Stockholm, Sweden

Oops! I was looking through my blog posts and found the draft of a post for our visit to Stockholm, Sweden...apparently I never finished writing about our cruise back in the summer! Luckily I wrote in my little travel journal, otherwise I don't think I would remember much of anything (I have a terrible memory). 

I do remember that Stockholm was extremely beautiful and very much centered around the water. Stockholm actually consists of a bunch of little islands, so you walk across bridges to get from place to place within the city. We started out in the old town area of Gamla Stan, which consisted of narrow, windy, and cobbled streets. Gamla Stan is where the Stockholm Palace (or Royal Palace) is located, so we got to check that out as well. 

Narrow streets of Gamla Stan

Outside of the Stockholm Palace

The Stockholm Palace

Next we walked to Kungsträdgården, which is a park in one of the more modern parts of Stockholm.  We stopped in at a restaurant called Max (we of course chose it because that is our dog's name) to have lunch, and when we came out, the band and marching processional were going by on their way to the Royal Palace for the Changing of the Guard. I had wanted to see it, but we weren't sure the timing was going to work out, so it was a pleasant surprise. It was an impressive processional, with several different groups taking part in the spectacle. 

Changing of the Guard processional

Changing of the Guard processional

Next we hopped on the "Hop On Hop Off" boat that went around to the different islands, and got off at Djurgården, which is where the Vasa Museum is located. Normally, Thomas and I don't care to spend a whole lot of time in museums. I understand that to some people museums are the main draw of a location, but personally we prefer to take in the atmosphere and local culture...and the food. We do enjoy some museums, mostly ones dealing with semi-recent historical events, and if one sounds particularly interesting to us, we will definitely check it out. Stockholm has A TON of museums, and the one that caught our eye was the Vasa Museum, which has an almost complete 17th century ship on display. She sunk on her maiden voyage, less than a mile into her journey. The museum was extremely well done, and fascinating to wander through. It contained a movie about the building, sinking, and recover of the ship, timelines of the events, artifacts found on the ship, and a model of part of the ship that we could walk through. Perhaps the most interesting, and surprising, part of the museum to me was the skeletons of some of the passengers onboard the Vasa when she sank. They had the skeletons laid out, along with information about that person - how old they probably were, what kind of health they were in, and (if applicable) the location they were on the ship when it sank and even what they may have been doing. For example, below is an excerpt of what was discovered about 'Fillip':

The individual F, "Filip", was probably a sailor who died at his post. He was c. 30 years old, 163 cm tall and had a set of teeth that gave him a special smile.  He was found in the steering cabin where he was probably an oarsman. He was close to a safe exit at the time of the catastrophe, by a short ladder to the upper deck, but seems to have chosen to stay below. Perhaps he died trying to turn the ship so that she could stand upright again.

It was just incredible to me that they could glean so much information from the skeletons, and really make the tragedy more real and relatable, even though it happened so long ago. This museum was definitely one of the highlights of our visit to Stockholm.  

Thomas was anxious to go inside the museum!

The Vasa

One of the skeletons from the Vasa

Thomas and I outside of the Vasa Museum

The most scenic part of our cruise (to me at least) was our journey through the Swedish archipelago. There were so many little islands that we cruised past, many of which had people's homes on them - what a wonderful place to live, although I imagine it must be pretty isolated. :) That was such a great way to end our cruise, it was definitely a trip we will never forget!

Thomas feeding the birds popcorn - they would eat it right out of his hand!

Cruising through the Swedish archilepago - check out that house!

Cruising through the Swedish archipelago 

Blue Lagoon

The Blue Lagoon was somewhere I've always thought is beautiful and fascinating, but I never dreamed I'd actually get a chance to go there. To be honest, Iceland was never really on my travel radar until my husband brought it to my attention, and I'm so glad he did. Going to the Blue Lagoon was one of the highlights of our trip, and we went on a very special day - Thomas' birthday (in case you missed my previous post from his birthday). Thomas also requested that we get massages while at the lagoon; he's so generous to share his birthday treat with me. :)

Thomas after his massage

We could see the steam rising off the Blue Lagoon as we approached on the bus, and we could smell the sulfur too. Luckily the smell seemed to disappear once we were actually inside, which was a relief. When we arrived we each were given a bracelet which was our locker key, charge card, etc for the duration of our stay - it was very convenient. We went in our separate locker rooms where we changed and were supposed to shower completely naked before entering the lagoon. Um, thanksbutnothanks. I rinsed off very thoroughly in my swimsuit, and ran outside to take some pictures before my toes froze and fell off completely.

Being in the lagoon was just so incredibly relaxing. It was an odd, but great, feeling to be in water that was 100 degrees Fahrenheit while the outside temperature was below freezing - and it was snowing! In the lagoon there were tubs of mineral rich mud that is collected from the rocks there, and they advise guests to put it on our faces for about ten minutes; it's supposed to be great for your skin and it felt really refreshing. One last random tidbit - the water in the lagoon is renewed every forty hours, which made me feel confident that it was pretty sanitary, even if rebels like us don't shower in the buff before getting in. ;)

Birthday beer!

ATVing in Iceland

Who has two thumbs, no fear, and dominated the ATV ride in Iceland?! This girl! This was definitely my favorite activity on our Iceland trip - I have a little need for speed but still like to be in control, so quadding is definitely my idea of a good time. I can go very fast, but can also be sure that I will be able to stop when I want to, unlike horseback riding for example. :) 

We drove about twenty minutes outside of the city for our ride, and were right at the base of a bunch of mountains. The scenery while we were riding was unbelievable - we had snowy mountains where cars aren't able to travel, grassy mountains, lava fields, extremely rocky terrain, and normal roads where we could really kick it up a notch. It was raining or snowing for our entire ride, but somehow it didn't even matter, in fact I think that made it even more fun! We drove through water, snow, lava, dirt, and lots and lots of mud - theres just something so satisfying abut kicking up a huge spray of mud and water! The highlight of the trip for me was when we came to an area with fresh snow, and the guide tried to drive through and got stuck and had to reverse out, and then the other guy on the tour tried and had to reverse out, but when I tried I totally made it all the way through and forged the path for everyone else! As the only girl on the trip I felt pretty satisfied with myself (hehe). This was definitely the best ATV ride we've ever been on!

We also stopped at the Volcano House in the city center, which had two short films about two of the most recent and devastating volcano eruptions in Iceland. The first was the eruption of Heimaey in the Westman Islands in 1973, and it was really amazing to see how quickly the city was able to rebuild, especially since volunteers were the driving force behind almost all of the clean up and reconstruction efforts. They also mentioned that the U.S. troops stationed at the then-operational Air Force base near Reykjavik helped out with the recovery efforts; it's heartwarming to me to see good relations between the U.S. military and other countries. :) The second eruption that was covered in the video was the one we were more familiar with, the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull, which is in southern Iceland. We remembered this volcano because its ash cloud was responsible for shutting down airports across Europe and stranding millions of travelers. However, the employee at the Volcano House told us that another volcano called Grimsvotn erupted in 2011, and it produced more erupted material than the eruption in 2010.  However, since the wind carried its ash in a different direction, and the ash fell out of the atmosphere more quickly than in the 2010 eruption,  it didn't have as much of a global impact and didn't even make mainstream media (that I know about at least). I just thought it was fascinating that such a huge natural disaster occurred, but most of the world probably wasn't even aware that it had happened. 

Me at the Volcano House with some lava rocks

On a lighter note, we capped off our volcano experience with a visit to the hot dog stand that Bill Clinton himself visited when he was in Reykjavik. We were assured that they were the best hot dogs in town, and the didn't disappoint. Lastly, we couldn't finish our day without a second visit to the ice cream/crepe store next to our apartment. I got a Nutella and Snickers crepe...ohmygoodness it was so delicious!

Yum!

Oh hey, Bill.

I like food...can you tell?! ;)

Horseback Riding in Iceland

When I was a young Girl Scout I would go away to horseback riding camp every summer for about a week, and I loved it. When a horseback riding tour through a lava field popped up during my planning for Iceland I thought "Yes please!" We had been seeing the horses all over Iceland, and to me they look more like super cute oversized ponies than the ginormous horses we are used to in the States. All of the riders got assigned to horses, and since all of us had minimal experience we were assured our horses were calm and experienced to handle our horseback riding skills (or lack thereof). 

Getting ready for our ride

Once we all got up into the saddles (which was trickier than I thought it would be - that sucker was much taller than I thought!) we headed off on our tour. It was an extremely windy day, and I was just plodding along wondering if my nose was still attached to my face since I could no longer feel it. All of a sudden I see some commotion ahead of me, and the next thing I know one of the riders is flat on her back and her horse is running away from her and eventually lays down and starts rolling on the ground! It all happened so fast, and the guides calmly but quickly had the rest of us dismount our horses until everything was under control. Apparently the wind was whipping the plastic covering on the hay bales which spooked that horse and had it running a little too fast, so the rider decided it'd be better to bail off the horse. She was such a champ - she didn't cry or mope around, she just smiled and hopped back on her horse once it had calmed down. Even though I wasn't the one who had fallen, I was still a little freaked out. It was SUPER windy and I was just worried something else flapping or blowing in the wind would spook the horses, but luckily that was the only incident for the day.

Thomas getting ready to go!

Aside from the crazy wind, the rest of the ride went pretty well. The scenery wasn't quite as great as I had hoped for, but to be honest I was too busy worrying unnecessarily about falling off my horse to pay a whole lot of attention to my surroundings. We stopped at the halfway point to allow the horses some time to snack on grass, but Thomas' horse ate a whole pile of horse poop! We were laughing so hard because it reminded us of our dog Zoe who also eats poop - so disgusting/hilarious. Apparently Thomas' horse was new to walking in a single file line and it kept popping out of line and trying to maneuver its way to the front, but Thomas kept him in check and in line. :) It was a fun little ride, and near the end I was feeling comfortable enough to actually enjoy the little bouts of trotting that we would do, but I was glad when the ride was over - mainly to get out of the wind. If you are a horse lover then this would be a good little excursion, but if you're doing it to see the lava fields then I would recommend another way to do so. The guides were great and experienced, and made us feel safe and calm, so if you want to go horseback riding in Iceland I would recommend Hestar, they were perfect for beginners like us!

Scenery along our ride

Me and my well-behaved, non-poop-eating horse ;)

The Hallgrímskirkja church was right up the road from our apartment, so we walked on over to check it out up close. The architect who designed the church wanted it to resemble the lava flows that are so common in Icelandic landscape, and I think he did a great job of portraying that. Inside the church was very plain, but it was actually a refreshing change of pace from all of the ornate churches and cathedrals that we have seen elsewhere in Europe. It was also beautiful when it was all lit up at night (or early afternoon ha), definitely worth a trip to view this church. 

Hallgrímskirkja church

Me and my new Icelandic friend :)

Iceland - Glacier Hiking & Ice Climbing

Although glacier hiking and ice climbing sounded fun and exciting to me when I booked this adventure in Iceland, by the time it rolled around I was scared out of my pants. I'm not a huge fan of heights, so ice climbing was a little out of my realm, and I'm prone to falling in normal, non-slippery conditions, so walking around on a glacier all day just seemed like an accident waiting to happen. However, my sweet husband really wanted to try it and on his birthday week I was not about to deny him this adventure! 

I was not surprised when this day turned out to be a ton of fun - I am a worrier, but once I do something it usually works out just fine. We had two guides for our hike, one leading us and one in back to make sure no one fell into any crevasses. Thankfully no one did. ;) The glacier we went to was called Sólheimajökull, and it was about 2.5 hours outside of Reykjavik. It was well worth the drive though, it was just stunning when we got there! I'd never seen a glacier before so I was just expecting a big chunk of ice, but this was a beautiful creation of BLUE ice. I don't know if all glaciers are as blue as this one, but it was just magnificent to see, and pictures don't do it justice. Our guides explained that the ice was blue because there is a lot less air in the ice because it is so compacted, whereas the ice we would have in our freezer contains much more air, and is therefore more white in appearance. 

Getting ready to hike the glacier!

Before we began our glacier hike we were all provided with a pick axe, crampons for our shoes to allow us to walk on the ice without slipping (I feel like I need some of those for everyday use in the winter ha), and a harness for the ice climbing. To make sure that your crampons are in the ice securely you really have to walk flat footed, and stomp your foot into the ground to get a good grip, especially around the steeper parts of the hike. I was just stomping around everywhere - I wasn't taking any chances! We went up the glacier and got to see a ton of moulins (pronounced like Moulin Rouge), which are shafts from the surface of the glacier that carry water in the warmer months to its exit at the bottom of the glacier. These were slightly terrifying to me since they were SO deep, but we did get to go into one that was horizontal, and it was spectacular to see how the water had carved out and shaped the inside of the tunnel. 

Crampon on my shoe

Volcano ash on top of the ice

Stunning!

Thomas and the other hikers

Thomas coming out of the moulin

Once we made it back down the glacier, it was time to try our hand at ice climbing on an ice wall near the base of the glacier. Our guides prepared the ropes and anchors and then let us give it a try. There were two 'spikes' on the front of our crampons that we were supposed to dig into the wall in order to get our footing in the ice, and then we used two ice picks to help pull us up the wall. It sounded and looked easier than it was - that was hard work! Thomas made it up very high, but I only made it about a third of the way up the wall before my arms and legs were trembling with exhaustion. Apparently I need to work out more. :) I'm happy I tried it though, and happy we did this adventure - I can't believe we got to hike around on a blue glacier! 

The ice wall we (mostly Thomas) climbed

Thomas dominating the ice wall

Me giving it a go...

On our way back to Reykjavik we stopped at Skógafoss waterfall, one of the biggest waterfalls in Iceland - it was beautiful! You could walk right up to the base of the waterfall, or hike up the trail off to the side and view the waterfall from the top. We were exhausted from our day of hiking and climbing, so we opted to stay at the base. ;)

Skófagoss waterfall

Thomas in front of Skófagoss