Iceland

Our last stop was Iceland.  We flew through there on our way out and planned to spend a few days on our way home.  Seemed silly to go through the country twice and not stay for at least a little while.

I rather liked Iceland.  Being October, we were prepared for it to be colder but it wasn't bad at all.  It really is a pretty country.  Not very many trees but an interesting landscape.

The country wouldn't exist except for it's geothermal system.  Almost all of it's power comes from that.  They actually have power plants that have to cool the water before it can be piped through homes and buildings for heating. 

They also have an extensive amount of acreage under green houses to grow their crops.  The younger generation is moving off the farms and into the cities (ie. mostly Reykjavik) which is leaving the old to the farms.  They now have immigrant workers that come for the farming season and then leave.  We picked up a young woman from France who was hitch-hiking and on an exchange internship.  She had spent 1 month on a farm in the northern part of the country and was moving to another month stint in Vik on the southern side.

Strokkur

Gullfoss

We drove their Golden Circle tour which includes a geothermal field.  They have the Strokkur geyser which is their equivalent to our Old Faithful.  It isn't as high but goes off much more frequently, every 10-15 minutes.  The tour also includes Gullfoss waterfall which "in wildness and fury, outdoes Niagara Falls".




Hallgrimskirkja

Toured Reykjavik one day which included the Hallgrimskirkja church.  You can go up in the tower for views of the city.  It is 8 stories in the elevator and then another by stairs.


Sun Voyager

We also walked the beach and the Sun Voyager sculpture is a popular one for photographers to light at night and then photograph.

Hofdi House

We also passed Hofdi House which is the house that Reagan and Gorbachev met in during 1986.  Their meeting here effectively ended the Cold War and changed Europe.  It also put Iceland in the international spotlight and the country has grown dramatically since then.

We met an American group of photographers in a restaurant that recommended a location they had just been to the day before.  The next day we followed their recommendation and drove 4 1/2 hours one way along the southern coast out to the southeast section to Glacier Lagoon (Jokulsarlon). 


It was worth the long drive.  The largest ice field in Iceland (Hvannadalshnukur, try saying that even once) calves into Glacier Lagoon.  That lagoon connects with the ocean.  The icebergs melt and get washed by the tide out to sea.  Then the tide and wave action leaves most of them on a black, lava sand beach.  It is quite a sight to see these huge chunks of ice on a black beach.  They melt in some pretty cool shapes.

We really enjoyed Iceland and I wouldn't mind going back to catch some of the parts we missed.  We then headed home.  It was a terrific trip with lots and lots of special memories.

Stewkley, England

We left London and went north a little to Stewkley, to spend a week with our friends from NY.  Joyce and Walter are from England and now spend part of the year there.  We had a taste of village life in England and it was a very enjoyable week.  We went to the Harvest Festival service at the local Methodist church and had a wonderful ham dinner there with an auction.  We also got fresh eggs at the egg farm and had scones and tea in a house from the 16th century.  Doug played golf twice with his NY golf buddy, Walter, and we just had a pleasant, relaxing week with very good friends.

Joyce and Walter showed us their old stomping grounds at Oxford.  It included the Famous Turf Tavern (down allies and buried within some buildings), the Bear, and other just as famous Oxford landmarks. 
















Seems the taverns have a friendly competition as to who is the oldest.  The Famous Turf Tavern claims 1381 and The Bear claims 1242.  It was a sunny, warm day and we had a good time.  Even got treated to a typical Oxford sight, the rowing team.

St. Albans

On another day, Doug and I toured St. Albans Cathedral which is the oldest site of continuous Christian worship in Britain.  Alban is honored as the first Christian martyr of Britain for refusing to renounce his new Christian faith and being put to death in the 3rd century.  He was buried at the site of the Cathedral and for over 1700 years, pilgrims have come to pray for healing at his shrine (built in 1308).  The Cathedral has one of the longest naves in Europe.  Parts of it go back to the 11th - 13th centuries.  The High Altar Screen was erected in 1484 but the statues were taken out during the Reformation.  They were restored during the 19th century.

We also toured Blenheim Palace which is the home of Winston Churchill.  It is also the seat of the Duke of Marlborough.  Churchill was not in line for the Dukedom or he could not have been in the House of Commons.  I think he was a cousin to the Duke and I never did understand why he was born and raised at Blenheim.  They have a nice exhibit area about the lineage of the Dukedom, the history of Blenheim, and the history of Churchill.

London

We are in London!  Spent a week and actually stayed out by the airport. Used an Oyster card for transportation which is a prepaid credit card type arrangement.  The buses don't take money so everyone preloads a card and you get one warning ride if it is empty but you must reload money on the card before it can be used again. We spent ~45 minutes riding from the hotel corner on a double-decker bus to the Hounslow bus station where we went into the metro.  Then we got on the Picadilly line into central London where we transferred to the Central, District, or Jubilee line (sounds so British), depending on where we were going.  Usually took another hour to get to our destination.  Then we did the same for our return each night. It sounds like a lot of time spent on metros and buses but it wasn't bad.  It gave us a picture of local London life.  It was interesting to observe the people.  And they really do fill those cars to capacity, sardine-can tight.  Sometimes I had to push Doug in so I could get in behind him or be left behind, and we sometimes had to push our way off.  The trains come very often, though, so it really is a great transportation system and well used by Londoners.

Tower of London

We did so many things in London, a lot of the typical tourist spots, so I will just describe the ones that particularly stood out for me.  Our first venture was to the Tower of London.  They have an exhibition there from August until 11/11 this year to commemorate the soldiers lost in WWI, this being the 100th anniversary.  We saw several special exhibits to commemorate the war.  This one was a flood of ceramic red poppies spilling into the moat.  It was very powerful and beautiful.  There will be one poppy for each lost soldier from the UK, over 888,246 of them.

Tower of London

The Tower of London was very interesting in and of itself.  It is a compound and has many old towers, dating back over a thousand years.  It is where Anne Boleyn was beheaded.  You could see the Tower Bridge from there and it opened for boats twice while we toured the Tower.





Tower of London




Tower of London

We saw the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.  Found out that the royal properties are only open for tours 6 weeks in the summer while the Queen vacations in Scotland.  We hit Buckingham Palace and Windsor Palace on the last three days they did tours.  We had many such lucky breaks including the weather that held out for us.  We hit clouds and short rain spurts but no real rainy days.  After our tour of Buckingham, we had lunch on the back veranda. (ta-de-da).

back of Buckingham Palace

St. George's Chapel

We toured Windsor Castle on Sunday, the last day of tours.  St. George's Chapel was closed for the day for tours but held 4 Sunday services.  Evensong was scheduled for 5:15 PM.  They sent all the tourists out by 5:00, did a security sweep, then let you back in for the service.  We sat in the quire, which is where the choir normally sits.  They had a 12-man and 6-boy choir that sang almost the whole service.  It was wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!

We rode the Eye, toured Westminster Abbey, toured the Parliament, toured Kensington Palace which was Queen Victoria's home and where Prince William's family lives, toured St. Paul's Cathedral, passed the Globe Theater (Shakespeare's theater), walked the streets of London, and walked the entire length of Hyde Park.  Most London places (and some other churches) wouldn't allow pictures so we brought home about 10-15 lbs of paper in pamphlets and books (from all over Europe).

Westminster Abbey

the Eye

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Kensington Palace

St. Paul's Cathedral

Hyde Park

Hyde Park

Glasgow and Edinburgh, Scotland

We ventured up into Scotland while we were in Lancashire.  We spent a day in Glasgow and one in Edinburgh.  Each took 2 1/2 - 3 hours to get to, each way, so they were long days but worth it.

We were in Scotland prior to the Scottish vote on independence from the UK.  The only English speaking station we got in France was British news and it was very much the hot topic in England up until the vote, so we heard a lot about it for over 2 weeks.  Scotland can only vote on the independence issue once a generation, every 25 years, and it was a pretty close split per the polls.  It turned out not to be as close as anticipated but still within 10 points so there is a pretty strong independence movement in Scotland.  What I found interesting was that they lowered the voting age to include 16 and 17 year-olds for this special election because it would impact them so much.  There were some forums specifically for that age group that we saw and I was impressed with how seriously they took the issue and how thoughtful their questions were.  They showed a sense of maturity that I sometimes find lacking in this country.  Maybe I'm jaded.  Glasgow was particularly for independence, the YES people, but couldn't quite carry the country.  We passed a YES rally on our way back to the car park to get our car.



Glasgow is a pretty modern city.  There aren't a lot of "old" buildings left.  We went to the Glasgow Cathedral and the Necropolis near it.  Glasgow grew quickly in the early 1800's to the 2nd largest city in the UK, from 70,000 to over 200,000 people.  There were immigrants from Ireland and the Highlands looking for work and the city couldn't keep up with the speed of its' growth.  Conditions were bad with many poor ghettos, disease, and deaths.  They didn't have room to bury all of the people so they had to make rules about how they could be buried to help with sanitation.


Those that could afford to were buried on the highest hill in Glasgow, which became the Necropolis.  It is something to see.  It is a high hill that is wound with paths of headstones and mausoleums.  We saw necropolises in other cities but this one was the biggest.  People take their lunch to the top to eat while they look down on Glasgow.  The views are the best in town.

We spent another day in Edinburgh at the Edinburgh Castle.  It is another complex up on top of a hill looking out over the city.  It is literally built on rock and it is interesting to see how the buildings seem to just grow out of the stone foundation.  It was the official residence of the Scottish monarchy and houses the Scottish crown jewels.  Mary, Queen of Scots, was crowned there when she was 9 mths old and had her son there.  She was housed there while under arrest by Queen Elizabeth I, too, so she spent a long time in that castle.

We also went to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the official Scottish residence of the British Queen, but we got there too late to go inside.  Drove around the city a little, had dinner, and then headed back.