August 5 - Travel to Akureyri

After yesterday's bright sun, it was a shame to see heavy clouds this morning when we woke, but it did help us sleep better, not having the bright sunshine filtering thru the blackout drapes. Today was mostly spent on the bus, driving 345km, partially over gravel roads, to Akureyri, known as the capital of the north here. We did have a couple of interesting stops.

The first stop was at a reconstruction of Erik the Red's homestead. Because timber was scarce, home design used stone foundations, wood structural members, and sod coverings. The wood was joined to allow it to be easily broken down and carried to the next home site. For this reason, there is very little information about what homes in this era (800s) actually looked like. The supposition is that they are similar to homes in Norway, where the people originated. This had VERY short sleeping compartments and a couple rooms -- an ante-room or mud room at the front, a communal living/dining/weaving/sleeping room, and a food pantry. The sleeping compartments were only about 4 ft wide, not because people were that short but because they slept in a sitting position, the better to defend their home if needed. Jim and I happened to sit in the middle bed, the main position, so we became the re-enactors when the guide demonstrated the helmets and dress of the people. We also walked up to the area of the original home, but the wind was nasty and being early, it was still chilly, so we beat a hasty retreat for the warm bus.

Mr & Mrs Erik the Red

In the afternoon, we reached a horse farm where we were given lunch and a talk and riding demonstration of Icelandic horses. The original horses came from many countries, but horse import was eliminated maybe in the 1400s, so the breed has become island specific. Because of disease fears, horses cannot be brought to the country today, and if they leave for any reason (like a competition or a sale) they cannot be brought back in. The family we visited had a large ranch of 8200 acres supporting an extended family group (4 homes), with 100 horses and a small herd of cattle. They have been very successful in raising and training horses. A fully trained horse that is not good enough for breeding might sell for $50,000, and brood mares and stallions can go for 10 times that as a starting point.

Photo of professional photo of champion stallion

Their training regimen is unusual by US standards. Foals stay with their mothers a full year, then are kept in the pastures without any training for another 3-4 years. They say this develops the horse's native intelligence and independence. The horses are also unusual for 2 natural gaits that are not found in other breeds. The Toelt is a smooth, fast walking pace, and may be similar to the Tennessee Walking Horse. The other pace is not normally maintained as long and is called a pace, apparently a bit faster than a gallop. The 12 year old daughter and her cousin demonstrated on the horses, which were quite friendly and approachable. They are shorter than many horses in the US, but NOT considered ponies.

From the farm, we were only a short distance from Akureyi, a port town at the base of a fjord. There was a European cruise ship (looked like no more than 200 passengers) docked for the day. We wandered around the town and found a wonderful black boiled wool jacket on sale (half price!), so I made my first serious purchase and immediately wore it to dinner.

20,000 population is a big city by Icelandic standards: Akureyri

August 4 -- Explore Snaefellnes Peninsula

Today was our sunniest, warmest day yet. We walked on a couple beaches, lift heavy weights, ate lunch outside, sample fermented shark with a schnapps beverage called "Black Death" and went for a boat ride to see birds.

Just before we got to our first official stop, we made a quick stop for a waterfall that reminded me of Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite.We continued to Budir and walked over a lava field to a 'shell beach' (sand from ground up seashells). Back on the bus, we made an unscheduled stop to photograph the main volcano on this peninsula, Snaefelljokull, which is normally covered by clouds. The mountain is famous as the one that is featured in Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Budahraun sand and lava

Snaefelljokull with an interesting cloud 'hat'.

We continued on to Hellnar, where there were magnificent basalt formations along the coast, including a couple of arches and collapsed caverns on the sea. At one point, looking west, you could have sworn we were in Mendocino instead of Iceland. When we finished our walk here, we learned that our bus wouldn't start, so we had a wait to find someone to help with a jump start.

Basalt columns and honeycomb, but NO railings!

Jim over a collapsed cave

Kittiwakes nesting inside the cave remnants

Lunch above the beach

A bit further on, we had lunch on the deck of a VERY small restaurant. So far the meals here have been VERY fish oriented. This was the 3rd day in a row that fish soup was featured. As a non-soup fan (I do like a few...), I jumped at the chance for a vegetable quiche instead, which was a pleasant change and very good. Jim said the soup was great too. We finished it off with a cheesecake made from Icelandic yogurt (skyr) and it was also yummy. The weather was wonderful -- we even got out of our coats for a bit.

Our illustrious guide recovering from a strenuous morning of guiding.

Then we went to a black sand and pebble beach that featured the wreckage of a boat from 1948 and a collection of heavy stones that were used as sort of an employment test in by-gone days. The beach was awash with polished basalt rocks of all sizes. I probably picked up a pound of them! There were also 4 large stones weighing 50, 100, 200, & 300 lbs. that were used to gauge strength and employability in the past. Our driver and guide each easily managed the 100 lb stone, but neither were up to the 200. No one in the group wanted to give it a shot, so I lifted the 50 pounder, just to have us represented. Jim could have done the 100 lb stone with ease, but declined the 'opportunity'.

Snorri's 100 lb rock.....

My weenie 50 pounder...

At this point, we had a lot of driving to do and I dozed off, partially to avoid any potential problems with motion sickness. We made an interim stop in a small village to pick up adult beverages to try with the upcoming shark sample. Snorri sang the praises of the Black Death, and he was the only one who ventured a purchase. Possibly the most interesting part of the liquor store was where it was located -- inside a knitting shop! All liquor stores in Iceland are state-owned, but the country can't afford to set up shops in all the little villages around, so they license shops in smaller places. In this case it was the yarn shop, but it could have been a hardware store or a florists' or a gas station. A couple ladies bought yarn too.

Back on the road, I dozed til the shark stop. We first walked back a shed at the back of the property -- when we got there we quickly understood its location -- VERY stinky! The Greenland Shark is poisonous unless it is properly treated. They have no kidneys so their uric acid stays in their bodies, where it is offset by another naturally occurring chemical. Depending on the concentration of this other stuff, shark meat can be okay or not. It turns out that this extra stuff also works as an antifreeze, and since the water around Greenland is typically within 2 degrees of freezing, the sharks there have high concentrations of it. Luckily (?) you can allow the shark to hang, drain, and ferment, and they become safe to eat. If the Vikings hadn't been desperate to get enough to eat over 1000 years ago, we probably wouldn't care. We each got a small sample of shark to be chased with a shot of Black Death. One lady went back for seconds!! I tried my best to avoid the whole process, but was shamed into it and barely survived.

Draining shark meat

Photos of Greenland Sharks

That evening, we headed out on the fjord for a bird-watching boat trip and a seafood dinner. We saw bunches of puffins, kittiwakes, cormorants, and fulmars, including some chicks. Too many photos to put here! I uploaded some to Picasa, but could have added more. Picasa Photos Then the crew dropped kind of a dredge and hauled up the freshest seafood you could find and people (not me!) had scallops and sea urchins right then and there. This was followed by a nice cruise back to the harbor while we dined on more fish below. This was all a bit too much raw fish for me, but Jim enjoyed it.

Still in the capture net

Sea urchin and an itty bitty starfish in a broken scallop shell

August 3 - Drive to Stykkisholmur

This morning, we left Reykjavik to start our exploration of the western half of Iceland. The island is entirely volcanic, and being stretched because it sits on top of the mid-Atlantic ridge. Millions of years ago, it was MUCH narrower -- the eastern-most and western-most rocks came from the same eruptions. The island is getting about an inch wider each year. You can really see the volcanic impact as you drive. Areas where there were more recent eruptions are barely vegetated. Older areas show the layer upon layer of lava flow that built up the hills, and the results of erosion that created scree down the hills and eventually arable land at the bottom. There are a lot of fjords, formed by fingers of lava reaching out where lava had flowed before and leaving deep bays digging into the country side. One of these bays became a naval base for the British, and in mid-1941, for the US during WWII. Most remnants of the bases are gone now.

Hvalfjordur -- Whale Fjord -- site of WWII British and US Navies

 At a rest stop, we looked for and FOUND Magnum Bars -- these are the world's best ice cream bars, which we discovered in Turkey and looked for in the US unsuccessfully, until they recently appeared at Safeways. These were really expensive (over $5 each vs. $3.50 in Turkey and about $1.50 in the US) but we indulged anyway. A girl needs her 10am snack!

Our next stop was the largest hot spring in Iceland, which supplies 2 cities, about 40 miles away, with hot water. If you have seen Yellowstone, you have some idea of this, but the water here is boiling as it appears and comes out at an astounding rate. Even the trickles of water down the hill above the spring were steaming. I think if I were thirsty and came upon a stream, I would be checking the temp carefully before just gulping it in!

Boiling hot springs

 There are also a lot of waterfalls where ever you look and we drove to a set of two in the western country side. One is called Lava Falls -- water is literally falling out of the rock, apparently from nowhere, into the river. The other is Children's Falls. The story is, a LONG time ago, 2 kids were left at home while everyone went to church. The kids walked over a rock bridge across a falls and fell in so their mom destroyed the rock bridge so no one else would get hurt. The place was pretty amazing, whatever the truth is. There was also an interesting white flower called the cotton flower -- looked kind of like a smallish cotton boll on a stem. It used to be used to make wicks for the oil lamps.

Lava Falls -- the water seeps out of the rocks

Site of former rock bridge at Barnafoss (Children's Falls)

Upper part of Barnafoss

Next we stopped at Reykholt, home of Snorri Sturluson. Born in 1179, he married well and became a writer and diplomat. His writing is still understandable to the Icelanders, a measure of how little the language has changed. He is famous for his sagas. He ran afoul of the King of Norway, and was assassinated when he was 62. We saw the hot pool where he bathed, a possible burial site, and a cute little church now used primarily for weddings.

Poppy with 2 visitors at Reykholt

Lunch was in a small town (Borganes) that features The Settlement Museum, which showed how Iceland was settled. The most surprising thing to me, (considering that on the way from the airport to Reykjavik our guide told us we were playing the game "Spot the First Tree" -- a landscape tree on the edge of town) was that Iceland was originally heavily wooded but got logged out early on for building and firewood. They haven't quite got the idea of reforestation, tho they are working on it.

After Borganes, I snoozed on the bus til we got to the Snaefellsness Peninsula, where we will spend the next couple days. We were challenged to walk up a holy mountain, Helgafell, without talking or looking back. If we touched the remnants of a small church and made a wish, it was sure to come true. Fortunately for me, thought it was a bit steep, it was a short walk and I managed to make it 15-20 minutes without a word, as did Jim. Now we can only hope our wishes are granted.

Snorri explains the challenge before we start.

Jim at the top of Helgafell

I watched for sunset tonight -- around 10:30. Time for me to go to bed even tho I am still wide awake.....

10:30 PM in Stykkisholmur

August 2 -- explore Reykjavik

People from our group came in on 3 different flights, so we collected them all (12 others) and got to our hotel around 8:30am. We immediately set off on a walking tour around the hotel, which is about 3K outside of downtown Reykjavik, but very close to a large park/botanical garden/sports complex. One of the first interesting things we learned is that people in Iceland do not have water heaters. The hot water and cold water systems are completely separate, and all the hotwater is from hot geothermal springs -- it gets to the houses at about 180 degrees and when it has run its course thru the house, can be diverted to sidewalks and driveways to melt the snow and ice in winter. Our guide, Snorri (named for and a descendent of the most famous early writer in Iceland, Snorri Sturluson) showed us some of the many pumps located around the city. I should have taken pictures.....

Snorri with some of our group. Our hotel is in the background behind him.

We saw a lovely collection of labeled flowers in the botanical garden, followed by some very cool sculptures nearby, then wandered to a hot spring used by local women to wash their clothing -- sort of a communal wash room. No soap required when the water is boiling!

Labeled flowers

Sculpture amid the flowers: water flows out the middle.

Sculpture in garden - name was something like 'falling off' -- that's a horse and soon to be ex-rider...

Back at our hotel, the room was ready and we had just 90 minutes to unpack, refresh, and taking a walking tour of downtown Reykyavik. This was optional, but truly in our best interests as we adjust to being 7 hrs ahead of San Francisco. The hotel offered a one way shuttle, so we had the option of walking or taking a cab back (guess what we did--walked of course! Vikings started coming to Iceland in the 800s and originally called it Snowland, and then another guy named it after himself. One nasty year led him to call it Iceland, and it stuck. The weather is more temperate than you would anticipate -- summer highs get into the 60s and winter lows get down around freezing. The hottest on record is 78 and the coldest is only -13.There are about 320,000 people in Iceland, and 67% of them are here in Reykjavik, a very international city, if you go by the types of restaurants.

Oldest building remaining in Reykjavik -- altho all the timbers may have been replaced.

An interesting option for a Mexican restaurant.....Traditional Icelandic dishes.

After our historical walk, we explored the harbor area, the downtown, and started the walk back to the hotel. We noticed a really interesting steeple along the way and hiked up closer to see the Hallgrimmskirkja, a Lutheran cathedral. In front, there was a statue dedicated to Lief Erikson by the US in honor of the establishment of the Althing, an early parliament, 1000 years ago, around the year 1000.

Colorful houses, mostly sided and roofed with corragated metal

Back at the hotel, we had a welcome meeting with our fellow travelers, dinner, then headed back to our room to try to catch up on sleep.

August 1 -- Fly to Iceland

Today we were up early to start our next adventure -- a couple weeks in Iceland followed by 4 days in Greenland. The weather we can expect will be a lot like a normal (foggy) day in San Francisco with the possibility of rain and sunshine 18 hrs a day. Our flights were uneventful--except for the part where the sun never REALLY set on the overnight flight -- we went thru Minneapolis and flew north over Canada and Greenland with a dark red sunset always on the horizon. We landed at 6am and the sun looked like it should have been 8 or 9 am.  Now to catch up on sleep!

Sonoma Tour Guide Overnight

As a member of the San Francisco Tour Guide Guild, I often have the opportunity to go on the educational forays they arrange. The most recent jaunt was an overnight trip to Sonoma County to show us the ins and outs of leading a wine-tasting and/or culinary tour there. Of course, to be fully informed, we basically had to eat and drink our way through the county. Talk about tough duty!!!

The first day focused on the Healdsburg area and we actually were running early so we added a stop at Clos du Bois, just of 101 near Geyserville. Our bus broke down at the entrance (talk about good timing!) and our second stop was less than a mile away at Francis Coppola's Winery, so we got in some hiking along with the tasting!

Church window

George at a cute cottage

After lunch in Healdsburg, we got a fabulous tour of the delightful square and downtown area homes from George Webber (who became General Vallejo the next day in Sonoma). The homes were quite charming and made me think it might not be a bad place to move to when our knees can no longer handle the stairs and levels in our house.

Inside of Casino Bus

We got an introduction to a cooking school and sampled crepes we made (well, not me, but everyone else did a great job of flipping those babies) at Relish Culinary Adventures. After relaxing for a bit at our hotel, the Dry Creek Inn (VERY quiet despite being by the freeway), we had more wine tasting and cheese at the hotel, and a short hike to look at Seghesio Winery, which I had never heard of. I LOVED their Barbera....

Then we got a ride to the River Rock Casino in a tour bus like none I have ever seen before. I am not a big casino person and River Rock is just as noisy and obnoxious as I feared. Dinner was here (at least it was comped...) and we finally retired to our jacuzzi-equiped hotel rooms.

Bright and early Wednesday, we headed to Sonoma and the Sonoma Valley Inn, near the square, for breakfast and then a tour around the square with General Vallejo. I finally discovered what the Bear Flag Revolt was all about (it was sort of a Lone Star State thing that only lasted 3 weeks) and moved on to a great lunch at Meritage and then a stop at Ramekins, another cooking school which also has hotel rooms.

Ramekins let us sample some champagne....

We ended the day with a drive up the Valley of the Moon to Deerfield Ranch Winery, which is very big on organic wines. We toured their caves and tasted several types of chocolates with the reds. All in the name of education! Of course, to help support the economy, I ended up with another 7 bottles of wine for our small cellar.....It could be time to expand its storage capacity again!

Washington DC, Busy Week

We've been busy this last week, entertaining the grandkids and helping to build and roof the shed. Both have been physically challenging! We need to adapt to the level of activity 2 little ones can generate and building, especially roofing tends to use muscles we ignore too often. We also had the opportunity to have lunch with friends who we met on our Croatia trip who live about 10 miles from here, and had a blast. Tomorrow, we head back home and 'real' life.....more Angel Island and Chinatown trips for Lynn on the schedule.

Today, we watched the kids all day -- more bonding time. We decorated Easter eggs, and in the afternoon, after Davin's nap, we went to a couple nearby parks. 

Davin does not seem so keen on swinging.

Dahlia, on the other hand, just wanted to go higher.

Like many young men, Davin was captivated by the potential for driving.

Dahlia worked on her wall-climbing skills.

Back at home, Davin played with his tow truck (foreground) and trains.

He is also at that age where EVERYTHING has the potential to be tasty.

Jim and Dahlia play a word game. At 3+ she knows her numbers and alphabets and does well with spelling games.

Lynn and Dahlia colored a few Easter eggs....

and when they dried, Dahlia added stickers to make them truly beautiful.

This is the shed we helped build. When we started, Dan and Diane had completed the floor, and the rest was a pile of supplies. Jim and I got 2 walls ready Friday and then we worked in shifts Saturday and Sunday to get the walls and roof framing ready. Monday, Jim and I did most of the roofing (what you see here) and finished 3 more rows of shingles, covering the whole roof, this afternoon when Dan came home and watched the kids.