Iceland aftermath

I wanted to share some of the small things we did in Iceland that really made a difference (in a good way).

1. We bought a box of wine from Duty Free when we landed in Reykjavik. We took this with us throughout our trip and even back home with us because there was plenty left in it. It was good value and a nice wine and it felt so indulgent to be able to enjoy a glass at the end of the day without having to invest in a bottle from a restaurant. Although we packed it inside a plastic bag (inside a suitcase) for transportation, it didn't leak at all. I got this tip from my Norwegian friend Kari who does this whenever she goes on holiday somewhere but I'd never actually tried it until now. Thanks Kari!
2. Enlisted the help of a travel agent. I can't say enough good things about Nonni Travel. They made our visit perfectly suited for us and really went out of their way to personally look after us.
3. Made sure to schedule in days that we didn't have to get a "good early start" and could lie in and have a leisurely breakfast. This makes such a difference!
4. Brought 4 towels with us. That way we were ready to go swim in the geothermal hot springs at any time!
5. Brought a wet bag (i.e. completely waterproof) with us. That way we could transport our wet swimsuits and towels with us.

That's about all I can think of at the moment. 

Weekend with Egan

As I said previously, my long lost cousin Egan came to stay with us!
We had a leisurely day on Saturday, with visiting friends and going for a snowy walk in the forest with Bentley and Egan. Then yesterday, Rhodri was in the Hell of the Ashdown cycling race which is 67 miles long! We went to the area near the Heffalump Trap (i.e. Kidds Hill) to cheer on the cyclists as they neared the top of this long hill

Walking with Egan near the Heffalump Trap

Rhodri passing us near the top of Kidds Hill

 After Rhodri passed us, we went back home to pick up Ava and then we headed to the seashore at Brighton. We found about 8 or 9 starfish that had been stranded on the beach by the high tide so we put them back into the sea.

Tryfan and a starfish

 The kids threw rocks into the sea for a really long time and got their shoes wet. Tryfan nearly got his whole body wet because he was lying down on the rocks daring a wave to come up to him. That was a close call - little daredevil!

Throwing rocks

Egan teaching Tryfs how to catch a seagull

We walked up to the pier and went into all the arcades spending our pennies and a few pounds. There are a bunch of machines that have coins, sweets, and other prizes that are teetering on the edge ready to fall into the collection bins. The kids stumbled upon a few jackpots that had enough sweets to go around. Good times.

Then we came home to warm up by the fire and have a traditional Sunday dinner after our weekly skype call back to Santa Barbara.

It was really great having Egan visit. I've always felt a special connection with him because I spent a handful of summers babysitting him and his younger brother Wheeler out in the backcountry of Nevada when i was a teenager. He has turned into a really neat person and it was great to be able to spend time hanging out with him.

Post Iceland reflections

We had a safe and uneventful trip back. Actually, the airline had overbooked our flight by 40 people and we did consider volunteering for getting a later flight back to London so that we could get 4 free tickets anywhere Iceland Air flies!! But in the end we just kept our seats and got back to Heathrow around 1pm so that we got back home around 3pm. My cousin Egan was due to arrive just a few hours later to stay the weekend, so we didn't want to miss meeting him.

We all loved being in Iceland, though of course we all took away different highlights and memories. The kids talk about the bus driver with only one finger and how Dad fell off his horse into the poo.
Rhodri loved the varied pace of the week - the ideal blend of seeing stuff, doing stuff, relaxing, squeezing lots of activities in, traveling and staying put.
My highlight was x-c skiing, going into all the geothermal hot springs and being in this landscape that is so alive and special. And also I loved meeting Lene who has her own tannery.

I think that there are a lot less degrees of separation between the people here and the landscape/ natural world here. I was really struck by how aware of the processes and implications for this or that people are, or how knowledge about natural local phenomena, flora, and fauna is just built into general knowledge. For example, when people who live near Lake Myvatn were talking about all the midges that swarm there in the summer, the comments about how annoying they are were followed immediately by pointing out the subsequent rich vegetation (from dead midges falling and fertilizing the ground) and the important food source for birds and fish. And all the volcanoes who are "due" for eruption and have female names with their own eruption behaviors (i.e. how much notice they give before erupting) seem to be well known by everybody and is talked about in a very familiar, matter-of-fact way. So I think actually the people here are much closer and more attuned to the earth here, and I think that is really special.

Iceland Day 7: Back to Reykjavik

Now we are the only ones staying in the fabulous Hotel Reykjahlíð so we took over the communal area and organized our stuff last night, ready for our bus departure at 9am.

The kids did some nekkid running up and down the stairs... just cuz they could... 

Then we said goodbye to lovely Ragga and Birke and got a lift to the bus stop from Eyrun (shown in photo below).

We had a very pleasant bus ride to Akureyri and were met by Ana from Nonni Travel at 10:45am so they could hang onto our bags while we walked around town until our flight at 1:20pm.

Looking across the fjord to Akureyri and the glorious mountains behind

Tryfan and his troll friend

 After we landed back in Reykjavik, we checked back into the Guesthouse Sunna that we stayed in at the beginning of our trip, then after a little rest we got on yet another bus to go to the famous Blue Lagoon

Gangnam style on the entrance to the Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon is very different from the Myvatn Nature Baths even though they are both outdoor geothermal hot springs which have been commercialized. This place is really big and very well organized - every person gets an electronic bracelet that is used to access a locker and also acts as a tab so one can order drinks from the lagoon bar! We didn't order any drinks - we just explored the gigantic lagoon and played in the warm water.

 

After enough of that, we had a small dinner in the cafe and then caught the bus back to our guesthouse. It's our last night here in Iceland and our taxi is coming at 6:15am. We are all sad that this holiday has come to an end, but its been full and fabulous!

Iceland Day 6: Krafla crater area

Rhiannon was helping Tryfs sound out words in one of her books

Today we had a quiet start and then the main activity was a guided ski tour of the Krafla crater area. It was awesome.

This is a photo from 1977 of the lava fissure that we skied up to and then walked around. 

Eyrun (who owns the shop that we rented skis from, and whose husband was the one to plow the tracks for us yesterday) was our guide. She picked us up in her truck and we drove out to Krafla, then carried our skis and poles up to the top of the hill before setting out on our little expedition.

At the solar and wind powered seismometer station

Setting off from the seismometer station to the warm volcanic area (brown hill)

Looking back at Rhodri and Tryfan with the steam from Krafla geothermal plant in the background

We threw snowballs into the boiling lake below

We took our skis off and carefully followed Eyrun around admiring the fresh volcanic rocks and the steam rising from the still warm ground.

Here is Tryfan holding a piece of lava rock which was surprisingly light

We stopped for a hot chocolate break on some pleasantly warm rocks

Sulphur crystals on top of some pleasantly warm rocks

Walking back to where we had left our skis

Gorgeous light on the mountains northwest of Krafla

Family photo

It was such a fabulous trip, even though it was just a couple of hours. The kids did great and it helped that most of the terrain was flat! I think it also really helped to have a non-family member who was encouraging and smiley while she was guiding us.

We ended the day by spending an hour in the warm waters of the Myvatn Nature Baths and then got a lift back to the hotel for our last night.

Iceland Day 5: Lake Myvatn

We had a really full day today!
First we went on a x-c ski tour and then we went horseback riding and then out to dinner to the Cowshed.
The lady who ran the place we rented the skis from got her husband to plow some ski tracks for us early in the morning using his snowmobile, and then we went on a ski tour from about 10am - 1:30pm. How lucky are we to have our own personal tracks plowed! Needless to say there was nobody else skiing around, but we heard later that the 2 lovely people working at the hotel went for a ski tour in the afternoon on these tracks.

Setting out for our ski tour

At the junction of the ski trail

Halfway point - there was some building remains up on an island and we had a short snack and hot chocolate break here.

Rhiannon at the end of the tour

Tryfan at the end of the ski tour

It was a gorgeous day, as you can see from the photos! The time went by too quickly and the horse people were coming sometime between 1:30-2, so we had to get a move on to be back in time.
We never did find out the names of the people who owned the horses and took us riding, but they were lovely.

Meeting the horses for the first time

 We were each assigned a horse and helped to get on, then no sooner were we all onboard than some snow slid from a rooftop nearby and that spooked all the horses! Rhodri's horse got the most spooked and headed  quickly for the fence (a la Trigger from Montana in 1995...). Rhods made a jump for it and landed in the snow and the poo with a bruised knee and hip. Not so good, but he got back on a different horse and we set off.

Rhodri on the "new" horse looking less than stoked

We weren't really sure what was going to happen, but in the end the wife led T & R on their horses while Rhodri and I took off across the frozen lake with the husband. Here is the view from the lake looking back at T & R being led on their horses by the Mrs.

Icelandic horses have this extra gait besides walking, trotting and cantering: the tölt (and some Icelandic horses can also do the flying pace as well). So when Rhodri and I set off with the Mister, we were doing the tölt  the whole time and it was wonderful. It is so smooth you are supposed to be able to hold a full pint of beer (and drink it) while riding.

The view of Rhodri and Mister as we are heading out to the middle of Lake Myvatn

My horse, Lucifer, was really good but he didn't like standing still. We got along just fine and I took this photo of his lovely mane while we were tolting.

R & T walking around with the Mrs. They had a wonderful time together.

Rhiannon was especially happy because she had been dropping several hints in the days previous that she really wanted to ride an Icelandic horse. 

Sunset from our hotel

So then we got back to the hotel and were given a lift to the Cowshed at a nearby farm and guesthouse. It was really great food and a very special place.

One of the cows is famous (locally) because she has gigantic udders and has to even wear a bra to support them!

R & T at one of the tables in the Cowshed restaurant. There were a lot of glass windows into the barn so you could watch the cows eating and being milked. 

We saw the Lewis family again last night briefly and again they were so unfriendly! Since we are all upstairs, there is a common hangout area with couches and a balcony and we were hoping that they would come hang out with us, but they went straight into their room and locked the door :-(

And even late last night after we had all tucked our kids into bed and were ready for some adult chillout time, they wouldn't play. So that was a bit uncomfortable but we reckon they must have more problems than we do. To be fair, Mr Lewis was at least shyly able to be engaged, but Mrs Lewis was nothing but hostile. Oh well. They left this morning so good luck to them.

Iceland Day 4: Akureyri to Reykjahlíð

Today we had another bus tour booked, this time to and around Lake Myvatn from Akureyri.

Route from Akureyri (A) to Reykjahlíð (C) via Godafoss (B

The front desk guy helped us carry our bags 200 meters to the bus stop, and within a few minutes the bus was along to take us on a scenic tour for the day, then drop us at the Hotel Reykjahlíð (one of the images on the homepage of this site is actually the room we are in!).

Getting a talking-to in the lobby of Hotel Akureyri before we got on the bus

It was gorgeous light across the sky and reflected in the fjord and snow covered mountains. Photos of this part of our trip don't do justice to the breadth and depth of the landscape.

Looking south as we crossed the Eyjafjordur fjord on our way out of Akureyri

First stop was a dairy farm on the side of the mountain. They served fresh milk to visitors and we saw their amazingly high-tech operation. This scraper on the floor was constantly moving slowing back and forth from one end to the other pushing the poo into troughs so the floor was clear. There was a scratching post in the middle so that cows could go get their itches scratched whenever they wanted. Each cow wore a necklace that monitored how often and how much milk they produced, with the only constraint that they couldn't enter the milking robot area more than once within a 6 hour period. But otherwise they were free to sleep, eat, get milked, get scratched and also go outside to play when the shed doors were open (not in the winter).

Overview of the dairy operation

This is the milking machine. Each of the suction things had a red laser which searched for a nipple and latched on!

Then we went to see the Goðafoss waterfall which was gorgeous in this pink light. Actually the waterfall itself was in the shadow, but the landscape around was pink.

Don't go too close to the edge, because there is no rail and the dropoff is a few hundred feet!

Here are the troops with the bus in the background

Snow angel by the waterfall

Tryfan's upside down snow angel

When we got to Lake Myvatn, we stopped to walk around the steam craters. These are formed from water being superheated and the exploding through the ground to create a crater of sediment around. They are like mini volcanoes (but without lava) and make the landscape look lunar.

Rhiannon climbed up a steam crater

A lone woman pushing her pram down the main road

We went to visit this place called Dimmuborgir, which is an area of preserved and collapsed lava tubes. Our guide took us on a walk through the area and told us stories about the 13 Icelandic Santa Clauses that come out in December, and about the trolls you can see in the rock formations. 

Following our tour guide called Triestte (or something)

One of the preserved lava tubes

Then we went to the Hverarond geothermal area, which was an area of hot pots, fumaroles, boiling mud pools and other interesting features.

Approaching the Hverarond area with steam coming from the snow

Rhodri with a steam mound

Our final stop on the tour was the Myvatn Nature Baths. I have been looking forward to this for so long! It was one of the reasons that I wanted to visit this part of Iceland. It was gorgeous light and very soft, warm, wonderful water. I didn't take photos while we were out swimming, but I did take this photos after we were done and I was back into dry clothes.

After the hot spring visit, we checked into our hotel.
And guess who the other guests were? The other Lewis family!!!! So it was just us two Lewis families plus a pair of Australian ladies. This is not a big hotel - only 9 rooms. Fortunately, Lene our travel agent sent me a text message giving us a heads up about the other Lewises so that we didn't have a shock when we checked in...