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Published: June 15th 2008
Crater Hike
Kate and Lauren crossing bottom of crater.Dear Friends,
Well, we promised you wouldn't be innundated with blog entries and, as it turns out, despite having regular and often-free access to the internet, we are too busy to write anything! Our typical days are 8:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.or 11:00 p.m. and we are all loving every minute.
Our next to last day in Iceland was truly amazing and the best there. After spending the night at Sudur-Bar, a farmhouse on the north coast of the Snaefellsnes Penninsula in Western Iceland, we drove as far west as you can get in the remote National Park. After viewing a traditional fisherman's shack with sod-covered roof, we turned off the main road and headed inland on foot to do a short loop trail which took us to the top of the volcanic Rauoholl crater. Some of our most striking photos are from this region given its stark beauty (very reminicent of the highland of Scotland or above timberline in Glacier National Park). Walking around the crater was fasincating - the volcanic rocks are covered in spongy moss which makes walking very interesting. The most striking feature of Snaefellsnes Naitonal Park is a huge glacier which dominates the skyline
Hole in Rock
Glacier on top of Snaefellsnes seen in background. in many of our photos. We felt lucky that the rain and clouds stopped long enough to give us a glimpse of the summit and some sun, finally!
In the afternoon, we had lunch at Dritvik and Djupalon where we deposited our first blown-glass 'planet' (more on this in another blog). We kept driving south around the west coast of the penninsula and then across the southern coast, stopping as the spirit moved us. One cool stop was at Songhellier, the "singing cave" where Sam and Lauren sang a duet - it was heavenly! It poured rain for a few minutes, then glorious sunshine. Stopped to see seals at Ytri-Tunga, then stayed next to another crater at the Snorrastadir B&B in a summer cottage. Had 2 bedrooms, full kitchen (we prepared our own dinner), living room and our own hot pot! Our adventure was topped off the next morning by a horseback ride on Islandic horses (short but strong) to the Atlantic Ocean. Sam was thrown off his horse when one of the horses jumped over a small stream, but he got 'right back on the horse' and continued on.
London was so full - we had 3
days and saw shows every evening. The first night, Lauren and Ken went to see Phantom of the Opera and Kate and Sam went to see 39 steps. The second night, we all went to see Hairspray, and the third night, we all went to see Stomp (7th row seats!). During the days, we went to the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, took a boat tour along the Thames, saw the Big Ben tower, went to St. Paul's Cathedral, went up in the oh-so-cool London Eye . They say it is situated at the exact center of London. Then to the Tate Modern museum where the kids loved the hand-held devices with ear phones where you could enter the number of a piece of art using a stylus and hear all about it. They also had small folding stools you could carry around to sit as you listened. We hated to pull them away, but needed to go...Walked across the pedestrian Millenium bridge (had to close 2
Sudar-Bar
Our favorite B&B. Location, location, location...mountains on two sides and Atlantic Ocean out the front door days after being built for revisions - it moved so much people were getting sick crossing it). Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard, then the Science Museum for a great exhibit called "Science of Survival, " which had exhihibts (many of them interactive) about our water and food supplies and what life will be like in 2050 if we don't make changes. One interesting fact: out of 100 drops of water on the earth, 97 are not drinkable, 2 are frozen in snow or ice and only 1 is drinkable. Cool futuristic cars/energy sources/water purifying methods. Took double-decker bus to Harrod's to see outrageous things like a Hummer golf cart (US $23,000) without the 6-seat stretch option.
We left London on Friday morning for Dover - beautiful train where we could all sit around a table. Walked from the train station to the B&B (thanks LL Bean for the great rolling suitcases and comfortable packs!), located at the base of the Dover Castle. Left our luggage and walked up to the castle, starting with a tour of some of the 5 miles of underground passages and rooms from WW II - hospital and command center. Dover was
Crater Rim
Looks like great cell phone reception--can you see the bars? :) first settlted by Romans in 80 AD, and we saw a lighthouse built of stone in 150 AD! King Henry II built the castle in 1181 and when Henry VIII came to visit for 2 days (!!!), his furniture, rugs, etc. were sent ahead and arranged for him. He had his own locksmith who installed the King's locks everywhere he went. During WW II, Dover had 250,000 hits, but none were directed toward the castle -word is that Hitler had his sights on it for his home after the war. We were amazed that visitors have freedom to explore the grounds and castle - no need for organized tour. I think it was the first time we have been able to freely climb to the top of a castle's turrets.
On Saturday, we took the ferry over to France and that's when luck was really with us! The Chamber of Commerce rep at the Calais station called us a cab (which allowed us to jump ahead of everyone lined up for a cab) to get us to one of the two train stations. Only when the driver pulled up and we told him when our train was and that
Rainbow
Can you believe we saw this rainbow at 11pm at night! Sun was up all night... we needed a Cash Point (ATM) before we got there, did we discover we had lost an hour and had only 12 minutes to make the next train! It was a fast train, which would take 1-1/2 hours to Paris. Any others would take 3-4 hours...he drove us like crazy, carrying on an animated converstaion with us, and when we got to the station, a train was just pulling out. We still ran in and Ken was able to determine that the train we wanted was a few minutes late and would be arriving in 2 minutes! We ran to the platform, just as the train was coming in and got what appeared to be the last of the seats. Once in Paris, Ken did a fantastic job of figuring out how to take the subway to our hotel, which really IS just across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral. We can see it out our window! The room is something else though - flea market furniture and doesn't look like they do more than a cursory cleaning in between people, but the location really is spectacular. We can open our large windows overlooking a park and hear the bells
of Notre Dame (also the drunks singing under our window in the middle of the night!). Kate almost got arrested at the train station when she took a photo of the bathroom - you have to pay US $1.50 and go through a turnstyle, which we found incredible!
Very fun was last night and tonight - Ken and Sam went to the park to throw a baseball and attacted lots of attention. They don't do baseball much here and kids and adults alike wanted to just touch it and a few wanted to throw it. I was able to capture photos from our room. Today, we went to the Eiffel Tower (a 2-hour process all together - so much waiting in line!) and went all the way to the top (you can choose how high you go), the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde, and inside the Notre Dame Cathedral. It is great fun to wander the streets outside our hotel to figure out where to have dinner. Every block of the narrow alleys has about 20 restaurants, each with someone out front trying to get you to come in...the first night, the kids loved having crepes
Horse Ride
A cold blustery day for a beach ride. Hold onto your hat! au fromage (we all passed on the frogs legs, duck liver, and snail) and tonight we did fondues - cheese with bread and potato, and cholocate with kiwi, oranage, and apple. We then hid our second globe near Notre Dame.
The kids are absolutely loving everything about our trip and rarely complain about anything. Every day is full of, "Wow - look at that cool _____." They are truly appreciating and enjoying every aspect and are fantastic troupers when we need to walk a long way or we take a wrong turn and have to re-trace steps, with our luggage. One day in London, we estimated we walked about 6 miles and we counted our steps: 1,396 steps in all, including 528 to the top of St. Paul's Cathetral! That is only the UP steps, not the down steps....we all end up exhausted at the end of each day. So far, everyone has been kind and helpful to us.
Tomorrow, we will explore more of Paris, including the Louvre, have dinner with some friends of ours from home who just happen to overlap our stay here, and then on Tuesday, we head to the country to stay with relatives for 3 days.
We note that no one in Europe wears baseball caps (only Americans) and that the men in London are wearing capris!
Kate is in heaven not having to work (no headaches and she's well-rested!) and the kids are loving having us to themselves. More at some point....perhaps Switzerland! Know that no news is good news and that we are having a fantastic time (still pinching ourselves that we are here at all!).
Love, K4
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Gunga
Carolyn Taylor
Joyous report
Thank you so much for taking me along on your trip. Now I 'get it' when people say they travel with me through my blogs. I felt as though I was there with you but coud dnever keep up that pace. You are so wise to be doing what you're doing now! Love, 'Gunga'