10 years married. Worth celebrating I reckon.
And yes, it took me 10 years to convince El Puma to fly northwards. Actually I didn't convince him: I bought the tickets and told him he was coming. That's what 10 years will do to you.
For ages I've wanted to go to Iceland. Call it the Viking in me, or the fan of the Scandi lifestyle. I don't know why I've found it so intriguing but I'd heard good things (expensive good things, mind) and I wanted to see it for myself.
A lot less time than 10 years should also have taught me that you can't control everything in life. Specifically, aeroplanes.
Everything was booked and Oma was cutting it fine babysitting other grandbabies over a wedding weekend and celebrating a li'l 'un's first birthday, but she got up at 5am, got to the airport, got through passport control, waited for the plane, got on the plane, waited on the plane, got off the plane, waited for the plane to get fixed, got back on the plane, waited on the plane, got off the plane, waited some more to hear what was going to happen, gave up and went home.
It was unfortunate that it was a double flight via Dublin that didn't go, but it did at least mean she could arrive the next day on the direct flight at 15h. A full 7 hours after I had to leave the house. On a day when there was no school.
We did the only thing you can do. We called the village.
The neighbours down the road abandoned their birthday dinner and took the 3 of them to add to their own 2, for the night. Then there was an elaborate song and dance the following morning involving dropping the kids off at other neighbours, who took the eldest two to their art class and then baked with little crevette, while the first neighbours picked up the eldest two with their two and brought them to the second neighbours (spraining an ankle on the way, but that's another story). And from there, Oma collected them, their overnight bags, and a cake, and went home.
And we flew over home: that's Lewis below. Ironic, seeing as that was where we honeymooned 10 years ago.
And then we came, we saw, we crashed.
This was about after, ooooo, approximately 300m of driving. Hadn't even reached the first roundabout. As you can see: not our fault. But we did make the evening news.
And our first taste of Iceland. Accident-causers who are incredibly friendly: 'are you ok? are you hurt?' was the first thing we were asked by 10 people, including 4 policemen. We were ok, a bit shaken, but unhurt. But we went to the hospital anyway for insurance purposes.
Within 30 minutes of the accident, 2 cars had driven off (after being dismissed by the police), one was towed, the smashed lights were cleaned and there was no sign of the pile up, and we had returned the car and were in a new one, on our way to our accommodation for the night.
And this was it. Nothing else.
Bliss.
So we saw one or two waterfalls. Utterly astounding things.
And didn't ride in this truck, but it made total sense that one would want to, given the unpaved roads (and crazy driving - see above).
We also went to the world's first original geyser - the one that gave every other geyser its name.
And El Puma stood above the rift valley where the North American and European continental plates are drifting apart at about 1cm per year. Bye bye!
And to top off a long and tiring (but stunning) day, we went to the Blue Lagoon. I did balk at the price and supposed touristyness, and the price again, but honestly, so.worth.it.
It did actual goodness for my face and hair, and it was wonderful tootling around in 39 degree bath water with a sauna, face mask, jacuzzi, steam room and bar on hand.
I could have been there for days (save for the price).
We spent our final couple of nights at a fisherman's cottage about 15km from downtown Reykjavik. (This is the sky at 2am when we got up for the flight back, incidentally).
It was a great spot from which to explore Reykjavik, but also, it was just a great spot in general. Sauna and hot tub on the roof. What's not to love about iceland?!
Our day in Reykjavik was just brilliant. It started early (note that sun) with a whale-watching tour. I thought it would all be a load of baloney but we found 4 humpback whales - magnificent creatures. And when they were starting to possibly display signs of distress (repeated diving), we actually left. But then the lead tour guide did speak a load of baloney on the way home about reducing fish consumption and I had to go and talk to him - let's focus on reducing our red meat consumption first shall we? Eating locally caught and produced fish is not the worst thing in the book. Whales on the other hand...we didn't go there.
Reykjavik was everything you might expect from a cool Scandi city: very liberal, artsy, creative and totally mad at the first sign of sun. And really, who can blame them? The air temperature was officially 9-11 degrees but we were absolutely roasting - the sun was so strong! So my new mega-pricey beanie had to wait before being tried out, and we had to search for the sun cream instead.
I highly recommend the walking tour we went on - hilarious as well as historical. Did you know that Iceland can trace every person who has been born, married or died on the island since the mid 10th century? It's fascinating. Primarily Norwegians with their celtic slaves came over to settle Iceland and began making records in the Book of Settlement. 30 generations later about 95% of the population can trace their lineage back to this book. Only Poles, other Scandinavians and 'others' make up the other 5%.
The Symphony Hall - absolutely amazing building and fit for purpose.
Also, just for the record, I ate the best cod I have ever eaten in my whole life in Iceland. In curry. unexpectedly phenomenal.
So, our wallets empty, we flew back across Scotland and down the UK to land in Paris, before getting the train home to Nantes.
And walked right in to Covid.
Covid in the house that is. You can't make this stuff up. A small present from Oma's flight, with Small Fry and her both with raging fevers.
The honeymoon was over, as they say*.
* El Puma weirdly succumbed this time (he didn't in January when I last had it) but I remained negative throughout. Must be all that Viking blood.
