Two entire days in Iceland!

We actually slept in this morning and left the apartment around 10AM…it was so very needed! Our first stop was to see the church in the middle of town and go to the top for the panoramic view! We then shopped for a few souvenirs and had a quick lunch at a small Thai place.

We then hopped in the car and drove to the area known as the Golden Circle. The first wonder along the way was the Pingvellir National Park. The glacial lake with its surreal blue water against the green landscape was a sight to see! We also all commented on the scale and size of the mountains. It’s so hard to capture in photos, but it was just an expansive landscape with such a small human footprint. There were a few homes and grazing sheep, lambs and horses along the way, but no power lines, lights or other signs of the modern world we’re used to. It was beautiful.

The next stop was at the Geysir National Park. The parks in Iceland are free and never close…how great is that?! There was one geyser that bubbled then shot into the sky every 10 minutes or so. We sat and watched mesmerized so many times watching the pattern of swooshing, bubbling then swelling to a huge burst!

 

We also hiked to the top of the ridge in the park. The view was breathtaking, and the terrain was very cool as well. It was a thick layer of moss on top of the dirt that made for a squishy walk to the top…it was like being on a soft mattress and kind of springing to the top. It also made for fertile ground for tiny flowers and grass.

Our final stop on the ring was Gulfoss Falls. Bill, Alison and I have visited several falls and this one was right up there as just beautiful! It was a glacial fall with beautiful, clear water on a series of levels and cascades set in a beautiful valley. And there is a full rainbow that is almost always present…but this day there was a little family of geese at the end…mom, dad and 3 little babies! In Iceland, I guess it’s geese instead of leprechauns waiting for you at the end of the rainbow!

One of my highlights was a very funny Asian couple that were dressed for a photo shoot. She had on heels and a fancy hat…he was armed with a flash on a tripod and a nice camera. The whole scene was just quite a hoot!

We then took a nice drive through the valley back into town. We went out to enjoy the sunlight once we got back into town. We were looking for a nice place to have our final dinner and stumbled upon a fabulous place called Sjavargrillid! It was a modern twist on popular Icelandic dishes. And it was delicious! We toasted to another awesome tuck n roll adventure and ate in the midnight sun!

Where the Tuck is Reykjavik

This was the last early morning flight of the trip, so that pretty much was the motivation to set the alarm for 5AM after getting in from Monaco at about 1AM! We travelled through London to arrive in Reykjavik in the late afternoon. Looking out the window as we landed, the terrain was not at all what we expected. It kind of looked like we were landing on the moon. I had always heard “Greenland is ice and Iceland is green”…this didn’t seem to be the case!

We had originally planned to take a bus into town then take a tour from there, but instead decided to rent a car. This was the best decision of the trip! The driving and navigating is so easy around the Island. The guy at the rental car shop recommended we drive around the loop near the blue lagoon…so this was our first adventure. This really did look like we were going to get out of the car and there would be zero gravity…it was like nothing I’ve ever seen!

Our first stop was at the fault line where the 2 tectonic plates meet for Europe and Asia…right here we were able to straddle the 2 continents!

We then went on to go see the thermal activity. These steamy holes in the Earth smelled of sulfur and would shadow the entire sky when you were close. It still amazes me how close they will let you get to all of this amazingness in other countries. There were also lots of steam stacks all over the landscape that were harnessing the power of the steam to power 80% of households in Iceland!

We then made our way to the coast, near a little lighthouse. It was stunning. The lava rock jutting out of the royal blue water was one of the prettiest contrasts. Another interesting tidbit…there were bluebonnets all over. You can see them in the grass surrounding the lighthouse here!

Our final stop on the ring was the blue lagoon. It’s a complete tourist trap, but also totally worth it! We donned our rented bathing suits and towels and ran like mad to get out of the chilly 50 degrees and into the thermal bath. It was heavenly! The water is this icy blue color that I’ve never seen. It was warm and even hot in places…they say some of the pools are too hot for swimming. They had mud for face masks, a sauna, waterfall and bar all in the pool area. We swam up and sipped champagne while taking it all in! The price was about $60 with the rentals, but worth it for this unique experience.

We then went to find our hotel, a little apartment called The Castle House, it was cute and a perfect home away from home for our lengthy 2 day stay! We were walking distance to the city center and we really didn’t see too many hotels close by in this area. We headed out for dinner while the sun was still shining, but soon realized it was about 9PM and all the restaurants were closed! We stopped at a local pub filled with young people loving the summer sun. We ordered and waited…then the owner regrettably told us that it was our waitress’s first day and that the kitchen was closed. So, we dined on nachos and bread and butter! We went to the grocery store too…but lesson learned, just because it’s light out, doesn’t mean they are going to leave their kitchens open into the “night”! Oh, and the most famous Icelander I know, Bjork, her son was playing at the pub that night! He and his band were actually very good!

We walked home at about midnight…the sun was under the horizon, but it was still very light throughout the night…kind of a dusk feeling. We had to use the blackout shades in our room to catch a few zzz’s. It’s a weird feeling, but I love all the daylight and think I would make an excellent Icelander in the summertime! Winter, with 3 hours of dusk-like daylight, no way! J

Where the tuck is Monaco?

We had just gotten to Andorra the night before and we were kinda over it from all the crazy driving! Bill was a huge sport and suggested we look for one lookout hill then make our way back to Barcelona. We scored! The hotel directed us through the town of Ordino (a little ski village in the Pyranees)…check out this view!

We then headed back to Barcelona and today’s drive was sunny and gorgeous. It was fun to see the view again, this time with vibrant green fields and red rocks. It was quite an amazing drive…Alison and my friend Elena was right!!

Upon arriving the Barcelona, the plan was to drop our bags at the airport and head back into town on the bus. Well, we missed the airport sign and ended up right downtown. It was the perfect location, so we parked and walked the city. The first stop was Casa Batllo Gaudi (Gaudi’s apartment). Wow!! This place was amazing! There is not a single wall or surface that is squared. It was inspired by the ocean, sea creatures and it’s awesome to see. There are actually still tenants that live in the building…can you even imagine?! Those places must be kept in the same families generation after generation!

Next stop was the grand finale for Barcelona. Bill has talked about this incredible tapas place for many, many years…and we finally got to visit Catalana! Alison got her favorite mini sliders, we all got the delicious roasted green peppers (they were so good I didn’t get a pic in time), mushrooms, shrimp and calamari. It was just delicious!

We left plenty of time to get to the airport and thank goodness we did…it was madness!! We drove around the city for an hour…asking for directions and playing charades with the locals. We finally cheered in victory when we turned onto the right highway and made it in time for our flight to Nice!

When we arrived in Nice, the hotel was perfectly situated right across the street from the airport. We took a few minutes to drop our bags then headed to Monte Carlo, Monaco. The view from the bus is just jaw-dropping. There are homes perched in all of the hills and blue water and cliffs everywhere you look.

The bus stopped right next to the Casino. It’s a clean, fancy, polished area with beautiful architecture…and just screams money. The F1 race had been there the week before, so I stopped to get a little souvenir for Seth then we made a quick stop at the casino and turned around when we realized it was 10 euro just to enter!

Next stop was the Hotel de Paris. This has to be one of the fanciest hotels I’ve been to! We decided to sit down and have a drink…knowing it was going to be ridiculous…but hey, “when in Monaco…”! Plus we got “free” snacks that were actually quite delicious! Really, the drinks may have paid for themselves in people and car watching. There were lots of stick-like models with very umm, average men…and they happened to be driving fancy cars and buying expensive drinks…but I’m sure they were had great personalities!

We took the train to the Nice main station and taxi’d back to the hotel for a few short hours of sleep before heading to Iceland! On the way, Alison and I had to do a quick Grace Kelly pose…hopefully I will get this photoshopped into a fancy car someday soon!!

Where the Tuck is Andorra?

I was up pretty late finishing the blog, but still feeling pretty good all things considered. We woke up at about 9AM to head down to the marina and see a little of Valetta, Malta. Our hopes weren’t too high that we would get to do anything touristy, so we just took off down the boardwalk for a walking tour.

About 100 yards from the hotel, there was a guy selling the hop on, hop off bus/boat tour tickets. The timing was perfect to get back to the hotel in time for our taxi to the airport. We got to the boat dock and cruised around the finger-like coast.

We learned that their Grand Harbor is the largest natural harbor in Europe, Amsterdam’s is larger, but man made. They also have lots of transportation to and from their port with huge cranes, but we didn’t see too many ships or activity considering it was the middle of the week. There was also a luxury yacht maker and Tom Hanks just filmed a movie there. Lots of others have been filmed there too like Casino Royale, Midnight Express, The Saint, the Popeye movie and Gladiator.

It was also interesting to see that the entire coastline is reinforced by forts. We decided they were either very defenseless being so close to so many maritime super powers or they’re just very paranoid!!

We got back to the port and realized there was no way the bus was going to make it back, but the awesome tour company had a van for us and got us right back to the hotel. And we arrived just in time for a wonderful mid-day look at the water…it was crystal clear and blue/green. At the airport in Malta now waiting on our flight to Barcelona and drive to Andorra. And jamming to the tunes of the Hard Rock Café in the AIRPORT…at least we got to see the nightlife of Malta on our side trip last night! Haha!

We made it to Andorra FINALLY. It took us forever to find the hotel once we got here, but the drive was entirely amazing! I don’t think I have ever seen huge mountains and green tress and open pastures like this! These pictures don’t come remotely close to showing off the beauty…but we’re going to stop along the way tomorrow and see what we can capture! We hit a huge rain storm mid-day today so we didn’t get too many great shots.

Once we arrived, we had dinner at the hotel…it was delicious and we had lots of laughs and fun!!

Where the Tuck is San Marino?

We got an early start knowing today would be a time crunch. Destination was a tiny country within Italy called San Marino. Mysteriously, none of the guidebooks seem to address that San Marino exists…you really can’t fund much of any information about it. But, we took a chance and made our way south of Bologna. The drive was very pretty with lots of open fields and rolling hills with grapes and olive trees. We arrived and found the cable car to the top very easily.

The view of the town from the base and the ride up were both beautiful…but the panoramic scenery at the top was just stunning! You could see forever across hill and fields of green with red tile roofs blanketing the countryside.

All 3 of us all also found the perfect statues that show our favorite things to do…Me fluffing my hair, Alison being full of zen rage and Bill in an ice cream-induced coma!

There are 3 main towers to the castle at the top. You can visit 2 of the 3 and of course we did. The higher you climbed, the views somehow just got prettier and prettier. I did have one little dizzy moment on the top of one of the towers and had to crawl back down to solid ground. J

In one of the castles there was also a bunch of drawings by prisoners that have been preserved that very incredible and pretty funny at the same time. Jazz hands here was one of my favorites!

We also toured the armory museum…it was spectacular! They had weapons and armor from the 1400s-now. They had preserved it beautifully and it was all displayed really nicely too.

The town is just beautiful. It’s filled with narrow streets and lots of shopping, but also has plenty of character and so many pretty, historic buildings.

I dropped off a couple of postcards in the San Marino postbox and we hit the road shortly after. After a little missed exit to the airport, we got back on track and made our next Ryanair flight just in time. This one was a little easier knowing what to expect…but the baggage restriction is still just a huge pain! Alison and I slept like babies on the flight to Malta. We arrived in Malta at about 7PM and had plenty of time to relax, see the incredible view from our one splurge hotel on this trip and catch the sun disappear. The view from the Le Meridian is of the St. Julian Bay. The water here is crystal clear!

We took the boardwalk to the Hard Rock Café to get Linda’s pin. We got to go through the pumping nightlife district…shisha is very popular here! Then we made our way back to our much calmer cove and had a delicious dinner of pasta, kebabs and of course a Greek salad! There were also many, many awesome cats along the way and even a cat village one lady had set up! We’re hoping we get to do a little excursion in the morning before it’s time to head back to another flight. Tomorrow takes us to Barcelona and Andorra! Night!

Where the Tuck is Luxembourg?

Alison and I tried to be extra crafty and buy some extra time in Luxembourg by going standby on an early flight from DC. Wellll, we arrived at the airport in Frankfurt and raced to Bill’s gate to greet him. After lots of waiting with our fancy sign and watching numerous couples make out, we started to wonder if Bill had gotten in a fight in customs! We headed back to our original gate (a train ride and long walk away) and there he was…waiting for us for over an hour! Oh well…he had skipped though the internal transfer line and we had both outsmarted each other!

We picked up our teeny Europcar and we were off! The drive through the trees and hills are beautiful on the way to Luxembourg. And it didn’t hurt that the day was beautiful. We arrived just in time to walk around a bit and grab lunch. There was a nice little platz in the center of town…the cafes were packed and totally overpriced…but it was nice out and it’s all about the company and people watching anyway! There are a couple of old bridges and nice churches, but not too much to write home about in Luxembourg!

Now we’re waiting on our flight to Bololgna on the infamous Ryanair…I’ll make sure to go to the ladies’ room before we board…as they charge for EVERYTHING! The baggage limit is 10kg (about 22 pounds) and everything including your purse, must fit into a single carryon. That’s the price you pay for a super cheap-o flight! I think I have 4 pounds that I’ve snuck into my 2 layers of jackets and in the pockets.

Ahhh, had a nice nap and it’s a few hours later. We have now landed and had dinner in Bologna. Here’s some awesome signage from the safety card on Ryanair…or maybe we’re just tired and punch drunk! Apparently, they want you to take off your hats and glasses for evacuation, hold your lady parts for the ride down the ramp, stay on the plane in case of a fire and definitely clap like crazy if oxygen masks fall from the ceiling…oh or maybe those aren’t hands and just the masks falling…oh we were sleepy for this leg of the trip!

We’ve had our Italian food in old town (and saw several ladies of the night) and are now nestled in for the night. To San Marino tomorrow!

Here we go again – Where the tuck is…?

Well, I didn’t do so hot finishing my blogs last trip…but this time I will keep up! Or at least complete the blogs by the end of 2012!

Here’s the plan for the Where the TUCK is…?