Friday, June 13, 2008
A week of updates
As you might have guessed, it's been a very busy week. It's also been a week during which I haven't had internet access, so instead of posting seven separate entries, here they all are in one.
Friday 6th - Is that your Minke, Monsieur?
The day before the event is traditionally the day to take any visitors on a whistle-stop tour of northern Iceland. I'd rearranged the normal schedule to take into account an afternoon of whale-watching and the fact that the event site was close to Húsavík, the whale-watching centre.
What I hadn't realised was that both of my two guests were sporty, outdoors, climbing mountains-types, which meant that the stops at local beauty spots were a little longer than intended. This meant that we ended up on the tea-time whale-watching trip rather than the afternoon one, but that wasn't too bad. Unlike last year the weather was quite pleasant and spring-like, and not only did we see two minke whales but our boat was also accompanied for a while by a pod of white-nosed dolphins. The dolphins, who included at least two mother and calf pairs, were quite athletic in their leaping around.
Saturday 7th - Introducing Milady Firmboobs
Revel in the Midnight Sun III was, to all intents and purposes, a fencing event. We spent most of the day doing seven authorisations (I am officially impressed by Cernac's energy and staying power) before rain stopped play and we had to run the fencing tournament and the melée indoors.
Everyone who was due to authorise did so successfully, so we had all seven in a 'unbraided' tournament - one which was only open to fencers who were not members of the Academy of Defence... which sounds much better than a we're going to hold a tournament but Cernac and I aren't going to enter it so that one of you can win tournament. :) This was a round robin to select the best two fencers for the final, which turned out to be Hrafngunnur (whose wearing of proper fencing breast protection has gained for her the nickname Milady Firmboobs) and Enrique, with the final victory going to Enrique (who was justifiably pleased with himself for the rest of the weekend).
There was then a melée (involving a Spanish treasure ship and a bunch of cut-throat (literally) and treacherous (literally) pirates. All seemed to enjoy this immensely and could have gone on for some time had we not had to set up the hall for Hrafngunnur's magnificent feast. Mnom mnom mnom.
Post-feast we were all in definite need of a dip in the hot tub and, as the site not only had two hot tubs but also a swimming pool, the bransle in the hot tub became a bransle in the pool with some impressive high kicks just to make the splashes visible. Sadly we didn't have too long in the pool before it closed (it was after midnight by now) so to round off the evening I introduced the Shire to Tablero. Mwah ha hah!
Sunday 8th - To Hell and back
Sunday morning saw a lot of pick-up fencing and the archery tournament (won by Cernac), after which we managed an around-the-table lunch before doing the site clean-up. Once we had everything clear it was back into tourist mode again for our guests, who went off to walk around one of the local volcanoes - Viti, which means 'Hell' - and then off around the blue mud zone before a relaxing soak in the pool at the Nature Baths at Mývatn. This was our planned evening rendezvous location, as a couple of us who hadn't gone walking had done the trip back to Akureyri to return carloads of stuff before coming out again.
Finally we went to the main rift area to do the photographs with the split pipe that shows how one of the crevices is widening. That and the pool under the lava flow, which Cernac promptly decided to climb out of up to the top of the lava flow rather than back through the main entrance. Not bad for after midnight.
Monday 9th - Must be away by 11
The plan for the day was to get Cernac to his 09:40 flight and then be on the road towards Egilsstaðir by 11. After a weekend of very late nights this didn't happen, as there was post-flight-delivery snoozing which meant that we didn't get on the road until 3. Oops! Even after cutting over Öxi rather than going around the coast (a plan much approved by P, even though she couldn't really see the best of the scenery due to the low-lying cloud).
We finally arrived at the YHI hostel just after 1am to find that there was no bedding available, which meant sleeping under cloaks and the like. Frustrating, but by that point any bed was welcome.
Tuesday 10th - Hot and cold running water
Having made it onto the south coast, today was the run across doing lots of impressive scenery things. Things like the amphibious boat trip around the iceberg lake Jökulsárlón, the tip of the Svinajökul, the field of cairns and, finally, Geysir. Oh yes, and reindeer - two of them by the roadside, both rather shy, who ran away when we slowed down to photograph them. Ah well, next time.
We stayed at Hotel Geysir, where we had quite a good (if rather expensive) meal in a dining room overlooking the geyser field. The hotel itself has a set of cabins down by the lake, so we fell asleep to the sound of running water - very pleasant.
Wednesday 11th - Nature overload
Another day of natural beauty. After breakfast we headed out to the waterfall at Gulfoss, where P went wandering up and down the local paths while I drank coffee and read Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. Then down to Kerið, a tiny crater surrounding a lake, where P went wandering around the crater's edge and down to the water's edge while I read my newly acquired book on Icelandic birds. Finally we went over to Þingvellir, where P went wandering along the ridge and down into the valley while I sat at the visitor centre eating ice cream and writing the first draft of the Red Book of Klakavirki on my laptop.
You may have noticed a pattern in all of this. No, I do not do the walking thing, especially after being persuaded yesterday to climb the hillside to look at the glacier and then falling onto my knee, which is quite badly bruised and sore today. P seemed to enjoy it though.
Thursday 12th - Vikings!
Having spent the last few days doing the beauties of nature, today was the designated museum and exhibition day. Naturally we started off at the Saga Museum - the only place I know of in Iceland where you can buy SCA-friendly viking stuff - and then stayed at Perlan for lunch. Which went on for some time, with the result that we only had time for a quick dash around the National Museum. Oops!
We had originally planned to go to the Viking restaurant for dinner, but decided instead to relax at the Blue Lagoon and have a stress-free evening... which worked until I ended up spending over an hour trying to arrange my trip to Finland next week over an internet connection that seemed to work at dial-up speeds. Ah well.
Friday 13th - Final leg
Today P caught her flight back to the UK and I drove the final leg of the ring road back to Akureyri. Since Monday lunchtime I've done over a thousand miles of driving, mainly in the first two and the final day. The two in the middle were much lighter, thank goodness - I'm tired enough after a thousand miles, so I hate to think what I'd be like after sixteen hundred. :)
We did a final little bit of sightseeing this morning - Njarðvík, where we were staying, is home to Íslendingur, a replica viking longship which was sailed from Norway to New York. I'm afraid I spoiled the whole thing for P when I realised that the two boxes in the middle of the deck were the engine housings, and yes there were two propeller shafts coming out of the bottom of the hull... Really, you'd think that they'd do these things properly, wouldn't you?
Our last stop was the bridge between the continents, built over a rift that's part of the active fault system. We'd tried to find this on Wednesday evening but the signposting left a lot to be desired. Even today it took three attempts to find the track through the lava fields.
Once P was at the airport I headed back up north. I did it in one session of about five hours, which was bad of me, I know, but I was trying to avoid the traffic that had started building up. It's going to be a long weekend, given that it's Independence Day on Tuesday, so people are clogging up the roads heading out to summerhouses and the like. In the meantime I just wanted to get home and relax.
Now I'm here I've just discovered that my internet connection (and the related TV link) is playing up. No rest for the wicked. Or the technophile. Ah, it was a fuse. All fixed now.
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Friday 6th - Is that your Minke, Monsieur?
The day before the event is traditionally the day to take any visitors on a whistle-stop tour of northern Iceland. I'd rearranged the normal schedule to take into account an afternoon of whale-watching and the fact that the event site was close to Húsavík, the whale-watching centre.
What I hadn't realised was that both of my two guests were sporty, outdoors, climbing mountains-types, which meant that the stops at local beauty spots were a little longer than intended. This meant that we ended up on the tea-time whale-watching trip rather than the afternoon one, but that wasn't too bad. Unlike last year the weather was quite pleasant and spring-like, and not only did we see two minke whales but our boat was also accompanied for a while by a pod of white-nosed dolphins. The dolphins, who included at least two mother and calf pairs, were quite athletic in their leaping around.
Saturday 7th - Introducing Milady Firmboobs
Revel in the Midnight Sun III was, to all intents and purposes, a fencing event. We spent most of the day doing seven authorisations (I am officially impressed by Cernac's energy and staying power) before rain stopped play and we had to run the fencing tournament and the melée indoors.
Everyone who was due to authorise did so successfully, so we had all seven in a 'unbraided' tournament - one which was only open to fencers who were not members of the Academy of Defence... which sounds much better than a we're going to hold a tournament but Cernac and I aren't going to enter it so that one of you can win tournament. :) This was a round robin to select the best two fencers for the final, which turned out to be Hrafngunnur (whose wearing of proper fencing breast protection has gained for her the nickname Milady Firmboobs) and Enrique, with the final victory going to Enrique (who was justifiably pleased with himself for the rest of the weekend).
There was then a melée (involving a Spanish treasure ship and a bunch of cut-throat (literally) and treacherous (literally) pirates. All seemed to enjoy this immensely and could have gone on for some time had we not had to set up the hall for Hrafngunnur's magnificent feast. Mnom mnom mnom.
Post-feast we were all in definite need of a dip in the hot tub and, as the site not only had two hot tubs but also a swimming pool, the bransle in the hot tub became a bransle in the pool with some impressive high kicks just to make the splashes visible. Sadly we didn't have too long in the pool before it closed (it was after midnight by now) so to round off the evening I introduced the Shire to Tablero. Mwah ha hah!
Sunday 8th - To Hell and back
Sunday morning saw a lot of pick-up fencing and the archery tournament (won by Cernac), after which we managed an around-the-table lunch before doing the site clean-up. Once we had everything clear it was back into tourist mode again for our guests, who went off to walk around one of the local volcanoes - Viti, which means 'Hell' - and then off around the blue mud zone before a relaxing soak in the pool at the Nature Baths at Mývatn. This was our planned evening rendezvous location, as a couple of us who hadn't gone walking had done the trip back to Akureyri to return carloads of stuff before coming out again.
Finally we went to the main rift area to do the photographs with the split pipe that shows how one of the crevices is widening. That and the pool under the lava flow, which Cernac promptly decided to climb out of up to the top of the lava flow rather than back through the main entrance. Not bad for after midnight.
Monday 9th - Must be away by 11
The plan for the day was to get Cernac to his 09:40 flight and then be on the road towards Egilsstaðir by 11. After a weekend of very late nights this didn't happen, as there was post-flight-delivery snoozing which meant that we didn't get on the road until 3. Oops! Even after cutting over Öxi rather than going around the coast (a plan much approved by P, even though she couldn't really see the best of the scenery due to the low-lying cloud).
We finally arrived at the YHI hostel just after 1am to find that there was no bedding available, which meant sleeping under cloaks and the like. Frustrating, but by that point any bed was welcome.
Tuesday 10th - Hot and cold running water
Having made it onto the south coast, today was the run across doing lots of impressive scenery things. Things like the amphibious boat trip around the iceberg lake Jökulsárlón, the tip of the Svinajökul, the field of cairns and, finally, Geysir. Oh yes, and reindeer - two of them by the roadside, both rather shy, who ran away when we slowed down to photograph them. Ah well, next time.
We stayed at Hotel Geysir, where we had quite a good (if rather expensive) meal in a dining room overlooking the geyser field. The hotel itself has a set of cabins down by the lake, so we fell asleep to the sound of running water - very pleasant.
Wednesday 11th - Nature overload
Another day of natural beauty. After breakfast we headed out to the waterfall at Gulfoss, where P went wandering up and down the local paths while I drank coffee and read Singularity Sky by Charles Stross. Then down to Kerið, a tiny crater surrounding a lake, where P went wandering around the crater's edge and down to the water's edge while I read my newly acquired book on Icelandic birds. Finally we went over to Þingvellir, where P went wandering along the ridge and down into the valley while I sat at the visitor centre eating ice cream and writing the first draft of the Red Book of Klakavirki on my laptop.
You may have noticed a pattern in all of this. No, I do not do the walking thing, especially after being persuaded yesterday to climb the hillside to look at the glacier and then falling onto my knee, which is quite badly bruised and sore today. P seemed to enjoy it though.
Thursday 12th - Vikings!
Having spent the last few days doing the beauties of nature, today was the designated museum and exhibition day. Naturally we started off at the Saga Museum - the only place I know of in Iceland where you can buy SCA-friendly viking stuff - and then stayed at Perlan for lunch. Which went on for some time, with the result that we only had time for a quick dash around the National Museum. Oops!
We had originally planned to go to the Viking restaurant for dinner, but decided instead to relax at the Blue Lagoon and have a stress-free evening... which worked until I ended up spending over an hour trying to arrange my trip to Finland next week over an internet connection that seemed to work at dial-up speeds. Ah well.
Friday 13th - Final leg
Today P caught her flight back to the UK and I drove the final leg of the ring road back to Akureyri. Since Monday lunchtime I've done over a thousand miles of driving, mainly in the first two and the final day. The two in the middle were much lighter, thank goodness - I'm tired enough after a thousand miles, so I hate to think what I'd be like after sixteen hundred. :)
We did a final little bit of sightseeing this morning - Njarðvík, where we were staying, is home to Íslendingur, a replica viking longship which was sailed from Norway to New York. I'm afraid I spoiled the whole thing for P when I realised that the two boxes in the middle of the deck were the engine housings, and yes there were two propeller shafts coming out of the bottom of the hull... Really, you'd think that they'd do these things properly, wouldn't you?
Our last stop was the bridge between the continents, built over a rift that's part of the active fault system. We'd tried to find this on Wednesday evening but the signposting left a lot to be desired. Even today it took three attempts to find the track through the lava fields.
Once P was at the airport I headed back up north. I did it in one session of about five hours, which was bad of me, I know, but I was trying to avoid the traffic that had started building up. It's going to be a long weekend, given that it's Independence Day on Tuesday, so people are clogging up the roads heading out to summerhouses and the like. In the meantime I just wanted to get home and relax.
Now I'm here I've just discovered that my internet connection (and the related TV link) is playing up. No rest for the wicked. Or the technophile. Ah, it was a fuse. All fixed now.
Labels: revel 3
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