Iceland

As we boarded our flight in Toronto, we nestled into business class for the five hour flight to Iceland. Iceland was a country I'd wanted to visit for years, so I had been eagerly awaiting this trip for a few months. We flew over Greenland, and as we started our descent into Reykjavik, we could see the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajökull in the distance, spouting ash. The drive from the airport to the city revealed a flat, barren landscape, with lots of old lava & rock. After a great beakfast at the Icelandair Hotel Loftleidir, we had a city tour around the capital of Reykjavik, where we were shown the parliament buildings, main city square, and other interesting places. The houses are like little lego blocks - blocks with flat rooves, no balconies - so they have flat sides, and different colours. We then drove to our hotel for the night, the Hotel Hengill, which was near the biggest lake in Iceland.

Iceland uses something like 98% renewable energy - mainly geothermal. They pride themselves on having clean air, and even sell tins of it at the airport! They have quite a bit of land for such a small population - they only have 300,00 Icelanders - and two-thirds of those live in the Greater Reykjavik area. This means that once you leave the capital, everything is very spread out. Villages may only consist of five houses, and gas stations and restaurants are few and far between. This only adds to the dramatic landscape, with there being little civilisation, and a mixture of barren, desolite landscape, and then waterfalls, volcanoes, glaciers and the Atlantic. A lot of the landscape was carved out during the Ice Age, with cliffs dropping off quickly to the flat landscape and out to the Atlantic. The country experiences around 10,000 earthquakes a year (around 27 a day!), however in the 4 days we were there we didn't feel anything - most are too small to notice.
The next morning we went to Gulfoss and Geysir. Gulfoss is a big waterfall, and one of the biggest tourist attractions in the country. It abruptly plunges in two stages down the crevices in the earth. Iceland sits on the edge of two of the biggest tectonic plates - the European and the American. This has a lot to do with the volatility of the country - the geysirs and volcanoes, and also means that there are crevices in quite a few places. The plates move on average 2cm a year - making me wonder if one day the country will be split in two! Geysir is home of the original geyser - which is where the word comes from.

The original Geysir only spouts every few weeks now, however 50m south there is the Strokkur Geysir, which spouts every 4-8 minutes at a decent height. We stopped for lunch at the fabulous Hotel Ranga, near the south coast, which is near two of the most famous volcanoes in Iceland - Hekla, which erupts every ten years (and is due to erupt this year), and the currently erupting Eyjafjallajökull. This was the first place we started to see evidence of the ash, with the wooden decks covered in black ash, and cars covered in it. It is a beautiful hotel, complete with a stuffed polar bear in the lobby! There are no polar bears in Iceland, however occassionaly one will arrive via iceberg from the Arctic - by which time, after a few months with no food, they are very hungry and attack people & animals, so end up being shot!

Then we continued along the ring road that runs right around the country, and past Eyjafjallajökull. We were given masks to wear as there was so much ash, it poured in to the coach. The first view we couldn't see so much as it was a bit cloudy, however as we moved around to the eastern side of it we could see it really well - the ash was just billowing out, the ash cloud was changing every 5 seconds or so - so much ash! Quite spectacular, we were only about 2km away, and I couldn't help thinking how much it was affecting these people's lives. The news has concentrated so much on flight disruptions and the people being affected by that, but these people living in the vicinity are affected every day - and living in uncertainty. The ash is harming their animals and destroying their crops. Crops are hard enough to grow in Iceland's harsh climate and with the volcanic soil, without having ash everywhere as well! The clean up job is constant. I expected the ash to be fine, like talcum powder, but it's actually more like sand - they're quite big grains.

We stopped at a little museum, which had such gems as the first ice skates - cow bones that you strap to the bottom of your shoes and slide along on. I'm not sure what the NHL would make of those! Then it was on to our second night's stop at the Icelandiar Hotel Klaustur. We always seemed to start our meals with a bowl of creamy soup, and then follow on with either fish (arctic char or halibut), or lamb. Both the fish and lamb are very good, and plentiful! Breakfasts were typical Scandinavian style - bread with cheese, meats, liver pate, smoked salmon/herrings, tomatoes, cucumbers and so on.

The following day we headed further east towards the major glaciers, and to Jökulsárlón, which is where there is a large glacier lagoon. We took a boat ride on the lagoon, amongst the icebergs, to see them up close. They're quite beautiful - different colours of white and blue, depending on how long they've been around for. This lagoon has been in movies such as Bond's Die Another Day, and Tomb Raider. A seal followed us for a while, and kept curiously popping his head above the water, which was an added bonus! The guide broke off bits of the ice, and let us taste it - the ice was over 1000 years old.

Then it was time to head out to the coast, where we were hopping to see the Puffins - unfortunately they hadn't arrived from their migration yet (apparently we were only about a day early!), so we missed out on that. It was great to be out by the wild coast, with the waves crashing and the ominous ash cloud overhead. Heading back to Reykjavik we went out for dinner before settling in to the fabulous Hilton Nordica Hotel.

On our last morning in Iceland, after a sumptious breakfast buffet at the Hilton (and tasty skyr, an icelandic yogurt), we went to the famous Blue Lagoon.

It's a geothermal spa, with the water being just slightly warmer than body temperature, and rich in minerals such as silica and and sulphur. It's known for it's healing properties, and it's a lovely way to spend the time before our flight, floating around in the milky blue water, with silica mud all over our faces!
Regrettably it was then time to board our flight back to reality - having realised another dream destination, and ticking somewhere else off the list!

Cruising the Caribbean - Part 3

We carried on to St Thomas, the main island in the US Virgin Islands. This place is a shopping mecca! As we already had a big diamond in tow by this stage, we bypassed the shopping (after a brief look) and took a tour around the island. It's quite pretty, and used to be under Danish rule - the street names are all in Danish, which I found quite fascinating. The views from the top of the island were great, looking out over the other islands, and over to the British Virgin Islands as well.

The next stop was a bit of a surprise, as when we initially booked the cruise we were supposed to be going to Santo Domingo, in the Dominican Republic. About two months after we booked it we got notified that it would be changed to San Juan, Puerto Rico - which I was more than happy with!

Old San Juan felt more like we were in Spain or something Mediterranean. Beautiful old buildings, with their little juliet balconies, so cute! The Spanish influence is very strong.

Sailing out of San Juan was beautiful - there were two other cruise ships in port, and we were the first to leave, passing the fortresses and castles. Old San Juan was an unexpected highlight!

The next morning we both woke up feeling really bad. I spent most of the day in bed, which wasn't so bad as we had a half day stop in Turks and Caicos. The most beautiful water, but not much else to see! By evening time I had had enough and we both went to the onboard doctor - who funnily enough was an Aussie - and got diagnosed with the norovirus :o( Antibiotics and being quarantined to our cabin for the last 24 hours of the cruise were the order of the day. The last day was a day at sea, which we had to spend in our cabin, watching tv, snoozing on and off, and ordering room service!
Then it was back to reality and to the airport - where Delta had bumped us off our flight, which meant we had to run to get our connecting flight in Detroit, and when we got to Vancouver, my luggage didn't show up - apparently as it was "too late to the gate" - despite us being at the airport 4 1/2 hours before our flight left Florida! Needless to say I was not impressed. All our toiletries were in my bag - so we didn't even have toothbrushes when we got home! Luckily it turned up the next afternoon, unfortunately after the emergency toothbrush purchases.

All in all, a wonderful cruise. Andrew is a cruise convert, we had a great time (despite being sick for the last two days), had some amazing food (lobster tails, oysters, lots of amazing fish, luscious desserts and pastries, fresh fruit.... the list is endless), and got engaged!

Cruising the Caribbean - Part Deux

Next on the list was St Vincent, of St Vincent & the Grenadines. This is probably the most isolated island on our itinerary - there are no flights from here to anywhere outside the Caribbean, so there's not as much outside influence, or tourists. It's very lush, green, and a bit rough in town. Not unsafe - just very basic, and undeveloped. Being a Saturday there were lots of people milling around, local markets going on, selling fruit and vegetables, and not much else. There's none of the touristy shops that are so prolific at the other ports, it's just back to basics, Caribbean style.

That night, back on the ship, was the night that Andrew chose to propose! Of course I said yes (i had been not-so-gently suggesting it for a while!!), and had a celebratory cocktail and game of cards up on deck. Nice and laid back!

The next day in St Kitts we went ring shopping - there is really good jewellery shopping to do in the Caribbean - and found this ring, which I LOVE. St Kitts was really nice - Easter Sunday, and after we'd done our stint round all the jewellery stores, we went out into the real town and wandered the near empty streets - along with the roosters!
There was a lovely park, surrounded with colonial buildings, and these funny palm trees, that we also saw somewhere else along the trip as well.

There were two ships in port that day - the other one was a Celebrity cruiselines ship, one of their older ones that looked really rundown. Ours is the one on the left.

We had some lovely sunsets, depsite the weather not always being perfect, but sometimes the clouds add to the mood.

Cruising the Caribbean - Part 1

At the end of March we flew out to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to catch our 14 night Caribbean cruise. We'd booked it just before Christmas, so had been looking forward to it for a while - Andrew had never been on a cruise before, and I'd talked it up a lot, so I was hoping he'd enjoy it! We cruised with Princess Cruises, who I'd cruised with before. The ship, the Grand Princess, holds around 2600 passengers, and about 1200 crew. It was a great ship, despite being one of their older ones, but it was well kept and the staff were great - we quickly made ourselves at home!

The first stop was Aruba, which we came to after two days at sea. There was some interesting architecture! And the water was beautiful, we caught a cab up to the beach, which is about 10 minutes away from town. It was HOT as well - mid 30s, and we were already bright red from being burnt while at sea - with a bit of a breeze, we didn't realise the sun was so strong! Oops....

Next day it was on to another Dutch island, Curacao. The cute little coloured buildings reminded me of a place in Copenhagen called Nyhavn - very similar. Here we mainly wandered around the town and checked out the shops a bit.

After Curacao, we had another day at sea in which to enjoy the ship. Lazy breakfasts at the buffet, followed by lunch, afternoon tea, and then a 4 course dinner..... punctuated by a swim here and there, and at least one trivia quiz every day. I could get used to this life.....

We arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad, in the morning, and this was the only place we'd organised a shore excursion through the cruiseline. I'd read that it's not really the safest place to be by yourselves, so we booked a half day tour around the city and out to the beach. Our guide was good, telling us lots of stuff, and all about carnival and the steel pan drums and stuff. Trinidadians are the colourful ones of the Caribbean - anyone remember the last cricket world cup that was held in the West Indies? The Trinidadians were the noisy ones!! The British influence was evident in a lot of the architecture - quite a contrast the the Dutch influence we'd just seen in Aruba and Curacao. We did get out to the beach as well, the weather wasn't the greatest unfortunately, but lots of palm trees by the beach!

Next day was Barbados, which I'd been looking forward to for ages - but, we didn't realise it was Good Friday, so everything was closed! We walked out to the beach, beautiful white sand and clear blue water, and strolled for a while. There were lots of people swimming, playing frisbee etc - they were just all in the other direction than this photo was taken!
We walked back through Bridgetown, the capital, where again, the British had obviously been, and found a bar that was open, so Andrew could partake in a local brew while we sat in the shade and played cards. We pretty much worked it every day so that we were back on the ship for lunch, and then we went off again if we wanted. Saving money!

Springtime

Spring has sprung in Vancouver, and the cherry blossoms are out in full force - gorgeous! The streets are beautiful, so many all in a row, just make it look so pretty. We've been having some beautiful weather, milder temperatures, and less rain.This has meant that we've been able to get out and explore a bit more, now that the madness of the Olympics is over, and the crowds have gone.





The other thing that helps is that we have bought a car! It's a 1998 red Ford Escort, and was a bargain. Runs really well, reliable, and means we don't think twice about going somewhere now as the only additional cost we have is gas. Insurance here is through the roof though - we pay about $120 a month (Canadian $). Still, it's worth it, and means we do more on the weekends now.


One thing we've done is go to a place called Deep Cove - about 30 minutes from downtown. We had a coffee and a bit of a wonder round - it's like a little village, and has this beautiful inlet, with the mountains - so pretty. There are lots of walks to do around here too, but we haven't got that far yet!

2010 Winter Olympics

The long awaited Winter Olympics came to town - there had been a lot of hype about it, with most Vancouverites dreading it, or so it seemed from my perspective. We had so many people coming in wanting to book trips out of the city - anywhere, they just didn't want to be here while the mayhem was going on! Andrew and I were looking forward to it though - what an experience, to be living in a city that's hosting the Olympics!

The city was well prepared. Apart from the issue of no snow. Vancouver had the warmest winter in years, which didn't make it ideal for the one year they really needed the snow! The buildings were used as billboards, the weather was stunning, there was a buzz about the city. Meanwhile, they were importing snow from other mountains, as there wasn't even enough snow to make more! Ah well, you can't have everything, right?!


The Opening Ceremony was on the 12th of February, Flight Centre had put on a party at one of the local pubs so we went there to watch it. We hadn't got tickets for any of the events, as by the time we thought about it we couldn't get anything for under $100 each. It's the first Winter Olympics on record that the Curling sold out!!
There was, however, lots of free stuff going on around town, and even just walking around soaking up the atmosphere was great. We walked down to see the Cauldron, which stayed lit for the entire time (lit by Wayne Gretzky, naturally). Streets that were normally not even half as busy on a Saturday night were jam packed every night of the week - meaning even the quickest errands took longer, and Andrew had to fights his way through the hoards to get to work and back.

The light show that you can see in this photo happened every night, and the lights moved all over the sky in different patterns - it was gorgeous.

Now the one sport we had followed religiously was the hockey. Of course, every Canadian had their hopes pinned on Canada for the gold medal! Canada played the USA in the quarter final, and lost, but then both met again in the final - the gold medal match. Canada playing the USA in hockey is like NZ playing Oz in the rugby. Tension is at an all time high! Andrew and I chose to watch the game at home, as watching it at a pub would've meant queuing up at 7am to get in somewhere, for a game that didn't start until 12pm. Ummm... no thanks. So we watched at home, and had the balcony door open a bit - every time there was a goal, you could hear the yelling! And then when Canada won the gold in overtime - my god, it was amazing. The whole city just exploded - very soon afterwards there were people running down the streets, screaming, singing, cars beeping their horns, such an outpour of relief and pride. After about an hour we went out a block from our house to see what it was like.....

Fantastic! This is normally a street that cars go down, but they'd shut it off for the Winter Olympics. It's the same street as the one above (night shot with all the people), and check at all the red - mainly Team Canada hockey tops! The atmosphere was amazing, and the people and noise carried on into the night.






That evening we watched the Closing Ceremony - and the fireworks that ended the Olympics, that we could see from our balcony. We really were so close to it all!

Billy & Elton in Seattle

Last weekend I went down to Seattle with a friend - we caught the bus down and due to delays at the border (not our fault!) a 3 1/2 hour journey turned into 5 1/2 hours. Not impressed. We got there just after 3pm, and checked in to the Fairmont Hotel - god bless travel agent discount rates. After heading out for a very late lunch/early dinner at a little Italian joint for a tasty risotto.

Then it was time for the main event - time to head to Key Arena for the Billy Joel & Elton John concert! Andrew and I saw Billy Joel in Auckland in November 2008, and he was the main pull for me to go to this concert. It kicked off at 7.30pm, with both of the piano men playing together - they took turns singing songs from each other's repertoire. Whenever it was a Billy song, Elton would start to sing, and vice versa.

They played like that for about half an hour, then it was all about Elton for an hour and a half - literally. He played & sang really well, and his songs are classics - but he wasn't much of an entertainer - it was like he was acting as if he wasn't playing for anyone, there was no interaction with the crowd. And considering the concert in November was postponed because he got sick, he didn't even acknowledge it! However, with songs like his, he can get away with it I guess!

Elton went off and it was time for Billy - who proved again that he's a great entertainer - interactive, apologised for having to postpone the November concert, joked, played guitar, and of course sang and played piano amazingly well. Fantastic - love Billy. He played for about an hour before Elton coming on again and they played together for another half an hour or so - finishing up with Candle in the Wind and Piano Man. No encore - which was actually fitting, as I don't know how you could top those two songs, it was a great way to finish.

The next day we had a wander around the shops and went to the Pike Place Market, and to this great little chowder place for lunch, where you can get a sampling platter of four different chowders....mmmmmm....... very tasty. Time for the coach back again, much quicker this time - loved Seattle, and love going to the US. Looking forward to the next time - unfortunately it will be without Billy & Elton though!

My first post with no photos :o(