Hello All,
We thought it was only right to put up one last post. I apologize that it took so long, but in the week since we've been back I've graduated from med school, Riley started his MBA and we bought a house. It's been a big week. All in all the trip was fantastic. We saw breathtaking views, ate lots of seafood (including a 7 lobster tail dinner on my last night in Iceland), saw an awful lot of cute farm animals and had some great experiences. I think if pushed Riley and I would probably agree that our favorite places were Scotland and Iceland, but the west coast of Ireland was pretty phenomenal as well. We hope to make it back to all of those places eventually (I'm trying to convince Riley to go back to Iceland in the winter...just think dog sleds and the northern lights!). For now though, we're happy to be home and able to see our friends and family...and it's back to work! I start my residency July 1st and as previously mentioned, Riley has already started his MBA classes. I hope everybody who read our blog enjoyed it...we certainly enjoyed creating it! Take care and enjoy the summer!
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Iceland Day 3-Blue Lagoon
On our last full day in Iceland we decided to relax our sore shoulders and backs (a reasonable price to pay for our horseride yesterday) in one of Iceland's most famous landmarks...the Blue Lagoon. You know how in most countries when there is accident involving a power plant people die and dangerous chemicals are leaked into communities? Well, in Iceland when there is a power plant accident you end up with a phenomenal health spa. I guess when you're power source is hot water, that makes sense. The Blue Lagoon is just that...a beautiful lagoon of milky blue water surrounded by other-wordly lava rocks full of minerals that are great for your skin. There's nothing better on a cold Icelandic spring day than to sit in 102 degree water that nourishes your skin and your mental health. It was the perfect way to spend the end of our trip around the North Atlantic islands before heading home to the states tomorrow.
Riley just outside the lagoon you swim in...taking in the highly unique surroundings.
It's a lagoon...what's not for a frog to love?
The water color was phenomenal!
Cold...right before we hopped in.
Taking in the view
It's floating head Riley.
God I'm so buff.
A lagoon cave
I'm not sure if Riley actually meant to get his toes in this picture or not.
Lava rocks covered in silica...they were as smooth as polished marble in places.
Really freakin' cold
Relaxing in a way you can only do in high salt content water.
I love how you can see the transition from just lava rock to lava rock covered in silica.
Riley chillin'
Riley just outside the lagoon you swim in...taking in the highly unique surroundings.
It's a lagoon...what's not for a frog to love?
The water color was phenomenal!
Cold...right before we hopped in.
Taking in the view
It's floating head Riley.
God I'm so buff.
A lagoon cave
I'm not sure if Riley actually meant to get his toes in this picture or not.
Lava rocks covered in silica...they were as smooth as polished marble in places.
Really freakin' cold
Relaxing in a way you can only do in high salt content water.
I love how you can see the transition from just lava rock to lava rock covered in silica.
Riley chillin'
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Iceland Day 2-The Interior
Today, Meg and I left the city to see some of Iceland's amazing landscape. Our first stop was a trip to a horse farm for some horseback riding on Icelandic horses. The horses are unique to Iceland and are well known for their unique gaits that all (?) other horses don't possess. We also found out at the farm that Iceland works so hard to ensure this breed is as pure as possible, no other horses are permitted on the island and any Icelandic horse that leaves the island (for show, competition, etc.) is not allowed to come back to the island--they mean business.
After we got our horses, we would soon find out how quickly Icelandic weather changes. It was pretty nice starting the trip and no more than 15 minutes in, it was sleeting. This wasn't midwestern sleet either, it was more like pea-sized hail being blown sideways at 30 mph. Safe to say it didn't feel very good on the face, even the horses were really bothered by it. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes and became sunny...only to do the same thing again 20 minutes later. Overall though, the horse ride was great. The scenery was incredible, the horses were very nice to ride (Meg's was a slow-poke though) and even got to ford a couple creeks on the horses, which was pretty cool.
After some lunch, one of the guided bus tours picked us up for the tour of the "Golden Circle." The first stop was at Þingvellir National Park. This was the site of Iceland, and the world's, first parliament over 1000 years ago. The park is pretty incredible as it's at the junction of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and has all these rifts and splits everywhere. From there, we were off to Gullfoss.
Neither Meg nor I had seen a large waterfall before and we would not be disappointed. Gullfoss was pretty incredible. The waterfall is actually a set of two waterfalls with an amazing backdrop. We hiked down as close to the waterfall as we could and got drenched, but it was totally worth it. We managed to get some incredible views and had an amazing little rainbow pop up for us while we were there. It was also interesting to find out that there's a monument at the waterfall to the lady who saved the waterfall from being turned into a power plant...it had been bought by foreigners.
Our trip ended at Geysir, the namesake for all around the world. Geyser itself isn't that active anymore, but the area is loaded with other geysirs. The most active one was Strokkur, which we got to see erupt 3 or 4 times in 30 minutes, very cool to see. It was amazing how hot the water was in some of the smaller ones, it made us look forward to our upcoming day at the Blue Lagoon. Enjoy the pics.
All geared up.
Us on our horses...my helmet was on really well.
A picture of Sigur Ros taking the same horse ride we did.
Meg with our "guide" on the horse ride.
That's my horse bucking, he was a little wild.
Þingvellir
Iceland's largest lake, evidently one of the clearest bodies of water in the world.
Some of the cool rift rocks.
Overlooking Gullfoss
Starting to get a bit wet
Soaked
Incredible view here
Our one chance to get a pic of each other didn't work so well, we decided to save the camera and not try again.
The perfect rainbow that came out of nowhere
No gold at the end or leprechauns...bummer
A perfect rainbow
Loving it
At the top of the falls
Strokkur
Geysir. It was the biggest one there, just not the most active.
Incredibly blue water and very hot.
Warming the fingers for a second
Strokkur
Some of the other hot springs in the Geysir area.
After we got our horses, we would soon find out how quickly Icelandic weather changes. It was pretty nice starting the trip and no more than 15 minutes in, it was sleeting. This wasn't midwestern sleet either, it was more like pea-sized hail being blown sideways at 30 mph. Safe to say it didn't feel very good on the face, even the horses were really bothered by it. Luckily it only lasted about 10 minutes and became sunny...only to do the same thing again 20 minutes later. Overall though, the horse ride was great. The scenery was incredible, the horses were very nice to ride (Meg's was a slow-poke though) and even got to ford a couple creeks on the horses, which was pretty cool.
After some lunch, one of the guided bus tours picked us up for the tour of the "Golden Circle." The first stop was at Þingvellir National Park. This was the site of Iceland, and the world's, first parliament over 1000 years ago. The park is pretty incredible as it's at the junction of the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates and has all these rifts and splits everywhere. From there, we were off to Gullfoss.
Neither Meg nor I had seen a large waterfall before and we would not be disappointed. Gullfoss was pretty incredible. The waterfall is actually a set of two waterfalls with an amazing backdrop. We hiked down as close to the waterfall as we could and got drenched, but it was totally worth it. We managed to get some incredible views and had an amazing little rainbow pop up for us while we were there. It was also interesting to find out that there's a monument at the waterfall to the lady who saved the waterfall from being turned into a power plant...it had been bought by foreigners.
Our trip ended at Geysir, the namesake for all around the world. Geyser itself isn't that active anymore, but the area is loaded with other geysirs. The most active one was Strokkur, which we got to see erupt 3 or 4 times in 30 minutes, very cool to see. It was amazing how hot the water was in some of the smaller ones, it made us look forward to our upcoming day at the Blue Lagoon. Enjoy the pics.
All geared up.
Us on our horses...my helmet was on really well.
A picture of Sigur Ros taking the same horse ride we did.
Meg with our "guide" on the horse ride.
That's my horse bucking, he was a little wild.
Þingvellir
Iceland's largest lake, evidently one of the clearest bodies of water in the world.
Some of the cool rift rocks.
Overlooking Gullfoss
Starting to get a bit wet
Soaked
Incredible view here
Our one chance to get a pic of each other didn't work so well, we decided to save the camera and not try again.
The perfect rainbow that came out of nowhere
No gold at the end or leprechauns...bummer
A perfect rainbow
Loving it
At the top of the falls
Strokkur
Geysir. It was the biggest one there, just not the most active.
Incredibly blue water and very hot.
Warming the fingers for a second
Strokkur
Some of the other hot springs in the Geysir area.Friday, May 1, 2009
Iceland Day 1-Reykjavik
Well, already our month in Ireland has come to a close and yesterday we arrived in yet another, but for more remote, island in the north Atlantic ocean...Iceland! Riley had Sigur Ros on his ipod while landing at Keflavik, fittingly. It was sunny and beautiful when we arrived last night (sadly I fell asleep around 6pm and didn't get up till this morning) but today we got some real Iceland weather...it went from sunny to pouring rain and back again three times! We suited up in some Iceland wool gloves and umbrellas and went about exploring Reykjavik. It is a lovely town, at 150,000 people it's hard to call it a city despite having half the entire population of Iceland. The entire city is surround by snow capped mountains and water. Tomorrow we're off on an Icelandic horse trip and Sunday we plan to sit in the Blue Lagoon (geothermal hotsprings) for most of the day. For now...here is some of Reykjavik.
Riley, hot spring, the Perlan...an interesting building with a restaurant, cafe, viewing deck and I think no other purpose.
Me and my high heels hanging out at the hot spring...the warmth felt nice.
Small plane landing at Reykjavik regional airport...just the kind of plane I was happy not to be on.
Riley at the top of the....Perlan!
The Perlan
Riley, Reykjavik, rain.
Dead fish chillin'
Don't I look so Scandinavian? The mountains are nice too.
Results of protests in Iceland...those Icelandic people are so violent.
Parliament building.
Thought I'd take a swim with the duckies.
Thumbs up to Icelandic flags and Iceland's parliament.
A statue of Leif Ericsson given to Iceland by...America (during the great depression no less) to celebrate the 1000 year anniversary of a parliament in Iceland...that's a long time.
Typical Reykjavik street with lovely mountain scenery.
Hoppin' downtown Reykjavik.
Riley, hot spring, the Perlan...an interesting building with a restaurant, cafe, viewing deck and I think no other purpose.
Me and my high heels hanging out at the hot spring...the warmth felt nice.
Small plane landing at Reykjavik regional airport...just the kind of plane I was happy not to be on.
Riley at the top of the....Perlan!
The Perlan
Riley, Reykjavik, rain.
Dead fish chillin'
Don't I look so Scandinavian? The mountains are nice too. 
Results of protests in Iceland...those Icelandic people are so violent.
Parliament building. 
Thought I'd take a swim with the duckies.
Thumbs up to Icelandic flags and Iceland's parliament.
A statue of Leif Ericsson given to Iceland by...America (during the great depression no less) to celebrate the 1000 year anniversary of a parliament in Iceland...that's a long time.
Typical Reykjavik street with lovely mountain scenery.
Hoppin' downtown Reykjavik.
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