First Day Skiing Ischgl

Most of the day today I kept looking around me and saying “It’s like a painting.” Today was a good day for our first day skiing Ischgl.

Arrival in Ischgl

When we arrived in town Sunday afternoon, it was rainy and dark. Today was sunny and clear. And warm! Quite warm – 6 degrees! There’s a pretty good base of snow here, and especially as you climb the mountains, the snow gets better.

Our hotel is a great location for skiing Ischgl so that’s what we’re doing!

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First Day in Reykjavik Free Walking Tour

About the Free walking tour

Early yesterday morning we dropped off our campervan at CampEasy and our bags at our Reykjavik hotel. What to do to get a first taste of a new city? We like to go on walking tours! The good news is City Walks Iceland puts on free walking tours of the city centre every day so we booked the free Reykjavik walking tour for 1:30PM.

The tour was great! Sara, our guide, is a local and a historian – she studied with Iceland’s president, so pretty good credentials. She was entertaining and told some really fun and interesting stories about the city and country.

about Reykjavik

It’s a very charming little city, and reminds me of a smaller Halifax. The buildings are low and colorful, and there are cool sculptures and street art all over the place. There’s also a lot of construction, as the city grows.

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Day 7: Iceland Geo Thermal Activity Gets the Thumbs Up from Us

This morning was amazing! We woke up at the Kerlingarfjöll campsite to find that we were not alone. Brian got to talking to a man who we think was the owner of the place. Very Northern, and very understated, he suggested we drive up the hill and see the geothermals. Wow! Are we glad we did. Iceland geo thermal activity at Hveradalir was impressive, surprising, amazing, and many other adjectives. Brian said it was in his Top 5s of Iceland (not sure what the other 4 are: probably 4 hot pots) and it definitely made my day. After that, it is going to be hard to top.

about the iceland Geo thermal activity

So what about the geo thermals was amazing? Well, once we drove to the top of the hill, it was time to hike. Kerlingarfjöll is part of a volcanic mountain range, so we hiked through landscapes unlike anything we’d seen before. We could see glaciers in the distance, but we were among hills and flowing water, flowing HOT water which was bubbling and steaming and smelled sulfuric. It was really otherworldly, and we were the only ones there. We just kept stopping for photos and saying “wow.”

There was also what in better weather must be a hot pot but wasn’t too hot or full of water at the moment. If you go to Iceland and have 4WD this is a must stop! Even with rain and wind, this hike was one of the favorite things we did all week. WOW to geothermals!

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