Lisbon, Portugal

Christmas Eve

We got up extremely early on Thursday morning and jumped into the minicab bound for Heathrow. We had a 7.30am flight to Lisbon. We were actually very grateful to be able to leave home at 4.30am - it had looked like our trip may never eventuate just days earlier. Firstly the ridiculous cabin crew staff at BA had agreed to strike for 12 days over the Christmas and New Year period (arseholes). However, a judge who clearly had overseas travel plans ruled the strike was unlawful on a technicality, so our flight was back on...until it snowed. There was heavy snow in London in the days leading up to Christmas and then freezing temperatures had frozen over the snow, making the city the largest ice-skating rink in the world, which had closed several airports. But a night of heavy rain had melted the snow and we were away laughing.

We arrived to a much warmer and reasonably pleasant day in Lisbon. After a ridiculous queue at immigration (where apparently it has become acceptable for anyone with children (of any age) to jump to the front of the queue!!! Since when was breeding a disability?!) we escaped the carnage of the Lisbon airport and headed into the city. We had decided to stay in luxury in Lisbon, as it was Christmas and our engagement anniversary and they had a good deal. So we checked into the Sofitel and pretty quickly decided we never wanted to leave!

It was a fairly nice day so we set off to explore Lisbon. We headed through the main city centre area of Baixa and Avenida, through the beautiful squares Praca dos Restauradores, Rossio and Prace da Figueira and checked out some of the main shopping streets on our way to the Alfama district. The footpaths all through the city are made of tiny square paving stones, mainly white but some black to make patterns - very creative!

Alfama was once the most desirable area of Lisbon, which is hard to believe now when you look at the poor, crumbling and dirty neighbourhood. While there are no longer any Moorish buildings standing, the area retains its kasbah-like layout, with tight winding streets snaking around the castle walls on the hilltop. The castle is the Castelo de Sao Jorge (St George's Castle). It was originally a Moorish citadel, but following the recapture of Lisbon from the Moors in 1147, King Afonso Henriques transformed it into the residence of the Portuguese kings. It was later used as a theatre, prison and arms depot. After the massive earthquake that levelled Lisbon in 1755, the remnants of the castle remained in ruins until 1938 when Salazar began a renovation, rebuilding the medieval walls and adding gardens.

We were both quite hungry after our climb of the hill in Alfama. The place that we found to eat at was a restaurant/cafe just outside the walls of the castle. It looked safe enough, but it turned out to be the most disgusting eating experience we have had on our travels...ever. Megan ordered an omelet, which was OK, although it smelled a bit funny. Tim ordered a hamburger, which should be pretty easy. He was presented with two greasy meat patties, that looked like dog food, smelled bad and tasted disgusting. Needless to say, one mouthful was more than enough. There was no bun or lettuce or anything else you might normally find in a hamburger. The meat delights were served with fries - again, pretty safe, you would think. Except the toxic fat seeping from the meat patties had pretty much sunk the entire fleet of fries so that they were submerged in a horrible yellow fatty liquid. Then the guy had put a few olives (Tim's arch nemesis) on top of the fries, just to taint them with the disgusting flavour of olives, so that just in case they had not been liquefied and inedible anyway, the olive flavour would have sealed the deal. In addition, we were presented with two clumps of thick white gooey stuff (potentially cheese of some description...???). We didn't order this and we were not sure what to do with it, so we left it sitting there.

So lunch was disastrous. But thankfully the food for the rest of the trip was very good. We had a little wander around the walls of the castle and then descended the hill back down to the city centre, passing the Se Cathedral on the way. The Se was built in 1150 for the first bishop of Lisbon, on the site of the old mosque. Back in the city centre, we checked out a few shops - there was an insane chocolate/sweet shop with a queue of about 100 people long, which we chose not to join - and then we visited one of Lisbon's famous tourist attractions - the Elevador de Santa Justa.

The Elevador is a Neo-Gothic lift was built at the turn of the 20th century by the apprentice of Alexandre Gustave Eiffel. It is one of the more eccentric features of the Baixa area. Passengers can travel up and down inside the tower in one of two smart wood-panelled cabins with brass fittings. There is a viewing platform at the top, offering spectacular views over central Lisbon. There is also a cafe right at the top of the tower, but that was closed on Christmas Eve. We enjoyed the views of the city and also checked out the ruins of the Igreja do Carmo church, which sits just behind the Elevador at the top. The church was destroyed by the earthquake of 1755.

Just as we got out of the lift at the bottom again it started to rain, so we grabbed a bottle of port from one of the many shops selling Portugal's finest product and we headed back to the Sofitel. The hotel staff had left a bottle of champagne and some tiramisu in our room, which was a lovely surprise. Megan had mentioned to them when we booked that it was our "anniversary". So we drank champagne, ate tiramisu and watched German MTV, which was hilarious. It had turned pretty nasty outside so it was extra nice to have a great hotel to hang out in.

In the evening we had dinner at a restaurant close to the hotel. It had stopped raining by that stage, so after dinner, which was a big improvement on lunch, we walked up the hill to the Bairro Alto area. We had read that Bairro Alto was the lively part of Lisbon, packed with fun bars and restaurants. Unfortunately almost everything up there was closed for Christmas Eve, so not only could we not find any bars, there were very few people around and it was rather dark and sifty. There were a few weird guys lurking around, one who was clearly off his face on something and was throwing himself against a wall repeatedly. We decided to bolt before we invited a mugging, and we headed straight back down the hill to the city and called it a night.

Christmas Day

Needless to say, Christmas Day started very slowly for us. The most comfortable bed in the world and extra thick curtains meant we had no idea how late it was. We managed to make it down to breakfast in time (just) and it was amazing. They had all the usual stuff - pastries, bread, cereal, yogurt, fruit etc etc, but we could also order cooked breakfast just how we wanted it, so we had possibly the best omelets ever and sausages and bacon. An excellent start to the day.

Unfortunately it was a pretty grey day and it was forecast to rain for much of the day, but we decided to head out anyway and we caught a tram out to Belem. Belem is about 10 minutes by tram to the west of the city at the mouth of the River Tagus. This is where many Portuguese explorers set sail on their voyages of discovery, so the area is inextricably linked with Portugal's Golden Age. When Manuel I came to power in 1495, he reaped the profits of those heady days of expansion, building grandiose monuments and churches that mirrored the spirit of the time. Two of the finest examples of the exuberant and exotic Manueline style of architecture are the Mosteiro dos Jeronimos and the Torre de Belem.

We walked along the river and checked out the massive Monument to the Discoveries and the Torre de Belem. The Monument to the Discoveries is a huge angular monument right on the waterfront, which was built in 1960 to mark the 500th anniversary of the death of Henry the Navigator. The 52-metre high monument commemorates the mariners, royal patrons and all of those who took part in the development of the Portuguese Age of Discovery. There is an enormous compass made of coloured pavement stones on the ground in front of the monument, which is very cool, even though New Zealand is not on the map!

Sure enough, it started to rain while we were down by the river and it was pretty heavy, so we got soaked. Further along the river is the majestic Torre de Belem. Commissioned by Manuel I, the tower was built as a fortress in the middle of the River Tagus in 1515-1521. It became a symbol for Portugal's great era of expansion. The real beauty of the tower lies in the decoration of the exterior. Adorned with rope carved in stone, it has openwork balconies, Moorish-style watchtowers and distinctive battlements in the shape of shields. The Gothic interior below the terrace served as a storeroom for arms and a prison. The tower now sits on the bank of the river. It was closed, unsurprisingly, on Christmas Day, but we checked it out from the outside and took a few photos before retreating in search of some shelter.

The other big attraction in Belem is the Mosteiros dos Jeronimos, a monastery commissioned by Manuel I in around 1501. In front of the monastery buildings is the fantastic Praca do Imperio, a beautifully decorated garden built around a central fountain. We scampered inside the church that forms part of the monastery buildings to escape the heavy rain. They were in the middle of the Christmas service but there were plenty of people coming and going and also a couple of dozen tourists sheltering from the rain like ourselves. The church was amazing.

We stayed there for about 15 minutes and then braved the weather again, continuing down the road to a big cafe called Pasteis de Belem, where we had hot chocolate and cakes. After such a big (and late) breakfast, we did not feel like lunch, but we definitely needed a hot chocolate to warm ourselves up. This was also our first introduction to one of Portugal's specialities - custard cakes. These are small round cakes, a little like custard square but with flakier pastry on the bottom and sprinkled with cinnamon and icing sugar on the top. They are so delicious.

We caught the tram back into the city and headed back to the hotel to dry out a bit. The hotel was running a promotion while we were there, where guests were invited to a complimentary chocolate tasting in the bar. We were booked in for our chocolate tasting at 4pm, so after a bit more German MTV we went down to the lobby for hot chocolate, chocolate truffles, cake and fruit dipped in chocolate. It was really good.

We had Christmas dinner in the hotel restaurant in the evening. The food was brilliant - we had prawns for a starter and steak for our mains. The steak was pretty good but the potato that accompanied it was awesome, probably the yummiest potato ever. We rounded off a really relaxing Christmas Day with chocolates and port - perfect.

Saturday

In complete contrast to Christmas Day, Saturday was bright and sunny and a lot warmer (up around 16 degrees again). We decided to spend part of the day in Sintra, a town in the wooded slopes about 40 minutes by train to the north-west of Lisbon. Before that though, we checked out some shops in Lisbon and picked up a few souvenirs.

We then took a ride on one of the iconic yellow cable-car/trams for a scenic tour of the city. The tour was really nice and we saw a bit of the city centre and Alfama, although about 15 minutes in to the ride the tram was completely rammed full of people. A group of rather rotund old Portuguese women piled on with several shopping bags each and we were lucky enough to have most of them gather around us. We are not sure exactly what the smell was, but at least one, possibly more, of them absolutely stunk of one of the worst smells we had ever smelt. We actually had to get off the tram early to escape the stench. Not cool. We finished the tour on foot and walked back down to the city centre. It was actually nice to walk in the sun - it was such a nice day.

Around lunchtime we caught a train from the Rossio station out to Sintra. We were well stocked for the journey with a box of custard cakes! Sintra's stunning setting on the north slopes of the granite Serra, among wooded ravines and and fresh water springs, made it a favourite summer retreat for the kings of Portugal. The town is recognised as a UNESCO world heritage site and draws thousands of visitors all through the year.

On the highest peaks of the Serra de Sintra sits the spectacular Palacio da Pena. The palace is an eclectic mix of architectural styles, built in the 19th century for the husband of the young Queen Maria II, Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. Ferdinand appointed a German architect to build his summer palace filled with oddities from all over the world and surrounded by a park. With the declaration of the Republic in 1910, the palace became a museum, preserved as it was when the royal family lived here.

When we arrived in Sintra, we made our way straight to the Palacio da Pena and did a tour of the colourful palace. It was an interesting tour, as there were some really impressive items on display from different parts of the world. The Arab Room and the Ballroom were both beautifully decorated. After our palace visit we headed back down to Sintra town and got a late lunch/snack before catching the train back in to Lisbon.

In the evening we went up to the Bairro Alto area, where this time everything was open and there were plenty of people about. We had a few drinks in a really cool little bar - there were a lot of arty/funky bars and shops in Bairro Alto and a lot of young alternative people around too. It is a really fun place to drink. We had dinner at a restaurant called "Be You", which was also really fun and the food was great.

Sofitel
Lisbon













Triumphal
Arch















View of
Rossio
square











Praca dos
Restauradores
by night














Christmas Tree
in Bairro Alto















Monument to
the Discoveries
in Belem

















Torre de
Belem











Bear -
Rossio











Praca da
Figueira with
Castelo de Sao
Jorge in back










Famous
yellow
tram











Run-down
buildings
in Alfama












Elevador de
Santa Justa

















Megan
in Rossio












Palacio da Pena -
Sintra

















Palacio












Palacio

View from
Palacio over
Sintra

Megan at
Palacio

Palacio again

Lunch in
Sintra

Bruges, Belgium

Bruges, Belgium

Friday

On Friday night (11 December) we met up at King's Cross St Pancras to catch the Eurostar to Belgium. As it turned out, tube delays, massive queues at M&S (we had to get some supplies for the trip) and more queues for security etc, meant that we boarded our 6.34pm train at around about 6.33pm. There were nine of us in total spending the weekend in Bruges and eight were sitting together on the train (Becs was meeting us there on Saturday).

We had loads of food and drink - almost a bottle of bubbly each, so the two hour trip to Brussels flew by. We actually ran out of wine before Brussels, so Kristen staggered down the train and returned triumphantly with several miniature bottles of wine for the group! We almost missed our second train of the night in Brussels. We got off the Eurostar there and were waiting for the connecting train to Bruges, which we thought was delayed (so the announcements seemed to be telling us). Three of us were in dire need of a toilet and decided to make a dash for it. When we returned the train was there and everyone else had boarded it and the doors were closed. The train conductor must have felt sorry for us and held the train while we boarded. Very close call.

We arrived in Bruges around 11pm and walked towards the town centre, where we were booked in to "Hotel Nicolas", a B&B tucked in behind the main square. We got most of the way in to town no worries and then we got a little lost. The manager of Hotel Nicolas was obviously a nutter - he phoned Kristen and abused her, saying that he had been waiting for us for two hours (even though we were only about 20 minutes late) and that he knew we were out drinking instead of checking in. He called several more times in the next 15 minutes - Tim eventually talked to him and copped some more outrageous accusations. We turned up at the B&B and he had another go at us, complaining that his wife is pregnant and he has a small child. We were all fairly sure that neither of those things was our fault!

Once checked in, a few of us went to a bar down the road and had a few drinks. It was really fun, although we had all forgotten how disgusting it is to be in small bars full of cigarette smoke. We were in a bar full of about 60 people and we were probably the only five people not smoking - although we techincally were. Our clothes, hair, skin all stunk of smoke - delightful.

Saturday

We began Saturday with breakfast downstairs, where the manager and a woman who also worked in the B&B were very apologetic about the guy's rant the night before and they could not have been nicer - mood swings are always fun. Breakfast was pretty good - standard European breakfast really. Then we set off for the main square.

Being Christmas, they had transformed the square into a fanciful Christmas extravaganza - complete with Christmas market stalls and an ice-skating rink! It was obviously cold but we were very lucky with the weather really - blue sky and sun for most of the weekend. We checked out the Christmas stalls and then made our way to one of the chocolate shops that Belgium is famous for. The smell in the shop was divine. They had a big chocolate fountain in the shop that we could dip marshmallows in for tasting - so yum.

As we had been to Bruges before, we had already seen/done most of the tourist attractions - plus Bruges is not abundant with tourist attractions. It's more about relaxing in the beautiful medieval town, eating chocolate and drinking beer. One thing we had not done, however, was climb up the Belfry Tower in the main square. The bell tower is the city's most prominent landmark. It is 83m high and we climbed the 366 (very narrow) steps to the top. Unfortunately the big safety bars all around the top of the tower detract from the views, although we did get a great photo looking down to the ice-skating rink in the square (see below).

The rest of the day consisted largely of eating and drinking. After our assault on the tower, we found a little cafe and stopped in for hot drinks - although Tim and Nathan decided it was not too early for a small beer. Next stop was back in the square where we grabbed some hot food for lunch. The hot dogs were brilliant. Kristen got abused (in Flemish) by an old woman on a bike who she nearly collided with - it hadn't been a good 24 hours for her in terms of abuse received.

After lunch most of us (apart from Paul and Tim) went ice-skating. It was a really cool little ice rink, with a Christmas tree in the centre, and they played an assortment of cheesy 1980s music too. Everyone was really good and there were even a few tricks coming out!!! After skating, girls and boys split up and went our separate ways - girls shopping and boys to the pub. The girls checked out a few shops and then the other Christmas markets stalls, while the lads found a pub with massive beer wall featuring hundreds of different types of beer (photo below). We met up again later in the afternoon, did some more chocolate shopping and then decided it was far too cold to be outside so we all retired to a pub near our B&B. We spent a couple of hours in there trying out a few different Belgian beers and then returned to the B&B to get ready for dinner. Becs had finally made her way to Bruges and joined us as we headed out for dinner.

We had dinner at a restaurant called La Taverne Brugeoise, one of the beautiful old medieval style buildings pictured a few times below that form one side of the main square. They even let us sit upstairs looking out over the beautifully lit up square. The food was pretty good (amongst the favourites were the traditional Belgian pot of mussels and the steak frites) and the beer and wine was even better. We lost a soldier (who shall remain nameless) to red wine - he had to head back to the B&B for a sleep along with a couple of tired kids, while most of us continued on for a few drinks elsewhere and some random late night posing for photos on a canal bridge!

Sunday

On Sunday morning half of our crew left us to do the day tour of the war fields out of Bruges. The remaining five of us had a big sleep in before “Angry Manager” returned to kick us out of our rooms at precisely 11am, not a second after the check-out time. Crucial to get those rooms empty on time, even if it means being rude and abusive to guests.

After breakfast we toyed with the idea of walking/bussing to the nearby town of Damme. However, no buses were running and it was a little cold and far to walk. We had a lovely walk along the canal to the outskirts of Bruges and then decided that was enough and we headed back into the town centre. It was a beautiful clear sunny morning, but very cold.

We bought some souvenirs and then some more chocolate and then returned to the square for another round of hot dogs for lunch. By early afternoon the temperatures plummeted further and it even looked like snowing at one stage. After a bit more shopping (we especially loved the toy shop, packed with hand-made wooden toys), we found a lovely smoke-filled café and set up camp there for the rest of the afternoon with a pack of cards. Hot drinks were followed by delicious Belgian beer.

In the evening we moved to another pub close to our B&B where we could watch the first half of Liverpool v Arsenal – in another smoke-filled pub! It was just as well we had to leave at half-time, as our lungs were about to give out due to all the smoke and some of the locals were getting far too friendly with each other… It did mean, however, that we missed a stirring Arsenal comeback, as they came from behind to win 2-1.

We met the others at the train station and very very sleepily made the journey back to London town.







Main
square












Town centre
and Belfry
Tower















Paul and
the chocolate
fountain
















Main square
from bell
tower

































Megs
ice-skating
















Megs, Kristen,
Alex, Amber
and Natalie










Beer wall














Tim in
main square










Sat afternoon
drinks -Megs,
Natalie, Nathan
and Paul














Dinner
















So pretty












And so cold















One of many
Hoes consumed

Bruges
by night

Along the

canal

Provincial

Court, main

square

Not a new

country, but

still fun

Iceland - Part 2

Sunday

On Sunday we went on a full day tour of the "Golden Circle", a popular tourist route in South Iceland, covering about 300 km looping from Reykjavik into central Iceland and back. The three primary stops on the route are the national park Thingvellir, the Gullfoss waterfall (meaning "golden falls"), and the geothermally active valley of Haukadalur, which contains the geysers Geysir and Strokkur. Our tour also included a snowmobile ride on the Langjokull glacier.

We boarded the massive Super Jeep at 9am and left Reykjavik, heading south-east. We passed through the greenhouse village of Hverageroi, where they have dozens of huge greenhouses where they grow all sorts of vegetables and fruit for consumption in Iceland. Apparently, they even grow bananas in the greenhouses!

Our first stop on the tour was the Kerio volcano crater. The sun was still a few minutes away from rising as we got out of the jeep to check out the enormous crater, so it was very cold. Away from the city warmth and shelter of Reykjavik it was a lot colder. At most stops we were out in the open and the wind ripped through us, despite us wearing four layers and hats and gloves! Kerio is a volcanic crater lake, one of several in the area known as Iceland's Western Volcanic Zone, created as the land moved over a localised hotspot. The crater is 55m deep, 170m wide and 270m across. You probably wouldn't want to fall over the edge!

The countryside was really interesting. The large amount of volcanic activity in the area means that there are a lot of lava fields or areas of volcanic rock. In stark contrast, there are other areas of spectacular natural beauty - mountains, rivers and lakes to rival New Zealand. As there is a massive amount of space for a small population, there is plenty of land available for farms. We passed by a lot of farmland, mainly farming horses and sheep. We were informed by our knowledgeable tour guide that there is one horse for every four people in Iceland. They are used mainly for horse-riding, a popular tourist activity in Iceland, however, horse meat is also reasonably popular in the country. There were loads of tiny wooden farmhouses scattered across the fields too, usually sheltered by large grass or dirt banks on one side of the building to block the strong winds.

Our next stop was an area of geothermal activity called Haukadalur, which is home to several massive geysers. The original geyser at this place was called "Geysir" and that is where the generic name "geyser", used to describe these things all over the world, came from. Geysir stopped working around the 1980s, as the channel became clogged with silica. An earthquake in 2000 cleared the channel, reviving eruptions, but they have decreased again and Geysir very rarely erupts these days. Just 50m away, however, is another geyser called "Strokkur", which erupts very obediently every 4-8 minutes, shooting boiling water up to 30m skyward. Out in the open, waiting with camera positioned for the awesome shot below, 4-8 minutes started to feel like a very long time! And you don't want to lose concentration because you only have about two seconds to take the snap, or it's another 4-8 minutes waiting with cold fingers. Apparently a handful of over-eager tourists each year require hospital treatment for boiling water burns - one shouldn't stand downwind of Strokkur... There are around thirty much smaller geysers and hot pools in the area, including one called Litli Geysir ("Little Geysir"), which is really a little bubbling pot of water, which Megan likened to pools you see on the Crater of the Moon walk in Taupo. It also smelt a bit like home!

After a quick refreshment stop at the cafe (where we found that "Lakkrus" means "licorice" in Icelandic and when covered in rice bubbles and coated in chocolate, is rather delicious), we set off towards the Langjokull Glacier and the highlight of the day - snowmobiling! We drove for around an hour over some very rough terrain (luckily we were in such a beast as the Super Jeep) to reach a pit stop, where we were ushered into a shed and helped into full Michelin-Man style oversuits, overshoes and helmets. We looked awesome! Megan actually looked like an astronaut (see photo below). We then got into an even larger vehicle, a Super Super Jeep if you like, but built for snow - a little like a tank on ice - and we were driven right down on to the glacier.

The glacier looked like something from a movie - endless flat expanses of untouched snow and 20 or so snowmobiles lined up waiting for us. After a quick lesson on how to operate a snowmobile (they are probably the easiest things in the world to drive) we were off, Tim taking the first half hour of driving. We had to follow single file in a long line. Apparently over-taking or drifting off the tracks marked by the tour leader can result in you falling into a 200m deep chasm, never to be seen again. Needless to say, everybody followed the instructions strictly! Visibility was good initially, and we rocketed along, faces freezing and fingers even colder! Tim started to wonder if frostbite was setting in, since he couldn't feel his fingers and his forearm started to go numb! We then stopped for a 10 minute break to take some photos and swap drivers. Tim was relieved to discover that the other snowmobile drivers had experienced the same thing with frozen fingers on their right hand (throttle side of the snowmobile).

By this stage we were far out into the middle of the glacier and the wind had picked up - the coldest, most icy wind we had ever felt - and it was seriously battering us. We agreed that this surpassed Christmas in Prague as the coldest place on Earth we had ever been. Megan took the driver's seat for the second leg and driving with a cross-wind was a challenge, making the snowmobile wobble quite a bit. With the strong wind and visibility starting to deteriorate, it felt like we heading for the North Pole! However it came to an end all too quickly and we were back at base, wishing we could go for another ride! Once off the glacier and out of our astronaut suits, we jumped back in the Super Jeep to continue our tour.

Next up was the Gullfoss waterfall, however before we got there we were treated to the rare sight of an arctic fox on the side of the road. The arctic fox is a shy creature that looks a bit like a fluffy cat and it is Iceland's only native mammal. Gullfoss was a little more impressive than the ball of fluff. It is a monster waterfall in two tiers at right angles to each other (see photo below). The total height is 32m, the width 20m and the average amount of water running over this waterfall is 140 cubic metres per second in summer and 80 cubic metres per second in winter. Woah! We spent a few minutes admiring it before Megan had to take shelter in the restaurant/gift shop. The sun was starting to set and it was getting colder by the minute. After some hot soup and bread for a late lunch, we were back on the road to our final stop Thingvellier.

Thingvellir (which loosely translates to "parliament fields") is a site of historical, cultural and geological importance as well as one of most popular tourist spots in Iceland. The Thingvellir National Park was founded in 1930 to protect the remains of the parliament site and natural phenomena in the surrounding area. Iceland was settled around 870 AD. Parliament was established at Thingvellir in the year 930 and continued through to 1789, when it was moved to Reykjavik. The chiefs of the various "tribes" from all over Iceland would meet at this place every couple of years to discuss the issues of the day, rules/laws to address those issues and punishments for those who broke the rules. The Icelandic people claim that this is the oldest continuing parliament in the world.

We got out of the Super Jeep and walked around the parliament fields site for about 10 minutes. It was getting quite dark and, needless to say, rather chilly. The spot is marked by a big flagpole, although there was no flag flying - perhaps it had blown away! The parliament fields sit in a valley brought about by the meeting of two tectonic plates in the area.

The North American and Eurasian plates meet underneath Iceland, which is why there is so much volcanic activity and so many earthquakes in the country. The actual meeting point of two tectonic plates is not usually as visible above ground as it is here in Iceland. There is a steep rocky cliff right behind the deep valley where parliament fields are located. We walked along the valley right next to the cliff face up to a car park where our Super Jeep picked us up again. The view from the car park looking back down along the cliff and valley showed the meeting of the plates quite vividly. Interestingly, these plates cause the western side of Iceland and the eastern side of Iceland to move apart by 2cm every year, which (very slowly) increases the size of the country. It is thought that in 100 million years from now, Iceland will be larger than the Great Britain!

We were grateful to be back in the Super Jeep where it was nice and toasty, as we headed back to Reykjavik. We were dropped off at our hotel around 6pm. We decided to go for a couple of drinks at the Icelandic Bar, which was close to the hotel. Megan had read about it before our trip and it was highly recommended by past travellers. It was really cool - it had really comfortable couches and interesting decor everywhere. The service was top notch and they even gave out free chocolates and biscuits! Tim really wanted to try Polar Beer (he he he) but they had run out. So we had another local beer called Viking, and it was nice. We had dinner at Cafe Solon, another popular cafe/restaurant in the centre, with a lot of modern art on the walls. The food was really nice and it was pretty cheap.

Monday

Monday was a very cruisy day. We slept in a bit after our big day on Sunday. After breakfast we headed for the city and went our separate ways - Megan to check out the clothes shops and Tim to visit some touristy/souvenir shops and play photographer. We met up again at lunchtime for hot dogs at Baejarins Beztu. Yum!

In the afternoon we looked at a few more shops and then went for a walk around Tjornin, the small lake in the middle of Reykjavik. There was thick cloud cover overhead, which was not what we wanted. We were booked in for a Northern Lights tour that night. Iceland is far enough north to make it a great place for viewing the Northern Lights in the winter months. Our tour was to take us out of Reykjavik to the countryside where it is dark enough to see the natural phenomenon clearly. However, when it is cloudy you cannot see the Northern Lights, and as the cloud did not clear on Monday, our tour was cancelled.

After our walk around the lake, we returned to the Icelandic Bar for a hot chocolate, to warm ourselves up, and then a couple of drinks to round off a very relaxing day in Reykjavik. We had dinner at our hotel and it was really good. We grabbed a deck of cards from the bar and played a few card games and tried another Icelandic beer, this one called Gull, while we waited for dinner.

Tuesday

Tuesday was our final day in Iceland, so we checked out of the hotel and caught a bus out to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is a geothermal spa and is one of the most visited attractions in Iceland. It is located in a lava field in Grindavik on the Reykjanes Peninsula, southwestern Iceland, between Reykjavik and the international airport, so it is a good stop-off on the way out to the airport.

The warm waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur and bathing in the Blue Lagoon is reputed to help some people suffering from some skin diseases. The water temperature in the pools is around 40 degrees. The lagoon is fed by the water output of the nearby geothermal power plant Svartsengi.

We arrived at the Blue Lagoon spa around 10.45am and we had about three hours in the pools. It was so strange to be in hot water but still have the cold wind hitting our faces. But we found some sheltered parts away from the wind and it was perfect. They have pots of silica mud around the edges of the pools that you can smear on your skin. It is supposed to make your skin smoother and healthier. Megan took great delight in applying some of the mud to Tim's face, as did several other girls to their respective partners! There was one girl in the pools who had gone a little overboard and covered most of her body in the mud - she looked like some sort of swamp monster emerging from the water. They also had a big "waterfall" in the pools that you could stand under and receive a shoulder/back massage, such was the force of the falling water. That was very cool! We had short bursts in the steam bath and the sauna too.

Once out of the pools we had lunch in the cafe at the Blue Lagoon complex, which was surprisingly good. We got a combo that included a sandwich, a berry smoothie and a coke and we threw in a crazy Icelandic chocolate bar too, just to keep it healthy! They actually do really good chocolate in Iceland.

The bus picked us up at 2.15pm and took us down the road to the airport, where we stocked up on the aforementioned Icelandic chocolate in the duty free shop (we had to get rid of our Icelandic kronur somehow...). We both had a brilliant time in Iceland and we would love to go back again some time. Reykjavik is a fun place to visit and we wouldn't mind riding a dog sled (another option on the glaciers) or having another crack on a snowmobile. Spring/summer is a great time for whale watching tours and also for seeing puffins and other bird life. Plus in summer you get almost 24 hours of daylight!

Super
Jeep











Kerio
volcanic
crater












Sunrise














Strokkur
geyser

















Haukada-
lur area










Megan on
snow-
mobile












Michelin
Man
Megs











Langjokull
Glacier














Ditto












Gullfoss
waterfall











Iceland
country-
side

Thingvellir

Flagpole
at Thing-

vellir

Icelandic
Bar

Icelandic
Bar inside

Reykjavik

Megs at
Lake
Tjornin

Blue
Lagoon

Blue
Lagoon
pools

Ditto

Sun trying
to get above
mountain...

The massage
waterfall

Crazy
lava
fields