The land of fire and ice - Iceland



Geyser & hot pool



Some weird statues outside the museum



The rift valley looking across to the European side



















Thermally illuminated green houses




















Reykjavik Cathedral




















Extinct volcanic ash pit





















Gulfoss Waterfall




















Site of first church with new church



Path through ripped North American plate side



Blue Lagoon




















Cathedral from our hotel


























We had a short break in Iceland in February and it was super. We stayed in Reykjavik in a hotel across from the landmark cathedral. We only had two full days so we booked on a couple of trips and it all worked out fine.

Education time chaps, please pay attention - Iceland is a country the size of England with a population of only 300,000 and most of these live in the capital Reykjavik. It is the most volcanically active country in the world, it was the home of the first parliament in the world, the site of the first and birthplace of the word geyser. The language dates back to the vikings and most can still read the original scriptures from the time. All the inhabitants can trace their family lines back to the Vikings and it is the only country in the world to get all its electricity from green sources!!! Quite an amazing place really.

On arrival we transferred to our hotel in Reykjavik then had a wander 'downtown' and had a beer (like you do.) The evening was short as we had an early start with cabs then trains planes and buses. The following day we were on a Golden Circle tour which took in quite a big chunk of the local region.

We were picked up at 8 along with a few others in a mini coach. Off we went and the landscape was so different, there was something missing and it wasn't 'til our driver mentioned that there were no trees that we realised what it was. Along the roads in addition to the usual distance signs were road temperatures, obviously you need this info when you are driving almost on the arctic circle!! The roads were covered in ice and snow, the paths and trails everywhere treacherous but life goes on as normal with gentle warnings from the driver about the conditions. Quite a contrast to the few specks of snow we get here and all is cancelled due to health & safety reasons!! All the vehicles here have steel studded tyres, you hear them going past, it sounds like they are driving on gravel but there's no gravel, weird!

We passed by one of the islands geothermal power stations and got a potted 'how it works' from our driver, very interesting. Our first stop along the way was at a village where they grow lots of flowers in green houses heated via the thermal energy. As Iceland has such an abundance of 'free energy' they heat up these green houses all over the island and are pretty much self sufficient in veg up 'til the last part of winter when they have to import it 'til the new crops start. Here was a fine example of the green houses and a coffee stop. After this we headed to an extinct volcanic crater for a wander and slip around, quite deep and large. We then moved on to a smallish waterfall where the Icelanders had built a salmon ladder up the side to the help the fishy guys get upstream to breed!!

After a brief photo shoot here we headed for the site of the first church which was built when they converted to Christianity. Obviously not the original church but a lovely building all the same, views at he back looked out over the volcano which caused so much air traffic misery last year (still smoking too!!) We then went on to the site of the first geyser, which is called geyser and is where the name came from. There was steaming vent shafts, bubbling hot pools and of course a geyser spouting off every ten minutes or so. The original geyser stopped spouting a good few years ago but there is another 'filling in' and giving a bit of a show. This was also the lunch stop for the day. We were very lucky and blessed with glorious sunshine beating down across the icy white landscape.

After some splendid Mrs D type butties we were all set for the the off to see the famed Gullfoss Waterfall. What a sight it was too, two sets of falls at different angles to each other both dropping many meters. It was thick ice and very slippy here but well worth the struggle to stay upright!! The falls are fed from a glacier a few miles further up stream and some parts of the falls were also frozen over which give it an eerie look. All in all quite a spectacular waterfall made more so by the arctic landscape.

From here we were heading up to the rift valley where the 'tectonics' come in, more education now. On this part of the island the two tectonic plates come together, the North American plate and the European plate. So far so good. Tectonic plates push together or move sideways causing quakes and land movement. At this point here they are actually moving apart causing the rift valley between the two plates. The effects of this are clearly visible as you can see across to the other plate and the valley between is approx 5 kilometres wide and has formed the biggest lake on the Island where the land between the two plates has sunk.

If that wasn't enough, also here (on the North American plate side) is where the first parliament was held at a point they call the Law rock or Logberg as it is known locally. Historically it is where a law man would stand and preach to the masses with elected regional representatives. This was the first parliament and to this day the Icelanders still go to this spot to pass many new acts of government.

From here after a good hours walking and slipping around we headed back into town and back to our hotels. We dashed out for a quick pint and we tried some local fayre for dinner. Mrs D indulged in some lobster soup followed by a whale steak, I opted for a puffin salad starter followed by breast of puffin in some wonderful sauce.

The reason for the dash was that we were being picked up at 8 o'clock for another trip, a northern lights tour this time. This was a case of driving 25kms out of town away from the light pollution and standing around in the freezing cold & dark, gazing up into the sky for two hours. Well it's good if you get a result but on this occasion we saw nothing but the full moon. (which incidentally would be a problem if we did see the lights!!) Disappointed and cold we headed back to the hotel around midnight. The deal with the trip was that if we saw none we could go again tomorrow for free to try again!!

The following day was another trip to the famed blue lagoon. An outdoor swimming pool built on a thermal resort that uses the water from a nearby electricity generating station which has come straight out of the ground. Doesn't sound too good? Well it is great, the water is at a constant 39degrees c and there are saunas and all other pool related amenities. You can stay as long as you want but it's best to keep your body in the water as when you stand it is very cold!! After a few hours here and looking like a couple of prunes we headed back into town to go to a local museum which showed the link to the viking history. Splendid exhibition it was too.

The evening was early doors, another meal then back on the bus for a second attempt at the northern lights. This time we were successful but sadly the full moon hampered the clarity of the show. (There's always a full moon when you don't want one!!) We did see them albeit a little faint but it was good. Returning to the hotel at 1am it was a few hours kip before another early start for the flight back to the UK.

A cracking place, well worth a visit especially in the wintertime as it would look so different again in the summer.

Hardly a travel event but certainly worth a mention

Our pilgrimage to Butlins Rock and Blues music weekend in Skegness can hardly be said to fit into the D & L adventure travel log but inspite of Butlins being the most unglamorous of destinations and Skegness being a cold, un-inspiring, flat resort awash with caravans, fish & chip shops, bargain basements and amusement arcades – we love it and have already booked for next year! We join the throng of – well lets be honest here – ageing rockers and hippies all dressed accordingly in denims and old leather jackets; long hair and beards are still plentiful but so are ‘wide partings’ and grey ‘highlights’ (no that’s not just the women). From Friday night through to Sunday night with barely time to eat, we rush between venues, watching band after band – some decidedly better than others – until the last band finishes and we are able to collapse exhausted into our basic, but very warm & cosy chalets to grab a few hours sleep. Over breakfast – and you have never lived if you have never eaten a Butlins breakfast - we evaluate the various bands’ performances with pals then we may have time for a brisk walk by the sea (which is always grey for some reason) before the day’s action begins. Believe me we are shattered when we get home on the Monday afternoon but its all been worth it. Mind you my ears are humming and my back is aching a bit ……

London

Our London trip went very well, it is something we have both done but never together so off we went. We went down by train and stayed at a travelodge in East Croyden. We had bought some travel cards to get us around, tickets for the Tower of London and some theatre tickets for Monday and Tuesday evening.

We had a plan of what we wanted to see and do so we tried to follow it. On the Monday we went to the Tower of London first which was excellent. We were there around three hours but could have easily spent all day there. Obviously due to time we couldn't so after our tour with one of the Yeoman Guards and a wander we left and headed down the Thames towards Shakespeare's Globe. After a look at the Globe we walked up to St Pauls Cathedral which is a wonderful building.

After a well earned coffee outside St Pauls it was a tube to the Tate Britain where the was a good pre-Raphaelite art display for Mrs D. There was also a good display of some Constables and a load that "pile of stones" type modern stuff which I'm afraid leaves me cold, what is that all about???

It was now mid afternoon and we went in search of Tite Street, where good old Oscar Wilde once resided. It was not supposed to be far from the Tate Britain but we couldn't find it. We abondoned it for today and walked on the south side of the Thames towards Westminster Bridge. After the mandatory photos of Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament we walked up the Mall where we found a pub for some food and a sit down.

We had an hour or so here before the walk up to the theatre in Tottenham Court Road. We were going to see We Will Rock You. It was in the Dominion Theatre and was an excellent show. Well it would be for me wouldn't it!! Mrs D actually said she enjoyed it too, most impressive for a non Queen fan! The music was excellent as was the dancing and show. The theatre itself was quite big and another of Londons many super old buildings. After the show we headed for the tube and the train back to East Croyden absolutely shattered after our first days trolling round London.

Long overdue scribbles.......

It's been a long time since I've done this so here we go!

Journey back from Corfu to UK was interesting to say the least. The car heater plugs must have packed up over the summer. Not a problem in Corfu as it is warm and will start. All OK 'til we leave the warm climes.... as a result as soon as we hit the winter wonderland of Germany and the road home the car took ages to start every morning! It was a shock (first time) then a damn nuisance after that. Getting another car was on the list as first job when we got home but there was ne need for it to remind us all the way home. It was if it was giving up on us. Heater plugs first, then the heater wouldn't blow down to the feet so we had cold feet, then the radio packed up. This in addition to the drivers door window not closing fully, the passenger door not opening easily and one or two knocks and bangs from the front it was an entertaining journey.

We were only off the ferry in Venice 20 minutes when we hit traffic, ice and snow in Italy. We managed to do 54 miles in three hours and twenty minutes! Once this cleared it was foot down over the Brenner pass to Innsbruck to try and beat the snow across the Alps. We hit Innsbruck as the snow started and were worried about the second pass - the Fern - over into southern Germany. This proved slippy and very snowy, we just got to the summit of the pass as we started to slip about on the snow. We were very steady down the other side to Reutte in the Tyrol before hitting the snow covered motorway into Germany and Altenstadt our first stop. Never been so pleases to see a hotel!

Next day car wouldn't start and I had just spotted a guy on a fork truck at the end of the road to assist when the old tub fired up. Off again, no snow today just -8, lovely on the feet. We had a good run across Germany but had an unexpected run around Karlsrhue trying to find the way out! We eventually got to Leige in Belgium for stay number 2 where there was no hill to run the car off the following day!!

Next day another marathon car starting episode then off to Dunkirk and the 2 o'clock ferry to Dover. A good drive and ferry crossing got us back to Dover and a short run to a good friends in East Sussex. The car had two nights rest as did we then we headed north the day London was gridlocked through snow and ice. It was a very long day and we finally got home around 9pm.

So really it goes without saying, the first job was another car!! We did our homework and found exactly what we wanted but it was in Edinburgh. At this point Edinburgh had just had the worst snow for years and all roads were blocked. Now I made the announcement to Mrs D about the car and where it was and I will not publish the response here!! After a calming whiskey, we began a dialogue with the garage and watched the weather. An ideal opportunity arose and for the last time we fired up the old tub and drove it to Scotland. It was a lovely drive and the car as usual went very well. We got to the garage and drove onto the forecourt through a two-foot high wall of snow. A deal was done and the old tub was put out to graze in Scotland!! We drove home with warm feet, doors, windows and radios that all worked. It was quite a sad moment leaving the old VW as it has been a super car and served us well back and forth across Europe. I really shouldn’t have asked but I did “so what will you do with the VW then?” The reply was quite sad “she will go where all good cars go at this age,” (the scrap yard, I was gutted!)

The new car seems to be going well, not that we went far in it over Christmas because of the weather. We had a quiet Christmas at home with Reg and Buffalo over, around Christmas time. We did manage a few socials with friends here and there. All in all the year end festivities came and went successfully.

So into 2011 - HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

The New Year and time to start thinking about where we want to be and to go. We anticipate going back to Corfu during May, we already have folks lined up to come out and we haven’t got there yet. Always good to see them though’, we are not complaining.

We have a few trips lined up between now and then, places we’ve always wanted to see and we can do in short breaks. In January we are off to London for three days, at the end of January we have our annual pilgrimage to Butlins at Skegness for the rock and blues weekend. In February we are off to Iceland for three days, then March we head to Windermere and the Lakes for a weekend away with friends. Lastly we have just booked a few days in Dublin so Mrs D can do the Oscar Wilde stuff and I can get lost in the Guinness brewery! More on these as they happen.

Well that pretty much brings us up to date so y’all keep well and I will rattle off some more rubbish soon.

Picture is our old car - what a hero!!!

Where are we now?

Pix from top are - a retired Greek car, Cunards Queen Victoria, our car in Arillas in autumn, Olive tree trimming, sorting, burning and a beer thief.

Right let's get this thing up to date. We arrived in Corfu 2230ish after an appauling landing. Our friend Steve came to pick us up and told us we were going straaight out as there was some live music on in Sidari. So no sooner had we touched down we were in a local bar 'til late. It was good to see everyone and the music was pretty good too.

Its mid October at this point and the holiday season finishes at the end of October. It does however have a fairly quiet feel about the place at the moment. The wet season appears to have started early this time too with a lot of unsettled stuff about, not to good for the holidaymakers.

There seems to be plenty of local Brits heading home this time getting flights back before the direct ones finish at the end of the month.

We managed a few nights out in Sidari before the season finished as it gets pretty quiet out here after that. Then as soon as we hit November the weather settled down and the sun returned. This gives us a chance to get outside and do a few chores like digging out the bamboo, trimming the olive tree, a spot of painting, pointing and patching up.

We managed to do most of these things and a fair bit of cycling too. Also a couple of trips into Corfu town. We made a special trip down one day to see Cunards Queen Victoria pull into town. It was a super sight seeing this mega cruise ship in port and the sun shone.

The weather continued to be good pretty much up 'til yesterday the 18th apart from one massive storm over a week ago.

Mrs D's scribbles take over now detailing the storm and other recent events -

Have we had fun here or what! Last week’s weather was absolutely beautiful – shorts & T shirts in the middle of November, what more can you wish for. Ideal weather for bike rides, sitting in our fave café with a coffee and digging out the last of the dreaded bamboo from the garden and celebrating with a beer round an enormous fire as we burnt the bloody stuff.

Anyway all this was to change: on Friday we set off in the car, in the evening sunshine heading towards Acharavi for a beer. We called for some gas and the dreaded happened: the car wouldn’t re-start. With much help from the garage staff we managed to run it off and get it (and us) back home which was a great relief but more disasters were to follow…. we parked the car overnight on our village hill so we could run it off to get it started on Sat morning which we did and D spent most of the morning round at a friends both with heads under the bonnet and between them the problem of a burned out starter-motor was diagnosed. So now what? The local car shop was closed until Monday and anyway we didn’t know whether or not we could obtain a new starter-motor there, so it was a worry and we are facing a 1300 mile journey in a couple of weeks!

Anyway Sunday was ok and we finished a few jobs in the garden but by evening time the rain started and boy did it come down. Overnight we had a storm to end all storms, so bad that it was dubbed the worst on the island for 10 years. It was very exciting to watch from the dry safety of indoors but the lightening knocked out power supplies across most of the island and we were without electricity for the whole of Monday. The weather remained so bad that we couldn’t venture out – the only method of transport we had was our push-bikes (as D had taken the front end off his motorbike so that’s off the road as well) and we would have been blown to bits on these and anyway to add insult to injury I had no less than 4 punctures in my front tyre! Now we do have a camping stove so we were able to make hot drinks and it may sound quite romantic to sit by our wood burning stove playing cards by candelight but by 9 oclock at night I’d had enough and not only that, we had run out of beer!

The weather continued to be dreadful for another couple of days but we managed to order a new part from the local car shop (we had to beg a lift from the same friend) and eventually collected it on Wednesday – one day late due to electricity cuts affecting banks & shops but still pretty good service in light of the fact that all goods have to come from Athens. So thankfully we now have a car again and please keep your fingers crossed for us that our old tub makes it across Europe for us!

The weather is improving daily again now and is due to be hot and sunny again by the end of the week so that will be nice. Its not so good in the UK at the moment is it with gales etc. and I think it’s the severe drop in temperature that will be the biggest shock to us!

So as you can see it's been fun times here. It's now Friday 19th November the weekend weather is set to be reasonable then its sun and showers next week.

We depart and sail to Venice next Thursday at 0700hrs from Corfu port. We dock into Venice at 0700hrs Friday morning then it's a 330 mile haul ass over the Alps to Innsbruck, then more Alps over the Fern Pass to Altenstadt in southern Germany and our first night stop. Saturday is a 340 mile drive to Leige in Belgium via Ulm, Stuttgart, Karlsrhue and the German wine growing region for stop number two. Sunday is a leisurely 150 mile drive to Dunkirk and the 1400hrs ferry to Dover then onto our good friend Marians in Winchelsea for a couple of nights before the final 300 miles up north to sunny Skipton. Well that's the plan!! We only hope it goes without incident or car problems!!

So what for this week, well there may be last minute business to attend to in Corfu town, a trip to Acharavi a bit of cycling hopefully and maybe a beer or two with friends before we leave. There maay be time for some last minute scribblings before we set off back but if not we'll be scribbling again from the loft in Middleton in early December, keep in touch aand wish us luck!!

Back in the UK - briefly........

Before we continue, as you've probably guessed we are running out of outside jobs to do here (in Corfu) as I am spending way too much time on this laptop messing about and catching up on the old blog!!

So where were we? Oh yes, after a mammoth nights sleep following the flyathon back from Peru, we had to start thinking about getting ready to go back out to Corfu. We have little over a week to go before we fly (again!!) and there will be folks to see and places to go before we leave. It tunned out to be the usual busy week made more so by the fact our friends from lower Middleton are returning from France at the weekend and we haven't seen them since February.

The week simply flew by and we managed to see most folks and then Friday was upon us. A train to Manchester airport then an evening Easyjet flight to Corfu. We were off back to Corfu to see the summer out for this year.

The journey back to the UK.

We had three more flights to go in our flightathon (new word.) Number 11 was Lima to Panama City, 12 was Panama City to Amsterdam then finally Amsterdam to Leeds Bradford in sunny Yorkshire.

We were a little concerned as we only had a fifty-minute turn round time in Panama City so there was not much room for delays. Thankfully there were none and we got into Panama and Amsterdam on time. Once in Amsterdam we had a six-hour wait for our connection to Leeds Bradford. We sat and watched the mice again in Schipol airport and eventually got into Leeds Bradford at 2115hrs. We left Lima at 1600hrs their time the previous day and were on the move for about 21hrs. After a short drive from the airport we got home around 2230hrs. We were definitely shattered and exhausted but full of stories to send our other half’s to sleep!!!

Pic is of course sunny Middleton, home in the UK.