Day 2: Keep moving

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There was little reason to beleive that we would be able to get up the next morning after such a drawn-out travel day and be ready for a kayak tour.  But these were Louise’s plans, and, sure enough, we were up and out by 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EST), and on the water of the town’s narrow harbor.

This is truly a testament to our host’s sheer force of will, and all five of us benefitted from hearing stories that covered various parts of the estuary and even some of the small islands  between the banks.  Taking a kayak tour was also something Louise had wanted to do for a long time, but she didn’t feel like her parents were up for the trip.

The same bridge we kayaked under a little while ago

Having seen Ahus from the water, we hopped back on land to hit a few of the spots she missed showing us yesterday.  These included the city library, which has a very efficient way to process its book loans.  “I don’t know why I get so excited about these things!” she said as she was checking out a book.  “But I do!”

Louise even taught us a Viking yard game called Cube.

Getting excited is something Louise is very good at.   She shared this skill a little later in the morning by bringing us to the famous Otto Glas ice cream stand on the town square.  Most everyone was excited about this.  The flavors selected ranged from pear and egg liquor, pear and melon, and elderbery with lime ripple and coconut.

You get to choose two flavors per one-scoop serving, but really you’re getting two scoops — Louise says you can get this brand of ice cream in Stockholm, but they are not nearly as generous with the servings in the capital.  And it’s put in a big homemade waffle cone.  And it’s all dipped in a chocolate sauce that turns into a hard shell.   I’m sure you can sense the excitment this caused.

Zoe with one of the little beach houses

Next, it was back to touring.  We got on our borrowed bikes and visisted the two beaches we missed yesterday.  Beaches are one of the three things Ahus is best known for.  The population of the city swells by a third in the summer because of all the beachgoers.  We rode through several neighborhoods of homes that looked sturdy enough to live in all year, but probably were mostly used during beach season.

The water was cold, and even Louise was not excited enough to go swimming. But these two were.

Then, right on the beach, there are tiny houses that families have built decades ago.  Although you can’t build new ones anymore, the old ones are allowed to stay.  Louise pointed out her favorite, a white one with an orange roof that was hosting a family gathering as we walked by.

In between the two beaches we needed to portage our bikes a mile or so through a forest.  Again, no complaints from anyone in our camp.  It started to rain a bit.  Still, we were all happy campers.  The momentum of Louise’s excitement carried us all through.

After another meal at Louise’s parents’ house and a quick trip to the grocery store, we were ready to head off on the next leg of our trip.  Louise saw us off at the bus stop and we reversed the last part of our trip from yesterday.

Goodbye at the bus stop

Then we had a quick train trip to meet the train that would take us to Stockholm, four hours away. We had gotten so used to traveling by bicycle — and to having Louise’s authentic Swedish comfort food —  that it was difficult to leave.  She assured us, though, that there would be plenty of cool things to see in Stockholm.  We are already lowering our expectations when it comes to ice cream servings.

Waiting for a train in Hasselholm

The light faded slowly as we watched bustling Swedish towns and sprawling wheat fields go by.  It didn’t get dark until just before we arrived in Stockholm, around 10:30 p.m.  We managed to find our accommodations, a slightly more difficult task than you might think.

From the window of the 18:46 train to Stockholm

We are relying on wifi to keep us informed, so street navigation is not as smooth as it would be if we constatnly tied into the Internet.

We found our place, though.  It’s a hip hostel still buzzing with young people in the lobby when we arrived after 11.  We have a six-bunk room to ourselves, and it has its own bathroom.  We’re hoping to get up relatively early to explore the city, but all bets are off given our late bedtimes and the fact that Louise and her dynamism are several hours away.

Day 1: Planes, trains, buses, and bikes

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Things have started off very auspiciously for our

Scandinavian trip.  Starting at 2:30pm yesterday, we managed to successfully connect one bus (to the airport), two flights (to Iceland then to Copenhagen), a train to Sweden, and a bus to the seaside.  We succeeded in wrangling all our baggage into one checked bag (a large backpack), and five “personal items”, in order to avoid the

Triumphant arrival in Ahus

outrageous baggage fees charged by Play Airlines.  (We were a little nervous about the personal items, but we all managed, with some difficulty, to shove them into the sizing check slot.  Jury is still out on whether we’ll be able to pull this off again for the trip home.)  A mere 20 hours of so after leaving our house, we were stepping off the bus in Ahus.  The sun was shining and the air was crisp and cool.

 

We’re in Ahus visiting our dear friend (and Lanie’s violin teacher) Louise, who grew up here and is back visiting for the summer.  She and her parents have already, in the span of less than a day, given us a tremendous amount of delicious food and warm hospitality.  Louise has much to show us and is not one to let the grass grow under her feet, so after a quick welcome meal she showed us to the five bikes that

Church tour with Jurgen

she’d managed to borrow from neighbors, and we set off to explore the town.  After a long travel day, it was wonderful riding through the sunshine on the picturesque, bike-friendly streets.  (The biking presented a bit of difficulty for vertically-challenged Lanie, but she soon became a pro at getting the bike started even when her feet couldn’t reach the ground.)

Louise’s family has lived her for generations, and she had a story to tell about almost every building we passed.  We

Absolut Home

got a behind-the scenes tour of the town’s church, which dates from 1160, from Louise’s friend Jurgen.  We saw the harbor front, and the town square, and the Absolut Factory, which is right in the center of town.  (Alas, there were no English language tours that met our schedule.)  We saw the ancient ruins in the middle of town, which the enterprising Ahusians have turned into an open air cafe.  We went to one of the three beaches in town, and walked out on a long, long pier and dipped our toes (only our toes) in the frigid water — frigid even by our NH standards, though there were a few brave swimmers.  (Zoe considered going for a swim.  She was deterred not by the water temperature, but by the multitude of jellyfish that floated through the lagoon.  Louise thought they weren’t the stinging kind, but was not totally positive about it.)  We located our quaint B&B, right near the waterfront, and got ourselves checked in.  After a night on the plane with very little sleep, we really didn’t think we’d still be going strong at this point, but Louise is a bundle of energy and fortunately it proved to be contagious.

Having squeezed in pretty much everything we could for the

Meatball production

day, we headed back to the Kandles’ house for dinner.  Louise and her mother spent all day yesterday preparing a Swedish meatball feast, and everything was delicious.  We all ate way too much.  SInce it was now after 9pm, Louise decided we’d have to hold off on the Swedish yard games, but it’s good to have something to look forward to tomorrow.

Day 4 — Near Misses and Big Hits

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We went right when we should have gone left.

We are not done yet.

On the contrary, I think we have been invigorated by out close proximity to all the action.  I walked to the Eastern Market at dawn’s early light for some supplies at Trader Joe’s and a few coffee drinks.  Having consumed those in our just-right accommodations, we practically leapt out onto the sidewalk, ready to crawl all over DC for another day.

Paintings by Alma Thomas on display at the Hirshhorn Museum

Stop 1 was a return to the Capitol Welcome Center, a 10-minute walk from our place, to cash in on the Congressional gallery passes that we scored on Monday.  Both houses were in session this morning, so we were confronted with a few options:  House,  Senate, or try to squeeze in both before our 10:30 meeting time with DC art expert and all-around great guy Ken.

A brief stop in a secret garden next to the Museum of Art and Industry (sadly closed today — another near miss)

With the intention of possibly visiting both, we headed for the Senate side first. It was about 15 minutes before their 10 am start time.  It was possible that we could see the Senators start their session and then hustle over to check out proceedings in the House.

This really wasn’t a good plan.  After surrendering most of our posessions in a check-in station we were directed down several hallways, up and elevator and through several more hallways (all with consistently shiny floors and very solid-looking walls), through a metal detector, and finally into the Gallery of the US Senate Chambers.

It was a quiet place at that time of day, with about 10 other people in the gallery (gallery viewers were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 by people standing in the hallway directing us where to go) and, maybe, about the same number of people on the floor of the chambers.

Many of these people were literally sitting on the floor of the chamber, not displaying much anticipation that anything was going to happen soon. They were wearing blue and looked to be late teenagers.  Reading the Senate information booklet while we waited, we discovered that these were interns in their junior year of high school.  Not too long after we took our seats, right around 10 am, the interns popped up off the floor and took positions by various doors in the chamber.  We took this as a sign that something was about to happen — possibly that the Senators were going to make a grand entrance.

A few more people did trickle in, including a woman wearing a contraption that held a stenographer’s recording device and allowed her to go around keying in what people said.  The Senate information book informed us that recorders like her work in 15-minute shifts and then go back to their offices to immediately to transcribe their notes.

Here is what this recorder transcribed in the minutes that we were there:  1. A grey haired man (our best bet at actually being a Senator for the day — it might have been the Senate President Pro Tempore, or it might have been someone on Vice President Harris’ staff performing her duties for her) banging a gavel, calling the session to order, and announcing a pastor who would be giving the morning’s prayer. 2. The solemn pastor invoking those in the chamber (at this point still dominated by high school junior interns) to use the quiet strength of the Lord to guide their decisions. 3.  A clerk reading two communications, the latter being about the Senate moving directly to executive session to talk about candidates for an upcoming appointment.

Jen asked the last official person we passed before entering the chambers, a lady standing at the top of the stairs if the the Senators would be coming in soon and the lady said yes.  They were just listening to someone talk, she said.  They would be entering the chamber soon.

We read our book.  We found the desks where Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, our Senators from New Hampshire, would be sitting.  We watched the clock as it got closer to our meeting point with Ken.

The interns sat back down on the ground.

We realized it would be impossible to gather our things at the check-in, hustle over to the House of Representatives side and repeat the check-in process, make our way to that gallery to see  if anything more was going on over there.  So, we waited a few more minutes, then gave up.  We retraced our steps through hallways and the elevator, back to the check-in to retrieve our things.  Here we noticed a tv screen showing proceedings in the House, and there was a Representative talking.  It appeared there was something going on over there.  We would later learn that there was a major discussion about the debt ceiling.  There were probably lots of people in the galleries over there checking all that out.

It was a near miss, but still a very interesting look into how things work on Capitol Hill.  As an added bonus, they never collected the gallery passes we received from Rep. Pappas.  They never even looked at them.  So we can go back and check the whole thing out again if we want.

In the meantime, the stage was set for a day of exploring galleries with Ken, who did not seem to mind that we were 17 minutes late meeting with him at the Hirshhorn Museam just one block up from the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.

Most of this is made of tinfoil!

And so began a day of getting a little off the main trail of museums in DC.   We had another near miss when we learned the special exhibit at the Hirshhorn was sold out (it didn’t look that crowded there), but then we moved on from main gallies of modern art here to a more intensiave tour of the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden.

After lunch on the patio of the cafe there, we moved on to the Renwick Gallery, which is Ken’s favorite and is located right next to the White House.  It featured one large, ballroom-sized installation that was a larg net suspended from the ceiling  lit by subtly changing lighting.  It also had on display an assortment of very cool woodwork and pottery.   It was only one floor of galleries, but the time we spent there was worth the walk.

On our way to the Renwick Gallery, we got to peek at the president’s residence, but it was not easy.  There were lots of extra barriers and many security personnel around.   We would later find out that this all had to do with a state dinner that evening to welcom the President and first lady of South Korea.  If we had only stayed around watching for a little while longer we might have gotten invited to the dinner.  Another near miss.

Anyway there was more art to see.  And gift shops.  By now we were walking through the streets of the city part of DC and not around the National Mall.  We made our way to Chinatown and there, in the shadow of the hockey and basketball arena, we found the National Portrait Gallery.  Aside from housing a lot of portraits, this build also had a major collection of American Art, and it also offers a fantastic covered central courtyard where we lounged over iced coffee and continued to get caught up with Ken.

In these galleries we were able to see portraits of all the Presidents (though no official portraits have been painted for Trump or Biden because they are either in office or looking to run again for President).   We saw the famous portrait of Michelle Obama.  We saw lots of work by American artists, and we generally had our artistic appreciation vessels filled up right to the brim.

After that, all that was left was a nice dinner at the Founding Farmers and Distillers restaurant a brief walk from the museum, and then we were saying goodbye to Ken.  We owe him many thanks for taking a day off from work to show us a lot of places (and artwork) we would not have gotten to on our own.  It was a very big hit of a day for us.

Death march, DC-style

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We’ve got to give Lanie credit for being a trouper on this vacation.  Without any sisters as moderating influences, she’s been left to bear the full brunt of Bob’s and my travel style.  Today was another day of miles and miles of walking, punctuated with various monuments, museums, and the occasional snack.

We said goodbye to Kathleen and her lovely family this morning and headed into the city for a couple of days at an airbnb on Capitol Hill.  Normally we avoid driving into cities like the plague, but this time we really couldn’t avoid it.  Some may recall an unfortunate episode last time we were in DC, where we failed to read some signs carefully enough and our car got towed to a random nearby street and we had to wander blindly around until we found it.  The issue was that on certain streets at rush hour, the parking lane gets turned into a travel lane.  This time we reaped the benefit of that system, since we arrived just after rush hour so there was still copious parking right on the National Mall.

We started out with monuments — Washington, World War II, Lincoln, Vietnam, Korea.  All of them were flooded with giant mobs of middle school students, but at least we didn’t run into any of our own town’s middle school students.  There were also a large number of Korean people trying to hand us brochures about Jesus.  We weren’t sure whether they’re always at the Mall, or whether they were there specially because the president of South Korea is visiting this week.  But despite the crowds and the Jesus pamphlets, it’s an inspiring feeling to stand at the feet of Lincoln and read the words of the Gettysburg Address carved in marble on the wall.

Some cool stuff we saw at the American History museum: A piece of the original Woodstock stage, C3PO & R2D2, and Jill Biden’s inauguration outfit complete with matching mask.

With some time left on our meter (and the car still accounted for), we started the round of museums.  The great thing about the museums here is that, in addition to being uniformly stunning, they’re all free — so you can make just a quick visit without feeling like you’re wasting money.  Lanie’s top choices were Natural History and Art, but we decided to make a quick stop at the American History museum as we were passing, since Kathleen had recommended it.  This was a very cool museum!  And not at all what we expected.  We saw the original (huge) flag that inspired the national anthem, and the collection of First Lady dresses.  But most of the other exhibits we saw had to do with pop culture, science, and technology.  They were very well designed to draw you in and we ended up spending a lot more time here than we expected (but still not nearly enough to see everything, which was the theme of all the museums we visited).

After a trek back to the car to refill the meter, we retraced our steps yet again to head to Natural History and Art.  We were running out of steam a bit by this point, so we really didn’t begin to make a dent in all the offerings.  I think it would take a month of daily visits to fully appreciate even one of these museums.  But with our energy and our parking meter both running low, and a notification that our airbnb was ready for us, we headed back to the car and made the fortunately uneventful drive to Capitol Hill.

Our Capitol Hill neighborhood

What a gorgeous neighborhood this is!  Quaint brownstones, colorful townhouses, flowering trees, brick walkways — and we even got a parking space.  An hour or two to relax before meeting our niece Kelsey for dinner was just what we needed.

We met Kelsey at Eastern Market, just a few minutes’ walk from our apartment.  This was another great area, with cute shops and restaurants in a pedestrian-friendly block.  We were sufficiently recovered to stroll around for a while before settling down for some Italian food and later, cookies.  It was an early night, but the death march continues tomorrow.

Day 2-3: Tired legs around the National Mall

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Long escalator to Bethesda Metro — easy on the legs

An underarching question marked our firstday touring DC:  Are our legs sore from walking (and running) around New York a few days ago, or are we stiff from sitting in the car through New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland?

We certainly weren’t sore from the cushy reception we received in Bethesda from old friends Kathleen and Daniel and their family.  We will be staying with them for two nights on their trip, and they are quite fun hosts — but, they’re not on Spring Break this week, so we will be hitting DC on our own for a few days.

Alone, that is, except for the beneveolent help of our Congressional delegation from New Hampshire, who have hooked us up with a tour of the US Capitol Building (thanks, Senator Shaheen!) and tickets to the galleries of the House and Sentate (thanks Representative Pappas and the staff intern who brought the passes down to us from his office only a few minutes after a cold-call request phoned in from the Capitol Building Welcome Center).

Underneath the Capitol Rotunda

The tour of the Capitol was a first for all three of us.  Everything is quite shiny in there, and very solid looking.  The tours are run with incredible efficiency.  We entered in a group of about 250 people (the bulk of which were from two large groups of middle schoolers — there are lots of large groups of middle schoolers here), saw a quick movie and then split ourselves into walking groups of about 30 people.  We all got headphones so that we could hear our individual guide speaking to us, and then snaked our way through some corridors of power.  We were divided, wired in, and touring just minutes after the movie ended.

New Hampshire’s own John Stark

Our walk covered the crypts, where George and Martha Washington were meant to be buried but somehow got out of it; the immense and ornate Rotunda; and statuary hall.  We even got to see both of the statues New Hampshire has contributed to the Congressional  collections — John Stark and Daniel Webster.  Every state gets two statues.  We didn’t know that that before the tour.

In the canopy of the National Botanical Gardens’ rainforest

At the very end, our tour guide told us about the “call your Congressman” trick to getting gallery passes, and we decided to give it a try.  That all transpired in the time it took Lanie to peruse the gift shop (there’s lots of gift shops here).  Unfortunately, neither house was in session that day; but not unfoturnately, the passes are good for the whole Congressional session.  We’re plan to come back on another day so we can see legislators in action.

From the Capitol we kind of wanted coffee an so we wandered over to the Botanical Gardens, where we found — a coffee bush!  We also walked around in a very steamy enclosure that supported a mini rainforest with an emphasis on orchids.

Other gardens we saw had cacti and hydroponic themes.  We found an ourdoor space with roses in bloom.  Lots of things were blooming all around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The blooms were quite distracting, and it wasn’t until we visited the restaurant at the nearby National Museum of the American Indian that we finally got around to getting coffee.  We had been advised that the food was good at this museum, so we decided to try some corn bread and a sampling of their salads as a late mornng-snack.  Our legs by now were really needing some rest.

Outside the NMAI

 

 

In the museum we found some particularly moving and sobering reminders of how American Indians have been portrayed in mainstream American society.   This was counterbalanced by very serene architecture, landcapaing, and Native American art.

Exampls of mainstream portrayal of American Indian culture

 

After snacking and touring the museum — already our third stop of the day — we were still on the move.  The next point of interest up the street was the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Beneficiaries of a brief nap under the stars

Both extremely popular and limited in floor space because of a major construction project, the Air and Space Museum was the only place on the National Mall besides the Capitol that required us to reserve an entry time.  While we waited for our 2 pm reservation, we wandered off the Mall for a few blocks to find a quiet place to order and eat a noodle bowl lunch.  We bypassed the many food trucks parked outside of the museums because: 1. they all seem to have exactly the same food; 2. they don’t display their prices.  Our legs weren’t too tired to walk a few blocks for noodles.

That’s not to say we weren’t tired.  Two of us closed our eyes and rested a bit during the planetarium show in the Air and Space Museum, and after an hour or so of touring the halls of this, our fourth major tourist attraction of the day, we were about ready for some ice cream and quiet time under a shady tree on the Mall.

Then, it was time ride the metro back to Bethesda and rest up for another day of DC touring.

 

Day 1: A Nibble at the Big Apple

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Bagels on the New York Public Library terrace

It’s spring break and we’re on the road again.  Or at least 3/5 of us are.  Zoe and Nadia are focused on wrapping up their semesters and preparing for finals, but the rest of us decided to head south.  Lanie never got to go on her 8th grade trip to DC due to Covid, and we have beloved friends and family in the area who we haven’t seen in way too long, so that’s our primary destination.

Unfortunately the first requirement for a road trip is a car, and we have encountered some challenges in this area.  We expected to take our “new” car (a seven-year-old Honda Fit) but after a deer collision in late January we are STILL waiting

You can go stand on that little triangular platform up there! On a glass floor! And they make you pay money to do it!

Inside the library

for repairs to be completed (local readers, avoid Midway Collision!)  The trusty old minivan has acquired a distinctive aroma after Bob spilled some kind of weird lamp oil in there a couple of years ago — plus we had loaned it to Zoe at Easter so she would have room to move herself out of her apartment at the end of the semester.  This left us with the kid car — a 90s-era Pontiac Vibe with close to 200,000 miles and a lack of such modern features as power locks and power windows.  We figured that even if it made the trip successfully, we’d be taking years off its life.  So, we’re traveling in a Nissan Sentra rental car with Maine plates.  (The guy at Enterprise said, “Well, it’s better than if people thought you were from Massachusetts!”  Massachusetts drivers don’t have the best reputation.)

 

Library BeReal

Our first stop was a visit to Nadia, who is conveniently on the way.  We picked her up late on Friday and headed to an airbnb in Mount Vernon, which is between where she lives (in Pleasantville) and the city.  There were a lot of logistical complications involving getting her back home again on the train and having a place to park our car, so this seemed like the best solution.  It turned out to be a great spot — spacious and easy to get to, with easy parking and a 15-minute walk to the Metro North to take us into the city on Saturday.

Jamon Iberica at Mercado Little Spain

Our first mission was coffee and bagels, which we accomplished without too much trouble.  Luckily we found ourselves right by the NYC Public Library, so we ate in the little park there and then took a quick trip inside.  I love the Hogwarts-style reading rooms and the ornate ceilings.  The girls particularly loved the gift shop.  We came out with a couple of posters in a cardboard tube (which would later provide a fun challenge to protect as we walking long distances in pouring rain).

We made our way over to Hudson Yards to meet our friend Justin for lunch.  This is a large mall-type area with very high end stores.  Luckily Zoe, never a big fan of shopping, did not have to suffer through it.  The other girls enjoyed a little browsing even though there was zero chance that we’d be making any purchases.  We had lunch at a cool place called Mercado Spain, with lots of kiosks selling different types of Spanish foods.  We tried a fancy kind of Jamon (apparently from pigs that ate only acorns or something like that), sandwiches, Spanish pizza, churros, and some desserts.  It was a great success apart from when I tried to order horchata as a treat for us to share, and was instead given a tiny cup of espresso (“cortado”).

It was a lovely spring day and we spent some time walking the High Line park with Justin and his wife Robyn, enjoying the sunshine despite the mobs of people.  We got down as far as Little Island, the quirky new park built entirely on concrete tulip-like supports (see photo at top).  Zoe and I came here in December and had the place pretty much to ourselves, but today it was wall to wall people.  We persevered and fought our way to the top for views across the water and to the Statue of Liberty.

Near the top of Little Island Park

We can always count on Justin, a born and bred New Yorker, to show us something that we never would have found on our own.  This time it was a “sample sale” (a misleading name, according to Justin) for jewelry.  You had to be on a special mailing list to get an invitation, but fortunately Justin and Robyn frequent lots of these sales so they brought us along.  We had to check our bags then go up to a big room, empty except for a large square jewelry counter in the center.  They broke us into pairs and assigned us each our own salesperson, who followed us around on the other side of the counter, helping us look at and try on anything that interested us.  The jewelry was beautiful, and 70% off the sticker price — but however good a deal it was, 70% off of four-figure jewelry was still not something the Pavlik familly was likely to purchase.  Nadia and I had a whispered consultation on whether it was more polite to just breeze by and not look at anything, or to give our jewelry minders false hope by trying on jewelry that we had no hope of purchasing.  Luckily we eventually found some more reasonably-priced items that we were at least willing to try on.  (Our salespeople then followed us around hopefully with them on a velvet tray as we finished our circuit.)  I had to talk Nadia out of a $200 necklace, but Bob and Lanie did make a secret purchase that I think I may see next month.  Regardless it was an interesting experience that we definitely have never had before.

We said goodbye to Justin and Robyn and headed to an old favorite, Kung Fu Kitchen noodle house, also recommended by Justin.  We had a little time between dinner and our entertainment for the evening, the Broadway show Peter Pan Goes Wrong.  We mostly filled this time with a frustrating and ultimately fruitless search for a public bathroom near Times Square.

Before things go wrong for the Peter Pan crew

Bob and I saw The Play That Goes Wrong last summer and laughed ourselves silly, so we were thrilled to find tickets to this sister production that just opened a couple of weeks ago.  And for the first few weeks it is featuring guest star Neil Patrick Harris!  We all laughed for two hours straight, while admiring the amazing talents of the cast and crew.

By the time we got out, the rain had begun.  It should have been a fairly quick walk back to Grand Central, but (a) we went the wrong direction, and (b) I was attempting to shield our posters by keeping the long stiff cardboard tube beneath my raincoat, which greatly hampered any kind of quick movement.  (Lanie, who was the one who had bought the posters, found this all very amusing.)  Luckily through some good luck and superhuman effort we made the 10:38 train with about five seconds to spare.  Less luckily, it was still raining when we got back to Mount Vernon and had to face the 15-minute walk back to our place.  Let’s just say that moods had soured a bit by that point.  But we made it eventually and as far as I am aware the posters are still dry (which is more than you can say for our shoes).

 

 

 

Summing up

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We’ve had a few people ask us the details of our itinerary, so I’m listing it here.  Most of the credit goes to Rick Steves, whose suggested path we followed pretty faithfully.  We added in a few stops and took out a few others (mostly museums), and we didn’t visit too many of his recommended lodgings or restaurants (mostly due to price and/or availability), but we drove the route he told us to drive and slept in the towns he told us to overnight in.

And we all agreed that we would do it pretty much the same way again.  I don’t think there was anything on this list that we would skip, and not much we feel we missed out on either.  Most of the places we visited were right on the main route, with ample free parking, bathrooms, well laid-out paths, and informative sign boards.  Everything was clean and safe, and everyone was friendly and helpful.

Not what you would call a LOT of extra space

Our itinierary did involve a lot of driving, but the driving was so scenic that it could often be considered an attraction in and of itself.  Our full-sized sedan managed to fit five of us, plus all our stuff, in semi-comfort, and the middle-seat-rotation system that we worked out with the girls prevented too much strife in the back seat.

Making it all the way around the ring in 9 days meant staying on the move.  We spent only one night in each place, except for Lake Myvatn, where we stayed one extra night to see the many attractions in the area.

We stayed mostly in guest houses, which are kind of a cross between a hostel and a hotel.  We had our own room or rooms, but usually shared a bathroom and had access to shared kitchen facilities.  This proved to be valuable since restaurants in Iceland are so expensive, and for occasions where we were too late/too tired to go out.

Of course this involved a spreadsheet

This was an excellent destination during Covid times.  Iceland’s vaccine rate is very high and Covid rate was low (though this was starting to change towards the end of our trip).  Vaccinated Americans (as of this time) can enter the country without needing to test or quarantine.  To get back to the US, we had to present a negative Covid test, but Iceland simplified this by having a rapid test site (15 minute results) right next to the airport.  We spent the vast majority of our time outside — for the most part, we were only indoors in our hotel room (we even ate mostly outside) — so our exposure risk was low in any case.

For most of our trip, we were able to almost forget about the pandemic.  Other than hand sanitizer prominently displayed at the entrances to many hotels and restaurants, there didn’t seem to be many precautions in place.  But in the last couple of days, we saw a change — more masks and more caution.  We’re not sure if this is because we were in the more populous capital area, or because the state of things had worsened during our week.

Day 1: Keflavik airport to Borgarnes

Day 2: Borgarnes to Siglufjordur

  • Hraunfossar & Barnafossar waterfalls
  • Haalfell Goat Farm 
  • Grabrok Volcano Crater hike
  • Stroll around Siglufjordur
  • Lodging: Herring House guesthouse

Day 3: Siglufjordur to Lake Myvatn

  • Akureyri – botanic garden & walk; lunch
  • Godafoss falls 
  • Namafjall Geothermal Area 
  • Krafla Geothermal Valley
  • Leirhnjukur Volcanic Cone hike
  • Viti Crater
  • Lodging: Elda Guesthouse

Day 4: Around Lake Myvatn

All the attractions below except the nature baths are on a loop right around the lake.  I was originally hoping to do this by bike, but we were daunted when we saw the narrow, shoulderless road and fast-moving traffic.  It was just as well, since we encountered a fair amount of rain in the afternoon and ended up not having a lot of extra time (partly due to our kids’ chronic inability to get up early in the morning).

  • Hverfall Crater rim hike

    The Old Hospital was the loveliest place we stayed.

  • Dimmuborgir Lava Formations
  • Hofoi Promontory
  • Skutustadir Pseudocraters
  • Myvatn Nature Baths
  • Lodging: Elda Guesthouse

Day 5: Lake Myvatn to Seydisfjordur

  • Horseback ride at Safari Stables
  • Dentifoss Falls
  • Rjukandafoss waterfall
  • Stroll around Seydisfjordur town & lagoon
  • Lodging: Halfadan Old Hospital Hostel

Day 6: Seydisfjordur to south of Hofn

  • Roadside stop at unnamed pebble beach
  • Jökulsárlón Iceberg Lagoon
  • Fjallsárlón Iceberg Lagoon boat tour on Zodiac raft
  • Diamond Beach
  • Lodging: Gerdi Guesthouse

Day 7: South of Hofn to Hafnarfjörður (Reykjavik suburb)

  • Skaftafell Natl Park 
  • Reynisfjara Beach
  • Seljalandsfoss waterfall
  • Lodging: T10 hotel

(We intended to stop at the Lava Center museum at the end of the day — Rick Steves claimed it was open late — but found that it unfortunately had closed at 4.)

Day 8: Hafnarfjörður to Keflavik airport

  • Downtown Reykjavik
  • Covid test
  • Flight home!

 

Time enough for fish and chips

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Stuffed puffins in a souvenir shop in Reykjavik

The last day of a trip always brings its own special pressures — usually in the form of a plane we have to get on before it takes off and the multiple hurdles we have to jump to get there.

This year there was an extra hurdle:  We had to submit to a Covid test before the US would let us back in.  Jen had appointments for tests all set set up, and she also arranged for an early evening flight so we would have time to experience a little of Reykyavik before leaving iceland.

And, we were well set-up for the day.  Our slightly-sketchy-from-the-outside-but-really-nice-on-the-inside hotel was a short drive to our main stomping ground for the day: downtown Reykjavik.

 

Smoked puffin on a menu in downtown Rejkyavik

Before we headed out in the moring, there was a little jostling to do, moving belongings that had become loose in the back of the car back into our suitcases, adjusting things so that we could get as much in our checked bag (and as little in our carry-ons) as possible, clearing out all the cupholders of Werther’s wrappers and napkins.  This is all prep-work for the final goal of getting ourselves on the right plane at the right time, and the prep-work has to start early on departure day.

We should note that the parents of this operation have been pretty good at getting ourselves up at a reasonable hour — 6:30- 7 am, local time — and we were able to take care of most of our shufflng and packing without disturbing the girls’ sleep.   Like several nights on this trip, we were sleeping five to a room.

What we weren’t able to do today was find coffee, save for a jar of instant grounds in the communal kitchen on our floor.  Prep-work today would have to be performed without the aid of caffeine, though there was the stimulating smell of a bacon factory a few blocks away as we roamed around in a fruitless search for a cafe.  Sadly, there did not seem to be a direct sales outlet attached to the bacon factory.

On the rainbow road in the heart of the tourist district

Caffeine-deprived and bacon-starved as we were, we all were sufficiently packed and in the car by 10 am.  A 20-minute drive got us right to the center of the capital, a city of low hills surrounding a bay and spreading tidily inland in residential waves.  The highways had expanded to three lanes but the bustle was manageable and parking was not difficult to procure even though the downtown streets were narrow, in the way the European city streets are.

Thus commenced our only major urban hike of the trip.  With somewhat blind luck we managed to park only a block from the main pedestrian downtown network, and Jen had just enough Icelandic coins to procure us parking until 1 pm (and still leave one coin for our family foreign coin collection).

Zoe in front of the Hallgrímskirkja

Reykjavik is a fine walking city.  We followed cobblestone streets past food stands and souvenir shops, plus plenty of restaurants and bars that didn’t look like they would start stirring for another few hours.   After experiencing relatively infrequent eating options for most of the trip, we were facing a potentially paralyzing wealth of lunch options as well as shopping spots.  Fortunately, we had a few goals in mind to help focus us.  One was find a Christmas ornament (the traditional family gift we buy ourselves when we travel to new places).  The other was to sample the fish and chips here — reportedly an extra-fresh, extra-delicious experience in this cold-water port.

This street was painted to look like a track meet

With a 1 pm parking deadline hanging over our heads (and then a 2:30 pm Covid test to get to after that), could we take care of all this business?

Well, despite the fact that the pedestrian section of downtown Reykjavik has surprsingly more ground to cover than we expected, we are happy to say: “Missions Accomplished!”

Taste testing fish and chips — the winner is…101 Reykjavik street food, by a nose.

We even had enough time to visit two fish and chips establishments and hold a taste test.  We put Rick Steves’ favored version against that of another outlet we passed in our amblings.  Reykjavik Fish gave an impressive amount of thick cod, that it advertised as being fresh daily.  It also costed about $4 more, but it had Rick’s blessing.  In the other corner was 101 Reykjavik Street Food.  Portion size was smaller, but so was the price tag.  The crust on the fish was crumblier but very tasty.  In the end, it came down to the potatoes.  101 Reykjavik Street Food had crispier fries, and thus edged its way into the Pavlik family fish and chips endorsement.

Aaah. Gelato

(Note: Nadia passed on fish and had a waffle for lunch.)

Having taken care of this buisness, and having adequately covered the quaint streets of old Reykjavik, we picked up some gelato on our way back to the car.  Then, it was time to hurdle the Covid test.  It took about half an hour from when we walked in the door of the clinic, but when we walked out we were certified Corona-free.

Next was dropping off the rental car (and taking advantage of the free coffee maker, which was no longer in cleaning mode).  Then navigating the airport and sliding into our seats.

Check out the icebergs around Greenland.

It was an uneventful flight, with the exception some cool views of icebergs off Greenland.

After that, it was only a matter of Jen finding a suitable implement to scratch the coating off Iceland on the kitchen table map.

The Pavlik family 2021 Iceland  trip is now officially complete.

Coming full circle

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It’s hard to believe it’s already our last full day in Iceland.  Making it all the way around the island has made for a pretty busy schedule, but our Rick Steves Iceland book has not led us astray and there’s really nothing we would have skipped or done differently.  It’s been a lot of driving, but the scenery has been so incredible throughout that we don’t really mind (despite the unnerving lack of guardrails).

Last night we stayed at a guest house in a pretty remote area on the southeast coast — our room even had a view of the chilly, gray ocean.  As we set out today down the lonely road, with mile after mile of nothing but mountains, ocean, and the occasional sheep, we started to get a bit worried about where we might next find a gas station.  Fortunately when I was finally able to get phone reception and ask Google, Google managed to materialize one literally about a quarter mile down the road.  (There was a little difficulty about the shared payment kiosk and Bob accidentally paid for the gas of some French person, but luckily the French person was nice about it and handed him a wad of cash to compensate.)

Puffins in flight

Relieved of our worry that we might need to hitchhike to Reykjavik, we were able to enjoy our visit toSkaftafell National Park.  It was a raining for much of our drive today and threatened to start again anytime, so we contented ourselves with a short and easy hike to get up close to one of the tongues of the glacier.  We were rewarded with lots of wildflowers and another remote iceberg lagoon.

Our next stop was the spectacular Reynisfjara Beach, with its pebbly black sand, amazing rock formations, and abundant bird life — including a colony of puffins nestled in the rocks high above us.  The sky was full of hundreds of wheeling birds — graceful ones that glided smoothly through the air, and madly flapping puffins with their short wings and red feet.  The beach had towering basalt rock columns (perfect for climbing) and intricately shaped caves. It was also one of the most crowded places we’ve been — we’re definitely noticing the difference it makes being within day-trip distance of Reykjavik.

Lastly there was one more waterfall.  We’ve been talking about how we’ve seen so many waterfalls here, but all of them have been different.  Today’s was a tall, delicate stream falling straight down over a concave area, allowing you to walk around behind it.

By evening we’d made it to our hotel in the suburbs of Reykjavik.  It’s in kind of a weird area — sort of light industrial — and did not look particularly appealing from the outside.  But our room is surprisingly nice, with hardwood floors, ample space, a couch, refrigerator, and our own bathroom.  We made a quick trip to the nearly Noodle Station for dinner (a local chain with only one thing on the menu — Vietnamese noodle soup) and a trip to the town center on the waterfront in search of ice cream, and the evening was complete.  Tomorrow we explore Reykjavik for a few hours, then it’s off to get ourmandated Covid test en route to the airport.

Second-rate pictures of a first-rate trip

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This is the dairy department in Seydisfjorder. Icelandic yogurt is very good.

Zoe has the best phone and, with it, the best camera in the whole family.   Like everybody, she can be seen taking lots of pictures here; but don’t expect to see many of her pictures here in the In The BIg Picture blog.  Just about every one else in this family except the parents keeps all her photos to herself.

So you’re stuck with pedestrian picutres of sometimes pedestrian things that we do here.  Like go grocery shopping in real Icelandic grocery stores.

Jen drove most of the way today. She did a great job. Driving in Iceland sometimes requires nerves-of-steel passing skills.

I take lots of pictures while we’re driving because the scenery is so magnificent here.  Driving pictures are the worst, though.  They never come out like they look in real life.  They don’t on my camera, but I wonder what they would look like on Zoe’s phone.   Even when I get pictures of goats — it’s actually pretty difficult to get a picture of scenery here that doesn’t have a goat in it because goats are omnipresent in Iceland.

Today was a little driving-centric.  We broke things up by making an impromptu stop at a beach by the side of the Ring Road.  It wasn’t even mentioned in our guidebook, but we had a fine time feeling the breeze and sifting through the rocks.

We could not linger too long because we had an afternoon appointment and we wanted to check into our hotel before moving on to the big excitement of the day.  (I know!  More exciting than grocery shopping?  It’s true!  Keep reading.)

So now we get to the point of it.  We had a terrific experience at two glacial lagoons today, but not long after we arrived at the first one, the sun went away.  By the time we got on the Zodiak boat for our glacial lagoon tour, the light had flattened out to en extent that our mid-20teens camera can’t really compensate for.  Zoe took pictures, but is not willing to share for the blog.  Somewhere along the line we made a terrible mistake as parents and now our children have trouble sharing.

At least someone’s getting a good picture of this.

Some of our pictures of the glacial lagoon came out nice.  What you’re seeing is chunks of the Vatnajökull glacier that have calved off and are floating around in two lakes very close to the island’s eastern shore.  This glacier is the largest in sub-Arctic Europe — it covers more land than the state of Rhode Island, according to Vincent, our Zodiak captain.

The lagoons are deceptively deep, and the vast majority of the icebergs are beneath the water.  We are not in danger of sinking from crashing into an iceberg, though they did give us special coats to protect us from the cold water and life vests to keep us afloat.

A nice couple from Spain took this picture of us duriing our Zodiak trip.

There is a slight danger from large waves caused by a new ice berg calving off of the glacier and hitting the water.  We stay more than 200 yards from the glacier to give Vincent time to take evasive action in such an event, though he admits that calving only happens on about five percent of his tours and calving of large ice bergs is even more rare.

Sampling a bit of a 500-year-old iceberg — according to our guide, the purest water anywhere.

He does note that sometimes ice bergs turn over and, theoretically can land right on top of the boat, but he doesn’t seem too concerned about that.

Close-up of the glacier

And anyway, not to dampen the suspense or anything, we survived the ice berg lagoon cruise.  Not only did we survive, we saw two seals on an ice berg.  What do you think about that?

The last stop of the day was at Diamond Beach,  the black sand of which is a striking contrast to the small crystals of ice that wash up when the ice bergs make it out to sea.  The crystals look like diamonds.   Our camera has a nice micro zoom feature and I tried to take some close-up pictures of the ice crystals.  I don’t know if Zoe’s camera can do that.

“Diamonds” at Diamond Beach

This is our second-to-last night in Iceland.  Tomorrow is a bit of a heavy driving day, but it will drop us off in Rekyavik.  We had the pleasure of eating delicious artic char this evening for dinner (it’s like salmon).  Tomorrow we’re going to try one last time to get fish and chips.  Somehow we just keep missing out — mostly because the restaurant or food truck closes down just before we get there.  Maybe we’ll have better luck in the big city.