Known as a top-notch ski area, the mountains surrounding Crested Butte are, truly, beauts. We spent our Saturday morning on a hike just outside of town called Scarp Ridge. Here’s some lovely shots we got while there.
Lake Irwin
Crested Butte – the town
This ski town was super cute, and we loved the main street – “Elk street.” There are shops, cafes, restaurants, –everything a tourist desires. My only complaint is that during off-season, a lot of places are closed, or open later than we expected. Alex didn’t mind, though, it meant he got an afternoon nap!
Butte Bagels
With difficulty, we agreed Butte Bagels was our favorite restaurant. The staff was the most welcoming, friendly group of people I’ve ever met. AND the bagels were fresh made and fantastic. I got my cinnamon raisin bagel with homemade honey granola cream cheese and have zero regrets.
Secret Stash
This pizza place was fantastically weird. We agreed it was maybe the best pizza we’ve ever had, and their eclectic decor matched the weird ingredients perfectly! I got the Buddha Belly (essentially Thai heaven) while Alex built his own.
Montanya Distilleries
Certainly expensive for cocktails, but their use of wonderful spices like cardamom and nutmeg really were delightful. I got the Smoke Show (cold brew, rum, and chai spices) while Alex enjoyed the Maharaja (North Indian spices, rum, ginger, lime, and cardamom). We definitely recommend it!
Crested Butte – the drive
Not only is Crested Butte a lovely area, but the drive really is gorgeous. You go over Monarch Pass and pass the Collegiate Peaks, we had to drive up after dark on Friday, so were happy to admire on our drive back!
Monarch Pass – above the clouds we soon descended into
Mt. Princeton looking moody
Crested Butte was a really lovely town. I was glad to see it covered in snow without all the ski traffic! As always, though, I would have loved a day or two more to explore the hiking trails.
We opted for a weekend in New Mexico because Santa Fe is less than a six hour drive from Denver. But really, it was for the Balloon Fiesta. Santa Fe was just an added bonus.
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta!
Every year, the largest hot air balloon festival in the world takes place in Albuquerque. Over the course of two weekends, close to a million people will attend to watch the jewel-like balloons rise into the air. Over 500 balloons come each year, and the event is memorable, if a bit chaotic!
For one, the Albuquerque police actually shut down several interstate exits to funnel all cars in as few entry points as possible. There are shuttles, there are front yard parking schemes, there are thousands of people. We went on the final Saturday morning. The festival events were split up into two main parts that morning and we arrived by 5:30 AM to watch it all!
Dawn Patrol/Morning Glow
Starting at 6/6:30 AM, a select group of balloons are inflated, but do not rise. They instead use their burners to illuminate their balloons in the dark desert night. This made them very difficult to photograph, but very fun to look at! After some fun, they eventually are the first to rise into the morning air.
Mass Ascension
This is the reason why we came. Over 500 balloons inflating and rising in a matter of an hour. It is chaos, it is delightful. Because of Albuquerque’s zero-accident history, you can even walk among the balloons, touch them before they rise off the ground, take selfies in front of your favorites. It’s truly delightful!
During a call of “All burn!” at sunrise
Cynthia Seal looking on
We enjoyed both the balloons, numerous as stars in the sky, and the sheer silliness of some of the balloons. Here are some of our favorites.
Santa Fe
We loved our time in Santa Fe. It really is a city like no other. There’s artisans and art galleries everywhere and New Mexican food is cheap and plentiful.
Meow Wolf
Meow Wolf is hard to describe. I believe it’s technically an art installation, but it’s also part playground and sci-fi puzzle. You start by walking into a supposedly innocuous house, and it just expands and warps from there! We loved going here, and recommend it to anyone with an open mind and a desire for wacky things!
Check out that chair rail!
“neon-donut” room
Fairy village in the kids’ closet
The rib cage was also a xylophone
Inside the fish tank from the living room
Santa Fe Plaza
The Plaza is a beautiful area surrounded by jewelry stores, galleries, pottery, restaurants, and bars. There are also a lot of Native American artisans that sell their wares directly from the ground. When they need a break, they just through a blanket over the goods and walk away. It’s really interesting! We also caught a “corn dance” by a local Native American youth dance group!
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
This museum was interesting. Alex and I hadn’t known much about Ms. O’Keeffe, but we enjoyed her paintings and learning about her life as one of the first abstract painters.
The Chiles
New Mexicans are evidently proud of their chiles. Every breakfast you can buy, and several dinners, comes with the option to be smothered in red chile, green chile, or Christmas (both). Chiles were strung together in wreaths, in hanging garlands from their streetlamps, we even tried smoked beer with chiles at the Chile Line Brewery! Essentially, one cannot visit Santa Fe without trying at least a bit of something with chile in it!
The beers were a bit spicy, but good
In Summary
Overall, we had a great time in both the Balloon Fiesta and Santa Fe. It was in such easy reach from Denver, I’m almost sad we didn’t think to visit sooner!
This is Part II of a trip to Norway with my mother and sister. For Part I in Bergen, visit here.
Five Days in Norway’s Capital
Oslo had so much to do, and the public transit runs everywhere through the city, so adventures were easy to get to! If you’re there for at least three days, I’d recommend the Oslo City Pass. It gives you access to the public transit system and includes all the museums you can visit, and discounts for things like our bike tour!
The Bike Tour
We started just after lunch in central Oslo. Our guide showed us the giant Akershus Fortress that has never been taken by force and sits on the water’s edge. Then, we headed to Oslo City Hall. This is the site of the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony each year and is considered both the Ugliest and Prettiest building in Oslo (by different organizations). Though it’s uninteresting on the outside, on the inside there’s a variety of strange murals over all the walls. It’s a really strange building!
After City Hall, we went up to the Royal Palace where we explored the nearby gardens and got to see the changing of the guard!
Earlier that same day, we were able to see the King pass as he prepared to open Parliament (Storting). There was a huge procession getting guards to line the street and bands playing!
After hanging out around the Royal Palace, we headed across town to the Vigeland Sculpture Park (Vigelandsparken). Vigeland was an artist commissioned to fill a large park in Oslo with original sculptures. They lined the bridge, they were part of fountains, and there was a massive monolith in the center (not pictured).
This little guy is seen as the image of Oslo
“It’s fun to stay at the….”
Then we biked back to central Oslo and enjoyed the views of Aker Brygge – a hip peninsula covered in shopping and food. People actually swim here, even in the winter time (briefly)!
Overall, we really enjoyed the Viking Biking Tour and totally recommend it:
Museums
Holy cow, Oslo has so many museums over a variety of topics! With our Oslo City Pass, we ended up hitting five in one day!
Nobel Peace Center
This is a very small museum, but between October when the Peace Prize winner is announced and December when the award is presented, the museum is closed so the first floor can be completely redesigned to showcase the achievements of the most recent Prize winner. But there’s one room where all past prize winners (individuals and organizations) are showcased in separate videos.
The Fram Museum
After the Peace Center, we took a ferry to the Bygdøy Peninsula, where there are five museums in very close proximity to each other! We began with the Fram Museum. It showcases the polar and antarctic expeditions accomplished by Norweigians in the early 1900s. Voted Oslo’s best museum, the walls of the building are most of the content, while the entire inside is occupied by the giant ship that was sailed on multiple exploration trips. The steep ceiling is a projection screen for water, snow, ice, and the Norther Lights to make you feel like you’re really in the crew of the ship. The best part? You can actually go onto and into the ship to explore it! We were all very impressed by the Fram Museum.
Kon-Tiki Museum
Next door to the Fram Museum is the Maritime Museum, which we skipped. We did, however, go to the Kon-Tiki Museum. This quick stop takes the visitor through the idea explorer Thor Heyerdahl had to prove a theory of travelling across oceans on a balsawood raft. No experts believed it was possible, so he proved them wrong with an international crew of young men! The museum is a bit pricey by itself, but if you’ve got an Oslo City Pass, then it’s worth a stop!
Vikingship Museum
After a very quick bus ride, we ended up at the Vikingship Museum. Filled with artifacts recovered from a Viking burial site of two wealthy women, the ships are authentic and the items they were buried with told a lot about how the Vikings lived and what they valued. The museum was cool, but smaller than expected. The immersive projection video in one section was really cool, though!
The Norwegian Museum of Cultural History
Also known as the Norske Folkemuseet, this museum was part open air, part traditional. They’ve imported buildings from all over Norway for showcasing and the coolest, by far, is the stave church from Gol, Norway. Built approximately 1200, it’s small, but super impressive!
We stayed at the Cultural Museum until closing and took the bus back to our apartment. Thus concluded an epic museum day.
Other highlights
Mathallen Food Hall
Think classy food court. There’s restaurants, a bar, a fish market, grocery, and coffee shop in this glorious place. We got coffee, a Norwegian waffle, Asian noodles, and beer! Our bike tour guide said that if you haven’t seen east Oslo, you haven’t seen the whole city. I loved this food hall and that funky part of town.
Oslo Opera House
Built in 2008, the Opera House is not only good-looking from sea level, you can actually walk across the sloping roof onto the top of the building with relative ease!
View from the top!
Oslo Ski Jump
Holmenkollbakken in Norwegian, this ski jump has been used for ski jump competitions since 1892! We were able to even (laboriously) walk up two-thirds of it via a narrow staircase! It’s so huge, you can see it from the ferry in Oslo, despite how far away it is. If you’ve got the time, this stop was really cool!
View from the ferry
In Summary
We loved our trip to Norway. There was a lot of natural beauty to see and taking in Norwegian culture was delightful. If you’re planning a trip, I very much recommend both cities we’ve visited and the train ride between the two!
Bonus Picture(s)
The train ride from Bergen to Oslo is considered one of the prettiest in the world. It was nearly seven hours long, but beat any plane ride I’ve ever taken! Passing through snowing mountain towns, my sister stressed that she didn’t pack warm enough clothes! I assured her that sea level would be more gentle of weather.
As with our honeymoon in Iceland, I’ve split Norway into two parts: Oslo and Bergen. I’ll start with Bergen below, for Oslo, please visit here.
A Few Days in Norway’s West
Alex went to Norway a few years ago and declared Bergen his favorite city. Naturally, that made me want to visit it and when my mother invited me to plan a trip for us and my sister, I knew Bergen had to be the first stop.
The Fjords
Bergen sits on the inside edge of a fjord, so the greatest and most important thing to do in Bergen is to take a fjord tour. Several companies offer options, including multi-day adventures, but our two-hour round trip was really delightful and probably the highlight of the trip for me.
Mount Fløyen
Another excellent way to spend the day is taking the funicular to the top of Mount Fløyen. The ride itself was really fun and the view of the city and fjord from the top was spectacular!
Once at the top, there’s a restarant, playground, zipline course, climbing area, and a variety of hiking trails.
Also on top of the mountain was a Trollskogen (troll forest)! We had a lot of fun wandering through the rough carvings and appreciating their fun faces.
Once you’re finished exploring the top of the mountain, you can either take the funicular back down or a free option is to take a downhill, sloping hike back to the city center. We opted for this option and found it to be a wonderful way to spend an hour or so.
Bergen Food
Bergens Fiskesuppe
This fish soup is a classic dish of Bergen and has a comfort-food feel. We went to an all-soup restaurant (Zupperia) for lunch and I do not regret my choice of this warm Bergen staple.
Sausages
Just like in Iceland, these Scandinavians also appreciate a good hot dog! With delightful sausages like reindeer and elk, along with even more delightful toppings like fried onion and lingonberry sauce, this cheap Norwegian snack is available at Trekroneren and certainly worth a stop!
Cafes
All over Bergen there are delightful cafes that offer not only coffee, but sandwiches as well. At one we got Belgian-style hot chocolate with a “skollingsbole” – a kind of cinnamon roll without icing. We also used these cafes to get sandwiches as a cheap alternative for lunch!
Museums
Bergen Science Center – VilVite
We loved our time at VilVite. The museum is geared toward kids, but there was so much fun to be had, regardless of age. We played with Virtual Reality consoles, we learned about the human body, there was an entire room filled with Legos, we were eventually kicked out when the museum closed for the evening!
There are, of course, quite a few museums on Bergen’s history throughout the city. An open air museum, a fortress museum, a museum about leprosy, Bergen has it all! We opted to skip these and enjoy the science center across the city and I have no regrets!
Bonus Picture
Bergen had a lot of lovely street art and murals once we got out of town, this was my favorite:
We spent Sunday through Tuesday in the District of Columbia after a wedding in Charlottesville. It turns out that twenty-four hours was a perfect amount of time to see everything we wanted to. Depending on how many museums you want to hit up, you may want more time.
Memorials/Monuments
So I’m not really sure the difference between memorials and monuments, but I know we saw a variety of them in the National Mall. We were really pleased at how close together everything was, making it easy to Metro or taxi into the city and go on foot from there! I’ve got my favorites below.
Washington Monument
As of September 19th, the Washington Monument was reopened. Three years of renovations, and our timing couldn’t have been better! Something I never knew about the monument was that there’s an elevator inside. And, since the National Mall is considered a National Park, the National Park Service is in charge here. It was odd seeing park ranger uniforms in this metropolis, but they were very helpful in informing us that if we stood in line at 8:30 AM, we could receive free tickets up the monument! Over 500 feet up, the Washington Monument is the tallest structure in D.C. and was built during the Civil War! We loved going up it:
The view from the ticket line
A scale model of the inside of the top – notice the elevator shaft
It was created without mortar – just gravity holding it together!
Lincoln and WWII Memorials from above
All the way down the lawn is the Capitol Building
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
Korean War Veterans Memorial
I really enjoyed this on: with very realistic statues slogging through the brush, it was easy to picture what these soldiers had gone through.
Vietnam Veterans Memorial
This memorial is hard to encapsulate in a single picture, but it was so powerful seeing such a long wall made up of names. You can even take a rubbing of a name if you want. I quite like this memorial.
Lincoln Memorial
Even at dusk, there was a crowd at the Lincoln Memorial, but we enjoyed the Gettysburg Address on the wall and, of course, the impressive statue of the man himself.
Museums
There are so many museums in DC, and a large number of them are free to the public! We went to only three, because our legs were ready to give up on us, but we enjoyed them!
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
Rife with really cool exhibits, we wandered the history of transportation in America, strolled past a BatMobile, and saw Dorothy’s much-used Ruby Slippers. Below is Captain America’s shield, Wolverine’s claws, and other comic book paraphernalia. We really enjoyed our time in America’s past.
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
This museum is huge, and really well designed. Each floor is a different stage of World War II and how it relates to the Holocaust. A really striking museum, it is definitely harrowing and worth a visit!
National Archives Research Center
We saw the actual, real life, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights. However, they guard these things like jealous hawks and refuse to allow any pictures. Also, they’re over two hundred years old and much-faded. But, how cool that I saw the actual Declaration of Independence!? Certainly worth a stop.
Final Thoughts
Overall, we enjoyed our trip to DC, but spent less time there than expected. It was cool to see what we saw, but now we feel no need to return any time soon!
We were in Charlottesville, VA from the wee hours of Friday morning until early Sunday morning. Hardly 48 hours. But, we really enjoyed our time there and the time we had with friends.
The Highlights – History
Monticello
You cannot possibly visit Charlottesville and pass up the opportunity to walk through the house created by former President Thomas Jefferson. A ticket will get you a tour of the main floor of the house and, if it interests you, there are regular tours to explore the gardens and the history of slavery at Monticello. We opted to explore the grounds, read some plaques, and head back to the visitor center.
There’s also a life-sized statue of Jefferson – who is one inch shorter than my husband!
The view of Monticello from the fish pond.
Cockscomb flowers in the garden.
University of Virginia
Founded by Thomas Jefferson, the University of Virginia is probably the oldest university I’ve set foot on. This place is rife with tradition, history, and secret societies. Our friends (UVA Alums both) showed us around campus, acting as the best tour guides we could have hoped for! And they took pictures of us at the famous Rotunda – front and back.
Humpback Rocks
Just outside of Charlottesville, the Blue Ridge mountains stand. Travelling up the lovely Blue Ridge parkway, we got to the trail head of a 1.7 mile trail. The beginning was obviously eroded very badly, the middle was really rocky, but the end made the steep .8 miles upward worth it! There are huge chunks of rock sticking over a large bluff. There’s innumerable places to dangle your feet as you enjoy the view. Here’s Alex from his spot.
And me from mine! There was also a raven super close to Alex’s perch.
Vineyards
One thing I did not know about Virginia is how popular the area is for wine! There are dozens of vineyards just outside of Charlottesville. We chose Veritas Vineyards because it was close to Humpback Rocks, but we would have enjoyed all of them, I’m sure!
The Highlights – Food
One of my favorite parts about Charlottesville was the food! Below I’ve got the best we had.
Bodo’s Bagels
We loved breakfast here so much, we went twice! The cheapest breakfast you could get (UVA students live here for this reason), the bakery uses water from New York and makes their own cream cheese. Combined it makes the greatest breakfast available. I could’ve come here a third time with no issue.
Beer Run
This is a liquor store selling a surprisingly large selection of beer, but they also are a restaurant! I’m told their brunch is great. Brunch at a liquor store? I know, but we really enjoyed the place.
Revolutionary Soups
“Rev Soups” to the locals, I know – I was corrected. I had a fantastic butternut bisque and Alex loved his spicy chicken tortilla soup. The menu is definitely always changing, and we thought it was delicious!
In Summary
Overall, we had a lovely time in Charlottesville, and a major thank you to our friends for guiding us around at times. The wedding we went to was really lovely, and I definitely had the most handsome date!
Hanging Lake is a marvel – fed by waterfalls, this shallow lake then acts like an endless pool as it then flows off a cliff side.
The hike is under three miles, out and back. However, the 1.5 miles one way is exclusively uphill, over more and more rocks. This is not for the faint of heart, unless you’re fine with taking a lot of breaks!
Here’s a view Glenwood Canyon as you climb up. There’s over 1,000 feet of elevation gained in the 1.5 miles up!
BUT, it is worth the effort to see the beautiful, iconic Hanging Lake in all its majesty!
There’s a well-built boardwalk on the lake’s perimeter, so you get to see it from a variety of angles:
And then, just a short hike up from Hanging Lake is a second beautiful waterfall called “Spouting Rock.” You can understand its name once you get a good look at it!
View from behind Spouting Rock
Due to the wear on this beautiful nature reserve, Hanging Lake now requires a permit in order to hike it. As of right now, the permits are $12 each and include a shuttle bus ride from Glenwood Springs to the trail head. For information about obtaining a permit, see the city of Glenwood Springs website.
We really liked the permit system – you got a quick lecture when picking the permit up about not feeding chipmunks, staying on the trail, all the things that should be common sense and, unfortunately, really aren’t. I think this is really helping to preserve this beauty!
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is not an easy place to get to. Sitting at five hours away from Denver, it’s a far, but enjoyable, place to visit. We only spent a few hours there, but I was still pleased with the breadth of the park we were able to hit.
South Rim
As with the Grand Canyon, there is a North and South Rim to the Black Canyon. South Rim being the obvious favorite, with all the paved roads and many more overlook areas, it was easy to pick which one we wanted to visit.
Hiking
Hiking isn’t really necessary at this National Park, which contributes to the ease of travelling all of it. Almost every overlook is less than a half-mile from parking. We did do one small hike at almost two miles – Warner Point.
If you’re short on time, feel free to skip this hike, but as it stands we enjoyed the views from the hike probably more than the views from the Point. In one shot, Alex was able to capture the hills, forest, farmland, and sand dunes. It was a really remarkable overlook of the various terrains.
The view from Warner Point wasn’t terrible, though:
Overlooks
As far as overlooks go, there are a lot of them! They are also super close to parking – here are my favorites:
Chasm View
The Canyon is at its narrowest at 40 feet wide.
Painted Wall
The iconic overlook for the canyon!
Dragon Point
A super cool tree coming back from Dragon Point
That’s it! A brief post for a tiny Park. But, we enjoyed our trip, especially stopping at a Palisade winery on our way back!
How we spent our first vacation as husband and wife!
There are so many options for things to do in Iceland and it really depends on each person, what activities they would enjoy. For us, we wanted to see as much of this frozen paradise as we could, splurging on adventures we normally never would to kick off the lifelong adventure of marriage.
Getting There
We got a direct flight from Denver to Reykjavik, which is really the Keflavik International airport, about an hour outside of Reykjavik. We ended up renting a car to better explore the coast. We landed at, like, 4am and our car was coated in a solid layer of ice. We had no scraper! If you’re only going to be visiting Reykjavik, a car isn’t as necessary. Without it, though, you will require tour companies to get into and out of the city.
Near the airport are two typical tourist stops. Blue Lagoon and The Lava Tunnel. The former is a hot spring that I’m pretty sure every tourist to Iceland goes to. The latter is a bit off the beaten path, but worth a stop if it interests you. I’ll break both down now:
Blue Lagoon
Every blog you ever read about Iceland will say you have to visit the Blue Lagoon. I’m probably one of the few to say feel free to skip it. It’s neat, the water really is ridiculously blue, but we found the pools too hot and too cold, the prices fairly steep, and the “cattle-herding” aspect less than wonderful. I’ve heard great things about so many other hot springs that I think I would have preferred that to the prestigious Blue Lagoon. BUT, a lot of people enjoy it, so feel free to find out for yourself!
The Lava Tunnel
We got off our flight at 5:30 AM Iceland time and our Tunnel tour didn’t start until 9:30, so we took a nap in our rental car before entering the tour “hut.” I say hut, because I’d expected a building with heating and amenities and this is not what I got. Our tired, freezing bodies remained freezing as we put on our baby crampons and explored the tunnel formed by a lava flow thousands of years ago.
And it was actually pretty cool! Sleep-deprived and frozen, we still enjoyed learning about the lava flow 5,200 years ago and walking the very path the lava forced through the rock. Warm air actually melts most icicles, so they drip onto the ground (where cold air sits) and they form really cool, clear ice stalagmites!
The Golden Circle
A must-see for anyone travelling to Iceland, the Golden Circle is composed of three places just outside of Reykjavik that allow you to see some of the best of Iceland in a day!
Geysir
The Geysir Geothermal Area is literally where we get the word “Geyser” from in English. While the geyser called “Geysir” actually erupts only occasionally and unpredictably, its neighbor geyser Strokkur goes off about every ten minutes to the delights of everyone watching and filming as it bursts 66-132 feet into the air!
Gulfoss
This beautiful, wide waterfall was impressive even in winter, but would be far more pleasant in summer, I believe. Made of two separate waterfalls falling first 36, then 69 feet, Gulfoss is gorgeous and impressive and very close to the road, making it a wonderful tourist stop. There’s a large gift shop there as well. It was dreadfully windy with stinging rain when we were there, so our stop was brief, but worth it!
Þingvellir National Park
This national park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and is, in fact, where Europe and North America meet. The tectonic plates are what created the rift valley, and the nearby Langjökull glacier supplies the park with crisp, perfectly clear, freezing cold water throughout.
And we decided to snorkel in it. In February.
This may or may not have been a wise decision, but we were suited up in damp wetsuits, waited in the biting wind for about an hour, and then descended into the 35°F water to enjoy the truly fantastic, blue water. Honestly, though it makes for a good story, swimming between continents and all, Alex and I agreed we probably would have skipped it had we known just how cold we’d be, and for how long.
Alex taking a breather
In Reykjavik Proper
Finally, we get to the city itself – the capital of our frozen wonderland! There is a lot to do in the city, from museums to fit every taste, murals of wacky variety,
Museums in the City
We decided of all the museums available, to attend the National Museum of Iceland. This lovely museum showcases the history of Iceland from pre-civilization, to the Vikings, to its independence from Denmark, to modern day Iceland. A lot of really cool artifacts and great geological exhibits really showcase the grand history of this tiny island. My favorite part was this wonderful hat/head:
For those less-interested in history, there are a lot more museums to choose from.
The Whales of Iceland is a giant warehouse with 23 life-sized models of whale species found in Icelandic waters. Visitors can even touch the models and feel like you’re in the ocean.
The Reykjavik Maritime Museum displays artifacts and model ships of Icelandic fishermen.
The Perlan was created so you can get a feel for the natural wonders of Iceland from within the city. It allows you to be a part of a man-made ice cave, a planetarium, and a replica of the Látrabjarg cliffs complete with summertime Puffins!
For those looking for just a good story, there’s the Icelandic Phallological Museum which houses over two hundred penises and penile parts from nearly all the mammals in Iceland, land and sea. But, I’ll leave that up to visitor-discretion.
Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral
Reykjavik’s most identifiable structure, this cathedral was inspired by the basalt columns around Iceland and is impressive to look at. You can pay to go to the top of the cathedral, but there was a really long line and it didn’t feel terribly necessary. My favorite part was definitely the outside. Complete with Leif Erikson statue – the man who first discovered America!
General Reykjavik
All of Reykjavik is wonderful and enjoyable to simply walk around during. If you plan to go, I would see if there are any events happening while there – we were lucky enough to attend the Annual Icelandic Beer Festival and had a really wonderful time!
There are also beautiful murals throughout the city. Here’s Alex’s favorite:
In Summary
If you’ve only got a 4 days or so in Iceland, Reykjavik will allow you see a lot of Iceland without going far. If you’ve got a couple more days to spare, I suggest checking out the southern coast.
Iceland is the second windiest country on the planet. The wind is what really bites into your skin and makes you shiver. Our solution was layers and having a total defense system of no skin exposed on the windiest days. Honestly, as long as you’re covered in layers, it’s impossible to feel the cold. We maybe used two of the dozen handwarmer packets we’d brought anticipating the biting cold.
Here’s Alex modeling our Iceland Uniform: hat, ski goggles, balaclava, jacket, gloves, pants, long underwear, 1-2 pairs of socks, thick boots. So handsome!
Snowmobile gear, three layers of pants always, hat and balaclava a must
Driving in Iceland
Renting a car is easy with an American License. Otherwise you may need an International Driver’s License, which I’ve learned is also very easy to obtain. They drive on the right side of the road and, honestly, the most stressful part is driving in bad weather and single-lane bridges.
I had one stressful icy/slushy drive where the slush of passing cars coated my windshield so thoroughly I couldn’t see out for about 5 stressful seconds before my wipers could get things visible again. Everything else is pretty common sense. There is ash in the summertime to consider, though, and it’s so windy sometimes you have to be very careful opening your car doors!
Eating in Reykjavik
Cinnamon Rolls
We had some delightful times eating in Reykjavik. But, definite top of the list was Braud & Co. Every day, this wonderful bakery makes the most amazing, fresh cinnamon rolls. I loved the first one I had so much, we returned the next day and found they even made amazing vegan cinnamon rolls for my lactard husband!
Pylsas
Next on the required list of eating is the hot dog stand Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. Just get a hot dog with everything, it’ll come with onions (under the dog), some sort of mayo, and an Icelandic mustard made with potato flour (Pylsusinnep)! Hot dogs are called “Pylsur” in Icelandic.
Plokkfiskur
Literally meaning “plucked from the sea,” this traditional Icelandic stew is made from fist, potatoes, onions, and béchamel sauce. I would consider it alright, but I was glad I ate it. It was also served with traditional Icelandic dark rye bread.
Hopefully this is helpful for navigating the frozen, magnificent wonderland of Iceland warm and full!
