Golden Circle & Fridheimar Tomato Farm

 We woke up with a beautiful sunrise - still smiling from the night before!  Breakfast was great and I found that some places have a powdered chocolate you can put in your coffee - that was a win!

Another full day ahead!  We weren't sure we would even see the sun today and it was chilly out but manageable!

Today we were doing the Golden Circle which is probably one of the most favorite tours to take!

The scenary is absolutely breathtaking!  I could post pic after pic and each one seems more dramatic than the one before!!

When the sun did come out, it was usually in the clouds which made for some breathtaking pics!

This is in a National Park - lots of places to walk and our guide gave us crampons to put on as it was slick and snowy in some parts!  Lots of history here!

You can see how steep some of the walkways were that we walked on!  Thank heavens for the crampons!

Patty and I had seen most of what we were supposed to so went back to the van ( quite the hike) and our guide asked us if we had seen the waterfall?  We said no and he pointed where to go and that it wasn't too far away and we would have enough time to see it!

So we walked and climbed and then walked some more and then climbed more over snow packed rocks and trails - no waterfall - and by this time we're getting nervous because we had been gone for SO long - this picture is the point where we told each other we just had to go back!  Check out that trail we were on!

We walked as fast as we could but it was such a journey!!  We were ready to head back down the steps when I heard water!  And there at the top of the steps was a sign that we had completely missed!!!!  There must have been too many people standing in front of it and we just followed the crowd to the right.

Needless to say, we just walked a little further and sure enough there was this gorgeous waterfall!!  Dang, we walked SO FAR OUT OF THE WAY!!

We grabbed a picture of the waterfall and then started down the steps, only to meet our guide coming up to find us - yes, he was worried about us and we were actually 40 minutes late getting back to the bus - we felt SO BAD but everyone assured us it was no problem and could have happened to them too!

This picture depicts not only the beautiful mountains, but a hay field - there is really no farming except for haying and all of their bales are the large ones, wrapped in either white, green or black plastic!

Next stop was the geyser - it wasn't a huge one (especially if you've seen Old Faithful) - we were supposed to grab lunch here so Patty and I split a fish and chips (quite espensive as it's a tourist trap) - the fish was mushy but the fries were decent!!  HA!

Then we were off to Gullfoss Waterfall - it was magnificent and another one of those photos that looks like it's in black and white!

Our final stop of the day was to Fridheimar Farms - the tomato farm!!  I was really looking forward to this place as Glenn does hydroponics for his garden!  WOW on the humidity in this place - it felt wonderful!!

We had a gal from the farms give us a tour of this particular greenhouse and it was so informative!! There are 6 huge greenhouses here with a total of 27,000 plants!  They raise strictly tomatoes here but of course any vegetables have to be grown in a greenhouse as their growing season is so short!

While she was speaking, they brought a cart in and we all got a bowl of tomato soup and bread - it was excellent!!  Patty and I wished we could have actually sat down in the restaurant part of the greenhouse and enjoyed it fully but you know schedules!

After the tomato tour info, we walked over to the bar part of the restaurant and that's where this picture was taken!  The bar offered all kinds of tomato drinks - tomato coffee, tomato shakes, tomato ice cream, etc!!!  I didn't indugle but Patty had a tomato beer and one guy had a tomato coffee!

Then it was a different gal from the farm who took us out to talk about the Icelandic horses - lots of interesting info and then we went inside the stable and could pet the horses!  The gal saddled up one and did a demonstration of the 5 different ways of walking and running with the horse1

Then we were off to the Grimsborgir Hotel for the night - these rooms were in different buildings and we had a lovely room!!  Outside each building were 2 hot tubs and after we saw the robes and slippers in the closet, we decided that was a sign that we needed to go soak in those tubs!

Gosh that felt good - my steps showed 19,500 which is 7.7 miles - of course some of that was getting LOST!  We enjoyed the tubs for quite a while!

Of course neither Patty or I had paid any attention to where the restaurant was where our guide picked up all of our keys for our rooms - and by the time we were due to eat, it was snowing and blowing like crazy!!!!  We were so tired of wearing our hats and having flat hair that we didn't dress properly going out in the storm - I had my hood but Patty had wore her lighter coat - BIG MISTAKE!  We got outside and walked to every building we could see in the snow and wind and were about froze when we FINALLY found it!!  NOTE TO SELF:  PAY MORE ATTENTION!!  Getting lost twice in one day is not acceptable!!

Our evening meals are 3 course so thought I would post on this meal!  This appetier is a type of cheese with herbs and spices underneath - I enjoyed the taste but just couldn't get past the texture - it was a pudding like texture and I just couldn't wrap my head around it not being sweet!

Next was mushrooms, carrots and potato slices over a mashed squash along with beef steak from Argentina - WOW, it was amazing!!

And for dessert it was some type of a mango concoction - REALLY good!!  Unfortunately most places do not have decaff coffee and this would have been the night to have it with this dessert!

Another amazing day - it's hard to imagine there is still so much more to see!

Wonders of Snaefellsnes

 Breakfast was served at the hotel (included with most hotel stays) and of course it's quite different than American fare - meat, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, porridge, fruit - there was a lot to choose from!  I always need a little protein and luckily the hard boiled eggs peeled easily!  The fruit was surprisingly amazing!!  I'm not sure I've ever tasted such wonderful honeydew melon!  Their coffee is strong but it didn't bother me at all!

We were checking out of this hotel and meeting our actual guide and the people we would be going with this morning - one couple was Bob and Wendy (a little younger than us) from outside of NYC and a young couple, Matilda and Jonsey (?) from the UK - his name was so hard to pronouce so we just didn't ever say his name - HA!  Although we had opted for this "smaller"tour group that could have up to 16 people, we were totally shocked when it was just the 6 of us!!  WOW - talk about a private tour!! And we even had WiFi on the bus which made it really nice!

The van was great and Kiddie (our driver and tour group leader) was wonderful!  We could spread out wherever we wanted to and it sure made it easy when we had to put on extra clothes for outdoors, to have plenty of room to do it!

We were headed to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula for the day - and after I saw the names of the things we were going to see, I knew there was NO WAY I was going to try and type the names out!!  So Patty and I decided to take a picture of what we were doing during the day so we could refer to it on our phones and that worked out great!  So my first picture is the itinerary for the day!

I took SO many pictures of beautiful mountains it was ridiculous - but each set seemed better than the last!

We did stop at a "travel center" I would call it to pick up lunch that we would eat in the bus - that way we didn't waste time stopping at a restaurant along the way!  Patty and I would usually get a sub sandwich and a small bag of chips to split - worked out great!

And we did drive through a tunnel many miles under a lake to get to the other side of the mountain - very interesting!

We saw many, many sheep grazing and they are the really woolley kind with beautiful colors!  They don't have cows here, just Icelandic horses - and they're all purebred horses with the original ones coming from Norway - no other horses are allowed in the country ever!

This church was built in 1703 and the following picture is the cemetary.

What a backdrop for this church!

I loved the rock formations at this beach - so unique!

And this is the black sand beach.

You have to hike some to get to these places - some had walkways and others didn't!  To get down to the black sand beach was quite the journey - and when I turned around I saw this unique hole in the rock!

This sign was very interesting so had to take a picture of it!

And of course I had to try lifting the rocks - I could only lift the first one!

What a dramatic setting!

This waterfall or should I say waterfalls was gorgeous - the sun was not really shining in a lot of these pictures so many actually look black and white - I can just imagine the sun hitting these though!

See the walkway down?  It was VERY steep and I lost my footing once and almost couldn't catch myself - but luckily I did!!  It had been raining a little bit so it was slick!

Had to throw this sunset picture in as it was so pretty watching the sun set from the van!

We stayed at Hotel Hamer that night - out in the country - and THIS was the view from our room!

But unfortunately there was a sewer smell in the room and although the maid tried a couple of things, the smell just wouldn't go away so we had to move to another room.....

Dinner was lovely - 3 courses - and we got to know the couples much better that evening!  They're a fun lively bunch and we so enjoyed visiting with them and our guide!

We had just turned the lights off to go to bed when the phone rang - Patty answered it and sure enough, it was the front desk stating the northern lights were out!  We had all left word to be notified no matter what the time!!  I've never gotten dressed so fast in my life - if you can call it that - no socks, just untied boots and a pair of pants and a coat - that's all we put on as sometimes the lights are only there for a few minutes and we didn't want to take any chances!!

You could see the green in the sky with your eyes but when you put your camera up to the sky, that's when the beautiful green starts!

We were freezing out there but just couldn't stop snapping pictures as it was so beautiful!!

THAT is one of the reasons I came to Iceland - to see the Northern Lights!!  And it was SO SPECIAL to see them because many, many people that come, never see them!  What an awesome experience!

Reykjavik - The Capitol City

 We landed at 6:00AM Iceland time - it was quite the walk to get through customs but it didn't take long at all - we gathered our luggage and checked our itinerary which said our driver would pick us up at a particular location - we waited and waited and finally called Nordic Visitor (the company where we booked our trip) and they said our driver would be there at 7:30 - time to kill so we went and got pastries and coffee - delicious!

Soon our driver appeared and we headed out into the wind - yes, Iceland can be extremely windy at times and it wasn't bad out but it was chilly that time of the morning!  We had already made arrangements through our tour to have a driver take us straight to the Blue Lagoon to soak in the hot springs - I was worried about falling asleep in the water - HA!  No chance of that!

The Blue Lagoon is HUGE and quite the tourist attraction - it was barely open when we arrived and the sun was not quite up yet!  And it's quite a walk to just get in there from the parking lot!  This first picture was taken on the way out and shows the walkway.

And this picture was taken on the way in as we were freezing in the wind and trying to use our cameras to capture the beauty!

We had our swimsuits in our backpacks and after changing, headed out into the lagoon!  It was pretty breezy out but we found a spot where the wind didn't hit too bad!  More and more people arrived as it got later and the water felt fantastic!

You get a free drink with your pass to get in - we both opted for apple cider!  It was refreshing and delicious!

The sun finally peeked over the mountain of volcanic rock and it was beautiful - check out the waves due to the wind!

We stayed about 1 1/2 hours and decided that was enough - the walk back back to the guide waiting with the van was darn cold!!

Then we headed into Reykjavik - I was SO surprised to see so many mountains - I should have realized with their glaciers, volcanos and such that of course there would be mountains but it just didn't register till we got there!  This is a view out of the van!  And yes, many days it looked like Colorado!

Our first night we were staying at The Skuggi Hotel - only about 3 blocks from the sea.  But the room wasn't ready yet so they stored our luggage and we asked about a place to eat lunch - just a block away it was and a cute coffee place where we got bagels with ham and egg and cheese!

After checking into our room, we bundled up and headed up to the church - it was an uphill climb to get there and it was still windy - we decided after the church, we needed more clothes on!

This is a Lutheran Church called Hallgrimskirkja - completed in 1986 and absolutely stunning!

The inside is gorgeous!

Check out the pipes for the organ!  It has 5275 pipes!!  WOW!!

For a small fee, you can take an elevator up to the bell tower - there are windows around the room with beautiful views!  The bell rings every 15 minutes and of course we were up there when it rang - very, very loud!!

After stopping back at the hotel to get more clothes on, we walked down to the seafront to see the Sun Voyager Sculpture!

Lots of walking that day as the we walked more uptown and went to the Phallic Museum - yup, you heard right!  It's definitely one of a kind museum but very interesting!  Afterwards we ordered waffles from their cafe - mine were strawberry, nutella, caramalized pecans, all covered in powdered sugar and an entire bowl of whip cream and syrup if you want it - WOW - it was amazing!  And for those looking closely wondering what the shape represents, yes, you are correct!  HA Ha!

It was dark enough outside when we were finished with the museum that we KNEW we had to walk back to the church to take a picture at night since it was bathed in pink!  So beautiful!!  They do have other colors that it can change to also!

We were definitely ready for bed that night, after being up all day with little sleep the night before on the plane!

Iceland Bound

 The day had FINALLY arrived!!  After planning for many months and purchasing the right clothes to wear in Iceland, it was time to head to Denver to pick up Patty from the airport! She was coming in a day early just in case of bad weather!!  Glenn left the same morning as I did as he was heading west to hunt with son Neal and his friend Brady!

Pickup at the airport was a breeze after I found the cell phone parking lot - it's sure a far cry from the Colorado Springs cell phone lot - there it's just what it says, a place to park your car and wait!  In Denver, it's a huge parking lot along with places to eat inside and a gas station!  I didn't have to wait long before Patty texted that she was outside waiting and I headed over to get her!

We headed to Jessi's place and unloaded what we needed for the night!  It was an early dinner as we were all headed to watch Kenzie's volleyball games!  Gary had an excellent soup he had made in the crockpot!

Kenzie played most of the time in the JV game but unfortunately they lost!!  Then she suited up for varsity and what an exciting game - they won!  Kenzie was happy to come out and let us take pictures!!

Gotta love those 3 clashing colors - HA!

And here's the whole gang!!

Then it was back to Jessi's to hit the sack!  Everybody headed out to work and school the next morning - and then Patty and I headed to a hotel that I had booked earlier - I was leaving the car parked there while we were in Iceland and we were staying there when we arrived back home!  After getting all that situated, we took the shuttle to the airport, got checked in and rid of our big suitcases and then headed through security!  All was good to go!

I needed a Caribou Coffee since I rarely get one of those anymore and it tasted delicious!

And before we knew it, it was time to get on the plane and head to Iceland!  We had booked a window seat and an aisle seat with the hopes that no one would sit in the middle - and we lucked out - it's always nice to have that extra seat empty beside you!!

The flight was 7 hours and 20 minutes - and the time difference from Denver was 6 hours with Iceland being ahead 6 hours - did I sleep????  Not very much - but enough that I was excited to be there and make it through the day!