Ice Cream Day!

Last Sunday was ice cream day - or, as more commonly known, Sundae on the Common. This great initiative by Ben & Jerry's involves listening to bands and eating unlimited Ben & Jerry's ice cream. What else does one need in life?

We got there fairly early, when there were no queues and you could just walk up and get any ice cream you liked. It wasn't early enough to get a spot in the shade though.


There were so many flavours to try: Chocolate Fudge Brownie (the best!), Cookie Dough (very good), Baked Alaska (disappointingly plain), Bohemian Raspberry (worst of the day), Caramel Chew Chew (very good), Jamaican Me Crazy (not sure about the pineapple bits), Mango Berry Swirl (flavourful sorbet), Mint Choc Chunk (very good), Phish Food (chocolate ice cream, so has to be good) and Chunky Monkey (good if you like lolly banana flavouring). Yes, I did try all of those, but I admit I minimised the ratio of cone to ice cream. You could stamp a card every time you got an ice cream - and even the server was surprised at how quickly I got to 7!


The rest of the time was spent visiting the Flavour Graveyard (see right), watching toe fights, coming so disastrously last in the egg and spoon race that people clapped when I finally finished and failing to knock W off a stand with a plastic bommyknocker (although he didn't knock me off either!). The bands were mostly good, (apart from the terrible fill in band) and the sun was getting to people, so we missed Ash. We had tried to guess which way the sun would move - and we guessed wrong.

It was a wonderful way to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon in London - and I will be making sure I have tickets next year too!

Belgium

We wanted to go away, we craved some sunshine, yet W didn't want to get on a plane. Fortunately, Eurostar came to the rescue and in 3 hours we were out of London and in Belgium. (For the record, Eurostar is fantastic - no long check ins, no 1 hour waits at passport control, no treks out to distant airports. Fantastic!)


We didn't have much of plan for Brussels. Well, that's not completely true, we did plan to stuff ourselves with mussels (despite it being out of season) and eat a waffle at every meal (didn't even come close), but it was a relaxing, rambling holiday.


It didn't take long to take in the Grand Palace (certainly very grand), Mannekin Pis (extremely disappointing) and other usual tourist sights, so we found ourselves spending a lot of time lounging around in parks. We broke this up by visiting the Museum of Musical Instruments, succumbing to a chocolate tasting, admiring the Atomium (see left) (admiring the fact they could turn a building from Expo 58 into a tourist destination) and enjoying al fresco dining.


This was also our first time couchsurfing. Our host was great, quite a character, and took us to dinner at her friend's (also quite a character). There we learnt about graphic novels, medieval role playing and how atrocious our didgeridoo skills are.


On our last day we took the train to Bruges. We had been warned by the trusty Lonely Planet that it was a charming place in a tacky way. So we tackled it by embarking on all the tacky, touristy activities. We had a set meal in a restaurant by the Burg, went on a river cruise (see top right), climbed the Belfry, but didn't see any dwarves. And we learnt useless little facts - did you that people boarded up their windows as they were taxed per window? (see left) A great way to finish a restful trip.

Legoland

So you were expecting photos and ramblings about Legoland hey? Well, having left London early on a Saturday morning, we were expecting to make it there by midday. What we didn't count on, was a parade of returning soldiers (I think that's what it was) which meant all the roads out of Windsor were blocked.


After a few hours of waiting, we did manage to catch the right bus to the land of the little, plastic blocks. The first stop was Miniland which, as you might expect, is a mini recreation of cities around the world in Lego (with a definite bias to European cities). The attention to detail was amazing and it's strange seeing familiar London scenes, such as the Tower of London, the Gherkin, soccer pitches (with streaker) and the Tube in miniature.


We were drawn in by the countdown at the space station and hung around until it was time for lift off. It must be noted that you shouldn't be allowed to have a countdown unless you are counting down to something (even vaguely) significant. It must also be noted, that if you cannot see any strings, pulleys, cogs or other moving parts, it most likely means that what you're studying is not going to move. The 'takeoff' of the rocket was the most underwhelming event of the day (yes, it beat the parade) as it was just a tiny puff of smoke under a stationary model of a rocket. Grrr.


Pulling ourselves away from Miniland we headed towards the rides. During the rest of the afternoon, I realised three quite obvious things: 1) Kids live shows can be painfully boring - I am long past the days where people running around in costume, following a very thin plot is amusing. Although I am told the show improved in ridiculousness, if not in quality. 2) Kids can be quite violent. You give kids some Lego blocks to play with and they won't fit them together or build structures. They will slam them on the table, fling them on the floor and throw them at each other. And I learnt all this because 3) Lines at amusement parks are very very very long. I had forgotten just how long.


We were lucky to have a sunny day though, which made waiting around (and the rides where kids splashed everyone with more water than the ride necessitated) much more enjoyable. We went on the Jungle Coaster, Vikings' River Splash, Long Boat Invader and were spinning the fastest on the Spinning Spider. Finally it was time to leave (but not without Lego muffin tins as a souvenir) for the train ride back to London.

Bless Iceland

It was finally time to head home (and pack for Costa Rica). Overall, Iceland was a great place to visit: with its volcanic & geothermal landscape, its high standard (and cost) of living, its American influence (surprising) and its abundance of horse riding tours and geothermal swimming pools (guaranteed in almost every town). We wouldn't go again, but were very happy we went.

Food and lagoon

Our last full day was spent as it should be: eating and relaxing. We tried to visit 'the lobster soup' place in Stokkseyri, but it was closed, so we went to its rival, Rauða húsið (The Red House) in Eyrarbakki instead. We had some fantastic hommus, very good lobster and bottomless soup (to W's delight).


After finally giving up on the idea of the ski resorts opening, we went to the Blue Lagoon. Despite its obvious pandering to tourists, it is extremely well run and a pretty impressive place. I finally got my massage: you lie on a floating mat with a warm, wet towel draped over you, and while your back is massaged, you can gaze up at the blue sky - absolute bliss! W had scoped out the place, so we visited the 'hot' area, floated among the 'clouds', got pelted / massaged by the waterfall, tried out the steam bath (wet heat) and sauna (dry heat) and put mud on our face to make it silky smooth. Then finished the day with the best fish and chips we've had this side of the world: fresh and crisply battered fish, crunchy potatoes and 8 types of skyrronaise to dip the potatoes in (ranging from curry to basil to wasabi) (see above right).

Golden Circle and more

This was our driving day (see right). First stop was the inviting-sounding NLFÍ clinic, where we hoped to book massages. We were led through sterile, hospital-like corridors and left outside a room to wait. No one came out of it, and after watching old people shuffling past and noticing the eerie photos on the wall, we decided to quietly escape.


After getting hesitant confirmation from petrol station staff that roads were open, we set off in icy conditions in our 4WD. We drove down Route 26 towards Mt Hekla (see left), a volcano that goes off roughly every 10 years (last time was Feb 2000) and saw about 2
other travellers in the 3 hours of driving.

As our only map of that road stated that it was '...not meant for use during actual travelling...' (I only realised once we were well and truly on our way), it was extremely exciting when we finally reached a road sign confirming our location - so exciting, in fact, that it warranted a photograph (see right).


We continued on to the famous Golden Circle: firstly Gulfoss (see left), a waterfall that looked even more impressive when you took the extremely icy and slightly scary path to get closer. Our next stop was Geyser - well, Geyser is no longer erupting, so we were really there to see Strokkur (see below right), which was.

After a few failed attempts to capture it (it went off every 8-10 minutes), we moved onto Þingvellir (see below left). This was the original
seat of Parliament, but most of the sights were covered in snow, so we admired the rift (between the North American and European plates), then set off to Reykjavík.


As I had a hand in planning it, dinner was a long affair. Firstly, tasty lobster soup in polystyrene tubs with fresh bread from Sægreifinn (Sea Baron) near the harbour; then we tried puffin (surprisingly tough; in between duck and lamb according to W) and lamb at Við Tjörnina (By the Lake), a fancy restaurant filled with loud foreigners; and finally ended up in our favourite cafe (if you can have a favourite in only 2 days) for dessert.

Back to Reykjavík

We arrived back in Reykjavík later than expected (due to flight delays), but picked up our car and finally got to see the town. After some lamb (very tender), fish soup and nachos at a cafe, we rugged up and went on a personal walking tour, with me (and the Lonely Planet) as our guide (starting at the statue of Ingólfur Arnason).


Almost everything was closed, so after a visit to one of the art galleries (the building being more impressive than the art itself), we headed off to Hveragerði. Due to me missing a road sign, it took a lot longer than it should have, but we still made it to the slightly run down, almost deserted hotel. But it had a hot tub and sauna, so we were happy :)