Here we go again

 Next adventure.. Churchill Manitoba. Stay tuned...

 Gaspesie trip round 2

Catherine's flight is delayed by 6 hours.  10 hours at the airport, 10,000 steps, 1 piece of crappy pizza for $10 and our next adventure has begun.

One of these things is not like the other

One of these pictures was  taken at the modern art exhibit in Stockholm.

Oslo

Pulpit Rock

A tough climb in the rain.

no boots

I didn't bring my boots!
it is the highest train station in Europe.

Oslo Art Gallery

We went to a contemporary art gallery today.   This piece is 16 old CD players attached to a ball of speakers.  Its a good use of old technology.

Norway 2017

NORWAY

Another year another attempt at blogging a trip.  This time it's Norway & Stockholm.  And we have a new freeloader.  Here she is, getting ready for our hike to Pulpit Rock:

And here is our plan.  This time we will be on trains, planes and boats.

Plane to Oslo
Train to Myrdal
Train to Flam
Boat to Balestrand
Boat to Bergen
Bus to Stavanger
Plane to Oslo (lose our freeloader here)
Train to Stockholm
Plane home

Toronto marathon

Watching the Toronto marathon.  Can't see a damn thing through the barriers.

Corrupt media probably put them up.

Car rental

We arrived at keflavik airport and were greeted by a cheerful young man delivering our car to us.  There are no rental booths like at other airports.  They just bring you the car.  Going over our agreement he says

1.  You are not covered for gravel.  Damage from gravel.  We say...ok.
2. You are not covered for damage to the undercarriage.  um. ..ok
3.  You are not covered for wind.  WIND?  Yes, like if the wind blows a door off.  Ha ha, we laugh.  Ok. 

As he hands over the keys I ask...is there anything else we should know.  Yes, he says, there may be sheep.  He said this with a smile.

There were sheep!  Everywhere.  Not contained in fenced in areas.  Sheep on the road, sheep on the mountains, sheep everywhere!

As for the wind...it almost happened.  It's hard to tell how windy it is because there aren't any trees. 

Wild life

On safari in Iceland we had some sightings of the wildlife.

Signs

It seems that Icelandic people have a good sense of humour.  We saw all kinds of signs warning us of things we should not do.  Such as, do not use the side of the highway as a toilet.  Here are a few of the signs we saw.

And this one is in the airport building:

Heat wave

It was ridiculously hot here all week.  We were sweltering and overdressed.  Sunburn was a big problem. I have never had such a burn. 

http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2016/06/23/temperature_records_for_june_in_iceland/

Bathrooms

Three women travelling together spend an inordinate amount of time searching for bathrooms.  In general, bathrooms were very clean in iceland.  They often charge 100 to 200 kr which translates to 1 or 2 dollars so if we paid to get into a museum and used the bathroom for free we felt like we had gotten our money's worth.

Now...the free outdoor bathrooms, on the other hand, were the most disgusting we had ever seen.  First prize goes to the port o lets at Diettofoss waterfalls.  Second prize goes to the toilets at the caves. 
I wouldn't want to be there in august after another million  visitors traipse through.

Volcano

Just went to the center of the earth.

Crater

Climbed a staircase to see a crater. Steph is that speck way down at the bottom. 

Caves

We went into a cave created by lava tubes.  It was a climb down a spiral staircase into darkness.

Sauðárkrókur to Grundarfjörður

Our plan was to see seals at a seal breeding colony, visit the farm where the murders in the book Burial Rites took place and then to drive down to the Snæfellnes peninsula.  We missed the turn off for the seal colony but instead went to Hvammstangi, the seal centre of Iceland.  We stopped in a small coffee shop where we were told the seal breeding colony is on the other side of the peninsula.  We knew that.  Then we asked about the farm.  The man serving the coffee was the GREAT GRANDSON of the man who dug up the bodies of Agnes and the other executed person and dragged them by horse to the farm at Illugastaðir to rebury them at a church!  We felt like we had met Agnes and so skipped the extra hour of driving up to the farm.

This was a long driving day so we decided to take a short cut.  We veered off the Ring Road and ventured on side roads.  We then drove 120km on gravel roads in the middle of nowhere to get to Stykkish, a small town on the Snæfellnes peninsula where the ferry leaves for the West Fjords.  Here is a picture of us at the windy lookout:

Husavik to Sauðárkrókur

Another sweltering day in Iceland.  20c and sunny.  We stopped at godafoss, the waterfall of the gods.  Then on to the big city of the North, Akeyuri, where we had lunch and a walk.  Back on the road we drove over a mountain range, through farmland and ended up here in some unpronounceable town.  Just before getting here we stopped at a turf house that was lived in until 1947.

Husavik day 2 continued

So, the 6 km hike only took us until noon so we had to continue our adventures with a little drive up north to a small museum. It was a lovely old house from 1930 on a family farm.  We had a chance to talk to a local and learned quite a lot from her.  The children are bused to school until age 16 and then they go to boarding school for high school. 

She highly recommended whale watching so...