Grand Tour of Spain - Day 1&2

Day one 

Overnight flight to Paris and connecting flight to Barcelona. Left at 450pm CST.  Paris by 9 and Barcelona by 11. 

Could not sleep on that 9 plus hour flight. Miserable. 

Day two

Barcelona

Arrived a airport and out tour guide , Elena, messages us via whatsapp so we can meet. I only have service via wifi so luck they offered thirty min of wifi. For free. 

We took two taxis to hotel as their was 6 of us total. Nice folk from Wisconsin. 

Arrived at hotel and I am rooming w one other girl. Ethan is rooming w 2 guys. My room has 6 beds and nothing is being used. Shame. Couldn't bring Ethan in bc of roomie. 

So we transferred out usd at deutche bank for euros. DeceNt exchange. 

Then walked down the Main Street out front until we turned around. Saw two gauge stfu tired on the Main Street. 

Back to hotel and drank hot chocolate for free. Then, rested feet and mft for tour meeting at 4ish. We walked the city at night. 

Had chicken paella for dinner and walked back hotel. So far , good day. 

Point of pictures

What is the point of taking photographs if you are unable to display them somewhere? I am a bit of a pack rat and can not put more things on the wall in the office but this is why I started the blog. I try to post the best of the best!!

I have other trips I can review with you guys. Since I have been working on the scrapbook for them since 2007. Yeah a bit ridiculous.

So,

Posts on italy/greece 07 is coming and our
European Road trip 09/10!!

Iceland - Day 6

Today after breakfast at the hotel we were picked up by 'Iceland Excursions'. Once again routed to bus terminal and boarded our tour van on monster truck wheels. LoL. Everything here is a super jeep. 

Tour of the day: south coast, waterfalls and glacier walk. 

WOW!! That is all I can say. Today was an amazing day out. The usual stopping at pit stops to use bathroom and get a bite because at the glacier walk location, no bathrooms. 

In order of occurrence

Waterfalls: these waterfalls are beautiful. Something about just staring into pouring water. There were steps to go to the top and we took them. I was crossing my fingers that I wouldn't die by the time I reached the top. Out of shape. Shame. View was great. I don't use names because I would just buture them. Ice everywhere. At the bottom of the falls slipping all over but we got close enough to get wet a bit. :)

Waterproof shoes help here a lot. Gloves!!! 

Glacier Walk:

Holy BA-joley! Most amazing thing to experience. We are taught how to put ice clamps on and given ice picks as a third leg. Steep slopes, holes with no end, evil snow. I mean, imagine doing just this the whole trip. I'd be psyched. Sprinkled a bit. And we were told the glacier went further out and it was snowing on the other end. I really enjoyed it. 

All winter gear required here. Jacket , hopefully waterproof. Gloves, beanie or earmuffs. Keep warm up top. Oh. And waterproof shoes!

South Coast, on beach: ash is everywhere. On the beach it is.  Stopped out here to eat and shop. We then walked the beach which had ash of a volcano rather than sand. So squishy. And windy!! 

Jackets and scarves required. Gloves too. 

Waterfalls: 

On the return we stopped at one more waterfall which normally you can walk behind but due to icy conditions we could not walk behind it. It was dark already so I chose to use a ledge as a tripod and photographed us. 

Overheard that the cloud cover tonight is bad. So northern light your is cancelled. Heard they didn't see anything yesterday either. 

Which means when we saw it on the 1st with Volcano Tours we picked a good date. Yay. 

Oh, and food is expensive. $13 for a burger at a pass through restaurant. Why???

Overall, this is top tour besides northern lights. 

Back to Reykjavik and to hotel to prepare for tomorrow. Eating cheap at home! 

Eek, saw northern lights for a second time. Bus pulled over and I got one good shot with camera. Pictures posted when back in the states. 

Iceland - Day 5

On Jan 2nd we woke up, got ready and ate breakfast downstairs. I should mention the water, is powered by the government and is geothermal so it has a smell of sulpher. Interesting but gets getting use to. Breakfast than our your bus picks us up (Iceland Excursions) to take us to their bus terminal to exchange our voucher for tickets. 

The tour we chose for Thursday was "Golden Circle Classic". 

Our tour guide informed us due to it being the shortest day of sunlight of the year we would be doing the tour in reverse. So here is what we did. 

Hellisheiòi Geothermal power plant: this power plant explained how Iceland gets their water and electricity and can provide it to their citizens for free. In Iceland , they aren't charged for heating. 

Bus. 

Skálholt Church: famous church given to Icelanders by Norway. Pretty colored stone glass. Also had remains of old tombstones to view downstairs for 200 ISK. 

Bus. 

waterfall Gullfoss: this waterfall was amazing. It had three main sections to it and several little sections. Took many photos here. Issue was we were faced with hurricane winds (as my husband calls it) and I was being pushed everywhere. Also, Iceland is not called Iceland for nothing. The pathways are super slick and you will slip if you don't have good shoes. They say they salt some areas but really the ground tends to be heated because of the geothermal heat. 

Bus for short time. 

Hot springs of Geysir & Strokkur: Here we watched the Geysir blow up. It was neat to see the bubble expand until it exploded. Again, the wind didn't make me want to stay out too long. It was about 32 degrees, maybe , but the wind cuts that in half. 

Geysir shop to eat & drink. 

Bus. 

Pingvellir National Park: this park makes me think of Games of Thrones. Icy paths and bridges to get across. The oldest church were parliament first met. About a 30 minute walk. Beautiful sunset then boarded bus at end of trail. 

We asked to be dropped off at the Reykjavik city centre and walked to the famous hot dog stand. Cheapest meal yet of Iceland. We got the hot dog with all it came with. It was delicious. 

From there we went to a gift shop and found some more goodies. 

We had to run to bonus, the cheapest supermarket there, before they closed at 6:30pm to pick up dinner and snacks for hotel room. 

Reykjavik Day 1

Currently watching local Icelandic television in their native language. Whatever local show this is, it's strange. A version of "bill nye" but I don't see a purpose. 

Arrived in Iceland this morning , Sunday, at 7 AM. Found our way to baggage claim and then to the arrival gate. My husband chose to change our USD currency at the Iceland airport. No fee. Exchange rate wasn't insane. 

I wandered to the tourist guide/pamphlet desk. I like reading material. 

Purchased our round trip flybus tickets to hotel and back to airport. Stepped outside to seek bus and saw snow. It had snowed and we got the end of it. Exciting. 

The flybus tendants loaded our luggage and we boarded. I sat next to a stranger on the bus and we sparked a conversation. He was from Chicago but actually from The Woodlands, TX. He graduated high school in '03. He was visiting a friend I Iceland  

Stopped at a bus station to unload people but we ...

Whooo, past out and took a nap. 

So the bus took us directly to our hotel. We were able to check in early. The receptionist was such a sweetheart and very nice. She told us we needed to make reservations for Tuesday night (New Years Eve) and helped us with where to go in the city to gain our grounds. 

We got to the room and then ate breakfast which was provided by the hotel. After returning to the room for a power nap we showered and headed out to the town. 

Walked the city. I plan on getting a sweater & lava jewelry. The shirts here are funny. Plan on getting one. 

Ate at a hole in the wall place with a yummy burger , lots of fries and a drink. Expensive though to eat out. So on way back, we went to grocery store to buy hot chocolate, noodles and cookies. We saw lazy town things at this hole in a wall place. Had to take a picture. It was filmed here. 

The church closed at 5 for viewing from tower. The city was decorated still for Christmas. Beautiful. While walking I saw a glacier from afar. Tomorrow I will have to visit it. And take the ferry across. 

It is only daylight here for less than 5 hours. One must use that to their advantage. Shops close after. 

Iceland - getting there

Layover in North Carolina currently. Charlotte to be exact. More connecting flights and more layovers , cheaper the flight. 

Part 1:

This was not suppose to be a layover. We were suppose to have connecting flight but we were told to get off for like 30 min. Whatever. That means food and shot glass for us. Fries, yum!! 

Kicked off flight , so...

To the gift shop we go. 

And then food. 

Boarding time! Again. 

Monterrey pt 4 - Obispado

Monday, the 23rd, my aunt and cousin took me to ...

Backtrack

We were woken up with gifts. What a morning. Every lady should be woken up with gifts at least monthly. 

So, big item of Lunes was going to Obispado. Wasn't sure where to park so we parked down hill and walked up. Mind you, Obispado is on a mountain, kind of. I was not feeling the climb. My calfs hurt from the climb before at the Grutas. 

So we climbed and climbed and climbed some more. At the top you see the museum, then keep going and you see the poles where the flags should be. They were not on display as they were being cleaned. 

A carousel and large (like half my size) chess set sat atop the hill. We then looked around. Beautiful. 

On each corner there is a sign saying what you are looking at. El Norte, el sur and two more. I want to post my pano pictures. 

Oh, and for kickers, the climb...