Deb Travels the World

Morning walk in Great Barrington took in the Housatonic Flats walking loop. It’s only a 5 minute walk from the hotel (where despite the run-down state of the suite, the bed was large, comfortable, and in a separate room so I could happily go to bed early). The loop is 0.9 mi, so I walked around it twice before heading to the Price Chopper for fruit, muffins, and hot cross buns (since it’s Easter).

We checked out and headed over to Westfield, MA, a hour away for a pre-arranged meeting with one of the team owners in our hockey league. Super nice to meet Brian and put a face to the owner of the Thunder Chickens. We found we had lots in common, including love of travel, games, hockey (although not sure about the Habs) and Brian and Steve both agree (wrongly, of course) that chicken wings should be boneless and eaten with a knife & fork . We had a great time - nice to meet you Brian (and too bad we missed also meeting Dave & Steve, who left town to avoid lunch with us, apparently).

After lunch, we drove just over an hour to West Haven CT and quickly sped over to the PEZ visitors center before closing. This is a cute, “quirky” museum all about those little peppermint (in German PfeffErminZ) dispensers. There was a special dwarf scavenger hunt where we had to find the dwarf dispensers throughout the museum and won a prize (obviously a PEZ dispenser). I love the dwarves, so the game worked for me; we just had to remember to look at child eye-level, and then traded knowledge with a 10-year-old for the win. Here’s Steve picking out a PEZ and spinning the wheel for the freebee.

And, apparently, I am 14 grasshoppers tall.

That’s it for today. Too full from lunch to go out for dinner, but had some leftovers (nice to have both a fridge and microwave in the room). Tomorrow, we’ll explore West Haven and stay another night.

Happy Easter, everyone!

After just 3 days at home (after Iceland), we headed out again. This time on a road trip to the US, we haven’t been on a driving trip for a long time, so we’ll see if we decide we hate it, or still enjoy the freedom and ability for multiple stops without the high cost of flights.

Our plan includes 3 hockey games, 2 baseball games, and a variety of civil war sites. We are also hoping to hook up with friends we’ve never met in person.

So, day one was 6.5 hours driving to a way-point in Massachusetts. We stopped in Lake Placid on the way - a happy accident - and took a look at the 1932 / 1980 winter Olympic sites.

Including the arena where Canada won the gold medal in men’s hockey in 1932

The outdoor skating oval

And a couple of views from our walk around town

The drive passed relatively quickly while we listened to Lee Child’s The Killing Floor audio book - the first Jack Reacher novel, which we’ve both read, but many forgotten years ago. We’ve found it much easier to manage longer drives with a book and Lee Child never disappoints.

We are staying at a dated Travelodge with really terrible internet and lacking much-needed air conditioning. The bed looks comfortable, but otherwise cannot recommend the place. Around the corner was a brew-pub where we both had burgers (a too-dry Cajun chicken for Steve and really yummy Gouda bacon for me, the latter being the special). The beers were good.

Our last day in Iceland was sunny and cold, but with less wind. My morning 8.87km took me past parks and icons.

And some interesting signage. Yes, this museum is all about penises. I wasn’t willing to pay $30 for penile edification, but apparently, there are penis examples from hundreds of species.

This food truck says the Chinese food is delicious, but expensive.

We liked the sense of humour of this restaurant

And the colourful posters and coasters available at this store, which wasn’t open this morning.

We were successful again in bidding on our flight upgrade, so we are looking forward to the lounge and business class on the way home.

Loved Iceland, but looking forward to warmer temperatures (hopefully).

Yummy crème brûlée donuts while we wait for the bus to the airport

Last night, we tried a Pakistani restaurant, ordering Pappadum Nachos and Chicken Tikka with Naan bread. All yummy. This was the Shalimar, not the one with the Victoria Secret pig.

Then, for lunch this morning, we tried the “first Ramen joint in Iceland” and shared a “classic” bowl of noodles, which neither of us liked much, although it is obviously very popular and one of our tour-mates said it was the best ramen ever!

My morning walk took me to the Grasagarður Botanical Garden, which was open and free to enter. It was pretty sparse being April. I expect it’s lovely in June. I had a nice walk around and then back to the hotel.

This might be the Charlie Brown tree


I think they used fir fronds to protect the small plants from the cold.

And from my walk back: a sports stadium and som street art

This afternoon we used the excellent bus service to go to the Perlan Museum (bus #11 & #18)

Views of Reykjavik from the observation deck

Restaurant, where we didn’t eat, but we did have ice cream at a museum kiosk.

At our hotel bar The Kock we finally used the free drink coupons we were given at arrival. Local beers: Flying Kock for Steve and Seagull 67 for me, which is made in Siglufjörður, where we’d been on our tour.

Then headed out to dinner at the Bastard Brew and Food pub. I had excellent tacos and finished with a warm caramel roll with amaretto. It was really decadent.

We commonly find interesting items in our travels to put on our Christmas tree but decided against adding these:

I awoke with the sun (despite the room darkening curtains and staying up late last night) and took a morning 11k walk around the Seltjarnarnes peninsula to see the Grótta Island Lighthouse. Lovely walk, mostly on a dedicated walking path next to the dedicated cycling path. A couple of inconsequential snow flurries, but bitterly cold in the wind. One of the pics includes a bird I decided was the Bakkagrandi.

First stop on our later morning walk was the Sea Voyager, iconic in Reykjavik.

On top of a hill called Skólavörðuholt, in downtown Reykjavík, is Hallgrímskirkja, a Lutheran (Church of Iceland) parish church. At 74.5 metres (244 ft) tall, it is the largest church in Iceland (wiki). Its name literally means “The Church of Hallgrímur”, referring to Hallgrímur Pétursson, a priest who lived in the 1600's (Kirkju = church). About $12 per person to take the elevator & stairs up the tower.

The tree on the altar is actually coloured strings. Interesting. It looked very cool from the seats.

Einar Jónsson sculpture garden is just around the corner and the garden area is free. Nice. The style includes a lot of things/people sort of wrapping around other things/people. Interesting subjects and execution.
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The left wrestler’s face seemed very realistic to me.

And some pics as we made our way back to the hotel, including Ráðhús Reykjavíkur (City Hall), which is situated by the Tjörnin (City Pond) in Reykjavík. It houses the offices of the mayor of Reykjavík.


This was a gift from Latvia to Iceland to commemorate Iceland’s independence.

And interesting building art

While our room was being cleaned (any excuse), we ordered donuts from the very busy bakery in our hotel. Steve’s crème brûlée donut was filled with cream and they did created the usual caramelized cracked sugar on top with a torch. Very cool.