked up to the church and then walked along the river to the van before we drove out.
Our next stop was a geyser field that had a geyser named Strokkur that fired every 3-8 minutes. There were a few others there but none of them erupted at all. Like anything unpredictable and quick it was tough to get good pictures of the of the eruptions but we tried as best we could. This park had a gift shop and snack shop.
The next stop was the very impressive waterfall Gullfoss. I've not been around a waterfall that big (not even Niagra). All the same we were basically right on top of it so it was made even more impressive. The idea of that much water running through speeds like that is something that can't really be described. I should mention that the weather we had all day was basically perfect. We started with this waterfall up above and then walked down to it then eventually walked back towards the van and headed on to the next stop which was also a waterfall. Named Seljalandsfoss. It is not near as big but is impressive in a different way. It falls over a cliff and you can walk behind the water flow, which we did. Yes we basically got soaked and there were few spots the camera was in danger but it was very awesome.
The next stop was another waterfall, named Skógafoss which we could not walk behind but was more powerful than Seljalandsfoss but also fell down a cliff in spectacular fashion. I got thoroughly soaked by walking up to the waterline of the river at the bottom as close as I could get. The spray it was creating was incredible.
After the waterfalls we had a quick stop where we got hot dogs and then we did our glacier hike. This was on the Sólheimajökull Glacier Tongue. We had to strap on crampons and walk around with ice axes and we climbed up and around the glacier. It was definitely an awesome experience. The glacier we walked on can be black or white depending on how much volcanic ash is out at the time so it is kind of an ugly glacier. All the same it was strange getting used to the crampons. It was just as strange getting out of them after it was over. Our guide was apparently named Helgi although that is not what I heard. I could not hear it properly as it was said quickly and with a strong lilt. He was obviously a very experienced climber and does a lot more than tromping on the nearly flat ice when he isn't working. It was a very cool experience. No pun intended.
After the glacier hike it was a very long ride to the glacial lagoon called Jökulsárlón. It took hours to get there. It was a very incredible area. The small bits of iceberg where breaking up if you watched them long enough. The sun was setting by that point. I think it was around 11pm or so. There are seals in the lagoon. It is the deepest natural lake in the island. It sits right underneath the tallest mountain on the island. The lagoon is a mix of fresh and salt waters as the ocean tide comes in to meet the glacial melt off. There were seals in the small inlet. Apparently there are some good fish to catch there.
After the lagoon it was a hideously long ride back to the house. I did manage to catch some sleep during the ride but most of us didn't. We got back at 4:30am as I said. The Day 4 stuff set to start at 7am. That meant writing this, posting pictures and maybe a small nap before we had our quick turn around to start out.
The pictures are posted here and it looks like I have to sort out some issues with shutterfly handling the organization of them.
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Iceland Day 2
Today started a bit late with the fact that we were really tired from the day before and we had to make sure that Pete got in with us before we chose to do anything. Unfortunately there was a small amount of confusion as to where and when he was going to arrive so he ended up getting to the house a bit later than we intended. It was mostly which bus he was going to take and where to be met. Unfortunately he posted to facebook that he was at the Hotel Holt and Scott saw it, liked it and it didn't register that that was not where Dee was going to pick him up. In any event, that got sorted out and we started making breakfast which consisted of eggs, bacon (which didn't seem to have enough bacon fat) and toast.
After breakfast we walked around the downtown area for a short while before we were supposed to have our bike ride tour around town with Stefan. We walked downtown and then turned towards the lake and visited what we found out was the town hall then around the lake and back into town where we had a hot dog at the famous hot dog stand by the harbor. After the hot dog we visited the Settlement Museum which has the excavation of the earliest ruins they have found around Iceland, dated by lava ash strata at 871 plus or minus 2 years. It was a small but pretty neat museum. After that we headed back up to the house and settled for a short half an hour while we waited for our tour guide Stefan to come pick us up for the bike tour.
He drove us down to the harbor in a diesel van where we all got assigned our bikes, I got Skuli, and headed out for our tour of the town. The ride was mostly flat but it was still fun to get out on a bike. We did see a lot of stuff that we had already seen around town but it was still good to get Stefan's take on things. Amongst things we saw the lake and the town hall and then we went on to see a rock that was supposed to be a home for the Hidden Folk and went around to the University and the south side shore of the peninsula (I think) as well as we drove by Bjork's house and visited a catholic church designed by one of their most famous architects.
The bike tour was very fun and informative. Stefan is an excellent guide. Plus it was funny to see Scott riding a bike. After that Stefan was nice enough to drive us up to the Pearl (Perlan) which is a museum, observatory, restaurant on the top of a hill. It is was cool to see a lot of the region from up there but the restaurant looked very expensive and the rest of the stuff closed while we were there. So after we spent a while taking pictures from the observatory deck we decided that we would walk back into town and find a restaurant.
We ended up finding the Gamla Winhus which I think means the Old Wine House or winery. In any event the menu looked pretty cool and it was sort of tough to decide what to order. I had a couple large Egils Gull beers. We ordered a lamb and blueberry appetizer, carpaccio and garlic bread of which I had the first two. The lamb was interesting. I was intrigued by the blueberry even if I wasn't certain about it before I tasted it. The carpaccio was very good. I didn't try the garlic bread. Dee and I decided to share dinners. I got the peppered horse steak and she got the peppered minke whale steak. They were both very very good. I liked the whale a touch more. I have had horse before but always raw. It was still very good cooked. The whale was far too good for the ethical issues I had about eating it. They basically can only catch 200 per year here and they do not overstep their catch limits. Stefan claimed there are 50000 or so out there of the minke whale. In any event it was really good. Dee ordered the whale and I the horse which saved me that moral indecision. For dessert I had an apple tart with ice cream and caramel along with a coffee. It was also very tasty. We sort of fell upon the place because folks didn't want to walk anymore but it was an excellent choice and everyone was happy with what they got.
From there we headed back to the hotel. It was late out but still very light outside. The sun had not set at 11pm.
The pictures from today are posted here.
After breakfast we walked around the downtown area for a short while before we were supposed to have our bike ride tour around town with Stefan. We walked downtown and then turned towards the lake and visited what we found out was the town hall then around the lake and back into town where we had a hot dog at the famous hot dog stand by the harbor. After the hot dog we visited the Settlement Museum which has the excavation of the earliest ruins they have found around Iceland, dated by lava ash strata at 871 plus or minus 2 years. It was a small but pretty neat museum. After that we headed back up to the house and settled for a short half an hour while we waited for our tour guide Stefan to come pick us up for the bike tour.
He drove us down to the harbor in a diesel van where we all got assigned our bikes, I got Skuli, and headed out for our tour of the town. The ride was mostly flat but it was still fun to get out on a bike. We did see a lot of stuff that we had already seen around town but it was still good to get Stefan's take on things. Amongst things we saw the lake and the town hall and then we went on to see a rock that was supposed to be a home for the Hidden Folk and went around to the University and the south side shore of the peninsula (I think) as well as we drove by Bjork's house and visited a catholic church designed by one of their most famous architects.
The bike tour was very fun and informative. Stefan is an excellent guide. Plus it was funny to see Scott riding a bike. After that Stefan was nice enough to drive us up to the Pearl (Perlan) which is a museum, observatory, restaurant on the top of a hill. It is was cool to see a lot of the region from up there but the restaurant looked very expensive and the rest of the stuff closed while we were there. So after we spent a while taking pictures from the observatory deck we decided that we would walk back into town and find a restaurant.
We ended up finding the Gamla Winhus which I think means the Old Wine House or winery. In any event the menu looked pretty cool and it was sort of tough to decide what to order. I had a couple large Egils Gull beers. We ordered a lamb and blueberry appetizer, carpaccio and garlic bread of which I had the first two. The lamb was interesting. I was intrigued by the blueberry even if I wasn't certain about it before I tasted it. The carpaccio was very good. I didn't try the garlic bread. Dee and I decided to share dinners. I got the peppered horse steak and she got the peppered minke whale steak. They were both very very good. I liked the whale a touch more. I have had horse before but always raw. It was still very good cooked. The whale was far too good for the ethical issues I had about eating it. They basically can only catch 200 per year here and they do not overstep their catch limits. Stefan claimed there are 50000 or so out there of the minke whale. In any event it was really good. Dee ordered the whale and I the horse which saved me that moral indecision. For dessert I had an apple tart with ice cream and caramel along with a coffee. It was also very tasty. We sort of fell upon the place because folks didn't want to walk anymore but it was an excellent choice and everyone was happy with what they got.
From there we headed back to the hotel. It was late out but still very light outside. The sun had not set at 11pm.
The pictures from today are posted here.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
Iceland Day 1
I headed straight to the airport from work via a ride from my brother. This trip is with 4 other people, 3 of which were flying on the same flight. I was the first to arrive as heading there straight from work meant being very early for a 9:30pm flight. I managed to get selected for the "random" special screening which took an extra ten minutes on my time through the security line. It was indeed a pain but I didn't give them any hard time at all. After that I headed in to O'Brians and get some food and beer and wait for the rest to arrive. The bartender I always see was there. I ordered a chicken finger platter and had a couple Sam Adams as well. Scott was the second to show up, followed by Dee and Mike. We had a couple drinks and Scott also had a burger then we left the bar and waited a few more minutes to board the plane.
The flight was fairly bumpy but I slept through a fair portion of it and did not even try to watch a movie at all. The trip took 4 hours 45 minutes. We were able to get our luggage and out of the airport fairly quickly. Edda was there to pick us up. She is the woman we were renting the apartment from. She has a Ford Explorer. The drive took about a half an hour or so from the airport to the house. Apparently the apartment we were supposed to rent was not actually available due to some unfortunate circumstances with the people who are renting it that were already supposed to be out two weeks ago. She instead had us take a house across the street. It is a fairly big house with plenty of room for us and two stories. The main bath even has a hot tub. By the time we got settled in we decided to get some breakfast from the bakery down the street then get cleaned up. It was basically around 8:30 or so when we went to the bakery. After that we trudged out to the shop to get some beer and other booze for the house. We brought that back and then found the market where we bought some food for the next few days.
After we dropped off the groceries we decided to get lunch because it was basically around that time. We walked down the street and ate a small cafe/restaurant down the hill. I will try to find the place's name later on but I forgot to take note of it while we were there. I had the bergburger which was a burger with a yogurt mushroom sauce and fries. The sauce made it necessary to use a knife and fork to eat it. It was quite tasty. I accompanied that with a Viking beer. Scott had the same. Mike had a chicken salad (salad with chicken) and Dee had a chicken sandwich which also looked like a salad with chicken. The food was very enjoyable.
When we finished that we headed out to walk around a bit and entered the theater to look around a bit then headed over to see the statue of Ingolfur (the first settler of Iceland) and on to the opera house which we went into and explored. From there we walked out to look at the harbor then turned into the town a bit and wandered about for a short while. We stopped for a coffee then walked over to the lake for a quick look before the kids said they were too tired and we headed back to the house. Dee decided to go to a small art museum while we settled in. I started to write this at that point. Scott snored. We basically relaxed until it was time for dinner.
We decided to eat in the house and made sausage sandwiches and salad. I tried the Kaldi dark and later while we watched Eurovision I had the Kaldi lager. Eurovision is a bizarre process by which horrible pop acts perform and a bunch of countries vote on the acts to determine a winner. The winner country gets to host the next Eurovision. Based on the performances there is no way I could have predicted who would win or even who would do well. The act from Sweden won. I would not even remotely have voted for it. I really question the taste of Europeans after this. Plus the whole process took forever. We needed to stay up later so it was not a total waste even it if it was at times quite painful. Most scary was that the act from Albania was in the top 5. It was very scary.
The pictures from today are located now on Shutterfly. I hope it works out.
The flight was fairly bumpy but I slept through a fair portion of it and did not even try to watch a movie at all. The trip took 4 hours 45 minutes. We were able to get our luggage and out of the airport fairly quickly. Edda was there to pick us up. She is the woman we were renting the apartment from. She has a Ford Explorer. The drive took about a half an hour or so from the airport to the house. Apparently the apartment we were supposed to rent was not actually available due to some unfortunate circumstances with the people who are renting it that were already supposed to be out two weeks ago. She instead had us take a house across the street. It is a fairly big house with plenty of room for us and two stories. The main bath even has a hot tub. By the time we got settled in we decided to get some breakfast from the bakery down the street then get cleaned up. It was basically around 8:30 or so when we went to the bakery. After that we trudged out to the shop to get some beer and other booze for the house. We brought that back and then found the market where we bought some food for the next few days.
After we dropped off the groceries we decided to get lunch because it was basically around that time. We walked down the street and ate a small cafe/restaurant down the hill. I will try to find the place's name later on but I forgot to take note of it while we were there. I had the bergburger which was a burger with a yogurt mushroom sauce and fries. The sauce made it necessary to use a knife and fork to eat it. It was quite tasty. I accompanied that with a Viking beer. Scott had the same. Mike had a chicken salad (salad with chicken) and Dee had a chicken sandwich which also looked like a salad with chicken. The food was very enjoyable.
When we finished that we headed out to walk around a bit and entered the theater to look around a bit then headed over to see the statue of Ingolfur (the first settler of Iceland) and on to the opera house which we went into and explored. From there we walked out to look at the harbor then turned into the town a bit and wandered about for a short while. We stopped for a coffee then walked over to the lake for a quick look before the kids said they were too tired and we headed back to the house. Dee decided to go to a small art museum while we settled in. I started to write this at that point. Scott snored. We basically relaxed until it was time for dinner.
We decided to eat in the house and made sausage sandwiches and salad. I tried the Kaldi dark and later while we watched Eurovision I had the Kaldi lager. Eurovision is a bizarre process by which horrible pop acts perform and a bunch of countries vote on the acts to determine a winner. The winner country gets to host the next Eurovision. Based on the performances there is no way I could have predicted who would win or even who would do well. The act from Sweden won. I would not even remotely have voted for it. I really question the taste of Europeans after this. Plus the whole process took forever. We needed to stay up later so it was not a total waste even it if it was at times quite painful. Most scary was that the act from Albania was in the top 5. It was very scary.
The pictures from today are located now on Shutterfly. I hope it works out.
Friday, May 25, 2012
Leaving for Iceland Tonight
We depart for Iceland tonight and will arrive in the morning tomorrow. I am trying to get all the stuff I need to get done before I leave today including getting my travel booked for Peru and some other logistics for it figured out. It appears weather will be like Boston in April based on Weather Underground. Not anything I won't be happy with. Looks to be overcast most days. I didn't choose to go to Iceland for beach weather anyway. I think this will be a fun trip. I have to get re-accustomed to traveling with other folks again. I think I won't be too much of a bear on them. We'll see.
Peru for Work in June
Got the word yesterday that I will be teaching a class in Peru at the end of June . I will be there for a two week duration. It will obviously be my second time to Peru but this time I will be in Lima rather than getting into the mountain country. I did not visit Lima on my last trip. I am sure it will feel very different from Cusco. I expect it will be an interesting experience.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Shutterfly
Kodak Gallery is dying on me in the middle of July and I need to test out Shutterfly where my images will be transferred after Kodak Galleries is gone. I am trying to make sure that I can upload albums and post a reasonable slideshow link in the blog using Shutterfly the same as I used to do in Kodak. That means that when Kodak goes down I will have to wait some amount of time until the pictures are transferred. During that time all my links to albums will be broken. After that I will have to recreate all the album slideshow links.
In the meantime I am going to try to post my cell phone camera pictures of my visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I did say I was going to post them before but never did.
It does not look near as graceful as the direct link to the slideshow in Kodak but it will have to do. I am not really crazy about their interface but they do not charge for storage and claim they will never delete images. I do have over 40 gigs of images out there.
In the meantime I am going to try to post my cell phone camera pictures of my visit to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. I did say I was going to post them before but never did.
It does not look near as graceful as the direct link to the slideshow in Kodak but it will have to do. I am not really crazy about their interface but they do not charge for storage and claim they will never delete images. I do have over 40 gigs of images out there.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)