On the road again

We picked up a hire car (via Turo, which and Airbnb type app for sharing cars) and headed off for 5 days.

Our first stop was Windsor castle. Amongst the wide array of options, this is definitely a castle that people should try to see.

After this visit we headed to the Royal Oak in swallowcliff (James May's pub) for the night. This turned to be a lot of fun as we quickly find ourselves joining up with other tables of Aussies and some locals to chat well into the very hot evening. 

The temperature was 31-33 degrees for most of the day and is still 24 degrees as I write this at 10.30pm.

Yes, that is us sampling all three of James' gins. 😁 

Our order of preference was Parsnip, London Dry, Mushroom!

London Time

We continue to visit new areas with our friends, with weekends being easier for them (work related). We are very grateful to have our generous hosts also acting as tour guides 😊.

Yesterday we went to Battersea. When I was young my parents declared they would leave their savings to the Battersea Dog Home.

Whilst we learned that there is such an organisation there are many cooler things to see in the area.

MI6 (think James Bond) is on the fringe, overlooking the Thames.

The old, very large, coal fired power station (once used on an album cover by Pink Floyd, with a pig shaped balloon that broke free 😂) is now an excellent mixed use property (retail, residential, commercial).

Like many 'heritage' buildings it almost fell into ruin during the tussle between protection and commercial realities.

I suspect it is a better use of the property now because the developers are also building many lovely apartments around the area. The power station only functioned for about 40 years, which cannot have been a good financial outcome.

Berthing a long boat in the tidal areas (below the locks) wouldn't appeal to me.

From Battersea we crossed the river to the area of fancy pants, flash cars and  beautiful people (Sloane Square and Chelsea). 

We found a nice old pub (not hard) for cold beverages before heading home to cool off.

Today, in 30 degrees of heat, we went down to Richmond to see their garden shop, then continue current to the river area for lunch. A lovely way to spend the day.

This was the venue for Katie and Nigel's wedding.

Tomorrow we head off on tour for a few days, just West and North West of London.

We are OK 🙂

Thank you to those who were concerned that we had been captured by aliens (because the blog went silent).

As it happens, we didn't think telling you about helping Katie in her garden, clearing out their shed and going to the local supermarket and pub was worthwhile reporting.

It has however been a very relaxing week for us. 👍

Today was a little more interesting though. 

Marie and Katie went off on a girls shopping day to pass through the likes of Selfridges, Harrods, Fortnum & Mason and everything shiny in the neighborhood. 

Meanwhile, Michael headed off the Milton Keynes for a Red Bull Factory tour (Formula 1 facility). It was an excellent choice.

I had thought it might just be ushering us through a few curated 'show off' rooms, but no, they took us through many of the work zones. 

Yes, I have some photos, but not from any of those secretive work spaces!

One of Daniel Riccardo's cars

Show off early and winning cars.

One wall in the trophy room (426 trophies).

Old cars, still available to attend car events etc.

Super light weight helmets. Why can we buy them this light!?

The pricing was about the same as attending a race weekend but in this case it was better for me because you can't do this anywhere else. Apparently Red Bull is the only team to offer such access for fans.

We will spend the weekend with K+N before heading off on our 'grand tour' of the stars pubs, the Cotswolds, Oxford and Silverstone (and maybe Windsor if time allows).

London Bound

After 13 days and zero nights we are returning to London early.

I overestimated the number of days we would use by 2-3.

We circumnavigated the whole country. We only left out a few fjords. It's hard to believe that we missed any waterfalls! 

The only thing travellers might add in would be some time in the middle of the country if you are into more hiking and fishing. This should only be done with the use of a 4WD or motorbike.

We stayed at this Guesthouse in Holmavik (small fishing village). Good enough. Nice people.

Next day: After another long unsealed road, Stykkisholmur turned out to be a lovely spot. Having cancelled this accommodation we enjoyed lunch at a good cafe and had a look around. 

We then moved on and stayed in Arnastapi who had agreed to bring forward this non refundable booking.

The two seals who were rostered on the rest close enough for tourist photography. 

Part of a long cliff line made from lava flow reaching the sea approx. 4000 years ago.

Unhappy Artic Turn. Dive bombing us because we were too close to nest.Funny thing though.... We were just the latest guests behind that window.

This is a 'good' road in Iceland. Note the total absence of a shoulder. Almost all roading has this raw edge.

So now we are here, preparing for our flight back to London in the morning. Our generous hosts agreed to change our booking dates!

Itinerary Change

Today we headed into the Western Fjords.

Tomorrow we head back out. 

There were far too many miles of gravel road for us to endure more over the next three days. It's not what we signed up for.

Also, the roads no longer cut through valleys or tunnels as often and by winding around every single fjord the distances add up.

Finally, the views of each fjord are a very close facsimile of each previous one. So close in fact that we didn't take any photos of them today.

So here is a photo of a sheep:

and a nice pizza:

And one for the children who ask 'where do the baby horses come from?'

That is it.

One of our hotels on the snaefelsnes peninsula agreed to bring forward our booking until tomorrow (nice). 

Tomorrow we will decide if we return to Reykjavic for more sleeps, or whether we can catch any earlier flight. 

We have thus concluded that unless you head inland for hiking or fishing side trips, 10-12 days is sufficient to see a lot of Iceland; especially when you have 21 hours of daylight.

Arctic Coast Way

Today we decided not to take the '1' direct highway to our destination, instead following the (likely) more interesting Arctic Coast Way. 

We essentially drove about 40% of the ACW which tissue about 900km of you start at the eastern most point. 

We spent a couple of hours in Siglufjordur which is our northern most point (ever probably). It is a nice wee fishing village; one of many because Iceland has a long history of economics from fishing (controlled by others for a long time).

Think of NZ gold rush days and change the commodity to herring and the photos and story lines are similar. Gold mining still happens, and so does fishing here, but the scale has shrunk and machine use increased.

They definitely need tourism to keep people employed. 

Siglufjordur does tourism well; explaining it's history to us. Geography is obvious.

This is a rebuilt fishing dock scene, inside an old unused fishing business shed.

Old processing plant

Filled with old machines and descriptions.

Artwork in memory of the 'herring girls' who worked hard, barrelling salted fish whenever the boats came in. This seems to have meant 'most of the time!' so it's unlikely there was a union movement here.

Nonetheless the photos we saw showed ladies always with smiles. They seemed too revel in being part of the busiest town, earning good money and being where the boys were 😁.

Their accommodation was like an overcrowded bunkhouse. Think shared beds - the person currently sleeping was off shift, the others was on shift.

Icelandic language is a challenge to pronounce even if someone helps. 

Marie and I often Anglicise some for fun and ease of repeating. For example 'Fjadrargljufur' became 'Fraggle Rock' as we drove up. 

The cookie above 'sukkuladibitakak' became Anzac Cookie with chocolate chips after the lady described it to us. 😂

Beautiful scenery as you roll.

Nice English couple swapped photos with us. 

Whale watching.... Unsuccessfully.

Lighthouses seem to be orange.

Traffic lights in Akureyri make you smile.

Tonights accommodation - typical farmers earning more. Usually very pleasant and well fitted out for the task of 1 day stays.

Hard not to be surrounded with lovely views too.