Snaefellsnes and Grundarfjordur

Left Hotel Laxnes today and drove 160 kms to Grundarfjordur on the Snaefellsnes peninsula. 

Stunning scenery along the way and some challenging driving conditions.

 Made it safe and sound to The Hotel Framnes www.hotelframnes.is just in time for the Liverpool vs Swansea game. How lucky was that?

Exceptionally happy with our hotel room - especially the view. 

Today I learned some more things:

1. In Icelandic the days of the week and months of the year do not start with a capital letter.

2. A heated front seat in a car is a wonderous thing, especially when it's -8 outside

Alafoss, Reykjavik and birthday no. 1 (0r 51 to be precise)

 28.11.15

Today we celebrated hubby's birthday with a bracing walk into the town of Alafoss. This town was used as a site for a British army camp after we invaded Iceland in 1940. We did this to stop Germany invading them first! It was all about protecting the Atlantic shipping lanes. Britain couldn't maintain the invasion force as our troops were needed on the front lines so the US took over the invasion on our behalf, and bizarrely, at Icelands invitation. 

After our walk we got the bus into Reykjavik. I didn't take any photos there. To be honest I was a little disappointed. There were a lot of very touristy shops which all sold hats, jumpers and socks, of varying quality, all made from Icelandic wool. It felt a bit like being in a very large Edinburgh Woollen Mill shop back home! 

By the way - we found Sven the reindeer from Frozen - oops!

2 weeks and 2 birthdays in Iceland - are we mad?

26.11.15
We arrived in Iceland after an uneventful flight from Manchester with Easyjet.

Picked up our 4x4, complete with snow tyres, from Thrifty only to be asked by the lad on the desk
 "Are you mad - 2 weeks in Iceland, in winter- why?" I wasn't sure how to answer him really but hopefully, after I've shared our adventures in Iceland with you, you'll understand why.

After picking up our car we found our way to the main road in Iceland, called The One, and easily found our way to the Hotel Laxnes (it helps that it is opposite the biggest KFC I have ever seen in my life).

We are in the Hotel Laxnes for 3 nights. It is warm, the staff are friendly and helpful, the beds are comfy, and you can make your own waffles at breakfast! www.hotellaxnes.is

27.11.15
The Golden Triangle

After a leisurely breakfast of coffee and waffles we waited until the sun came up (at 10.30am) before we set off on our drive.
The Golden Triangle takes in the key sights of Thingvellir, Geysir and Gullfoss.

Thingvellir is a National Park and has breathtaking scenery

Geysir is - well - it's one big Geysir really and lots of little ones that just seem to belch and hiccup

Gullfoss (Foss is waterfall in Icelandic) is staggeringly beautiful. Apparently it part freezes in Winter. It was -14 today but that's not cold enough (!)

We were out for about 6 hours. Hubby did all the driving and I did all the navigating. Both were quite challenging at times. Lots of concentration needed for the snowy conditions and icy roads, difficult to know where you are when all the road signs are covered in snow. We survived though and we've learned a few things:

• Always take a coat out with you - somehow we forgot to today. Let's just say we won't be doing that again! We had waterproofs but they were pretty inadequate.
• Anti freeze in windscreen washer bottles doesn't work in -14 degrees. Carry bottles of water for cleaning windscreens.
• The boot of the car is perfect for storing leftover pizza (in the box) when you don't have a fridge in your room.
• 6" of snow is only classed as "light snow" - hate to think what "heavy snow" looks like.
• Sightseeing from the warmth of your car works just fine.

Tomorrow we're walking around the local town and then catching a bus into Reykjavik. 

The garden

So far I've blogged mostly about my travels. Today I'd like to show you my garden. I have never really had much interest in growing things and always used to view the garden as a space for the niece and nephew to play or for partying (our bonoween party used to be the stuff of legend - duck apple and pumpkins alongside a bonfire and fire works). My dad was the gardener in the family and he used to grow the same things every year. His borders had dahlias, chrysanthemums and marigolds and he grew tomatoes and cucumbers in his greenhouse. When he died I inherited his greenhouse and I took on the gardener role. Initially it was a way of still feeling close to my dad but over the years I have grown to love planting all the fruit and veg and then cooking with it. Nothing gives me more pleasure than serving up a pasta sauce that is made entirely from ingredients grown in my own garden. Tomatoes, onions, garlic and the basil all straight from soil to pan in half an hour. Here's a couple of before and after photos. The first was taken in May at the start of the growing season, the second in August all ready to harvest. It's not that difficult really. Nature wants to grow.

I've learned a few things about gardening and myself over the past few years. I now only grow what I like to eat. I grew runner beans for the first two years, they're a doddle to grow and look really pretty - pity I hate their taste! I filled the freezer with bags of them until I realised I was never going to eat them and threw them away - I hate waste too. I had to learn to be patient ( very difficult for me). In the first few years I was pulling carrots and onions out of the ground when I felt they should be ready resulting in a harvest of small carrots and onions. I now leave them as long as possible and the results are much more satisfying although I do still get the occasional comedy vegetable.........

Travel Guides

It's already been established that I love books so it's only natural that when I'm planning a trip I turn to travel guides. I generally go to our local library to check out if there are any guides for where I am going but sadly - with local funding cuts- our libraries seem to have fewer and fewer such books and any they have are quite old editions. They can still be useful though.

I also enjoy a good old mooch around a book shop - and if it's got a coffee shop attached then all the better. Near where I live there is a book shop called Linghams that also has a coffee shop attached. It's a fantastic local resource and frequently has guest authors, a book club, story time for kids and it sells the tickets for the local amateur dramatic productions. Check it out www.linghams.co.uk

Back to travel guides....

As can be seen from my bookshelf I have quite a collection of travel books.

I thought I had a preference for Rough Guides but actually the collection is split 50/50 between Rough Guides and Lonely Planet books. The books are useful not only for planning a trip but also while you are there. We were in Paris once and I had the Rough Guide to France with me. I read in it about the Catacombs, the underground store of human bones and we decided to visit - fabulous (if macabre) afternoon out. I had never heard of it before and it was thanks to the guide that I found it that visit. http://www.catacombes.paris.fr/

 I also like AA City Packs for the following reason. Years ago hubby and I went on a weekend city break to Madrid - it was our first city break and we didn't plan it at all really - just hopped on the plane, found our hotel and then wandered the streets. When we got back people were asking me "did you see, visit, try etc etc?" and I was quite disappointed that we had seen hardly anything. Next time we did a city break it was to Barcelona and I bought the AA City Pack and took it with us - soooo much better. Using their recommended Top 10 we decided what we wanted to see as a priority and what we'd see if we could fit it in. Worked out brilliantly. We never go on a city break without one now and the books get passed around friends and family so are well used.

I know with all our portable technology it is easy to google a destination and check out what's around but I like the fact that with the books I only need some light (and sadly these days my glasses!) and I have instant access to the information without worrying about battery life, signal, roaming charges etc etc.

Jo x

Booking accommodation

I'm in the middle of booking a big road trip round America.

We're going in June and I know certain areas, especially around the National Parks like Yellowstone, can be booked up a year in advance so I'm booking hotels now.

I thought I'd share how I go about it with you.

Here is the list of websites that I'd recommend you sign up to before you start searching:

Quidco - www.quidco.com If you are not familiar with Quidco it is quite simple. You earn cash back on products and services you buy from companies that are linked to Quidco.

Trip Advisor - www.tripadvisor.com not only gives you reviews of hotels, restaurants and activites, it will also do price comparisons for hotels  if you put in your dates of travel.

These are the 2 main ones but I am also registered with booking.com www.booking.com, hotels.com www.hotels.com and expedia.www.expedia.com. Hotels.com gives you a free night stay for every 10 nights you book and stay for, Expedia gives you Nectar points (for those of us with a nectar card).

So here's what I did using my recent search for a hotel in New York.

1. Opened trip advisor and looked for hotels in New York for the dates I wanted to travel. You can view the hotels in various order ie price high to low, ranking etc. I usually look at hotels in price order low to high. I had an idea of the area I wanted to stay in (Times Square) so I looked on the map and found a couple I thought would be ideally located.
2. Read the reviews. I always think of myself as a middle of the road sort of person. That is I don't want the best or worst - just something in between. I read the best and worst reviews but tend to trust the more moderate, balanced reviews as they feel, to me, somewhat more believable. As you know from previous blogs I don't mind not having a view or a balcony but I really like an en suite so if I read "shared bathroom" I move onto the next hotel. 
3. Having chosen accommodation (Radio City Apartments in case you're interested) I looked at the price comparisons listed next to the dates I wanted to travel and noted that all booking agents listed (which co-incidentally were the 3 main ones I use) had the same price for my dates.
4. Opened Quidco and went through to each of the 3 companies to search via them and confirmed that the prices were all the same. They were. In the end I booked through Hotels.com because they were offering 12% cashback via Quidco (Booking.com was 6%) plus it was 2 more nights towards a free one.
5. I have a Clarity (Halifax) credit card which doesn't charge a currency transaction fee so always use this to book accommodation abroad.
6. I received an immediate confirmation from Hotels.com and within 24 hours I had an email from Quidco informing me the cash back on my £350 stay had been tracked and would be £42. 

Sometimes Trip Advisor can't list price comparisons and you have to book direct with the hotel. Always check if it's part of a chain and if so - do they have a loyalty scheme? If it does - register.

I did this for a hotel by Mount Rushmore. Simply by joining the loyalty scheme online I got $30 off the room I booked.

I really enjoy this whole process and can spend hours searching before I book anywhere.

Hope this may help some of you out there.

Boston next :-)

Jo 

Julia

I have osteo arthritis.

As my rheumotologist describes it, it is "generalised, widespread osteoarthritis" which means it is everywhere, every joint, every day.

It decidedly does not bring me joy, and as such is not really a topic for my blog, however it does have one huge thing in it's favour - because of it I found Julia.

Julia describes her treatments best - check out www.marmaladesearth.com

Julia provides massage therapy in the comfort of your own home so is perfect for anyone who may be anxious about leaving the house or going to new unfamiliar places. I tried various massage therapists before coming across Julia but for all of them I had to travel to their place of business. That's not an issue for me but following an hour of reflexology (treatment on your feet) the last thing I want to do is drive home - it rather defeats the object of having the treatment to be honest.

When Julia leaves I just plop onto my own sofa and enjoy the only period of time I have when I am pain free in my feet. Julia will blend oils to your personal taste (I'm an old Trog so the house usually smells of patchouli oil on a Friday evening) and always leaves me the left over oil so I can use it up in the days between treatments.

Just 2 points - Julia only provides treatments for women and you can't have her every other Friday as that's when she comes to me.

Jo