Leaving Iceland arriving in UK

Blue Lagoon

(Lesley Aug 30) Friday, we experienced the Blue Lagoon in the morning.  The kids expected there would be more than the main big pool because arial views show more pools, and of course there are more pools, but they aren’t all deep enough to swim in and they aren’t all the same temperature; some are cooler some are hotter.  The main big pool was plenty big enough and there were lots of little nooks and crannies you could check out for variety.  There were little bridges and tunnels and a cave.  There were silica face mask stations, a massaging water fall and a steam room/cave.  It was a costly attraction, but one worth doing, none the less.

Later that day, at Keflavik airport, I did manage to sell the detailed road atlas to some international arrivals (much to my family’s embarrassment).  Mhari, bless her, felt I should be more aggressive, Sam, stood far off and didn’t acknowledge me and John suggested I give up when he saw me try and fail.  However, I was determined so I carried on.   When I heard English being spoken, I would step forward, flash the atlas and ask if they intended to rent a car, then, if they wanted to purchase a very useful road atlas for a fraction of its original cost.  A nice Canadian family (from Toronto) bought it for $20 Canadian dollars.  I suggested they resell it again when they leave.  I’m not sure what Keflavik Airport’s policy is on hawkers, but I managed to complete the sale and clear the area before any official asked me to move on or before they tried to lock me up.  It was an exercise in humility.

All in all, Iceland was quite nice to see and I’m really glad we had the chance to stop in.  If I were to go again, however, I would love to stay at least a month and drive around the island, camping and doing lots of hiking. The landscape was so unique.

Then England... Helen and Dave's Place

We landed in London and John’s brother in-law, Dave H, picked us up.  He even upgraded his car for the pick up and we were driven to his place in Long Buckby in a big Volvo!  We have spent three days with John’s sister, Helen, and family relaxing walking and acclimatizing ourselves to England.  The walks have mostly been through farmer’s fields. We have watched hay being cut and have had strange encounters with bullocks and cows, who can be intimidating when it is their turf you try to pass through.  Really, they are probably just curious.  They surrounded us which made us feel a little uneasy.  We clapped our hands and they backed off a little.  Once we gave up: bullocks won, and we went round a bit on the road. We also walked along the canals.  We got to help open the top lock near Buckby for two narrow boats.  We are looking forward to a weekend on one of the barges with another of John’s sisters and family later in September.  The walkways: footpaths, bridal paths and Right of Ways are impressive, as they give people access to the countryside.  I imagine that’s very important when the roads are narrow and the hedges high, as they are here. There aren’t boulevards with walkways along every road and every bit of land here is used up.  The Right of Ways give people access to nature and a nice route or shortcut  to the next village.

Photos: Intimidating Bovines, Hens and a Narrow Boat.

Narrow boats on the canal

Helen and Dave had the whole family round for a picnic Sunday, so we got to see everyone; even a new spouse (Henry) who Sam and I hadn’t had occasion to meet yet.  We have washed a load of laundry, and eaten them completely out of food.  Actually no, they were well stocked.  In their garden, we learned to trim the ivy from the tree trunks.  I really enjoyed that.  I was reminded that I have always liked sawing.  We had to saw the big vines off the trunks leaving a space of about a meter between the vines already gone up the tree and any growth at the bottom.  That way the ivy will die and fall off. It was a fun job. 

Tuesday, we move on to another of John’s siblings.  I think we are being passed around so that we don’t burn out any one of the generous siblings.  John hasn’t added anything to the blog, yet.  He’s so busy catching up with family that it might be awhile before he adds anything, so you will have to suffer with my ramblings or check Sam or Mhari’s blogs for the good stuff.  Bye, Lesley

Iceland (Sam)

Well, we have just spent three days driving through the Icelandic country. We drove all the way from the south end to the top of the country, we had tons of fun once we got our car. We saw loads of cool things like volcanoes, lava fields, geysers, hundreds of waterfalls and thousands of sheep. Some of my favourite things were… When we hiked up a mountain way up north, went swimming in completely geothermal hot tubs, (In Iceland all their hot water comes straight from the ground so there is no effort to conserve it, in the hot-tub there were two pipes, one that had a constant flow of water coming in, and one with a constant flow of water going out.) and walking up a volcano. I also learned that Icelanders like three types of chips (crisps) only, Salt, Sour Cream and Onion, and Paprika. I made an iMovie about Iceland but I could not get it on my blog(I will keep trying though) so for now, here are some photos.

Our car

My dad in the Blue Lagoon

Our Hike

Inside a Volcano

    

Iceland

(Lesley Aug 26) Well, Iceland is beautiful.  We have been enjoying the landscape; it is quite striking. We have been driving around, stopping and hiking or climbing, and checking out the little villages by the sea. We discovered that it is difficult to navigate and find things here because the names are long and quite foreign.  We got lost trying to drive north, out of Reykjavik and directions at the service station were vague and incomprehensible so ended up buying a 3800 Kroner ($32.00) detailed map of Iceland.  With it, we have had a much easier time finding the right roads and villages. Perhaps we will sell it to a newly arrived traveler on Friday, when we leave the country.  

Tuesday, John and Mhari sorted out getting our car from Keflavik while Sam and I wandered around Reykjavik.  Then we drove up the west coast and stayed in a lovely cabin by the sea.  We could hear the waves lapping on the shore all night long.

Wednesday, Mhari turned 11.  We drove a few hours northeast and managed to find a bakery where we got her an orange soda and a piece of cake covered with marzipan. Mmm.  After the treat, we went to Skagastrond and hiked up a small mountain gaining a beautiful view of the coast, the hills, the sheep and horses.  It was a good workout; the climb was very steep.  Tuesday, we enjoyed the cabin so much that we returned there for a second night.

Near the cabin there was a geothermal spring.  It looked like a little river that steam rose from constantly.  There was also an outdoor hot tub at the cabin.  It was filled constantly with hot water from the spring.  In Canada, everyone I know who has a hot tub uses an insulated hot tub cover, to keep the heat in.  Here, the hot tub cover was just wood decking to keep animals, and perhaps young children, from jumping in.  Hot water is abundant in Iceland (and by hot, I mean HOT.  It is advisable to always turn on the cold faucet first to avoid scalding.)  The hot water here in Iceland is geothermal, so it isn’t an expensive commodity like in Winnipeg.  Icelanders heat their homes geo-thermally and apparently 40% of their electricity is generated from geothermal heat as well.  Wouldn’t that be nice in Winnipeg? It would sure change the way we live.   

Back to what we have been up to… Thursday we had a full day.  We headed back towards Reykjavik stopping to visit Grabrok and to walk on a big lava field.  It looked like an erupted volcano (a big hill of lava) but it wasn’t a volcano apparently -just a fissure where the heat underneath couldn’t contain itself any longer so it came up and left a huge pile of volcanic rock.  

Later, we drove through Pingvellir, the national park, then onto Geysir to see the hot water shoot up out of the earth.  No matter how prepared I thought I was for it to spray, it always took me by surprise and I did a little jump. The water shot up quite high!  We were really impressed it was free to go see.  We were finding Iceland expensive so we had prepared ourselves for a big entrance fee and –wow- it was free.  

That afternoon we also went to see the Gullfoss waterfalls.  They were big and impressive and there was no charge to see them either. Thursday night we drove back at the Reykjavik City Hostel.  We fly out tomorrow after a visit to The Blue Lagoon.  

Lesley

P.S. Thanks for your patience, we had no internet access north of Reykjavik.

Photos: Saeberg Hostel Cabin, Saeberg View of North Atlantic

From Spakonufell, Reykjavik, 

Car Troubles in Iceland (Sam)

Well, because we had to take a different flight and because it arrived at midnight, our car rental agency was not there to pick us up and now we are in Iceland with no car and its all very confusing because we do not speak Icelandic (The Icelandic kids are back to school already!) But it is all okay because we are in a foreign country!

Delays

(John)  Just read Sam's blog for the latest details. - The weather in the East was simply wet and stormy.  We had a nice walk in the rain around downtown Boston.  In the Market there was a Milk promotion and as we entered a lady told us that Tyler Farrar was upstair's signing autographs.  I got pretty excited as I anticipated meeting the man, I had a few chat up lines prepared, then we realised that I had heard wrong and it was some other Tyler that just has his own cooking show so I consoled myself with a swordfish Kebab.

Boston (Sam)

(Sam)  Hello everyone this is my first post on the road. We flew from Winnipeg to Toronto first but then our flight from Toronto to Boston was delayed and we missed our flight from Boston to Iceland. Luckily when we got to Boston there was a guy waiting for us with tickets to Iceland the next day, reservations for two rooms at the Hilton and vouchers to buy supper and breakfast.  The next morning we even had time to take the subway into the city and walk around Quincy Market and the North End. Here are some photos, Sam

From the Toronto Airport!!!! (Mhari)

(Mhari) We are in the Toronto airport with 2 and a half hours till our next flight which was delayed, which means we may miss our flight to Reykjavik. Other than that everything seems to be going well. My dad's plan to take the bus to the airport was fun.
My ears didn't hurt like crazy taking of and landing in the plane, in fact they didn't hurt much at all.

10 days

(Lesley) Well, we have 10 days to finish getting ready and I think we might be able to pull it off.  Having the summer free to get ready has made it a little easier.  We pick a few things to do each day, and whittle down the list.  Unfortunately, it seems we think of something new, daily, to add to our list.  Generally though, the list is getting shorter not longer.

I have one more triathlon: Riding Mountain Tri.  Then I will be ready to put my gear away.  John and I have packed most of our clothes so if we look like we are wearing the same things over and over again, we probably are. However, we launder them often while we still have the machine at our disposal.  I actually thought I was going to teach the kids to hand wash their socks and underwear (so that I didn’t end up having to do it for a week while teaching them). Now I figure they will learn out of necessity sooner or later.  I remember wearing grey cardboard socks at their age.  The kids’ rooms are progressively cleaner and emptier; but Mhari’s, not quite as quickly or easily as Sam’s. 

John made chapattis last night.  They were great.  We ate them with his dhal and his chickpea curry.  He can’t wait till we get to India for the food.  He will extend his cooking repertoire next year, I’m sure.  Not that he has a small repertoire; on the contrary, we are well fed (lots of variety, healthy meals, spicy foods etc.)

On the subject of food, it is Blizzard day here in Winnipeg.  Apparently we need to support the Children’s Miracle Fund today by buying and eating a Blizzard at Dairy Queen.  Well, that is what the kids have been telling me all week.  I am easily convinced when ice cream is involved so we are going to go for it.  Oreo cookie jar, here I come.  I should be embarrassed to know the flavour but we had to do a trial run at the blizzards last week, just to be sure. Bye for now, Lesley

Welcome (Sam)

(Sam) I realized that I have not said on my blog, what my blog is about, so for those of you who are wondering, this blog is about a trip my family is taking this year. We will be traveling through a small portion of the world we will be living out of our backpacks for a year. My parents and my sister also have blogs and hopefully I will have links to them on my site soon enough, I hope you will all read my blog, I will try to make posts regularly.

Sunglasses (Sam)

Here is a photo of the sunglasses I will be using during our trip.

17 days! (Sam)

(Sam)  We leave for Iceland in 17 days!

We’ve been packing, cleaning  and planning like crazy.  I just got back from camp Stephens.  I was there for two weeks and I had a great time but now my summer holidays are over, we are working to get ready and our holidays will start again when we leave.

I can’t wait!