London - day 2

We've been keeping so busy and getting home so late, I've already fallen behind!  Day 2 in London started with breakfast at the Priory Cafe, a tiny little place run by a couple from northern England, near where Tim is from.  Since they are both transplants from the north, they give each other a good hassle, just for fun.  After some eggs on toast, it was off to the tube station to explore central London a bit.  First stop, the Wellcome Trust and its science and medicine exhibits and library.  Lots of interesting stuff there, but the best ones were Charles Darwin's walking stick and a copy of the entire sequenced human genome, divided into volumes based on individual chromosomes.  We also saw a very early version of the x-ray machine and blown glass sculptures of swine flu, ebola, giardia, and MRSA.  (Yes, I know I'm a total science nerd!)


  Afterwards, we walked south to the British Museum - a huge exhibit of Egyptian, Assyrian, Roman, Greek, and Asian artifacts.  The museum houses the only remaining piece of the Rosetta Stone, unearthed by Napoleon's troops and the key to translating Egyptian hieroglyphics.  Lots of mummies and sarcophagi, canopic jars, Greek and Roman statues, Japanese samurai armor, and much more.  From there, we continued south through the Soho neighborhood to the West End theater district, London's version of Broadway.  We happened upon the Harry Potter and the Cursed Child theater - the play runs in 2 parts and is still in previews this week, and we didn't have any free time to see it even if we could get tickets.  Still, it was exciting to see.  We did briefly check a bookshop to see if the book of the play came out earlier here than in the States, but no luck.

Since we hadn't really eaten a formal lunch (breakfast was relatively late), Kelli directed us to a little cake shop on a small side street where we purchased some Swedish princess cake and a bag of biscuits - yummy!  We sat on the steps outside Covent Gardens Market to eat our sweets until it started to rain briefly, which gave us chance to check out the shops inside.  One stall had 7 or 8 different types of shortbread - we picked out some peanut butter shortbread to bring home.  There was also rhubarb, lemon, and double chocolate - all the ones we sampled were very tasty!  Last stop on the way home was at King's Cross Station, since we were on the tube anyway, to see the Harry Potter shop and try to get our pictures taken with the Harry Potter trolley going through the wall to platform 9 3/4, but the line for photos was way too long and the shop was quite crowded.  We will try that again on Wednesday, as we have to go back to King's Cross to get to our train to Paris.
 

Iceland, day 2 > London

Iceland, day two!  We got up early so we could catch breakfast at Sandholt, a little cafe we noticed walking down Laugavegur Wednesday night.  It opened at 6:30am, so we got there right as it opened so we could be back in time for our 7:30 bus pickup.  Simple breakfast - greek yogurt with fruit compote for me and a croissant with jam for Margo, plus wonderful black coffee for both of us.  We quickly hoofed it back to the guesthouse to check out and catch our bus to the Blue Lagoon for several hours of geothermal spa time.  The Blue Lagoon uses a geothermally heated combination of sea water and fresh water, infused with algae and minerals, like the silica that gives the water its milky blue color.  There are also claims that the water is scientifically proven to improve skin health and help with conditions such as psoriasis.  Upon arrival, we were given bracelets on which we could charge all of our extras; the bracelets also opened and locked our luggage and personal belongings lockers.  We changed into our bathing suits, showered, and made our way outside to the lagoon, which is maintained at a temperature around 100 degrees F.  The air temperature was around 56 degrees, which made for a really nice discrepancy.  We submerged ourselves in the quite comfortable water and wandered through the extensive lagoon area.  We tried out all of the options available - the waterfall, the steam rooms/sauna, the silica mask, and got drinks at the lagoon bar, where you didn't even have to leave the water!  We spent almost 3 hours soaking before we went back inside to shower, change, and grab some lunch before catching the bus back to Keflavik airport to catch our light to London.  We grabbed some water and Icelandic chocolate for a snack while waiting and then waited at the gate for our 3-hour flight to be called.


Arriving at Heathrow around 8pm Thursday evening, we spent a good bit of time in line at customs before we could meet up with our friends, Kelli and Tim Powling.  Kelli was a media specialist/librarian/technology person at my school before moving to the UK with her northern English husband, Tim.  They live in Ruislip, which is part of greater London, but west/northwest of the city center.  They met us at the international arrivals gate and we took a classic black taxi back to their flat (the tube trains were running pretty slowly).  Since we hadn't seen them in over 2 years, we stayed up talking and catching up until after 1am.  Tim, unfortunately, had to work early shift so he went to bed long before we did.  We had a very good night's sleep after that, not waking up until after 9am the next morning.

Once up, we made a plan with Kelli to go for a run and then explore the surrounding area for the day.  We did a nice 5K run to and around the Ruislip lake park, and then walked to the Red Onion Cafe for brunch (having missed the breakfast buffet at the lake).  Tim doesn't usually want to sit in the garden area outside the back of the cafe, so that's where we sat with Kelli.  We all had the breakfast platter with eggs, sausages, British bacon (more like Canadian bacon - if you want bacon, you have to order crispy bacon), hask browns, beans, and toast.  The weather changes pretty quickly, with the sun coming out and disappearing just as quickly and the rain coming and going just as fast, so once we finished eating we went back to the flat to put on more clothes and then head back out to see the neighborhood.  We walked to Kelli and Tim's garden allotment to see how far they've gotten on their gardening.  While there, we helped secure netting over the blueberry bush to protect it from the birds.  Then we made our way to 4 different pubs, seeing all of the local neighborhoods on the way.  We made it a point to try different beverages at each pub - the Queen's Head pub, the Case is Altered, the Black Horse, and J.J. Moon's.  Lots of beautiful flowers everywhere!  English gardens are really a big deal!
 

Four pubs later, we placed take-away orders for dinner delivery and went back to the flat to watch the Wales-Belgium soccer match in the European championships with Tim on tv.  Since Wales is the only UK team still in the running, we were obviously rooting for Wales against the 2nd ranked Belgium team.  Over fish and chips for me and Tim and pizza for Kelli and Margo, we watched as Wales went down 0-1, and then rallied to win 3-1!  Apparently we are good luck for whatever country we are currently in.  After the game, Tim, who is originally from northern England at Berwick-upon-Tweed (pronounced "barrick"), just 2 miles south of the border with Scotland, gave us a lesson on how to speak his childhood dialect, which would be nearly un-understandable without Tim's interpretation, but was nonetheless a hilarious lesson.  We Americans are far too excitable and effusive for the Brits, including Tim, and he relishes every chance to poke fun at us for laughing too loudly or being too loud, all in good humor, of course.  Tomorrow, we'll make a plan for the rest of our time here.  Most everything we have on our list to see is all within a one square mile area, so we think we're going to buy the "London pass" for most of the the attractions and hit them on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday before leaving Wednesday.  So much to do!
 
 

Iceland!

Wow!  It's been a whirlwind less-than-24-hours already.  We left Dulles at 2:10pm yesterday on a 5 1/2 hour flight to Reykjavik.  With the 4 hour time change, we got in at 11:40pm, which you would never know because the sun doesn't set until around midnight and then it's back up again by 3:30ish.  Actually, it never completely goes away - it's more like dusk for a few hours.  Five hours of sleep and we were back up an on a bus for the Golden Circle tour of southwestern Iceland.  (Mind you, we got up at 7am Iceland time, which was 3am Eastern time.)  First stop, Fridheimar greenhouses, where they grow tomatoes and cucumbers year-round using geothermal heat and electricity.  They import boxes of bees from the Netherlands, one queen and 60 female workers in each box, to do the pollinating inside the greenhouses, and some of the tomato plants grow to be 10 meters long.  I tried the fresh tomato soup and Margo ate the bread that came with it - delicious!  A quick stop to see the Icelandic horses that are bred there and we were back on the bus.

Next stop, the Geysir geothermal area (pronounced gay-zer).  Much like Yellowstone, this area is heated by magma under the surface, resulting in many hot springs and geysers.  The big geyser, named Geysir, only erupts every 2 months or so, but Strokkur, a smaller geyser, is very reliable, going off every 5-8 minutes.  It spouts water about 30 meters into the air and steams away in between.  We hiked up to another hot spring and then up to a high point looking over the geothermal area and admiring the purple Alaskan lupine that grows all over the place.  The lupine was brought in from North America to help stabilize the loose volcanic soil blown around by the winds, and also to prep the soil for other types of plants to be able to grow.  The gift shops carry all kinds of volcanic-themed goods, plus many different kinds of volcanic salt and Icelandic chocolate.  We couldn't pass up the chance to try ice cream in Iceland, which was good, but not as sweet or strongly flavored as what we get in the US.


Next up was Gullfoss waterfalls, fed by the Hvita River, which originates at Pingvellir Lake in Pingvellir National Park (more on that in a minute).  The falls occur in two stages, with the higher part having a significantly smaller drop than the lower falls.  All around you can see the igneous rock columns that frame the river.  There is a walkway down to the lower falls and then a trail that takes you down right next to the river and directly adjacent to the falls.  Lots of spray!  Then we hiked back up to the high overlook, where we could also see the glacial fields between the mountains in the distance.



Last stop, Pingvellir National Park, the origin of the Hvita river.  Here you can see the edges of the  Eurasian and North American tectonic plates as they pull apart from each other at a rate of 2cm per year.  Walking down the ravine between them, you actually get to stand in the rift valley between the 2 continents.  Some parts of Game of Thrones were filmed here, although I don't watch it so I couldn't say which parts.  It's a very wild and rustic looking place.



Eight hours of bus tour later, we were back at our guesthouse, definitely in need of a nap.  But by 6pm we were back out on the streets of Reykjavik  to explore some more.  We headed straight for Hallgrimskirkja, the tallest building in Reykjavik and the largest church in Iceland.  Hallgrimskirkja is also a national monument to Hallgrimur Petursson, the most renowned sacred poet of Iceland.  The tower is 73 meters high and it has a fantastic pipe organ, two pipe organs, in fact.  The larger has 5275 pipes, some measuring as long as 10 meters, and weighs 25 metric tonnes.  You can ride the elevator to the top of the tower and see all around Reykjavik and the surrounding countryside, and if you look carefully, you can see some of the 29 bells in its carillon - the 3 great bells in the center of the carillon are named for Hallgrimur, his wife, and his daughter.




After leaving the church, we walked most of the length of Laugavagur, a street filled with shops and restaurants.  Then we made our way back into the shadow of Hallgrimskirkja to eat dinner at Cafe Loki, where we tried traditional Icelandic fare.  Along with the Icelandic beer, Margo tried the Icelandic meat soup, a lamb and vegetable stew - she loved it!  I was daring enough to try the Icelandic plate II, which came with two pieces of rye bread, one topped with mashed fish (think mashed potatoes and fish, kind of) and the other with smoked trout.  There was also a piece of flatbread topped with thinly sliced smoked lamb.  Finally, there was dried fish with butter and 3 little cubes of fermented shark.  I read somewhere that it's usually Greenland shark, and that it has so much ammonia in its flesh that it has to be buried in the ground for 6 months in order for it to be edible.  It definitely smelled like ammonia.  It wasn't too terrible, but I wouldn't go out of my way to try it again.

Other things we learned about Iceland today:
- the name Reykjavik means "smoky bay", so named by the Vikings for the steam rising from the geothermal activity.  Reykjavik and its suburbs are also home to 220,000 of Iceland's 330,000 residents.
 - the country was under rule of Denmark until World War II.  When Denmark was overtaken by Nazi Germany, British forces occupied Iceland and the US sent 55,000 troops here as well, resulting in the heavy US influence everywhere (everyone we met spoke English as well as Icelandic).  After WWII, the US and Britain recognized Iceland's desire for independence and they became their own nation.
- the entire country runs on renewable energy from hydroelectric to geothermal.  All of Reykjavik's hot water comes from underground, already heated, and can be recycled back into the ground to be re-heated.  Very little CO2 emissions here.  Tomorrow - the Blue Lagoon thermal spa and travel to London!

3 days to go...

Margo is finally done with work and it's time to pack!  We are trying really hard to pack lightly so we don't have to haul much luggage - good thing we can wear each others clothes!  I checked the weather forecasts for all of out destinations, and of course, they can't all be in the same temperature range...that would be too easy.  Reykjavik has been in the mid-40's to mid 50's with some rain, London has been in the range of mid-50's to low 70's, and Paris has been low 70's to mid 80's.  We asked Kelli, our friend in London, what we should wear/avoid in order to not look like tourists and she told us our options were to burn our wardrobes or embrace our tourist status - they're going to know we're tourists anyway.  So we're going with lightweight tops, convertible hiking pants, and good walking shoes, plus some running clothes for a 10K in Regent's Park with Kelli (assuming the UK doesn't fall into the ocean because of the recent Brexit referendum) and hopefully a few miles along the Seine.  Now let's see how many bags we can stuff everything into...

13 days and counting....

We are less than 2 weeks from our departure for what promises to be an amazing European vacation!  For years, Margo has annoyed me to no end with her "I've been there!" commentary when we watch movies or tv - she spent a semester studying in Switzerland in college and had a first class Eurail pass at her disposal.  Don't even get me started on watching The Sound of Music with her!  She has been promising for years to take me to Paris one day, and now that we've been together 20 years, we are finally making it happen.  A day and a half in Reykjavik, Iceland on the way to London and then Paris.  We'll be staying with friends Kelli and Tim Powling in London and then meeting up with my dad and stepmom, Ellen, in Paris, after they finish their Viking Rover Cruise from Amsterdam to Basel.  I am BEYOND EXCITED!!!!!  Stay tuned...