"Homeless" and Europe Bound
A Brand New Chapter
August 28 to September 1, 2015The big move and Iceland Bound
Warning, this blog post contains absolutely no cycling content and is only a preamble of what's to come. We're on a 2 1/2 month trip. We start in Iceland were we rent a car for three days, then hop on a plane to Zurich, Switzerland, assemble the bikes, ride to Donaueschingen, Germany and head down the Danube along the Eurovelo 6 Route aka Danube Bike Path. Total cycling in the end will be about 3400km's. The trip will take us through Iceland, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Maybe Bulgaria, and finally Romania. If there is time and money left we might fly to Istanbul, Turkey before heading home to Canada.
The last few days before our big departure were taxing to say the least. OK, let's be honest, Patti and I were ready to bite each others' heads off as the stress mounted. The house had to be completely packed, cleaned and vacated lest the landlady be miffed.
Everything actually went quite well, thanks in great part to our three garage sales, which generated enough revenue to keep us supplied with inner tubes and spare spokes for the entire trip.
All our worldly possessions are being loaded and put into storage. When we return we'll be moving into a small cottage, with wood stove heat only, somewhere near Courtenay, BC while we try to find a more permanent place.
The night before the flight I smugly patted myself on the back for a job well done in getting everything done on time and in an orderly fashion. I went to fetch my wallet and came up empty. Every single pannier and bag was emptied onto the ground in a frenzied attempt to locate the missing item. No luck!
The next morning I managed to cajole/coax and convince the U-Pak people to let us into our storage box. What was supposed to be a $60 cab ride to the airport ended up costing closer to $125 as our driver dutifully drove us to the storage unit, waited for us while I frantically scoured the "last minute" boxes, rejoiced with us when I found the wallet and finally dropped us off at the airport with plenty of time to spare.
Celebrating with Iceland Brand water at YYJ. We had kept the bottles in the fridge at home for just this occasion.
First we flew with WestJet to Edmonton and paid the relatively reasonable $75 oversize baggage fee for the bikes ...ahem! plus the $25 for having more than one piece of luggage. Still a better deal than the $116US Iceland Air would have charged us.
At least we know Patti's bags made it as far as Edmonton
I'm a big fan of what I call "Chinese Luggage". Those are the checkered bags on the cart and which can be had for a few dollars in pretty much any Chinatown. A great way to combine multiple panniers into "one piece of luggage".
The transfer to Iceland Air was quite painless and soon we were flying in perpetual dusk over the Arctic and landed in Keflavik, complete with all our luggage and bikes.
View from the plane as we approached Keflavik. It turned out the be the famous Blue Lagoon
It was now 7:00am Iceland time and neither one of us was what one would call properly rested. But things needed to be done and rental cars needed to be picked up. After hearing the North American woman next to me angrily and bitterly complaining about charges for damage to her returned vehicle I decided to photograph every minor ding and scratch on our vehicle before signing away our lives. The young man, barely out of his teens, appreciatively nodded and proclaimed it to be a good idea to take pictures beforehand.
Rugged coastline with abandoned homestead.
We seriously needed some rest and had lots of time to make it to Reykjavik where our gracious Warm Showers hosts had agreed to put us up for the night. So we found a quiet spot to park the car and have a nap ...not very hard to do in a sparsely populated country like Iceland.
Crazy Icelandic golfers braving the wind and cold while we warmly snoozed in our car
Patti having a snooze
Soon after landing ...and a quick snooze we headed for the Blue Lagoon which happened to be conveniently close to the airport. It's massively expensive but then jetlagged minds and bodies need to pamper themselves.
Falling asleep at the Blue Lagoon
On we went to Reykjavik to meet up with our hosts. Reykjavik is our first Nordic city and we instantly both like it. I has a very unique character, albeit a bit touristy in the downtown area. Clean, modern and vintage all rolled into one. We were treated to beautifully tender dinner of Icelandic lamb and had our first Warm Showers experience of the trip. What a great way to start with the warm hospitality of our hosts.
Mural art in Reykjavik
My Reykjavik Angel
Local Fun Guy
Iceland leaves you breathless. There are very few people, silence is easy to find and there are stupendous natural wonders to be found everywhere. Of course there are no trees since apparently the Vikings pretty much got rid of them over time. So squatting behind a tree for a peepee is out of the question. One has no choice but to pay 200 Kronur ($2CDN) to use the loo.
Not to worry, they accept Visa and Mastercard
On we went to camp at Geysir, the real faithful which erupts every 5 to 8 minutes. It was a veritable smorgasbord of nationalities waiting for the "oh my gosh" eruptions, including Tibetan monks in full monk garb with expensive camera equipment. Talk about a bit of a cognitive dissonance!
No day is complete without some artsy stuff
Thar she blows
Please don't throw your Kronur, Euros, Dollars and Yuan into the geysir. I suppose Hungarian Forint would be OK.
After a damp night of camping we packed up, picked up a $4 coffee at the tourist restaurant and roared off for some more sights and $2 pee breaks. Our next destination was Gullfoss (Golden Falls). A thundering miracle of nature which was apparently slated for hydroelectric development but saved by a plucky woman who threatened to throw herself into the falls in order to save them. Anyway, the land owners refused to sell out and the falls were saved.
The two yet to be bikers at Gullfoss
My little Babushka braving the Gullfoss mist
Gullfoss
It's now time to return to Keflavik where we spent the night for our early morning flight. For $116 we got a little cabin with three beds and we had to supply our own sleeping bags. It's apparently fairly common in Iceland.
On the way back we actually encountered some trees, many sheep, the most amazing horses, spooky lava fields and very few humans. I absolutely love this country and I'd be happy to hold my bathroom visits just to be able to come back once more. Oh yes, and it really helped that everyone we met spoke English.
Country Roads Take Me Home
A Sheep Shot
Iceland has the absolutely coolest ponies
And the friskiest
Soon we were headed through a moonscape of lava fields and went right past the Blue Lagoon again. I decided to go in once more to see if anyone had turned in my expensive travel towel, which I had left behind in a jet lagged stupor. It was gone for good.
Lava fields everywhere
Geothermal power and heating is used throughout basically all of Iceland. My understanding is that homes are heated that way, and you can see steam rising everywhere and pipes leading all over the place.
I had returned the rental car the evening before our flight in case there were issues to be resolved. The young fellow took a quick look at the vehicle and deemed it satisfactory. I'm sure there was a note in my file saying "don't mess with this tough chick, she photographed the entire car before driving off".
A bright light was shining into our room so we hung the remaining travel towel over the window to block the glare ...hehe, I'm sure you know what's coming :-)
Keflavik airport was a big mess under construction and probably one of the worst airports I've been in so far. A massive lineup greeted us 2 1/2 hours before our flight. Three agents were checking in the tiny lineup of the "upper class" travellers while one clerk was taking care of the massive lineup of us "cattle class" passengers. But we finally made it with one hour to spare. So not an issue in the end, just very annoying and stressful first thing in the morning. Also, always make sure you have receipts. They were going to charge us again for the bikes but waived the charge when I pulled out our receipts and explained that we had simply taken advantage of Iceland Air's wonderful offer of a free layover on any of their flights via Keflavik.
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