just another raveller

Getting back to the subject of our travels in Iceland this Spring, here are some of the things we saw and did on the way to Vik, a town on the southern coast of Iceland which, as it turns out, is a centre for hand knitting. We had hardly started out when we decided that we had to stop to take this photo in Selfoss. The water was almost this turquoise colour. Yes it was. A little past Selfoss is the fibre paradise known as Þingborg. I'm not sure how to describe this place. They have a shop, but it seems there is another part to it, further down the road, where there are almost certainly fibre related activities going on. Their website is all in Icelandic, but you can tell it's not just a shop. The woman in the shop spoke English. I was too reserved to ask many questions. Now I'm sorry that I didn't. She asked me if I spun and I said that I used to, for my mother and she gave me a look look that said, "I know your type." Oh, and there was an extremely cute dog ...

When I returned from vacation last week, Iceland was still very present in my mind. I was convinced that each evening I would write a post detailing one day of travel. Ha ha. A week later, overcome by the day to day, I've begun to loose the thread. And, of course, there are new things to report.  So, I've decided to abandon the chronological approach and just see where things go. Of course, I will start with knitting. My airplane knitting project was a a birthday present and I can't show it yet. Before finishing it, when I came to the nupps section (hint for knitters), my bamboo needle broke. A search for a replacement led to my first visit to an Icelandic yarn shop, in  Hveragerði . It's in their mall, right when you come into town off the main highway, on the right. The shop is quite similar to our yarn shops (and so are their grocery stores) except that they have plenty of Icelandic yarn.  In addition to finding needles, I was anxious to try out  Plötulopi ,  an unsp...

The flight from Boston was only 5 hours, bringing us into Keflavik at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday. The sun was shining in a bright blue sky and work was far away. As soon as we stepped outside, however, we thought perhaps we'd made a big mistake. The wind blew hard and steady from somewhere. I could barely hang on to my suitcase on the way to the car. The drive from Keflavik airport to Rejkyavik is quite barren, belying the beautiful scenery that is so abundant in the rest of the country. We were driving to Hveragerði which meant that we had to skirt the city and veer east. I don't know about you, but driving through a strange city on a mind full of doubt after a sleepless night generally results in wrong turns, and well, stress. From the sea, the mountains, or the glaciers, it didn't matter. The wind came at us like a non stop train. This went on for 2 days. It began to remind me of another island vacation in the Atlantic where the wind was so relentless that after ...

Two weeks in Iceland with a car. No phone, no internet, no tv, newspaper, radio. None of it. Oh, and especially no pollen. Up in the morning to a good breakfast. Hit the road, hike all day through the volcanic landscape, walking off the stress of work and home... Then into a hot tub full of spring water heated naturally underground, followed by dinner and an excellent sleep. Repeat 14 times. Oh, and shopping.... This trip is in my top three best ever. Stay tuned.