Author Archives: Bob

Day 6: Big on Bergen

It is very difficult not to like Bergen. It’s neither too big, nor too small; neither too quiet, nor too noisy. Like all the Scandinavian cities we’ve visited, it is very easy to navigate on foot. It is exotic and foreign, but everyone switches to English quite cheerfully. There is deep history and rich culture. And most of us had not idea it existed until yesterday.

We stumbled upon an Asian food festival

Even Jen, who did know it existed because she planned our stop here, did not quite fathom what a gem it would turn out to be.

Excited about having a whole day to explore some more, we fueled up at our hotel’s breakfast buffet. A quick little background: We are staying in the apartment section of the Magic Hotel in the Kloverheuset building. There are a few other members of the Magic Hotel empire here in Bergen, and the hotel and its staff will factor pretty heavily in our enjoyment of the day, so we should slide a little publicity their way.

Scenes from the extensive Bryggen fish market

When we confirmed in the morning that, as apartment renters and not hotel room guests, we would have to pay for the breakfast buffet, the woman at the desk noted that the Magic Hotel on the other side of the waterfront also had a breakfast buffet. She said it was virtually the same buffet, but it was a bunch of kroner cheaper for some reason .

That’s pretty helpful information to know, we thought; and we headed over to the other Magic Hotel for breakfast. Then we shopped a bit along the Bryggen, which is the old section of the waterfront.

Soon enough, it was time for checkout (a noon checkout is another nice feature of this particular hotel chain), and the staff was all too happy to let us store our things in the locked luggage room. Moreover, they were kind enough to allow us back into the apartment building because last night we forgot to take advantage of another major benefit — a free laundry room.

Multiple times during the day we would return to the desk and the attendant would give us a key to let us back into the apartment building to check our laundry. It dried more slowly than we would have liked, perhaps because the washing machine seemed to have a rather unproductive spin cycle. Also, we found out that dryers in this part of the world collect extracted water in a special tank which needs to be emptied out like a dehumidifier. Super interesting stuff.

Because of this, we had to bum around town, spending an hour or so here, then return to the hotel to check the dryer. It took a little while for it to all work out, but, as stated before, it was free laundry access. We thank you, Magic Hotel chain of Bergen.

We were not suffering in the meantime, by the way. No one will complain about wating for laundry if they are passing the time eating ice cream waffle creations.

Eventually, though, the laundry felt dry. We got the luggage room key and stored the clean clothes with the rest of our stuff, and we were free for the big-ticket item of the day.

Going up the Floibanen

We climbed just a smidge up into the hills from the waterfront and boarded the Floibanen, a funicular railway that takes people up Mount Floyen to a little resort area of playgrounds, hiking trails, and fantastic views.

Bergen beneath us

Bergen is a touristy place in many ways, but the Floibanen does not seem to be a tourist-only activity. We met a local couple in the terminal who advised us that the best views would be from the lowest car, and then they gave us their spaces in that car because they’ve be on it so many times.

We are closer to the North Pole than to New York City.

This is really a nice place.

The top of Mount Floyen proved quite pleasurable, except that we arrive just a few minutes late for the free canoing on lake Skomakerdiket, but that had more to do with Norwegian laundry appliances than it did with the funicular or Mount Floyen.

The views of the city made up for any disappointment over canoes, and we ended up having plenty of time to walk several trails and then hike back down to the waterfront. The fairly steep three kilometers down made us appreciate the help we got getting up the mountain. `

Now quite hungry, we enjoyed a Chinese-food dinner.

Then, in a final stop in at the Magic Hotel, we grabbed our luggage and headed over to the station to catch the night train to Oslo. We already had tickets reserved, but Jen managed to purchase us a sleeping cabin, which we quickly settled into. We slept through most of what would be our last major train ride of the trip, and then faced the task of trying to make friends with Oslo after so recently leaving in a huff.

Sorting laundry in the luggage room

Ready to board the night train

Sleeping cabin secured!

Day 4: A mess of surprises

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Not all of today’s surprises were unwelcome. For instance, when Lanie disappeared down to the hip lobby of our hip hostel this morning while the rest of us were packing up, who could expect that she’d return with Ms. Louise! What!? Louise in Stockholm!? That was not expected. She was in town visiting friends and conspired with Lanie over the past day or so to pop in and say hi. We enjoyed a nice walk with her to the train station, where we would be storing most of our things in a locker while we toured another part of Stockholm this morning.

Another pleasant surprise: The old section of the city is very pretty and quite extensive, with narrow cobbled streets branching out to even more narrow cobbled alleyways.

We wandered here for some time, barely managing to avoid purchasing any number of souvenirs. We still have a fair bit of Scandinavia to lug things through.

Leaving Generator Stockholm hostel

The changing of the guard in front of the royal palace was an elaborate event witnessed by several hundred fellow onlookers. We were surprised the crowds gathered so quickly and wished we hadn’t lingered inside the palace for so long (you can just walk around in there for free — and there are more parts you can pay to visit, like the royal apartments, which seems a little invasive on King Carl Gustav, but he apparently obliges). The Royal Guards marching band was pretty tight, and what a surprise it was when

Outside the Pulitzer Prize Museum in the old town

they played a medley that included “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head,” and “It’s Raining Men.” These musical clues may give an idea of the weather for the morning. It was actually a not uncomfortable amount of showers.

That pretty much gets us through the pleasant surprises for the day. We left the old town for the train station, had a quick lunch in a taco bar, recovered our stored luggage, and made it to our train on time.

We have been very good at getting ourselves where we’re supposed to be in plenty

A narrow road in the old town

of time. The Swedish railway system was not as reliable. We watched in horror as a 50-minute delay blamed on “electrical issues” burned through our 30-minute layover in Gothenburg and made us 20 minutes late for our train to Oslo.

The horror mounted as officials from Swedish rail explained that they would not compensate for their mistake because we had booked our journey through the Eurail system and not the Swedish rail system.

The horror basically peaked when it dawned on us that lacking any further trains, bus seats, or available rental cars that could take us to Oslo, we would miss out on the night’s book accommodations in Oslo and basically the whole Norwegian leg of our trip. The next few days of travel relied on us getting on a train in Oslo the next morning at 8 a.m. This all dawned on us in a shower of unpleasant surprises.

The Pavlik family sprung into action to go through every option we could collectively think of. We begged the rail company for help, both on the train and via a phone call from the station. We tried to book the last bus of the day (sold out). We tried to rent a car (all agencies closed, even those that claimed to be open). Nadia scoped out a local bus path that would have taken seven legs overnight and gotten us to Oslo at 7 a.m., and also searched around for potential accommodations in Gothenburg (which is likely a very nice place, but its name will make our family shudder for years to come), but they were extremely pricey and hard to find. Zoe tried to get the European SIM card that we’d bought working, so we could make calls and use data.

The Royal Guards Marching Band rocks the palace

Lanie suggested booking an Uber for the four-hour drive from Gothenburg to Oslo. We originally dismissed that idea out of hand — and then we were surprised to find that this was our best, and possibly only, option to keep us on our scheduled plan.

It may seem like an Ugly American option to just throw a bunch of money at a problem — and hiring an Uber for five people to connect two cities that are four hours apart does involve a big bunch of money — but please judge us carefully. We had several days of hotel reservations riding on this decision, and losing them would have cost us a bunch of money, too.

So, Zoe helped us stick out our Uber thumb and try to hitch a ride into Norway. The first two drivers who accepted our call, quickly dropped, apparently once they realized the magnitude of the trip.

Before it all went horribly wrong

The third driver accepted our challenge, but 20 minutes into the drive he said we had a problem and handed his phone back to Jen so she could talk to his boss. It turns out this driver was running up against Sweden’s laws for how long a person could drive in one shift. Unbelievably, we had to turn around and try again at the Gothenburg train station.

At this point we had gone through out allotted amount of unpleasant surprises, which is to say that nothing unpleasant really surprised us anymore. Zoe caught us another Uber within five minutes, and this driver was up for the journey. For what it’s worth, driving from Gothenburg to Oslo is a lot like driving through the Berkshires

Poring over options in the Gothenburg station

or Catskills — given the distance, maybe you can say it’s like driving through the Bershires and the Castskills. It was not unpleasant. Though, every time the driver’s phone rang we silently willed him not to answer so he wouldn’t get called off the job.

He was a very efficient driver and got us to Oslo in very good time. But our day wasn’t quite over yet. As we staggered into our hotel at midnight and attempted to check in, we ran into another problem — we had somehow booked the hotel for the prior day, and had been marked as a no-show. So we had to book new rooms (thankfully they had a quad and a single available) at more expense. We had further problems attempting to use the pull-out couch in our room, and eventually the hotel had to bring us a cot (which they had earlier said was “not possible”). It was after 1am before we finally collasped into bed, hoping this all would turn out to be worth it.

Day 3: When in Sweden

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Navigating the Max menu

Perhaps Stockholm deserved better from us, but we really must have needed the sleep. We did not rouse ourselves until almost noon today. Hip Swedish hostels are surprisingly quiet in the mornings.

Somewhat refreshed, we met the bright sunlight of this bright city and started to check off things people do when they’re in this country.

Stockholm is a very walkable city

First, we went to Max. It’s Sweden’s answer to McDonalds — though they have McDonalds and even Burger King here, too. The selection at Max is quite broad and the food is good. Zoe wandered farthest off the beaten path by getting a getting a cheese burger that consisted completely of cheese, which had been grilled just like it was a burger. She reviewed it pretty highly.

Crossing from one of Stockholm’s islands to another

After that we walked around a lot. This is a very walkable city, with wide sidewalks and clearly marked bike lanes that we’ve mostly been able to avoid encroaching. Car traffic seems to be less than in other major cities we’ve visited. Between the busses, trolleys, metro stations, and ferries, there seems to be plenty of public transportation options. But with streets and architecture as appealing as Stockholm’s, walking seems to be the way to go.

Our feet brought us to a wide pedestrian walkway flanked by stately buildings on one side and the harbor on the other. There were plenty of cafes in full lunch mode by the time we made it over. Some of the cafes and bars stretched out onto docks in the water between fancy boat moorings and ferry landings.

The Vassa’s ample, well-decorated stern

The next thing to do in Sweden, and the main goal of the day’s walking, was to get us to a museum. There are lots of museums in Stockholm, and they come in many varieties. Our first choice focused on a 17th Century sailing ship called the Vassa. It was one of the largest ships of its time and it was very richly decorated and heavily armed. And it sank after sailing only 1,000 feet or so because it didn’t have enough ballast in the bottom to keep it upright.

It’s difficult to imagine people in the US setting up a top-notch museum based on a not-quite-so-proud moment in our engineering history, but that’s what they did here. The Vassa Museum is an amazing place centered around the ship, how it was built, and how it was resurrected from the bottom of the harbor in the 1950s.

The museum offers views of the Vassa from multiple levels.

The museum’s 20-minute movie about the Vassa’s saga ends with the idea that if the ship had been more seaworthy it would have been destroyed or dismantled by now. Becuase it sank so quickly and so close to the city it was preserved in the mud and relatively easy to access. They say that 95 percent of the ship, which is on full display in the museum’s main hall, is from its original construction.

From here, we had many choices of museums to browse. There was one based solely on other shipwrecks besides the Vassa. There was one on vikings and one on spirits (not the occult kind, but the distilled kind) and one on nordic life. As we decided which to visit next we chewed on long ropes of Swedish licorice and contemplated scrapping everything for a visit to the amusement park that towered over the section of town we were in.

Actually, most of us wanted nothing to do with the amusement park, and we all pretty much knew where we wanted to go. The licorice ropes were just to keep us occupied until our allotted time came for us to enter the ABBA museum. And so, once 16:30 came around on our clocks, we embarked on an adventure into a world which few people realize exists. It is a world where ABBA merits a whole museum that is crowded enough to make people wait for assigned times to enter.

Dancing at the Abba Museum

The course of the museum starts at the end of ABBA’s story, with Benny, Bjorn, Frida and Agnetha recording themselves with special cameras for the hologram ABBA experience currently running in London. This is the phenomenon where people pay to go to a concert to watch ABBA holograms perform with a live band.

More dancing at the ABBA museum

At least we got to see actual ABBA stuff, like their recording studio, which was moved to the museum, and the home made double base that was part of Benny’s (or perhaps Bjorn’s) first band. And the costumes! Oh, the costumes. Capes and jumpsuits for miles. We are all pretty knowledgeable about ABBA now. Ask us for some trvia; we’ll probably know it.

About now we had to start being careful. Our checkout time tomorrow is 10 a.m. No sleeping until noon for us. So we shouldn’t be staying out too late either. We passed on any further museum visits and continued walking through the gardens of the surrounding area until we were able to retrace our steps back toward the hostel.

Checking the cocktail menu at a harborside bar

Here we did something that most people do in Sweden, we avoided stopping in for a drink on one of the harborside bars we passed in the morning. We were sorely tempted to give it a try. We even stopped into one; but we were turned off by two things: 1.) They strangely didn’t have a non-alcoholic option besides mineral water; 2.) The alcoholic drinks were stunningly expensive. None of us needed to try a $29 mojito. We have to think that the average Swede would make the same choice.

It was time now to follow our standard vacation routine of wandering around until we stumble upon a dinner plan. Tonight we stumbled upton Italian food.

We managed to get back to our place at a reasonable enough hour for some of us to take on some blogging and other to get a little bar hopping in the hotel lounge.

Day 2: Keep moving

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There was little reason to beleive that we would be able to get up the next morning after such a drawn-out travel day and be ready for a kayak tour. But these were Louise’s plans, and, sure enough, we were up and out by 10 a.m. (4 a.m. EST), and on the water of the town’s narrow harbor.

This is truly a testament to our host’s sheer force of will, and all five of us benefitted from hearing stories that covered various parts of the estuary and even some of the small islands between the banks. Taking a kayak tour was also something Louise had wanted to do for a long time, but she didn’t feel like her parents were up for the trip.

The same bridge we kayaked under a little while ago

Having seen Ahus from the water, we hopped back on land to hit a few of the spots she missed showing us yesterday. These included the city library, which has a very efficient way to process its book loans. “I don’t know why I get so excited about these things!” she said as she was checking out a book. “But I do!”

Louise even taught us a Viking yard game called Cube.

Getting excited is something Louise is very good at. She shared this skill a little later in the morning by bringing us to the famous Otto Glas ice cream stand on the town square. Most everyone was excited about this. The flavors selected ranged from pear and egg liquor, pear and melon, and elderbery with lime ripple and coconut.

You get to choose two flavors per one-scoop serving, but really you’re getting two scoops — Louise says you can get this brand of ice cream in Stockholm, but they are not nearly as generous with the servings in the capital. And it’s put in a big homemade waffle cone. And it’s all dipped in a chocolate sauce that turns into a hard shell. I’m sure you can sense the excitment this caused.

Zoe with one of the little beach houses

Next, it was back to touring. We got on our borrowed bikes and visisted the two beaches we missed yesterday. Beaches are one of the three things Ahus is best known for. The population of the city swells by a third in the summer because of all the beachgoers. We rode through several neighborhoods of homes that looked sturdy enough to live in all year, but probably were mostly used during beach season.

The water was cold, and even Louise was not excited enough to go swimming. But these two were.

Then, right on the beach, there are tiny houses that families have built decades ago. Although you can’t build new ones anymore, the old ones are allowed to stay. Louise pointed out her favorite, a white one with an orange roof that was hosting a family gathering as we walked by.

In between the two beaches we needed to portage our bikes a mile or so through a forest. Again, no complaints from anyone in our camp. It started to rain a bit. Still, we were all happy campers. The momentum of Louise’s excitement carried us all through.

After another meal at Louise’s parents’ house and a quick trip to the grocery store, we were ready to head off on the next leg of our trip. Louise saw us off at the bus stop and we reversed the last part of our trip from yesterday.

Goodbye at the bus stop

Then we had a quick train trip to meet the train that would take us to Stockholm, four hours away. We had gotten so used to traveling by bicycle — and to having Louise’s authentic Swedish comfort food — that it was difficult to leave. She assured us, though, that there would be plenty of cool things to see in Stockholm. We are already lowering our expectations when it comes to ice cream servings.

Waiting for a train in Hasselholm

The light faded slowly as we watched bustling Swedish towns and sprawling wheat fields go by. It didn’t get dark until just before we arrived in Stockholm, around 10:30 p.m. We managed to find our accommodations, a slightly more difficult task than you might think.

From the window of the 18:46 train to Stockholm

We are relying on wifi to keep us informed, so street navigation is not as smooth as it would be if we constatnly tied into the Internet.

We found our place, though. It’s a hip hostel still buzzing with young people in the lobby when we arrived after 11. We have a six-bunk room to ourselves, and it has its own bathroom. We’re hoping to get up relatively early to explore the city, but all bets are off given our late bedtimes and the fact that Louise and her dynamism are several hours away.

Day 4 — Near Misses and Big Hits

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We went right when we should have gone left.

We are not done yet.

On the contrary, I think we have been invigorated by out close proximity to all the action. I walked to the Eastern Market at dawn’s early light for some supplies at Trader Joe’s and a few coffee drinks. Having consumed those in our just-right accommodations, we practically leapt out onto the sidewalk, ready to crawl all over DC for another day.

Paintings by Alma Thomas on display at the Hirshhorn Museum

Stop 1 was a return to the Capitol Welcome Center, a 10-minute walk from our place, to cash in on the Congressional gallery passes that we scored on Monday. Both houses were in session this morning, so we were confronted with a few options: House, Senate, or try to squeeze in both before our 10:30 meeting time with DC art expert and all-around great guy Ken.

A brief stop in a secret garden next to the Museum of Art and Industry (sadly closed today — another near miss)

With the intention of possibly visiting both, we headed for the Senate side first. It was about 15 minutes before their 10 am start time. It was possible that we could see the Senators start their session and then hustle over to check out proceedings in the House.

This really wasn’t a good plan. After surrendering most of our posessions in a check-in station we were directed down several hallways, up and elevator and through several more hallways (all with consistently shiny floors and very solid-looking walls), through a metal detector, and finally into the Gallery of the US Senate Chambers.

It was a quiet place at that time of day, with about 10 other people in the gallery (gallery viewers were outnumbered at least 3 to 1 by people standing in the hallway directing us where to go) and, maybe, about the same number of people on the floor of the chambers.

Many of these people were literally sitting on the floor of the chamber, not displaying much anticipation that anything was going to happen soon. They were wearing blue and looked to be late teenagers. Reading the Senate information booklet while we waited, we discovered that these were interns in their junior year of high school. Not too long after we took our seats, right around 10 am, the interns popped up off the floor and took positions by various doors in the chamber. We took this as a sign that something was about to happen — possibly that the Senators were going to make a grand entrance.

A few more people did trickle in, including a woman wearing a contraption that held a stenographer’s recording device and allowed her to go around keying in what people said. The Senate information book informed us that recorders like her work in 15-minute shifts and then go back to their offices to immediately to transcribe their notes.

Here is what this recorder transcribed in the minutes that we were there: 1. A grey haired man (our best bet at actually being a Senator for the day — it might have been the Senate President Pro Tempore, or it might have been someone on Vice President Harris’ staff performing her duties for her) banging a gavel, calling the session to order, and announcing a pastor who would be giving the morning’s prayer. 2. The solemn pastor invoking those in the chamber (at this point still dominated by high school junior interns) to use the quiet strength of the Lord to guide their decisions. 3. A clerk reading two communications, the latter being about the Senate moving directly to executive session to talk about candidates for an upcoming appointment.

Jen asked the last official person we passed before entering the chambers, a lady standing at the top of the stairs if the the Senators would be coming in soon and the lady said yes. They were just listening to someone talk, she said. They would be entering the chamber soon.

We read our book. We found the desks where Maggie Hassan and Jeanne Shaheen, our Senators from New Hampshire, would be sitting. We watched the clock as it got closer to our meeting point with Ken.

The interns sat back down on the ground.

We realized it would be impossible to gather our things at the check-in, hustle over to the House of Representatives side and repeat the check-in process, make our way to that gallery to see if anything more was going on over there. So, we waited a few more minutes, then gave up. We retraced our steps through hallways and the elevator, back to the check-in to retrieve our things. Here we noticed a tv screen showing proceedings in the House, and there was a Representative talking. It appeared there was something going on over there. We would later learn that there was a major discussion about the debt ceiling. There were probably lots of people in the galleries over there checking all that out.

It was a near miss, but still a very interesting look into how things work on Capitol Hill. As an added bonus, they never collected the gallery passes we received from Rep. Pappas. They never even looked at them. So we can go back and check the whole thing out again if we want.

In the meantime, the stage was set for a day of exploring galleries with Ken, who did not seem to mind that we were 17 minutes late meeting with him at the Hirshhorn Museam just one block up from the Air and Space Museum on the National Mall.

Most of this is made of tinfoil!

And so began a day of getting a little off the main trail of museums in DC. We had another near miss when we learned the special exhibit at the Hirshhorn was sold out (it didn’t look that crowded there), but then we moved on from main gallies of modern art here to a more intensiave tour of the National Gallery’s Sculpture Garden.

After lunch on the patio of the cafe there, we moved on to the Renwick Gallery, which is Ken’s favorite and is located right next to the White House. It featured one large, ballroom-sized installation that was a larg net suspended from the ceiling lit by subtly changing lighting. It also had on display an assortment of very cool woodwork and pottery. It was only one floor of galleries, but the time we spent there was worth the walk.

On our way to the Renwick Gallery, we got to peek at the president’s residence, but it was not easy. There were lots of extra barriers and many security personnel around. We would later find out that this all had to do with a state dinner that evening to welcom the President and first lady of South Korea. If we had only stayed around watching for a little while longer we might have gotten invited to the dinner. Another near miss.

Anyway there was more art to see. And gift shops. By now we were walking through the streets of the city part of DC and not around the National Mall. We made our way to Chinatown and there, in the shadow of the hockey and basketball arena, we found the National Portrait Gallery. Aside from housing a lot of portraits, this build also had a major collection of American Art, and it also offers a fantastic covered central courtyard where we lounged over iced coffee and continued to get caught up with Ken.

In these galleries we were able to see portraits of all the Presidents (though no official portraits have been painted for Trump or Biden because they are either in office or looking to run again for President). We saw the famous portrait of Michelle Obama. We saw lots of work by American artists, and we generally had our artistic appreciation vessels filled up right to the brim.

After that, all that was left was a nice dinner at the Founding Farmers and Distillers restaurant a brief walk from the museum, and then we were saying goodbye to Ken. We owe him many thanks for taking a day off from work to show us a lot of places (and artwork) we would not have gotten to on our own. It was a very big hit of a day for us.

Day 2-3: Tired legs around the National Mall

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Long escalator to Bethesda Metro — easy on the legs

An underarching question marked our firstday touring DC: Are our legs sore from walking (and running) around New York a few days ago, or are we stiff from sitting in the car through New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland?

We certainly weren’t sore from the cushy reception we received in Bethesda from old friends Kathleen and Daniel and their family. We will be staying with them for two nights on their trip, and they are quite fun hosts — but, they’re not on Spring Break this week, so we will be hitting DC on our own for a few days.

Alone, that is, except for the beneveolent help of our Congressional delegation from New Hampshire, who have hooked us up with a tour of the US Capitol Building (thanks, Senator Shaheen!) and tickets to the galleries of the House and Sentate (thanks Representative Pappas and the staff intern who brought the passes down to us from his office only a few minutes after a cold-call request phoned in from the Capitol Building Welcome Center).

Underneath the Capitol Rotunda

The tour of the Capitol was a first for all three of us. Everything is quite shiny in there, and very solid looking. The tours are run with incredible efficiency. We entered in a group of about 250 people (the bulk of which were from two large groups of middle schoolers — there are lots of large groups of middle schoolers here), saw a quick movie and then split ourselves into walking groups of about 30 people. We all got headphones so that we could hear our individual guide speaking to us, and then snaked our way through some corridors of power. We were divided, wired in, and touring just minutes after the movie ended.

New Hampshire’s own John Stark

Our walk covered the crypts, where George and Martha Washington were meant to be buried but somehow got out of it; the immense and ornate Rotunda; and statuary hall. We even got to see both of the statues New Hampshire has contributed to the Congressional collections — John Stark and Daniel Webster. Every state gets two statues. We didn’t know that that before the tour.

In the canopy of the National Botanical Gardens’ rainforest

At the very end, our tour guide told us about the “call your Congressman” trick to getting gallery passes, and we decided to give it a try. That all transpired in the time it took Lanie to peruse the gift shop (there’s lots of gift shops here). Unfortunately, neither house was in session that day; but not unfoturnately, the passes are good for the whole Congressional session. We’re plan to come back on another day so we can see legislators in action.

From the Capitol we kind of wanted coffee an so we wandered over to the Botanical Gardens, where we found — a coffee bush! We also walked around in a very steamy enclosure that supported a mini rainforest with an emphasis on orchids.

Other gardens we saw had cacti and hydroponic themes. We found an ourdoor space with roses in bloom. Lots of things were blooming all around.

The blooms were quite distracting, and it wasn’t until we visited the restaurant at the nearby National Museum of the American Indian that we finally got around to getting coffee. We had been advised that the food was good at this museum, so we decided to try some corn bread and a sampling of their salads as a late mornng-snack. Our legs by now were really needing some rest.

Outside the NMAI

In the museum we found some particularly moving and sobering reminders of how American Indians have been portrayed in mainstream American society. This was counterbalanced by very serene architecture, landcapaing, and Native American art.

Exampls of mainstream portrayal of American Indian culture

After snacking and touring the museum — already our third stop of the day — we were still on the move. The next point of interest up the street was the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Beneficiaries of a brief nap under the stars

Both extremely popular and limited in floor space because of a major construction project, the Air and Space Museum was the only place on the National Mall besides the Capitol that required us to reserve an entry time. While we waited for our 2 pm reservation, we wandered off the Mall for a few blocks to find a quiet place to order and eat a noodle bowl lunch. We bypassed the many food trucks parked outside of the museums because: 1. they all seem to have exactly the same food; 2. they don’t display their prices. Our legs weren’t too tired to walk a few blocks for noodles.

That’s not to say we weren’t tired. Two of us closed our eyes and rested a bit during the planetarium show in the Air and Space Museum, and after an hour or so of touring the halls of this, our fourth major tourist attraction of the day, we were about ready for some ice cream and quiet time under a shady tree on the Mall.

Then, it was time ride the metro back to Bethesda and rest up for another day of DC touring.

Time enough for fish and chips

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Stuffed puffins in a souvenir shop in Reykjavik

The last day of a trip always brings its own special pressures — usually in the form of a plane we have to get on before it takes off and the multiple hurdles we have to jump to get there.

This year there was an extra hurdle: We had to submit to a Covid test before the US would let us back in. Jen had appointments for tests all set set up, and she also arranged for an early evening flight so we would have time to experience a little of Reykyavik before leaving iceland.

And, we were well set-up for the day. Our slightly-sketchy-from-the-outside-but-really-nice-on-the-inside hotel was a short drive to our main stomping ground for the day: downtown Reykjavik.

Smoked puffin on a menu in downtown Rejkyavik

Before we headed out in the moring, there was a little jostling to do, moving belongings that had become loose in the back of the car back into our suitcases, adjusting things so that we could get as much in our checked bag (and as little in our carry-ons) as possible, clearing out all the cupholders of Werther’s wrappers and napkins. This is all prep-work for the final goal of getting ourselves on the right plane at the right time, and the prep-work has to start early on departure day.

We should note that the parents of this operation have been pretty good at getting ourselves up at a reasonable hour — 6:30- 7 am, local time — and we were able to take care of most of our shufflng and packing without disturbing the girls’ sleep. Like several nights on this trip, we were sleeping five to a room.

What we weren’t able to do today was find coffee, save for a jar of instant grounds in the communal kitchen on our floor. Prep-work today would have to be performed without the aid of caffeine, though there was the stimulating smell of a bacon factory a few blocks away as we roamed around in a fruitless search for a cafe. Sadly, there did not seem to be a direct sales outlet attached to the bacon factory.

On the rainbow road in the heart of the tourist district

Caffeine-deprived and bacon-starved as we were, we all were sufficiently packed and in the car by 10 am. A 20-minute drive got us right to the center of the capital, a city of low hills surrounding a bay and spreading tidily inland in residential waves. The highways had expanded to three lanes but the bustle was manageable and parking was not difficult to procure even though the downtown streets were narrow, in the way the European city streets are.

Thus commenced our only major urban hike of the trip. With somewhat blind luck we managed to park only a block from the main pedestrian downtown network, and Jen had just enough Icelandic coins to procure us parking until 1 pm (and still leave one coin for our family foreign coin collection).

Zoe in front of the Hallgrímskirkja

Reykjavik is a fine walking city. We followed cobblestone streets past food stands and souvenir shops, plus plenty of restaurants and bars that didn’t look like they would start stirring for another few hours. After experiencing relatively infrequent eating options for most of the trip, we were facing a potentially paralyzing wealth of lunch options as well as shopping spots. Fortunately, we had a few goals in mind to help focus us. One was find a Christmas ornament (the traditional family gift we buy ourselves when we travel to new places). The other was to sample the fish and chips here — reportedly an extra-fresh, extra-delicious experience in this cold-water port.

This street was painted to look like a track meet

With a 1 pm parking deadline hanging over our heads (and then a 2:30 pm Covid test to get to after that), could we take care of all this business?

Well, despite the fact that the pedestrian section of downtown Reykjavik has surprsingly more ground to cover than we expected, we are happy to say: “Missions Accomplished!”

Taste testing fish and chips — the winner is…101 Reykjavik street food, by a nose.

We even had enough time to visit two fish and chips establishments and hold a taste test. We put Rick Steves’ favored version against that of another outlet we passed in our amblings. Reykjavik Fish gave an impressive amount of thick cod, that it advertised as being fresh daily. It also costed about $4 more, but it had Rick’s blessing. In the other corner was 101 Reykjavik Street Food. Portion size was smaller, but so was the price tag. The crust on the fish was crumblier but very tasty. In the end, it came down to the potatoes. 101 Reykjavik Street Food had crispier fries, and thus edged its way into the Pavlik family fish and chips endorsement.

Aaah. Gelato

(Note: Nadia passed on fish and had a waffle for lunch.)

Having taken care of this buisness, and having adequately covered the quaint streets of old Reykjavik, we picked up some gelato on our way back to the car. Then, it was time to hurdle the Covid test. It took about half an hour from when we walked in the door of the clinic, but when we walked out we were certified Corona-free.

Next was dropping off the rental car (and taking advantage of the free coffee maker, which was no longer in cleaning mode). Then navigating the airport and sliding into our seats.

Check out the icebergs around Greenland.

It was an uneventful flight, with the exception some cool views of icebergs off Greenland.

After that, it was only a matter of Jen finding a suitable implement to scratch the coating off Iceland on the kitchen table map.

The Pavlik family 2021 Iceland trip is now officially complete.

Second-rate pictures of a first-rate trip

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This is the dairy department in Seydisfjorder. Icelandic yogurt is very good.

Zoe has the best phone and, with it, the best camera in the whole family. Like everybody, she can be seen taking lots of pictures here; but don’t expect to see many of her pictures here in the In The BIg Picture blog. Just about every one else in this family except the parents keeps all her photos to herself.

So you’re stuck with pedestrian picutres of sometimes pedestrian things that we do here. Like go grocery shopping in real Icelandic grocery stores.

Jen drove most of the way today. She did a great job. Driving in Iceland sometimes requires nerves-of-steel passing skills.

I take lots of pictures while we’re driving because the scenery is so magnificent here. Driving pictures are the worst, though. They never come out like they look in real life. They don’t on my camera, but I wonder what they would look like on Zoe’s phone. Even when I get pictures of goats — it’s actually pretty difficult to get a picture of scenery here that doesn’t have a goat in it because goats are omnipresent in Iceland.

Today was a little driving-centric. We broke things up by making an impromptu stop at a beach by the side of the Ring Road. It wasn’t even mentioned in our guidebook, but we had a fine time feeling the breeze and sifting through the rocks.

We could not linger too long because we had an afternoon appointment and we wanted to check into our hotel before moving on to the big excitement of the day. (I know! More exciting than grocery shopping? It’s true! Keep reading.)

So now we get to the point of it. We had a terrific experience at two glacial lagoons today, but not long after we arrived at the first one, the sun went away. By the time we got on the Zodiak boat for our glacial lagoon tour, the light had flattened out to en extent that our mid-20teens camera can’t really compensate for. Zoe took pictures, but is not willing to share for the blog. Somewhere along the line we made a terrible mistake as parents and now our children have trouble sharing.

At least someone’s getting a good picture of this.

Some of our pictures of the glacial lagoon came out nice. What you’re seeing is chunks of the Vatnajökull glacier that have calved off and are floating around in two lakes very close to the island’s eastern shore. This glacier is the largest in sub-Arctic Europe — it covers more land than the state of Rhode Island, according to Vincent, our Zodiak captain.

The lagoons are deceptively deep, and the vast majority of the icebergs are beneath the water. We are not in danger of sinking from crashing into an iceberg, though they did give us special coats to protect us from the cold water and life vests to keep us afloat.

A nice couple from Spain took this picture of us duriing our Zodiak trip.

There is a slight danger from large waves caused by a new ice berg calving off of the glacier and hitting the water. We stay more than 200 yards from the glacier to give Vincent time to take evasive action in such an event, though he admits that calving only happens on about five percent of his tours and calving of large ice bergs is even more rare.

Sampling a bit of a 500-year-old iceberg — according to our guide, the purest water anywhere.

He does note that sometimes ice bergs turn over and, theoretically can land right on top of the boat, but he doesn’t seem too concerned about that.

Close-up of the glacier

And anyway, not to dampen the suspense or anything, we survived the ice berg lagoon cruise. Not only did we survive, we saw two seals on an ice berg. What do you think about that?

The last stop of the day was at Diamond Beach, the black sand of which is a striking contrast to the small crystals of ice that wash up when the ice bergs make it out to sea. The crystals look like diamonds. Our camera has a nice micro zoom feature and I tried to take some close-up pictures of the ice crystals. I don’t know if Zoe’s camera can do that.

“Diamonds” at Diamond Beach

This is our second-to-last night in Iceland. Tomorrow is a bit of a heavy driving day, but it will drop us off in Rekyavik. We had the pleasure of eating delicious artic char this evening for dinner (it’s like salmon). Tomorrow we’re going to try one last time to get fish and chips. Somehow we just keep missing out — mostly because the restaurant or food truck closes down just before we get there. Maybe we’ll have better luck in the big city.

Around the lake

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We spent the day circumnavigating great Lake Myvatn. It’s like the World Showcase Lagoon at Epcot, except with ancient volcanic wonders to explore instead of shallow international facades. If Iceland were to be featured at Epcot, its section might just be a mini Lake Myvatn with plaster volcanic craters all around it that you can climb on.

Up the outside of Hverfjall

But the real lake would be better. Rick Steves, whose guide to Iceland is heavily influencing our decisions here, says this is the place to spend two days if you have an extra day traveling the Ring Road.

Here’s one reason why — the Hverfjall Crater. It looks like an enormous grey sand dune. It sticks right up not far from the road, visible for miles. You climb up the side and see it’s a hollowed out crater in the middle. Then you can walk along the edge of the crater viewing the lake on one side and a variety of landsapes on the other. We saw flat wastelands pocked with smaller craters. We saw steam plumes of geothermal rifts in the distance. There was a field of fanciful columns of lava in the general direction that we were following the loop.

On the crater rim

If we had gotten to Hverfjall a little sooner (we lingered over a fine breakfast at our guest house and didn’t hit the road until around 11), we would have seen some competitors in something called the Island Volcano Marathon. The poor souls in this race had to run up the side of the crater, and then around the mile or so trail along the rim, and then stumble back down the powdery path. What a tortuous challenge to put within a mile of the finish of a marathon. Who knows what other horrors the runners had to complete before they got this far.

Myvatn fatigues

Well, one of them might have been the midges. The name Myvatn is actually a reference to the small flies that swarm around everything in this region during the summer. We showed up equipped with head nets, thanks to a tip from the guidebook, but today’s breeze seemed to keep the midges pretty much under control and we ended up not wearing them for most of the day.

Anyway, walking the trails Hverfjall was good enough for us. We’ll leave the running to someone else.

On the hunt for the Yule Lads

Our next stop along the lake was at the dark field of pillars we saw from the top of the crater. Dimmuborgir Lava Formations reminded us of South Dakota’s Badlands National Park even from a distance. Up close, the main difference was that guests are not able to climb all over these lumps and hillocks like they are at the Badlands. This is one rare instance where the clampdown is tighter here than it is at home.

Part of the reason is that they are in the process of re-foresting the area and they don’t want people stomping all over their bushes and grasses that keep the volcanic silt from blowing around and covering up the features. The restrictions make it difficult to hunt down the Yule Lads, who are a gang of holigan-esqe Santa Clauses who cause mischeif but also bring Christmas spirit to Iceland when the season calls for it. They’re supposed to live here among the lava formations, but we did not see any of them. There are 13 Yule Lads and we didn’t even see one.

At “the Church”

We did see a cool cave formation called “the Church,” which was worth the walk out to see it. Then we looped around and had lunch in the parking lot. If you’re keeping score, you’ll note that we’ve already eaten twice today. Could it be that we’ll actually get in a full complement of meals? Stay tuned.

As we zip our way along the shores of Myvatn, you should realize that all of these features are right next to the main road. It is incredible to think of all the amazing things might be over the next hill or on the other side of this river, but people don’t bother to go there because there’s so much wonder right by the side of the road. It probably made Rick Steves’ job a lot easier.

Staring down goats

A quick turnoff to a small parking lot set us up for a walk through the Hofdi Promontory, a nature preserve that includes — great wonder — trees! Lacking in much of the country, mature trees are a sight to see here. These trees were apparently painstakingly planted and nurtured on this small strip of land by a couple who wanted to help in the reforestation of Iceland. Reforestation helps preserve the soil and brings the island back to the natural state the Vikings found it in. This particular forest also provides cover for at least one band of rampaging goats, which was stomping in the opposite direction down the same path we were following. After we got into a little stare-down, the goats decided to vacate the path and resume their stomping in the woods.

A hidden garden in the Hofdi Promontory

The Hofdi Promontory also featured several hidden gardens to discover, and — like all the attractions along the lake — did not charge an entrance fee. You can just park and walk right in.

After this we planned to visit a cluster of pseudo craters, which are not typical volcano craters but the remains of enormous lava bubbles that popped and left circular holes all over the landscape. This particular group of them was very inviting to wander over (and to ponder the size of the bubbles that caused them), until the rain started to fall.

Retreating from the pseudo craters

We made it along the shorter of two trails through the park, but then huddled in our car to puzzle out a dilemma: We had arranged for a horseback ride in half an hour, but suddenly the prospect of riding out in the elements did not seem as pleasing. Jen had made the arrangements at lunchtime, when the sun was shining. The weather here is similar to April in New England. Cool and comfortable, generally, but subject to some variety.

As the rain fell, it became clear that any sightseeing we might do from horseback would be limited by clouds and fog. We made the reluctant decision to postpone the riding until tomorrow and came back to our guest house to reorganize. Thus, we finished our trip around the lagoon without visiting all the countries featured. But we were not done with our day.

Rejuvenated by the Myvatn Natural Baths

The weather rained itself out and left us with an evening of options. Our first choice was to visit the Myvatn Nature Baths. These baths are not as famous (or expensive) as the Blue Lagoon, but they do offer the benefit of being on top of a hill with an incredible view of the lake and the lowlands around it. Every place we visited during the day was in view of the baths. It was a good way to sum things up and to soothe bodies that have walked quite a bit during this vacation.

Having restored ourselves in this manner, we then set out to actually eat in a restaurant. It almost worked. We found a very nice place, but then found we needed to have made reservations. Then we found a pizza place, but it was too crowded so we opted for takeout. Some day we might eat in an actual Icelandic restaurant, but for today we settled for just getting three meals in.

Moving on down the road

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Twelve hours of sleeps does wonders for the nervous system, but it can cause havoc with carefully laid travel plans. We needed the sleep after yeserday and a half, and our hosts accommodated by setting a noon check-out time.

So we slept in, and paid a price a little later in the day.

The short seasonal darkness and the blackout shades in our bedroom creates some evening/morning confusion. This would have been a great trip to bring a watch to set to the proper time zone, but for some reason I did not pack my watch. Phones and tablets are looked on with some scepticism — some have changed to the new time and some have not.

We eventually got ourselves in the correct morning state of mind, ate our Bonus-supplied breakfast foods, pack the car, and hit the road before noon, but a little later than Jen had planned for.

Oh, and some of us even squeezed in a visit to the local livestock. Our night 1 accommodations were not only perched above an inlet overlooking the Borgarnes across the way, they were also on a working farm. The sheep were curious, but not necessarily cuddly.

Once we got moving, we zipped around the inlet and into town for an abridged visit. Essentially, it was a coffee run. Borgarnes provided a funky cafe with lots of latte, but we didn’t take time to wander around like we tend to do.

Some of the waterfalls here come right out of the banks — the river is channelling inside the lava rocks.

Driving is pretty easy here. They drive on the familiar side of the road. Traffic is limited. Signs are legible, even if we would be woeful if we had to pronounce the place names. GPS has been helpful. It got us to our first destination, a set of incredible waterfalls, with no problems.

GPS has been helpful, but not flawless. Google tried to route us to our second destination via an unmarked farm road that seemed to be going in the opposite direction of where we thought our destination lay.

We decided to take the long way around, adding 10 minutes to our trip. I have no idea where we would have ended up if we took the unmarked road (just about all the other side roads are labeled in some way — perhaps with the names of the people who live on them? We really did not put in any effort to learn about the language here, so it’s tough to tell.

Happily, though a tad later than expected, we made it to destination 2, the largest goat farm in the nation. Among the draws were goat’s milk ice cream, plus sampling of fresh cheese. But, c’mon, this was the real draw of the Icelandic Goat Center at Haafell.

This farm, inspired several decades ago when an Icelandic farm girl read Heidi, has almost single-handedly preserved the breed of Icelandic goats that has remained undiluted since original settlers arrived more than 1,000 years ago. It also supplied goats for a Game of Thrones scene involving a dragon.

Peppermint flavored goat’s milk ice cream — served in a reusable canning jar

We lingered here for quite a while — the goat’s milk ice cream proved to be a winner and we picked up some cheese for our picnic, too. But our timetable got pushed even a little further back.

We pushed on along the ring and found that driving itself was a satisfactory way to pass the time. The landscape took on a very accute resemblance to the American West, with wide valleys, steep cliffs and lots of open space.

Our third stop for the day was a quick hike around a volcanic crater, not terribly unlike the one was saw yesterday — except this one was several thousand years removed from bubbling lava. It was right by the side of the road, and a wooden staircase led us to the top. Then we circled the crater, taking in views in all directions.

Actually, there were three craters here. We were able to climb and walk along the biggest one. The crater hike and the waterfalls earlier in the day were very quick visits — and definitely worth the time. Because of our late start, though, and the goat farm (also worth the time), we were starting to foresee problems.

It was already almost 4 pm and we hadn’t had our picnic yet. Plus, we were meant to check into our hotel by 8 pm, and we still had a significant amount of driving to do.

Our picnic wound up in an un-scenic rest area/gas station by the side of road, and our afternoon soak in a geothermal infinity pool had to get cut out entirely. These are a few of the repercussions of being behind in the timetable.

On the bright side, we got to see a lot of Iceland while we were driving, and as we entered the northern part of the country the American West scenery evolved into alpine Europe. More accurately, it was alpine on one side and ocean on the other, which I don’t think even Europe can offer.

Sheep are omnipresent

The water side — a little precarious

American West

Alpine with ocean

Stepping into downtown Siglufjörður

Our hosts in Siglufjörður were able to accommodate our late arrival — we checked in much closer to 9 pm than 8. Happily, we still had energy to roam this lovely small town in the late evening sunlight. Unfortunately, another consequence of our late arrival was that all businesses that might have provided us snacks were closed by the time we hit the streets. No fresh fish and chips for us — or even frozen Chinese food from the grocery story. Even the food trucks at the micro-brewery shut down minutes before we got there.

But, the beer was still flowing. So we had that going for us.

We’re staying at the northern tip of a peninsula on the northern end of Iceland, very close to the Arctic circle.