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Another bright and sunny day, which led us to do an impulsive thing. More on that later.

We are now on the northern half of Iceland, called the Highland Plateau, and we are beginning our journal westward. Our first stop today was one of the top rated waterfalls in Iceland, called Dettifoss. It is not tall (44 meters), but the volume of water flowing is the largest of all Europe. Surprisingly it is in the middle of nowhere and you would be hard put to guess its existence, until you got close enough to hear it. It is pretty spectacular, especially because there is always a rainbow near it, making for some great photo opportunities. Trivia for the day: Dettifoss was used in the 2012 movie, Prometheus.

Not too far from the falls at Namaskard Pass are an area of boiling mud pools and steam vents. There are warning signs but nowhere near the safety precautions we have in the states. You can actually walk right up to the steam vents and touch them, which I am sure, would lead to extreme burns.

A unique happening while we were viewing the mud pools was the appearance of several long distance runners, including a woman, who were competing in the Fire & Ice Ultra competition which covers 250 km over six days! The race has gotten the reputation of being the toughest race in the world. We talked to a couple of racers as they ran/walked through the mud pool area (it was part of the course).  These people are simply insane to punish their bodies that way.

Now for the impulsive activity for the day. Because the weather was so good we decided to take the one-hour sightseeing plane trip over the area we saw advertised, figuring it would give us a whole new perspective of the area. What we did not realize was that the flight would also show us the awesome destruction that volcanoes bring to an area.

The flight was in a Cessna 206 four seat airplane. The flight path took us over Lake Myvatn, nearby volcano craters, a geothermal power plant in the area the largest (over 5000 square miles) lava field in the world- all at an altitude of about 500 feet. It was quite a thrill and worth the expense. I was awed by the bleakness of the lava field, created by eruptions that began in 1961. Here, 50 plus years later, there is still nothing there except lava- no plants(not even moss), no roads, no trees- nothing but a black surface as far as the eye can see.

The size of the Askja caldera we flew over was also impressive as it covers 50 square kilometers.

Returning to “earth” we ventured to the nearby lava field where we walked a 2 km trail through the field, seeing unique lava formations, some of which have been given names.

Since we were in the area we decided to have an early dinner (we had somehow missed lunch) and chose to go to a very unique restaurant called the “Cow Shed” which was actually part of a working dairy farm. We visited the dairy barn prior to entering the Restuarant. In fact the restaurant  was literally  attached to the milking parlor and while we were eating we watched cows being milked.  Furthermore they brought us small glasses of milk “straight from the source” to taste. Surprisingly it was not as warm as I had feared. This is certainly a different sort of earing experience.

we had planned to try a nearby thermal pool but were too tired after our busy day ( 12,954 steps, 36 floor climbed) so we simply went to our hotel and called it a night.

 

 

We awoke to an overcast day which by noon had turned to bright sunshine again. We remain lucky with the weather so far; hopefully it will continue.

The east coast of Iceland is sparsely populated with very small fishing communities. There are a series of fjords along the coast, causing some to compare it to those of Norway. After having experienced both I can safely say those in Norway are more spectacular than those here in Iceland. Don’t get me wrong,  Iceland fjords are pretty, just not spectacular.

Highway 1 skirts the coastline and weaves in and out of the fjords. Farms are few and far between and the few villages commonly have only a few hundred people. By the way we have yet to see a Starbucks or McDonalds, which is probably a good thing. We chose to gas up each morning as we do not know when or where the next gas station might be. Some villages simply do not have any gas stations. Scott uses the opportunity to get an espresso as most stations do have a nice coffee bar inside.  Grocery stores are even hard to find and only seem to be in the larger towns.  We had a heck of a time trying to find a bag of ice to keep our lunch items cold.

Some interesting asides: Tap water is extremely cold and in some places the hot water comes from thermal springs, resulting in a bit of sulfur smell. The air smells fresh and clean.

As we worked our way up the east coast I was surprised by the lack of trees. Vegetation was mostly short grasses probably explaining why sheep are so prevalent.

Speaking of sheep I quickly noticed that they always seemed to be in either a group of 2 or a group of 3. They did not travel as large groups.. Scott reminded me that lambs usually has only one ewe, which would explain the grouping of 3. Obviously they do not kick out the youngster for a while as all three are what I would call, adult size.  The groups of two I attribute to a lack of successful pregnancy the previous year. Only rarely did I see a lone sheep- a confirmed bachelor no doubt! I asked a local if sheep had any predators. He said there are arctic foxes in Iceland that prey on very young sheep When they are still quite small. Other than that the sheep have no worries, or then getting whacked when crossing the road as we sometimes saw them do, but they are fast runners.

We stopped in Djupivogur, a village that dates back to the 16th century, to stretch our legs a bit and ended visiting the local craft shop and the shop of an eccentric road collector. Local art and crafts are priced very high. I simply did not see many people buying souvenirs.  Woolen hats are $50-80, sweaters are over $200. Small ceramic cups and dishes are often over $50. Very small ( a couple of ounces) bottles of local salt are over $10. Iceland is NOT a shopper’s dream. I wonder why they do not simply lower their prices for items tourists tend to buy to encourage more sales.

We ended up finishing our luncheon goodies eating at an abandoned homestead on the water as we wanted to push ahead to our destination of the day, Egilsstadir, so we had enough time to go visit the small village of Seydisfjordur, which guide books said was the quaintest of the fjord towns. It had the reputation of being an artist colony with colorful buildings.

The 30 minute drive took us over a high mountain pass, with a good- sized river flowing next to it for most of the way. And,of course, there were a few small waterfalls to admire along the way. Iceland certainly has a ton of waterfalls!  Well Seydisfjordur was somewhat a disappointment as there were only a few small shops offering art and crafts. Again everything was quite expensive. The buildings were colorful and we did enjoy a walk around town before retreating to a local pub for a well-earned brew before heading back to our hotel and dinner.

Another pick from good old Trip Advisor led us to a very good meal at Cafe Nielsen, located in the oldest building in town.

Even though most of the day was in a car I did manage to somehow rack up 10,033 steps! This is turning out to be a way too healthy vacation.

 

 

 

 

 

The day dawned with bright sunshine. Weather remains cool- low to mid 50s but we have the proper clothing and the fresh air was invigorating.

We wandered out to the southern most point of Iceland, a peninsula called “Dyrhólaey”, located only a small distance from our hotel. We ran out of time last night to visit it because of darkness. There is a lighthouse there as well of views up and down the coast line. Looking inland we could see the Mýrdalsjökull glacier where we had snowmobiled the day before. The views were spectacular.

Our  journey then took us eastward with a goal of reaching our next stop, Hofn, on the east coast of Iceland. Again we thought we would have plenty of time as we only had to drive 280km and our only scheduled activity was a boat ride on a lagoon loaded with icebergs that have broken off the nearby glacier.

This region of Iceland contains the largest national park in the country, Vatnajökull National Park, home to the largest icecap in all of Europe and home to 30 glaciers. The average depth of the ice is 400 meters and the maximum depth is 1000 meters.

The road to the park traverses the Mýrdalssandur flood plain, an extensive are that volcanic eruptions over the millenia has left devoid of almost everything but lava and glacial runoff. It is very desert like in appearance. On our left were the high mountains/glaciers and on our right was the sea.

We stopped in the small village of Kirkjubaejarklaustur to see what is called the “church floor”  a polished floor-like looking patch of columnar basalt. It is really not a church. Mother Nature created this polished surface of 6 sided columns of basalt eons ago. It is a popular tourist stop because of its unusual structure.

The highway passes close by a series of glaciers. By taking a 2 km gravel road we were able to get very close to the terminus of one of the glaciers and got some fabulous pictures.

We stopped at the visitor center for the national park and decided to take the “short” 1.6 km trail to a very photographed waterfall called “Svartifoss”. It is not that large of a waterfall (20 meters high) but it is surrounded by black basalt columns, making for a dramatic scene. We had to hurry somewhat as we needed to get to our boat ride in the iceberg lagoon later that afternoon. Scott had suggested we take along the few lunch type items purchased earlier in Vik and simply have a quick lunch once we reached the falls. 1.6 km (1 mile) would normally not be a problem; however, once we started we learned there was also a considerable uphill grade the entire way to the falls! Oops! We were not turning back.  I did make it to the falls after making a couple of stops to catch my breath (76 years old now). We ate our lunch, took some pictures and headed back to the car and the lagoon.

One of the major attractions in Iceland is taking a boat ride on the Jokulsarion Lagoon where icebergs that have broken off the huge Breideamerkurjokull ( don’t ask me to pronounce it) Glacier float their way out to sea where they ultimately melt away. This often takes some time (up to a year) as they must melt enough to not get hung up on the bottom of the lagoon. It is quite a sight!  Our ride was on an amphibian boat and lasted for about 40 minutes. We wove our way around the many floating icebergs, learned that the ice in them was 600-1000 years old. The crew brought aboard a chunk of crystal clear ice for us to photograph and taste. I had seen icebergs on my 2013 trip to Antarctica but was thrilled to experience them again as each one is a work of art, completely different in size, shape and texture. This is simply a “must do” excursion for anyone visiting Iceland.

We wound our way to our destination of the day, the village of Hofn where we stayed at a new modern small hotel called the “Milk Factory”. Don’t ask me where they came up with that theme and name.

We again used Trip Advisor to pick out our dinner restaurant, “Pakkus”, housed in an old  former warehouse on the waterfront. Hofn is noted for their langoustine (lobster family) which I had Scott ordered their salmon and we shared. Both were outstanding!

What we thought would be a short day turned out to be another long one!  16,463 steps, 32 flights of stairs (equivalent) and needless to say I slept well!

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I left Seattle on Sunday, 8/27, on an Icelandair fight at 4:20PM, ten minutes ahead of schedule . It was almost a full flight and I was in a coach seat, but on an aisle. The flight was scheduled to be 7.25 hours but we actually arrived 25 minutes early in Reykjavik, the capital of Iceland. The trip through customs was a non-issue and the baggage was already on the belts when I reached the arrival area.

I felt I was in Seattle as it was raining lightly and the temperature was around 50 degrees-just like a winter day in Seattle- except it was still summer here in Iceland!

The driver from the tour agency was waiting for me in the arrival area with my name on a sign so the overall trip was a “piece of cake”. The trip from the airport was about 30 minutes as the airport was further from the city than I had expected. The area is pretty desolate-not a tree in sight. My driver said it was because this whole area is covered by lava from ancient eruptions. As an aside I read that Iceland has 130 volcanoes, making it one of the hottest spots for seismic activity in the world.  About two weeks before my departure there was a lot of small earthquakes near one of the more active volcanoes in the area, causing the authorizes to raise the alert status to “yellow”.  If you ,recall in 2010 there was major eruption on Iceland that caused an upheaval in air travel throughout Europe for quite a while. Luckily the tremors subsided before I arrived and all is calm here for the moment.

My driver was an older gentlemen with a large white beard and fisherman’s hat. As we drove from the airport I learned he was a native and one of 11 children in his family. He learned English by watching Gunsmoke on TV!  I also learned that a major attraction of Iceland- seeing puffins will not happen as they have already returned to sea, having been on shore during their mating season. Bummer, as they sure are cute!

We arrived around 9AM at the hotel selected by the tour operator to find that our room was not ready as people still had not checked out so I had to stow my luggage, grab my rain jacket and walk about 0.5 miles in a gentle drizzle to the local airbnb that Scott had used for the previous two nights. He was expecting me and once I got there we wandered a few blocks into the business district where we had coffee and a breakfast croissant. Killing time we walked a bit through town to see some of the local sights before retrieving his luggage and walking back to our hotel room around noon, where we found that our room was now ready for occupancy.

I showered and grabbed a two-hour nap before we headed out to explore Reykjavik in more detail. By this time the rain had stopped and the sun began shining although the temperature was still pretty cool. The business district is small (Reykjavik has a population of about 150,000 – the whole island has a population of 340.000) do,images by small shops selling a lot of Icelandic woolen products and souvenirs and restaurants. Prices are high-$200 for a woolen sweater, $30-40 for a tee-shirt. Iceland is not a shoppers haven!

We spent the afternoon visiting some of the major sites in the city, then retired to a local pub(s) to try the local beer before having an early dinner at one of the many seafood restaurants here.

As you might guess seafood is plentiful and fresh in Iceland. Prices are also high in the restaurants – comparable to those in top end Seattle restaurants. Entrees range from $30-$40.

20,123 steps later we retired to our hotel room where I am busy trying to put this together before retiring. It is 9:30PM and is still somewhat light outside.

We will be picked up tomorrow morning around 8AM and taken to pick up our vehicle and begin our 9 day traverse of the island.

In 2015 our son, Scott, suggested he and I take a “father/son” trip to Iceland to complement an earlier trip I took with our other son, Steve, to Antarctica in 2013.  Iceland offers  a series of “you drive” trips of 7-12 days where they provide a car, make daily hotel reservations for you, loan you a local phone  and give you a guide book highlighting what you can see and do as you circle the island country.  In February 2015 we booked the trip for August, 2015. As summer approached Scott announces that he has taken a job in New Zealand and I quickly decided we needed to cancel the August trip so he could focus on the move and new job. Fast forward to 2017.  Scott and family are settled into living in the land of Kiwis and we decided to reschedule our adventure for this summer.

Our driving tour of Iceland is highlighted on the following website:

   http://www.tour.is/tour-package/iceland_circle_including_snaefellsnes_-_10_days

 

I am using Scott as my personal chauffeur; I intend to simply watch the world go by and take a lot of hopefully lovely photos of  Iceland.  From what I have read the country is rich in waterfalls, stark landscapes, active volcanoes, and glaciers.

It is a relatively easy journey for me as the Icelandair non- stop flight from Seattle to Reykjavik is only a little over 7 hours as we go “up and over”.  Scott, on the other hand, living on the opposite end of the earth,  has a much longer journey. He will be coming into Reykjavik a few days before me to visit with grad school friends coming in from Norway and Sweden.

If the Wifi is as good as they publications say it is in the country I will stay in contact and share our experiences as we traverse this unique landscape.

By the way this will be country # 97 for me-getting closer to my “current” goal!

 

 

 

 

 

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Taking Stan and Cindy to the Boston airport for their flight home went smoothly as we missed the Boston morning traffic. I do have to credit “Waze”, the popular GPS app that my sons told me about, for successfully guiding us to the airport as it gets somewhat confusing as you approach downtown Boston.

After saying our goodbyes, we found our hotel and were able to check in early, which was nice. After lunch I decided to turn in the car as I did not want to get up extra early and struggle with transferring the luggage to the airport terminal on the rental car location bus. A simple call to the hotel and their shuttle picked me up at the rental car terminal and brought me back to the hotel.

We used Uber (I am finally getting good at using the app properly) to visit Al and Pauline Medice at their condo located on the waterfront, a short distance from the USS Constitution in Charlestown.  Al was a fellow executive at A.O. Smith who retired about the same time I did. We have not seen each other in 10 years. It was fun catching up on our respective lives since going on Medicare and Social Security!  Pauline served us a lovely meal and Al plied us with wine. It was a lovely evening that went all too quickly. We learned they now have a son living in Portland so we are hopeful they will include us on one of their west coast swings so we can reciprocate their hospitality.

We returned to Seattle Thursday morning, where a gloomy, rainy day welcomed us back home. We were home by 3 PM and all was well at the homestead.

Reflections on our trip:

-Boston is a great city- easy to get around, modern, good local transportation, excellent restaurants (especially Italian in the North End and seafood) and tons of wonderful history.  I had forgotten how nice of a city it is.

-New England is a lovely part of our country and certainly worthy of a repeat visit. My next goal is to do a land trip during the autumn to take in all the fall colors.

-I was somewhat surprised about how close all those small towns (Marblehead, Salem, Rockport, Gloucester) are to Boston. Thirty miles north and you are in a totally different world.

-I relearned a bit of US history on the trip which is certainly worthwhile. I really should read up more about the path we took to gain our independence. That might be a good goal when I get too old to travel!

-I ate more lobster in the two plus weeks we were there than I had in my 75 years of living! My headache did not come back so I am blaming the lobster for it!  I do have to admit it sure was tasty.

-Although the ports we visited on the cruise were delightful, the cruise line was a big disappointment, given what we paid and what we have come to expect from other higher end (which American Cruise Lines claim they are) cruise ships we have sailed on.  I would not sail with them again,  given their current price structure.

We are now home for the summer. I hope you enjoyed taking this trip with us.

 

Stan suggested we drive to the nearby towns of Newburyport and then to Essex to have lunch at another famous landmark restaurant in Massachusetts called “Woodman’s”. We had never heard about it. Turns out that in 1916 Chubby Woodman was making a living selling homemade potato chips and fresh clams he dug himself. Business had turned bad and a friend suggested he try frying one of one his clams like he did with his famous potato chips.  Chubby fried the first clams in the USA  and created a business that exists today after 100 years.

Newburyport was first settled on 1635 as part of Newbury plantation. In 1764 it became the town of Newburyport and had a population of 2,800. Today it is home to 17,416. It sits on the shores of the Merrimack River, near its entrance to the Atlantic Ocean. It was popular with pirates, fishermen and whalers during the 18th and 19th centuries. Boat building was also another big industry here. Newburyport is the site of the first US coast guard station in the nation.

The downtown area is one of those old industrial areas that was saved from demolition in the 1970s and is now home to small shops and restaurants.

I had been suffering from a headache the last few days (which I never have had). Because the pain was eminating from behind my left eye where I had had a detached retina 30 years ago I was somewhat concerned that maybe the headache was connected to a new problem there (even though I was not having any current vision problems). Yvonne suggested I try to see an eye doctor while in town to have my eye checked.  As we stood on a street corner studying a local pamphlet trying to determine if a doctor might be in the area, a gentlemen stopped to ask if he could help. He told us of an optometrist located only a few blocks away. We walked there, explained what the issue was and the staff graciously checked with the doctor to see if he could fit me into his schedule. Dr. Kevin Gasiorowski gave up some of his lunch period to throughly examine my eyes and assured me there was no major problem that he could see. He suggested that maybe it was due to eye strain (writing this blog?) because my prescription reading glasses needed updating, or I was eating too much lobster (high sodium content).

Relieved, we rejoined Stan and Cindy who had been shopping to go to Woodman’s for lunch. Woodman’s is definitely a “hoot”. It has grown from a tiny shack to a major establishment with both sit down and take out service. The menu is definitely not what you would classify as being healthy as most of the menu is fried food served with french  fries and onion rings. Fried clams and clam strips dominate the menu and is what made them famous.  Both Yvonne and I agree that the clam strips were outstanding-tender and tasty!

As all well known restaurants seem to do Woodman’s has a large gift shop and Stan and I are now proud owners of a Woodman’s tee shirt.

Essex is noted for its antique stores (26 in one mile) so we briefly shopped for Stan and Cindy, who are dedicated antique “pickers”, to see if there were any items that called out to them. Unfortunately these shops were not air conditioned and the temperature was close to 95 degrees so the search did not last long and we retreated to the coolness of our SUV and returned to our hotel rooms for a rest.

Because of our large, late lunch we agreed to simply have a light dinner at the Emerson Inn where we met for a farewell drink and dinner on the patio. After dinner Stan and I walked for a short while along the public path at the ocean’s edge while the ladies finished packing.

 

The trip is nearly over and we are headed home. I will drop Stan and Cindy at the airport tomorrow morning.  We will spend the night in Boston, having dinner with a retired A.O. Smith executive and his wife,  and head home to Miller Bay first thing Thursday morning.

Today’s agenda was to explore the byways of Rockport and boy, did we ever as you can see by how much we walked around this small town with dozens of shops that cried out for us to stop and see what else we needed to buy.

We awoke leisurely this morning as the shops did not open until 10 AM. We ate our breakfast outdoors on the porch, overlooking the ocean and could already tell it was going to be a warmer than normal day.

There is an area in Rockport on the water called Bearskin Neck( named after a real bear), which is basically a small peninsula jutting out into the sea, with two one-way streets lined with over 75 shops and a few restaurants. This was our first stop. I put enough money into the parking meter to cover three hours figuring that would be more than enough time to see all there was to see. Wrong! I had to return to add another couple of hours to the meter as there were still stores and art galleries that needed to be visited.

Most of the shops are located at ground level with living quarters on the second level, just like you see in Europe. The stores  include  jewelry (most locally designed and made),  art galleries featuring local artists’ works, boutique clothing stores, beach wear, home goods with an emphasis on the sea, logo wear shops, etc.  The shops were not the typical tourist ones you often see in such areas; the selection of items for sale were more upscale. Because of our purchases on this trip we had to buy a decent sized duffel bag to transport everything home. Luckily we found a nice beach themed one here.

 

After all the rich food we have eaten before getting here we “splurged” and had a good old American hot dog on the pier for our lunch! It tasted fabulous because it had the old fashioned “casing” that snapped when you bit into it. It hit the spot!

Renewed we spent two more hours “visiting” the rest of the 100 plus stores located in downtown Rockport! We all cried “uncle” by mid afternoon and retreated from the heat (90 plus) to the coolness of our rooms and a much needed nap.

Dinner was planned at another of Stan and Cindy’s favorites, a place near the hotel called the “Lobster Pool”. They said we had to go early as the lines of people waiting to eat there grows exponentially as the dinner hour approaches.  It is a classical lobster shack on the beach where you place your order, grab a seat out on the grass overlooking the bay and wait to get “buzzed” so you can go gather up your freshly prepared lobster, shrimp, clams or scallops. Stan and I ordered the 1.5 lb. lobsters and Cindy and Yvonne ordered shrimp plates. All the dishes came with the traditional fresh cut French fries and cole slaw. Bibs, plastic utensils and wet wipes completed the meal. The ladies raved about the freshness of the shrimp and Stan and I agreed the lobsters were tender and sweet. It was a marvelous traditional New England  meal served in an idyllic location.

We drove back into Bearskin Neck in search of dessert and found an ice cream store that featured 49 flavors. We picked our favorites and Yvonne discovered there were chairs out back on the lawn, overlooking the Rockport harbor. It was near sunset and the shadows on the lobster boats and a red fishing shack made the scene a Norman Rockwell moment. In fact that exact scene has been painted by artists for years and is known as “Motif  #1”. It was serene and we lingered long after the ice cream was gone. It marked the end of a beautiful, albeit hot day, in New England.

Tomorrow Stan plans to show us another New England gem, the town of Essex and a restaurant called “Woodmans”.  Stay tuned.

On the road by 9 AM as we had a lot to see today. Our first stop was in Salem ( population 42,800), the location of the famous witch trials of 1692. I had heard about them but knew little of what transpired that fateful year.

Salem turned out to be a much bigger attraction that I imagined and we only experienced a very small part. We watched a 40 minute movie at the US Park Service Center that relayed the events tha occurred that year. In all 14 women and 5 men were hanged and a man was crushed by rocks. Five others died in prison. As it turned out they were all innocent and  later exonerated.  The whole unfortunate event was an example of mass hysteria causing the problem. A more modern day example might be the McCarthy hearings of the 1950s or the Japanese interment during WWII.

We also toured the Salem Witches Museum which does a pretty good inactment of the events using dioramas and recorded dialogue.  There was also a display on witches through history and how the Wizard of Oz story totally changed how witches are viewed.

Although there are other items related to the era available to be seen in Salem we chose to move on as it was near lunch time and we still had a ways to go.

We chose to have lunch in Manchester By the Sea ( population 5136), hoping to see some of the locations used in the filming of the movie of the same name. Unfortunately we learned that most of the filming occurred in Gloucester, not in Manchester By the Sea. Oh well, we had a nice lunch in town before moving on to our final destination for the day, Rockport (population 6952), Massachusetts.

Stan and Cindy had discovered the lovely Emerson Inn which overlooks the Atlantic Ocean on previous trips. They loved the location, the rocking chairs on the expansive porch and the quaintness of this old hotel. Once we saw it we had to agree.

The Emerson Inn was originally called the Pigeon Cove House and dates back to 1855. Henry Thoreau brought Ralph Waldo Emerson to the Cape Ann area and Emerson fell in love with it, returning often both alone and with his family and staying at the hotel. It was later known as the Hotel Edward until 1964 when new owners renamed it in honor of its most celebrated guest. The room Emerson stayed in is still in high demand by his fans or relatives.

It is three stories high and has no elevators. Luckily the man at the desk is young and strong and brought our many suitcases to our rooms for us while we sat in rocking chairs on the porch drinking some libations to celebrate our arrival.

Dinner tonight was in downtown Rockport at another of Stan and Cindy’s favorites from previous visits: Roy Moore’s Fish Shack where you might guess the featured dish is lobster served in variety of ways and combinations. We had to stop at Stan’s favorite candy store,Tucks (here since 1929) for chocolates and taffy before calling it a night.

Oh, by,the way, although the hotel is old and the floors squeak, it is air conditioned (which is good as the next few days are expected to reach 90 degrees) and the plumbing is new and modern! All is well.