http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/AmyandAl/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from AmyandAl en-us Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:09:36 +0000 Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:09:36 +0000 A week relaxing in the south of france in the sun We went to Monte Carlo for my birthday and spent the day on the beach and admiring the posh cars parked outside the casino....convertable aston marton numerous ferarris and masseratis http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Monaco/Monte-Carlo/blog-202732.html A week staying in the pretty Les Allures just down the valley from the Meribel skiing area was just what I needed after working 6 straight 13h shiftsFood prepared by a good cook friendly chalet owners and guests and a lovely hot jacuzzi Not the best of snow but it didn't really matter enjoyed skiing for the first time since I broke my knee in New Zealand managed to ski over into Courcheval http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/blog-122538.html Ok so we haven't completely unpacked yet and there is still furniture to put together pictures to put on the walls and mirrors to put up But we are settled in nicely and bracing ourselves for the cold winter. We are planning on decking over some of the garden in the spring and hopefully putting in a spa so that we can enjoy the view over the harbour in the summer. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cumbria/blog-102634.html The smiling coast. And it was. Hot so the tourists were smiling well most of them and the locals are known for their friendlyness. A small sliver of land between north and south senegal with a river running through the middle of it and bordered on the other side by the atlantic ocean made a perfect destination for a week in November to escape the clutches of the winter snap that were hit http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Gambia/blog-102434.html So you're going to Iceland on Honeymoon Ok so not the usual destination but somewhere different. We'd searched the usual trips 2 weeks on a beach etc etc but it just didn't appeal and having both travelled a bit we wanted to see somewhere interesting that was also a bit off the beaten track. So I looked at companies that did trips to Iceland.We ended up looking at DiscovertheWorld http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-80460.html We headed further along the south coast today to stay in a place called Klaustur. Along the way we stopped at a good number of sites. After driving through some little towns and a floodplain we reached Seljalandsfoss waterfall. You can walk behind it though you get quite wet and there are a couple of other waterfalls if you go for a short walk along towards the campsite near it. We scrambl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78237.html Only a short drive today which was good after a couple of fuller days. We first visited some basalt columns just off the road. The next stop was a turfed church. Iceland has quite a few turfed roofed buildings they did it when wood supplies were low. Makes for good photos nowWe then arrived into Skaftafell National Park. It houses iceland's largest icecap Vatnajokull which makes up 8 http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78250.html Today was another amazing sight the iceberg lagoon made by chunks of ice melting off of the Breidamerkurjokull glacier. It is called Jokulsarlon though we went to a smaller less tourist populated one called Breidalon first. The lagoon is famous for staring in James Bond Die Another Day where they bloked off the river that runs out into the sea and froze over the lagoon. However they did http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78256.html We started on the route back to Reykjavik with some stops along the way for things we had missed on the way out1. Klauster for the waterfall there we hadn't gone to it on the way out as we wanted to get to the national park in time so we could do our long walk and not be ruched.2. Vik we walked up to the top of the mountain behind it climbed up more steep slopes with me looking petrified http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78273.html We headed back to Reykjavik via the geothermal area on the Reykjanes peninsular. It is one of the most volatile areas in iceland. The temperature of the water is 200 degrees at 2m below the surface. There are loads of bubbling pools and mud holes. There is also a lake in a volcanic fissure with black laval beaches surrounding it.We were supposed to be going to the Arctic in the evening the i http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78278.html We drove to the Blue lagoon spa in the morning its on the way out to the airport. Relaxed in the geothermal spa pools there for a while put on the silica mud face mask that they have from the bottom of the pools even Al put it on Eventually had to come back to reality to get ourselves to the airport to come home http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78280.html Today we explored the well trodden route for tourists the Golden Circle. Luckily we had our own car and could cruise off a little later than all the tour buses and avoid the really busy times.The Golden Circle includes 3 main sites1. Thingvelleir the site of the parliment in the old times of Iceland it has great lava formations and crevasses from where its location on one of the fault lines http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/blog-78058.html Spent a couple of days in Reykjavik Iceland's capital. Stayed at the Icelandair hotel next to the domestic airport. They upgraded us We went exploring round the city on our first day saw nice colourful buildings town hall which is a funny combination of metalwoodwater featureconcrete Tjorn the big bond churches including the lovely architectural main church and many other thin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Iceland/Southwest/Reykjavik/blog-78053.html