Germany Amsterdam and Iceland

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Since we last blogged, we were on our way to Frankfurt via train. The ride was a long 10hrs, but we made it to Frankfurt safe and sound. We ran some errands in Frankfurt and I even got a haircut! Andrea's brother and wife were kind enough to put us up for a few days while we were there (again!). They even took us to Stuttgart so we could visit the Porsche Museum. The museum was all kinds of awesome (nice for Andrea, but life altering experience for me 😊 ). A bit of laundry later and we were off to Amsterdam on the "ICE" train. The train is very very fast. The top speed that I saw up on the display board was 296km per hour! Despite the in insane speed, the ride still took about 4 hrs.

Amsterdam, what can I say? While we kept ourselves drug free, it was still an experience. There are cyclists everywhere so we had to watch out for them whenever we walked on a sidewalk or crossed the street. The odour of a certain plant hung in the air all over town (not unexpected) and the red-light district did not disappoint. We even visited the Erotic Museum while in the RLD. It is full of....wait for it....erotic art and stuff.

What else did we do... We visited the Van Gogh museum and it was fantastic. The museum displays artwork from throughout his life as a painter. With the info from the rented audio guide, the visitor really gets a better understanding of the man and his art. We definitely left the museum with a better appreciation for Van Gogh's works.

The Heineken brewery tour (aka the Heineken Experience) was a lot of fun. Andrea and I were virtually turned into Heineken beers in a little exhibit that they have on-site! Andrea also fell in love with the black Clydesdale horses that they keep at the old brewery. We watched them stand around and eat hay for a bit and then moved on to continue our "experience." Very nice animals I must say though. The "experience" is really just a fantastice ad campaign where you are bombared with old TV ads, posters and videos etc, but it is very cool. We got two beers each at the end of the tour as well. AND! I, Corey Holfed, poured teh perfect Heineken! The head was exactly at the shoulders of the star! Two fingers of head! boo yah!

The last thing that we did in Amsterdam was make a visit to Anne Frank's house. The experience was very moving and I am glad that we took the time to visit the site.

At this point, Andrea and I are getting a bit "europed out" and since our next planned destination is Nepal (a couple weeks away), we decided to try something different and visit Iceland of all places. For the first time in about 3 months, I got to drive! We rented a gutless little VW Polo to zip us around the island and since it was a manual, I was the pilot.

First thing that we did after landing in Iceland and getting our S*** together was to stop in at the famous Blue Lagoon. They charge you an arm and a leg to get in, but it is pretty damn cool. With the cold fall air and the warm blue waters it was a great first experience in Iceland. It would be surreal in the winter with the Northern Lights.

The first full day in Iceland was pretty busy. We drove out to Thingvellir National park to see the rifts being formed by the separation of the techtonic plates. The area is quite beautiful. We hiked up to an old ruin, a nice waterfall (there are tonnes of waterfalls in Iceland) and just soaked up the scenery. The region is riddled with cracks and rifts in the ground due to the separation of the North American and European techtomnic plates or something like that anyway. 😊 The next stop was a place called Geysir. Andrea and I watched a gesyer, which I beleive is called Strokkur, erupt time after time after time. This was perhaps the coolest thing we got to see in Iceland. We were all smiles as we waited patiently with our cameras to catch each eruption, carefully watching for the surface of the water to push up into a dome shape before KABLOOOOOIE! There was about 5 minutes between eruptions and Andrea and I watched at least 10 of them! We got some pretty cool photos after all the big eruptions too. After the geyser, we stopped in at the pretty bad ass waterfall Gulfoss. The waterfall is on a million postcards I am sure, but there is a reason for that. The waterfall has a few tiers, but the last one falls perpendicular to the flow of the river, really pretty neat. Due to the sheer volume of water crashing down the falls, we think that the rainbows we saw in the mist must be a permanent fixture.

The second day we went for a hike in the Hengill Hills. The Hengill area is very active geothermally, so we hiked through a few clouds of rotten eggy smelling steam as we moved along the trails. There are literally steam vents in any direction you look in those hills. After the hike, we stopped by a really pretty waterfall that we could walk behind for some nice photos. We even tried to find a cave that was listed on a brochure that we picked up. We walked around for about an hour before we found it and of course need to climb 20 feet up a cliff to get to it! Someone very kind had anchored a chain into the cave for people to climb up. Ya right! Still got 8 months left of travelling. So we explored elsewhere as I was in denial that the "chain cave" was indeed the cave. I managed to find another pretty little cave with a waterfall trickling over the entrance, but it barely qualified as a cave so we moved on to the hostel for the night.

The third day we drove up to a black ash covered glacier and explored for a bit. Driving along the road with black glaciers on the left is pretty cool. Seeing one up close is even cooler. On the way to Vik, we also stopped by Skogafoss (big waterfall) and a nice black sand beach.

The fourth day we hiked up from Skaftafell into a huge park and got some spectacular views of the biggest glacier in the world all to ourselves. If you get up even remotely early at this time of year, there is hardly a soul to be found on the hiking trails. Perfect! After the hike we checked out a Glacial Lagoon that has huge hunks of ice floating around in it. One piece in particular looked like a big hunk of blue glass. Seals and seagulls appear to have made the lagoon home, so there was lots of wildlife there.

On day 5 we decided to drive up the east coast all the way to Myvatn. Myvatn is a very active area geologically speaking, with volcanos and geothermal activity everywhere. After the long drive we checked out a particularly stinky area of geothermal vents and mud pots called Hverir. The place was very neat, but Andrea and I left stinking like sulpher. Afterwards, we checked out the Viki crater and got snowed on briefly before retiring for the night.

We spent day 6 hiking around Myvatn, checking out the birdlife and the volcanic formations and craters in the area. One crater in particular was formed by an explosion and was pretty huge. Hard to imagine the size of the explosion that made it! As for the birdlife, I would recommend that any bird lover come here in the summer. There are tonnes of birds here even now and more swans than I have seen in my life. Despite all the walking today, it was nice and relaxing.

Day 7 was just a driving day, but a long one at that. We drove all the way to Stikkisholmur on the west side of Iceland so we could check out the Snæfellsnes penninsula the following day. We tried to view the northern lights under clear skys during the late evening, but we unfortunately had no luck.

Day 8 was spent exploring the pennisula. We checked out a golden sand beach of all things (a rarity here it seems), a super old well and the Saxholl crater. We took advantage of the wind and took a coastal walk to watch the huge waves crash on the south side of the penninsula at Hellnar too. Oh yes, and Andrea and I both tried a bit of Hakarl. Hakarl is aged Greenland Shark meat. Look it up, it sounds absolutely terrible, especially as described by Lonley Planet, but it does not taste half bad. I had two pieces 😊 Truth be told, the shark meat was the experience of the day for me. Andrea enjoyed the novelty too, but I am not sure how much she appreciated the after taste.

Day 9 we made it back to Reykjavik and checked out a few things in town. We stopped by the big church in town, checked out the view of town from the Perlan building and the Saga Museum. Iceland history is all about Sagas it seems. Someone got made and killed someone else etc...etc... The museum was full of very lifelike wax figures, including a very scary looking lady with the blade of a sword firmly held under her naked booby. HAHA! really have to see that one to appreciate it! We also stopped in at the local botanical garden to see the poor plants before they freeze their butts off throughout the winter here.

Despite the limitations of time and a 2wd rental car (a lot of stuff in Iceland can only be accessed by 4wd or super jeep), Iceland has been fantastic. Andrea and I put around 2600km on the rental vehicle in our attempt to see as much as we could in our short time here. Our favorite area would have to be the Southern half of the country, with the huge glaciers and mountain parks. I really wish that we had more time and a SUPER JEEP to explore more in the south, but that will have to wait until next time. Oh yes, the weather.... Despite what we had been told about Icelandic weather, it was superb. The only rain that we saw in our time on the island was during our two long travel days and it was not much at all. The rest of the time it was sunny or sunny with cloudy periods. Last thing about Iceland...their so called main highway #1, or ring road as it is called, has the most gnarly section of unpaved and twisty mountain road that I have ever seen!

We are now on to Nepal until the 5th or 6th of November. In short we are going to fall off the radar for a bit, but we are super excited about our upcoming trek through the Himalayas! I am sure that I forgot a tonne of stuff, but we are low on internet time.

TTFN,

Corey and Andrea

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Comments

[shannon]

awesome!
Great idea, Iceland! Sounds fantastic, lots of hikes and exploring. Keeping your boots warm for the big trek. I can't wait hear all about the Annapurna experience. I have been going through old pics and journal entries, what an awesome journey! Stay safe, miss you tons on the "pharm" and keep on trekin'! Peace Shannon and Bill