Home sweet home

After a non-eventful travel day, we landed on time at RDU on Sunday evening. The perk of a flight later in the day is you can just go to bed when you get home! I got home at about 12:30am body time… but was still pretty wired. I unpacked, started laundry, and took a shower before crawling into bed around 1:30am Iceland time. Despite thinking I was wide awake, I think I was asleep within a couple of minutes! I slept nine hours and woke up feeling good. It took a couple more days for me to feel back to “normal” time-wise, but thankfully the calendar this week has allowed for a slow re-entry before moving on to the next thing!

A few pictures…

Here we are in the Keflavik airport. This was by far the worst meal of the trip. I didn’t even eat all of mine. 

Remember how I told you the IcelandAir safety video stresses relaxation and nature over the safety itself? I took a few pics of the screens to show you. Pay attention - the white lines are what you’re actually supposed to be focusing on!

Ready for takeoff on our last flight:

Waiting for our luggage at RDU!

I’ve been trying to write this blog in my head this week. I don’t have anything super earth-shattering to say to wrap up the trip, but you know I’m never short on thoughts, so here goes.

European Adventure by the numbers: 

3 new countries

4 passport stamps

6 new Christmas ornaments (that’s my souvenir of choice when I travel!)

1,873 trip photos on my phone (they haven’t been culled yet)

221,949 steps

94.55 miles walked

333 flights ascended

My highlights…

Iceland (leg 1):

Food tour in Reykjavik - great intro to Icelandic food

Walking around the city - I especially enjoyed our 2 mile walk to Perlan Museum and getting to see so much of the city

London: 

St. Paul’s Cathedral - especially the view from the top

Driving over the Tower Bridge in our double decker bus

London Eye - fabulous view of the city!

Churchill War Rooms - I’m not a history buff and yet that was fascinating

Spring flowers everywhere!

Paris:

Sainte-Chapelle - THOSE WINDOWS

Watching the crepe guy make a crepe! - Nutella banana was a birthday treat!

Spring flowers everywhere!

Iceland (take two): 

Gullfoss Waterfall - and the short hike down to it

Puffins! - still so funny that they all started arriving at 6pm like they had an appointment

Geothermal bakery tour - still blows my mind that they can bake bread in the ground

Seljalandsfoss Waterfall - walking around and behind, getting soaked, living in the moment

Seeing a rainbow on our last night!

Several folks have asked for my overall favorite. While I enjoyed every bit of it, I think I’d have to say London and Paris. Iceland was wonderful - don’t get me wrong - but I think I’ve come to realize that I enjoy civilization. The last leg of the trip - our second “layover” in Iceland - we were in the middle of nowhere. When we first arrived, I wondered where we would eat meals, and I was curious about where we’d go to get something (medical care included) should we need it. The hustle and bustle of London and Paris, while I wouldn’t want to live that way all the time, was a joy! I do love a lazy day at home, but I’m also a make-a-plan-and-keep-on-moving kind of girl. Those cities had endless opportunity for fun and experiences!

I was texting with my cousin a couple of days before the trip ended and mentioned I had reached the point when I was ready to be home. She said, “Isn’t it lovely to enjoy traveling and also enjoy going home to a place you love?” Indeed, it’s a gift, isn’t it? I told a friend yesterday that it almost feels like a dream. I have to remind myself that it all really happened. In some ways, it was a whirlwind. I know those places and people will be sinking into my being for a long time! I loved it ALL. That said, I have really enjoyed being home this week - with my own bed, my own shower, and my still-new-to-me sunroom! I’ve spent time gardening outside (my raised bed has been planted, irrigation has been installed, now bring on the veggies!), catching up with friends, and resting. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this was the trip of a lifetime. I’m so grateful to UPC for the gift of a sabbatical… and I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to travel, for friends to share it with, and for friends who wanted to follow along on the journey from afar! Thanks for reading!

Until next time… I hope you find ways to make every day a banner day. :)

Day 17 - April 26 - Soak and Eat Bread Day

All week long we’ve been calling this day “Soak and Eat Bread Day.” You’ll soon see why….

We started the morning with our usual amazing breakfast buffet from the hotel.

We left around 11:15 to head out on our adventure for the day. We went to Fontana Laugarvatn for several hours. When we first started planning this trip, we thought we might go to the famous Blue Lagoon on our way back to the airport on Sunday (meaning tomorrow), but when we did the math on timing, we didn’t want to be rushed and wanted instead to be able to lounge around without paying attention to the clock. So we decided to go to Fontana today instead, and it was the perfect solution.

Reason #1 why this was great was because this place also offers a geothermal bakery tour! As we got closer to today, this was one of the things for which I was most excited. Icelandic rye bread is a tradition and a real treat. We’d had it a few times during our time here but had never seen them bake it! We gathered in the lobby at Fontana with our tour group and guide, and then we immediately headed outside. When we got out there, right next to the lake, we could see a hole with bubbling water in it. A hot spring! Our guide had in his hand a stainless steel pot that had been wrapped in plastic wrap and prepared for baking!

It takes 24 hours for a loaf of bread to bake in the ground. Essentially, the loaf that had been buried yesterday morning was what we would get to eat today. The pot our guide buried today will be ready tomorrow morning, and so forth. He told us they have a marking system for keeping track of which pot was buried where and when. So first he started digging until he got deep enough where he knew he’d hit the pot. Then he brought it out of the ground and set it aside. He placed the “new” pot in there and covered it with sand and marked it. The guide then put the pot that he just unearthed into the lake to rinse it off. We moved to another area to a table where he began to unwrap it. He tried to trick us at first and make it look like the process didn’t “work,” as there’s never any guarantee what the temperature of the ground might be. But of course - it worked! We headed inside to try it.

He told us this bread didn’t have as much of a dome as it sometimes does. That could be because it was too hot when it went into the ground, and it caused it to fall. They had a spread for us there with Icelandic butter (so good) and smoked trout. He cut the bread into slices and suggested we butter it and have a slice of trout on top. It was so yummy! There was enough for seconds, so I had an additional piece of bread with just butter because he said while the trout is very tasty, it can mask the taste of the bread alone.

Once the tour was over, we went to the car and grabbed our bags with our swimsuits and towels. Next up: geothermal pools! In Iceland you have to shower naked in communal showers before going in these pools. We abided by the rules and headed out. I didn’t get pictures of all of the pools and views from them, but I did get most of them. There was also a sauna and a steam room on site. With the lake right there, going for a (very!) cool dip before getting into one of the warm/hot pools is an option. I decided when in Iceland… but wow, was it cold! 

Then we were lazy and just floated around and chatted until our skin was beyond pruny. Drinks made it feel even more festive.

It rained off and on while we were there, but it mostly didn’t matter, because we were already wet! A couple of times it rained harder and was a bit more unpleasant, but I figured out that it was raining at a diagonal, so if we put our back to it and got in the water up to our neck, we mostly didn’t notice. :) The view, the company, the relaxation… soaking and eating bread was a perfect last day!

There was a couple there from Nashville, NC. One of them will actually be on our flight back tomorrow. We were comparing notes on the things we’d seen and done, many of which were the same, including the hotel where we stayed in Reykjavik! They told us about an ice cream shop not far from the geothermal pools (and it happened to be on the way back to our hotel). We hadn’t had lunch, so ice cream was a good filler to tide us over to dinner. 

The ice cream shop is on a dairy farm, and you look at the cows while you eat your ice cream! Here’s the general look of the place…

And here was our view while we ate…

It was REALLY good ice cream! Between the three of us, we tried mango, chocolate, vanilla, blueberry skyr, and cinnamon.

Then we headed back to the hotel for a couple of hours for some downtime and packing time before we needed to leave for our dinner reservation.

On the way to dinner, the weather was swinging back and forth, as it has done this whole trip in Iceland. It changes in a hot second! On the way to dinner it was raining, and then the sun broken through. Ken mentioned that we should be looking for a rainbow, and then sure enough…

How about that for the last night of an incredible trip??

Dinner was at Lindin Restaurant in Laugarvatn, actually right by the geothermal pools where we were earlier. So we knew the drive well - a straight shot down the road from where we are staying, about 25 minutes.

It was really good! Not the best meal of the trip, but likely the nicest. I’m not sure what the absolute best was… we ate so many different things! Tonight’s dinner for me was a steak duo (beef and lamb) and Icelandic Skyr mousse. 

We had a great view at dinner, actually the same view we had earlier in the day in the geothermal pools. But tonight we learned from the owner/chef of the restaurant that we were looking at Hekla Volcano, Iceland’s most active volcano. He said it erupts about every 30 years and it’s been 25 so far…

In the photo below, you can see it just at the horizon - mountain covered in snow/ice/clouds.

I told Ken and Pauline that I don’t know how they’re feeling, but when I hear about these volcanos getting ready to erupt, I’m glad we’re headed back to the Triangle tomorrow!

On the way past the front desk tonight, we put in our request for Northern Lights wake up calls again. The guy said it’s close to a zero likelihood due to the clouds and the time of year. We’re so glad we got to see them earlier this week - and like Ken said, it’ll be a win-win tonight. We either get a good night’s sleep, or we get to see the Northern Lights again!

It was another banner day indeed. Tomorrow we travel back home. I’ll do one last post at some point this week to wrap up the trip, but for now, I can say I’m filled with gratitude. It has absolutely been the trip of a lifetime!

You can still check out Ken’s thoughts over at worshamsgotoiceland.blogspot.com