I’m Packed (and we don’t leave for 10 days)

Iceland and Norway. Definitely bucket list kind of destinations. And before we go any further...no, we won’t see the Northern Lights. Why? Because this is the time of the year for the “Midnight Sun”. Yes, that’s right, it’s not going to get dark (or at least for very long). And what do you need to be able to see the Northern Lights? Ah yes...darkness! But just another reason to go back in the winter months.

I’m not sure who to give this photo credit to, but until I get to see this spot for myself on the Southshore of Iceland (which we will on day 2) I’m going to borrow it. I’m fascinated by it and can’t wait to see it for myself. Guy, as usual, has done a spectacular job planning the trip and it’s going to be a great one. Prayers for a safe and fabulous journey have begun.

If you are thinking of going to Iceland, please read this book: The Little Book Of Tourists In Iceland by Alda Sigmundsdottir. Thanks to Angie and Steven who had recently traveled there and let us borrow this book. It’s filled with “tips, tricks, and what the Icelanders really think of you”. Enlightening doesn’t even begin to describe how useful this information is. Mostly cultural and environmental information that visitor need to know and understand. Basically to be a courteous traveler. Icelanders have a love/hate relationship with the recent influx of tourists; and to be fair it’s not always good. We’ll strive to be one of the good ones.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Oslo, Norway - Day 16

Last night was a repeat of our first night in Iceland. Loud music coming from somewhere other than our non-air conditioned room, which means opened windows are now closed and the iphone is set to loop my Zen-rain sounds. Even with the artificial rain coming down in our room, and the little USB fan on high, there was still thumping. Not sure how long it took me to fall asleep (even after searching - and not finding - the one earplug I have...lost the other one on the flight over), but eventually I did. We got a pretty restful night otherwise. Breakfast did not disappoint. I forgot to take a photo of my plate, but took several of the different food areas. Guy had his “best egg of the trip” along with some bacon, a roll with strawberry jam and some potatoes. I had a tiny taste of berry flavored cold oats, yogurt with granola, toast with homemade jelly and some honeydew melon. All very good. We sat at the breakfast table and read for a bit as it was still early and we weren’t ready to he...
Read more

Flam, Norway -Day 13

Flam Norway is in no relation to Flamm’s orchard (I checked with Carly). It is pronounced more like Flahm and is a small little town off one of the longest fjords in Norway. It takes 8 hours to cruise from the opening of the Aurlandsfjord until reaching the town. The landscape around Flam is so dramatically steep that the roads, like many other places, are inaccessible in winter.    Some of the farms are isolated for nearly 8 months of the year. It’s a tiny town of just over 300 people and the fjord is spectacular. Today we woke up to cloudy skies with the treat of rain hanging in the air. After breakfast we packed our backpacks with optional layers and headed to tender into the town. There we met our guides that took us on the train ride up the mountain. The ride was slow, but the climb was steep and speed was not an option. There is no reason you’d want to be rushed with this scenery. The guide told us it was easy to remember facts about the train. 20, 20, 20. It took 2...
Read more

Oslo, Norway - Day 17

About midnight I’m awakened by thumping. The dance party has once again reared its ugly head and I’m now wide awake. I locate my one ear plug, but since I have two ears it didn’t work out well. I called down to the front desk about 1:30 to see if they had earplugs, but after looking through his drawer all he found was chocolate. I told him I didn’t think that would work, but thanked him for his efforts anyway. So now that I’m 100% awake, I pulled out a bag of Oreos, grabbed my ipad and snacked while watching the movie Brooklyn. It’s one of my favorites and it passed the time. At 3:30 when the movie was over, so was the dance party (it ended some time after 3pm) and I snuggled down and fell asleep for the rest of the night. It actually wasn’t that big of a deal. We had gone to bed early and all in all, I got plenty of rest. We are in room 227. It’s actually a pretty good spot in a corner with no one passing by your room, easy walk up nice stairs, and really close to the food, coffee and...
Read more