Kids go to Iceland - LIVE! Northern Lights!

[merry]

J&S off to Iceland again tomorrow morning, leaving No. 1 around 3 am, landing in Reykjavik at 9.45 I think ( I must get the flight number so I can track the plane.... I love to torture myself like that

Mainly for OC's interest, this is their schedule, as 'written' by Jay

Thurs - arrive around lunchtime (to R). Lunch at [redacted rude word] Museum. ([redacted] waffles!). do the R shops. Possibly try the normal public bus system to go to a nice park about 20min from R on the bus. (An adventure!). Go up the tower. Supper and night at Exeter hotel.

Fri - early transfer to Eldhestar. Ride in the morn (and maybe the afternoon if can afford!!). after riding walk down to the local village (where the MNers say is a good GRoCERY SHOP!!) - it's a 30min walk. Supper and night at Eldhestar.

Sat - ride in the morning. Taken back to R lunchtime - check into The Grand. Do the tower/park if not got round to on Thursday. We have a pretty 'free afternoon' which is nice. A lot of our possible schedules involved crazy rushing from one activity to the next - so much so, we felt it was starting to get more 'stressful' than enjoyable (trying to fit too much in!) - quite aside from the cost mounting up. As our afternoon will be leisurely, we may check out the Fish Restaurant tonight. (Apparently you have to get there to start queuing at 5:30!) Night at the Grand.

Sun - leisurely breakfast at Grand !! Picked up at 10 for our ATV adventure trip (which is near the Blue Lagoon). Be dropped back off at BL around lunchtime - we will then go into the BL for a couple of hours. Bus back to R - a drink in the bar and supper at the Grand. Northern Lights tour at 9pm.

Mon (ver tired after little sleep!) - early back to airport

[OurCreature]

Thank you Juliet and Merry! I know which museum you are referring to, N&J visited it IIRC - it's been around for quite some time. I think the old Board has a pic of Sam about to devour his waffle.

I assume the tower is at the church Hallgrimskirkja. Don't go up there until after the clock has struck the hour unless you enjoy being deafened.

There is a quite expensive seafood restaurant in Lækjargata in the centre of R which N/J treated me to for one of our dinners. Its speciality is lobsters, but they were not on the menu in 2019 as the lobsters weren´t doing so well. We had the special menu where they serve the dish with a glass of the appropriate wine, and it was damn good. During the dinner old showoff OC enquired if the restaurant previously had rejoiced under the name of Torfan - and it had!

[merry]

showoff OC enquired if the restaurant previously had rejoiced under the name of Torfan - and it had!

Kids coming in to land right now!

[merry]

The kids are having an amazing time, really living their best life!

They went to a fish restaurant last night, Sea Baron, do you know it, OC? Sam had TWO bowls of lobster soup (that's me green with envy)

Also they have had a lot of fun riding electric scooters... not sure how this works.. in Bristol I think you just hire them off the streets?


Some holiday pics - look at that waterfall!

The waffle was a make your own waffle at the Exeter Hotel

The hot tub is OUTSIDE at Eldhestar - they had it to themselves this time

I don't know why Juliet is standing underneath a pig lol

[merry]

Ah yes I see about the electric scooters now. You do it all via an app - find bikes on the street, scan a QR code, ride off on pavements and special lanes, leave the bike anywhere you like and the app charges you for the length of your ride.

Reykjavik electric scooters

[Furby]

The pig is very pink so I would guess that was why.

What are those tea card things have they left them all messy on the table or is that part of the tables design.

E scooters are only legal in some trial areas in UK at the moment. I could go to parts of Rochdale or Salford but I lost interest in having a try when it was all the app the app. I don't think you are allowed on pavements in UK so that would make it safer for the rider at least if not for pedestrians.

[OurCreature]

The pig is the emblem of an Icelandic chain of food supermarkets called Bónus; it's their equivalent of Aldi or Lidl. Hence the supermarket trolley on the left of the pic.

I see they went up the Hallgrimskirkja tower. You can see the back of the statue of Leifur Eiríksson and across the road from it on the right is the Hotel Leifur Eiríksson; the terminal at Keflavík is called Leifur Eiríkssonar. The long street going away from the statue used to have a small handicrafts shop set back from the street in which I bought some pullovers and pottery on a few occasions. The late Magnús Magnússon (really Sigursteinnson) was born in a house on the left hand side of the street IIRC. There is/was a school to the right of the pic, which I think my friend Halli attended.

[merry]

Ah - Bonus! yes, she had a very happy time in there yesterday! Thanks for this OC - she will enjoy reading it!

Here's a pic of her IN Bonus plus the app's map of their scooter ride yesterday, and the view from the Grand this morning

[OurCreature]

The view from the Grand shows in the distance a flat-topped mountain called Esja with the top mainly hidden by clouds. It's a popular walking area. Over on the right you can see the top of the Laugadalur stadium with its floodlights and in the background 3 blocks of flats. To the left of those flats is an old people's home called Hrafnista where old Oddur and his wife Fru Kristin lived at the end of their lives.

I have been in the Laugadalur stadium only once in 1974 (during their 1100th anniversary of the first settlement celebrations) to watch an open-air chess match between Icelandic grandmaster Friðrik Ólafsson (who later became president (1978-1982) of FIDE the world chess federation) and a somewhat weaker player so that the game would have the right result ie win for Iceland. They had the chaps sitting at a table, and then the move was announced so that the person dressed as the relevant piece could move to the correct square on a big chessboard they had laid out on the football field. If a piece took another piece the doomed piece was lightly tapped on the shoulder by a wooden stick held by the taking piece; the taken piece then sloped off to sit with its friends near the chess players. Every time Friðrik took a piece there were loud cheers from the crowd (the stadium was packed for this game) with grumbles for a minor success by the opponent. Needless to say, Friðrik won!

At his peak Friðrik was ranked 19 in the world at chess. He is still alive, now aged 87 and coming up to 88 in January 2023.

Since 1974 the stadium has been considerably refurbished - almost rebuilt from the look of the outside on Google Maps.

That scooter receipt looks expensive - around £2 a kilometre! Looks like they went past where my bank was when I opened my accounts with Oddur's help. I wonder if they noticed the Höfði where Reagan had his summit with Gorbachev.

[TRavine]

Oh that looks and sounds amazing!!! What a wonderful trip they must have!
Makes me want to go there!!!!

[merry]

They went before in Spring and loved it so much they wanted desperately to go back! As for OC he is practically Icelandic

Tonight is their last night and they have a Northern Lights tour booked - they would have liked to have booked last night too, to hedge their bets, but it was fully booked, so it's a one-shot chance.

I looked up a Northern Lights live forecast earlier and it was very low I didn't say anything as didn't want to cloud them with pessimism ahead of time, but the best news is there is already something visible in the sky!

Juliet muffined up - they will be out for hours

This is the view in Reykjavik from a few moments ago - where they are waiting for the tour guide - WOW!

[merry]

Wow it just gets better and better!

BTW our lovely member who lives in Shetland, Babs, who is often treated to a view of this amazing phenomenon, calls these the Mirrie Dancers - which I think is just so beautiful!

[merry]

Hey this gets better.

Apparently there is 'unprecedented solar activity tonight' heralded by the unexpected views even in Reykjavik centre, and there is hope that the people out NL tracking tonight might be in the top 5% of 'best views you can ever hope for'.

I'm really pleased for them! what a last night, eh!

[OurCreature]

I am very jealous - in more than 50 years of travelling to Iceland, quite often in winter, I have NEVER seen the Northern Lights.

The vertical blue beam of light is from the Imagine Peace Tower, a work of art conceived by Yoko Ono. The source of the light is on a small island called Viðey just off Reykjavík. It was inaugurated in a private ceremony in 2007 on what would have been John Lennon´s 67th birthday.

The flagpoles in the pics are opposite what used to be the main entrance to the Grand Hotel before they added the tower and the atrium.

Do I see the Grand Hotel breakfast room behind Juliet in her cold weather gear?

[merry]

Thanks again for your interesting bits and pieces, OC! Juliet will enjoy reading these when she gets back. I will ask her about the breakfast room!

They are on the way to the airport now but sunk in gloom - a) it's the end of the holiday b) the woman sitting behind them on the bus has a terrible cold 'probably flu' and is coughing constantly they are wearing their Beaks but still...!

The night ended fabulously with a wonderful show of those Mirrie Dancers and they were on top of the world. I do hope you get to see them one day, OC! They have been very lucky!

[eccles]

What a display! Maybe they should take OC next time?

[Furby]

It is typical isn't it oc going for 50 years and then they see the lights on their second time.

It was helpful of oc to tell us about the blue light because I saw it and thought what is that and if I had asked merry she would be saying how should she know etc but oc already explained it.

Are they going to self isolate on return until it's seen if the beaks protected them. One of the good things of covid was that it because less socially acceptable to be coughing and spluttering in public places but now covid is over according to our governments we seem to back to bad old ways. Was the coughing woman wearing a mask it's the least sick people should do isn't it if they really need to get buses home.

[merry]

I know, OC has been unlucky :( maybe a good reason to book another trip, OC?

I hadn't noticed the blue light till OC and Furby mentioned it - very interesting and rather lovely!

Kids landed 5 mins ago. They won't be self-isolating I guess! Coughing Lady was masked as it happens, but kept pulling down her mask to mop her nose

[Panikos]

I'm glad they got to see the lights. it looks pretty impressive!

[merry]

Juliet and Sam loved reading your posts, OC dear

This was her reply:

1) the Bell - smugly telling S about OC's tip for the 'waiting for the hour', we looked round the church - having arrived at 1:50 - and waited for the 2:00 bell to pass. it didnt when it got to beyond 5 past i said 'it must not be working today' and up we went. ...only to be deafened by the 2:15 bell!! (no idea what went on there!)

2) we both laughed at the story of the chess match with people dressed up as chess pieces!

3) ahhhh thank him for explaining about the blue column of light. we saw it last trip too (on our - that time fruitless - NL searches) and we were trying to work out what it could be for.

4) yes, that was the breakfast room behind the muffin layers