Sunset – David and Yanmei

July 7, 2015July 7, 2015

Iceland

The second day we slept in a bit. After breakfast we went to the penis museum.

In the afternoon we'd booked a helicopter tour. I thought it would be a great way to see more in our limited time.

Yanmei forgot her sunglasses so she borrowed a pair.

Geothermal plant. Iceland has such an abundance of cheap energy that they heat their roads in Reykjavik in the winter to keep them free of snow and ice.

Glacier melt river winding through farmland

The weather was good so we got to land on top of Eyjafjallajökull which is the volcano that erupted in 2010.

Another helicopter on the edge of the crater

Caught in the rotor wash of the departing chopper. The pilot in front of me had his hat blown about 50 feet away, and I got a face full of snow particles.

Crater, no lava now, but there is a bit of steam rising from a few spots

Two hikers climbing the mountain and glacier

Unfortunately Yanmei got a little airsick towards the end of the flight, however she didn't need to use the barfbag. Earlier she took a few nice videos with her phone, which capture the experience better than photos do. Next time we travel we will bring a real video camera. Maybe a GoPro or something like that.

That evening I decided to give the sunset another try. Even as I was driving down to the sea wall I could tell it was going to be good.

I actually left too early. The sky kept changing colors well past this. The sun doesn't go that far down beyond the horizon so basically the whole night is just one long sunset/sunrise. Yanmei was up at 2am and she said the clouds were still red and orange.

-David

Posted with Blogsy

July 6, 2015July 6, 2015

Reykjavik

For our first day we decided to start off with the free walking tour of Reykjavik. We've done several of the free walking tours and they are generally good, because the guides rely on tips. There is not much to see in Reykjavik compared to the major European cities, since most of it is relatively new. Supposedly it was founded in Viking times, but our guide showed us a drawing of it as it was in 1850, and there was a church, a store, a pier and about 30 houses, that's it. Even now the population is only about 200,000.

Tour group in front of the parliament building

Look at the angle of the satellite dish. Very strange.

Although there wasn't much to see, the guide was good at telling stories and keeping us entertained. At one point he mentioned there is a penis museum in Reykjavik. That immediately became somewhere Yanmei wanted to go see. 🙂

It started to rain just as we finished the tour, so we headed back to the hotel. We tested a bit in the hotel and the rain stopped and it started to clear up, so I suggested we go on a whale watching tour.

The tour was successful we saw several minke whales and some dolphins. At one point a whale came up right next to the boat, although I didn't get a picture of that. It is pretty difficult to capture good pictures because they only surface for about a second and then go back under, so I have several photos of recently disturbed water, ha ha.

The coastline was very beautiful, this picture doesn't fully capture it.

As we headed back, the clouds seemed to be clearing, so I thought it would make for a good sunset. I came back down to the shoreline at about 11:30pm to catch the 11:55pm sunset. Unfortunately there were too many clouds on the horizon, so it wasn't great. The ocean was remarkably still.

-David

Posted with Blogsy

June 27, 2015June 27, 2015

Next stop Oslo, Norway!

In a previous post I mentioned struggling with the Poland itinerary, trying to get up to Sweden via ferry was too difficult, and about our only other option was an 8+ hour train ride to Berlin. We need to end up in Copenhagen since we've already booked our flight from there. This is why I wanted to skip Poland. Then Yanmei came up with the idea of flying past Copenhagen and approaching from the north instead of the south. It turns out there are direct flights between Kraków and Oslo, so we decided to do that, adding another unplanned country to our trip. 🙂 We've both been to Berlin before, so skipping that isn't such a big deal.

It was about a two hour flight to Oslo. Although we had a place to stay, we'd done almost no other planning for Oslo. We quickly realized that Oslo is not the place you want to see in Norway, or at least not what I think of in Norway. I think of fjords and majestic landscapes. We looked into taking a train to Sognefjord, which would include the Flåm Railway which is supposed to be the most beautiful in the world. From Flåm we could catch a ferry through the fjord to Bergen. Unfortunately it was completely sold out. 🙁 We are at peak season right now for Norway.

Yanmei is a bit frustrated because she thinks it's her visa causing the problem. Without the visa forcing our timetable we could extend our stay and probably find a day with tickets available. However I think it is just our travel style. We arrive somewhere then look for things to do, so anything that requires significant advance booking is not an option. We missed out on a number of things due to this, for example the French Open was on while we were in Paris, that would have been cool to go to, but by the time I looked for tickets it was sold out. On the other hand our flexible style gives us the opportunity to change plans. We never planned to visit Norway, and now here we are!

Walking up the roof of the Oslo Opera House, it extends all the way down to the water.

We saw this Amazing Race clue at the top, although I don't think it was the real show, probably something for a special party or event. No box containing the clues and only one clue stuck next to the flag.

Yanmei at the top. Behind her is the Barcode district, so called because the buildings alternate black and white and have different widths, so it looks like a barcode from the harbor.

We finally escaped the cloudy rainy weather and had fantastic weather in Oslo.

Lots of Norwegians enjoying the weather in Vigeland park

Vigeland park is named for Gustav Vigeland who created hundreds of granite and metal statues in the park, all of nude people.

Sunset was at 10:43pm and by midnight it was still dusk and not dark. Sunrise was 3:57am.

Picture taken at 10:52pm, still quite light out.

-David

Posted with Blogsy