Ramble On

An edited version of this post appears in the TFCA Current this month, but I wanted to post the extended version here.   I never look forward to winter.  I cower under the dark, bleak cold. It makes me draw inward. This past summer, I saw a production of William Shakespeare's  A Winter's Tale , which has both redeemed the name of Winter for me, and also given me reason to reevaluate how I think about the season.    Long after I saw the play, my mind kept returning to the final scene.  It develops around the statue of Hermione, the virtuous and long-suffering victim of her husband's misconceptions. Leontes, Hermione's husband and King of Sicilia, and Paulina, Hermione's faithful servant, enter with the rest of the characters.  The scene opens under the assumption that everyone in the room is gazing at Hermione's uncanny likeness carved from stone.  The guilt-ridden king sincerely laments the wrong he has done:   "I am ashamed: does n...

We woke up the next morning ready to tackle the last of our road tours: Snaefellsnes peninsula.  The way we were pronouncing the name, it sounded more like Snapple-sneeze.  We found out from our chef at the restaurant on Saturday night that it was pronounced Sn-AY-fell-snis. However you say it, it certainly held the most stunning views of our entire trip.  We headed north out of Reykjavik around 8am, getting to our first stop on the Peninsula around 10am, just as the light was full and still low in the sky, creating a heavenly glow  against the cliffs and the huge breaking waves in Arnarstapi's overlook. It was dangerous to stand on the overlook for too long because, although it was clear and sunny, the winds were 50mph and it was hard to stay upright.  When we opened our car doors we had to hold on to them so they didn't fly away from us.  But my oh my...that view.  That sea!  I wish I had more to write for you about what we saw, ...

We spent basically all of our third day in Iceland in the car.  We were up by 7, hit the road by 8 and had a four hour drive along the south coast out to Vatnajokull glacier.  We went in search of Svartifoss waterfall, which is a short hike, but mostly we just wanted to drive along the coast and see the territory out there.  It was unbelievable. I never realized how much I love driving when I have beautiful unknown territory around me.  I was loving riding in our 4x4 on these roads, through a landscape that looked otherwordly in color and shape.  Kristen played DJ and we chatted, and the 4 hours passed quickly. Here's some of what we saw: The not-so-early morning sunrise in Iceland's winter (9:00am)  Country church in Vik Further east along the southern Ring Road - frozen ponds, glaciers, and volcanoes abound.  Rt 1 near Eyjafjallajokull (yeah, THAT volcano that shut down Europe in 2010) We arrived at Skaftafell, which is at the...

I woke up a few times during the night since by body was still quite confused about what time it was, but ended up getting a pretty good stretch of rest in the end.  I woke up around 9am on Thursday morning ready to take on the Golden Circle, the most famous sights within easy reach of the capital and a must for visitors.   Morning broke in Reykjavik much clearer than the previous day, giving us renewed hope in the possibility of surviving our trip to Iceland and actually being able to see things. View from our hotel room window on Thursday morning.   Kristen and I opted to rent a car and do everything ourselves instead of going the tour company route, although there are plenty of options in that category.  As with most things, I just like to design my own itinerary and do it at my own speed and stop where I want to stop, and not have someone dictating those things.  So we set off from our hotel, our suitcase of food in tow.* We drove through the cent...

This trip has been a glimmer in my eye for so long, it’s hard to believe it’s now over.  I’m on my way home from Reykjavik now.  My co-worker Kristen and I are both avid travelers and when the amazing deals for Iceland started coming fast and furious to our inboxes, we couldn’t resist.  We both decided back in November that we wanted to see the Northern Lights and so we booked a trip over a few random days in February our office gives us off each year. Even in late February, when I should be heading south in search of sun and some reprieve from the bitter cold and ice of this 2014-2015 DC winter, somehow this year it was very important to me to fully embrace winter.  This means looking for beauty and joy even in the ice, snow and cold.  I can wholeheartedly recommend Iceland to anyone in the Winter months.  Hopefully you won’t need to read this whole thing, you’ll only need to see some of the pictures to agree.   So we set off on a Tuesday to...