… of waves, wind & waterfalls.

Posted on by

We set out this morning, North towards Húsavík, hoping to go on a Whale trip. The weather won 🙁 (Though we did have a very nice lunch in a “warm tent”). So, plan b, we headed further out of town round the Tjörnes peninsula. Again, more stunning views – of landscape that’s just very big, bleak, yet beautiful (but not so photogenic, especially when it’s overcast).

Next stop was Ásbyrgi – on the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river. It’s at the head of a small enclosed canyon – which was, apparently, most likely formed by a massive glacial flood. One book’s blaming an eruption under Vatnajökull glacier – another the “end of the ice age” (though guess the latter could have triggered the former). Whatever – it’s a stunning gorge, called Horseshoe locally – and it is just like a hoof print (of a non-shoed horse); complete with the central pad. A short stroll up there & then heading back, via a gravel road – and stops for two waterfalls; the first, Holmatungur was fairly deep and thus hard to see from the height we were at. The second, Dettifoss was much more spectacular – it’s the most powerful in Europe – and it certainly looked powerful!

Photography today wasn’t as good as yesterday, it was so grey & overcast (though on the positive side, it didn’t rain – just freezing!)

Land of ice, fire & rainbows.

Posted on by

What a day!
After breakfast in the dining room (great view of lake Mývatn), we headed off out. First to Höfði, a peninsula into the Lake. Mývatn was made following several lava flows overlapping each other – leaving lower areas of land that have now filled with water. So, lots of inlets and a very raggedy edge.
Höfði was on such, a great place for a wander, looking at bizarre formations from made by the lava flows. Next, it was on to Skútustaðagígar, with its ‘pseudo-craters’ – formed when hot lava flowed over wetlands.
Following lunch – the first time I’ve ever had lavabread (cooked in lava, apparently), lava tea (herbs that grow on lava) in a cafe with a window to the milking parlour, we headed for hell.
The Stora-Viti (aka Hell) is a crater on the Krafla Volcano. It’s a highly geothermal area – you have to drive through a powerplant (including under a vast pipe), to get to it. We arrived in a downpour – albeit a sunny one, so got to see a wonderful double rainbow. There’s a walk round the crater, at one point we dipped down to another smaller area, one that had remnants of the snow & boiling mud within 10m of each other.
Next, we headed to Námaskarð – for more steam, boiling mud, volcanoes. Finally, to the local hotsprings – the sort you can actually swim in.

North!

Posted on by

A fairly uneventful flight – a bit late from Heathrow, but not enough to miss the next plane – so, met up with Janine, Sara & Steve at Reykjavik Airport – in order to fly on to Akureyri. As we headed North, so we got to see more & more snow on the ground. Akureryi itself is in a spectacular location, at the end of a long fjord – with the airstrip surrounded on all sides (well, 3 of them) by water.
Learnt Icelandic for “ripped” (it’s “rifin”) due to an accident with my case (luckily, nothing seems to have escaped!), picked up the car and headed off for Lake Myvatn (Midge lake), our first nights stop; a handy waterfall providing a photo and leg stretch opportunity enroute.
SAM_1445_cr

SAM_1448_cr

Vienna to Bratislava

Posted on by

I’d decided to get the fast boat down the Danube from Vienna to Bratislava. After the somewhat overcast Saturday, the Sunday was wonderfully sunny! The boat wasn’t exactly packed, either, so I was able to not only have a seat on the front row, but wander round & explore it – though once I realised how blowy a boat going at 70kph was, I didn’t hang round on the outside!

Bratislava was wonderfully sunny when I got there – so dashed into the room & then out to explore. The castle wasn’t mostly an art gallery, very little in the way of furniture; however, there were two links with the Schoenbrunn Palace – mostly that Marie Theresia had allowed her youngest & favourite daughter to marry for love – which lead her to Bratislava (the other 10 daughters – including Marie Antionette – got married into useful families). In addition, the gilding on all the walls was similar. Snuck a few photos in Bratislava, as there were far fewer guards!

Vienna! (Sat 20th)

Posted on by

Just a day or so in Vienna, en route to Bratislava for an Erasmus (work) trip. The central station, arriving late Friday (11ish) from the airport seemed very deserted; much busier when I then got off the subway at Stephansplatz by the Cathedral; my hotel was just round the corner.

So, on Saturday I decided to get one of the tourist hop on, hop off buses & go exploring. The highlight was definitely the Schoenbrunn palace – my main difficulty was the fact that progressing through the rooms, you hopped from century to century, so it was hard to keep track of the different generations. Most of the rooms had furniture in; so you got a bit of an idea of how they lived. It was only the state rooms they’d got – but there were human & family touches, such as the dining room that the last Emperor had used, mostly with his family. When they had family meals, it was Austrian; they only had French Cuisine when they were entertaining. Maria Theresie had a vast marital bed!
After the bus ride, I then had a wander round the Hofburg area and also the Art Museum area, though by the time I’d got there they were mostly closing.

A busy day – but enough to whet the appetite for another visit!

A little up and a little down …

Posted on by

Last day of walking today which was the earliest start. The first section was beautiful, through a forest. Lots of spring flowers & cool despite the sun. Yesterday & today had been so much clearer, we’d have been able to see the view from the castles!

Today also saw the 3rd monastery, another we had to admire from afar, due to its condition. To the bus & then to Girne (Kyrenia), for beer.

image

In the forest

image

image

Kyrenia reflections

Bronze Age tombs, yellow flowers & waves!

Posted on by

Friday saw a visit to a bronze age village, which was surprisingly well preserved, followed by orange & loo break, before starting the walk the longest of the week, at 15.5km.

Not long into the walk we went through an ancient olive grove, which included a 800 year old tree. Then across open farm land, past a bird reserve (shy birds, we didn’t see any!) before finally ending up on beach. Given it had been such a warn day, we were hoping for calm, swimming sea. It was rough & as shingly as Southsea. So, beer was order of the day. Back in the hotel I decided to test the swimming pools, outdoor was too chilly, but indoor was lovely 🙂

Singer & dancing at dinner …

image

image

image

Girne

Posted on by

Girne or Kyrenia is the largest town in this area. Today, we’d decided to take it easy, so rather than joining the optional group tour we spent morning in hotel then headed into Girne for a wander & lunch. We’d seen the castle on Monday, so today explored the harbour, most of the older larger boats were, perhaps predictably party board, but still pretty.

Lunch – managed to get waiter to understand we wanted the salami on half the pizza, which was a bit more challenging than 1 beer, 2 glasses 🙂

Back to hotel, with the intention of sitting by pool but far too windy. Tomorrow we’ll be back to the walking, possibly to a bronze age village, though might have remembered wrong …

image

In Girne town

Monasteries, Castles & Walks

Posted on by

The second day of walking saw us start by tackling steps up to the highest of the Crusader castles, at just under 1000m (though we only had to walk the last few hundred! )
A steep climb, apparently you could see North, East & South coasts from there – and even mainland Turkey on a clear day. Or so we were assured!
Then a walk, through a forest – all the flowers just coming in to bloom, lunch, and onwards, past the very ruined Armenian Monastery ( not allowed in, due to recent collapses), and on to the end. Dinner that night in a sea front restaurant (though we sat inside, as warm though it’s been during the day, it is still early April)
Yesterday saw us starting in a cave, before heading to Kantara castle definitely the most photogenic of all those so far. It wads a shorter walk, starting after lunch, mostly down hill (apart from the little big hill near the end) ending up on the beach, where paddling and beer was my preferred choice 🙂
Dinner in The Tree of Idleness restaurant in Bellapgais village.

image

image

image

image