Navigated the metro enough to be able to reach Schönbrunn Palace on the outskirts of Vienna today. I make that sound harder than it actually was, amazingly it was literally one train with no changes - London could learn a lot from the tube system here! I have decided, as of today, that I need to live in Schönbrunn. That's need, not want. Palaces are all very beautiful more or less but Schönbrunn I could actually see myself living in. Just the right size, nicely situated and, most importantly, yellow! Maria Theresa obviously had a stroke of genius when she decided [View Full Entry]

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We started the day bright and early determined to cram in everything possible, had breakfast in the hostel before braving the Austrian metrosystem which proved to be ridiculously easy to navigate in comparison to the London tubes. The Gothic cathedral, Stephansdom, is the tallest building in the Innere Stadt of Vienna. The first church was built here in the 12th century, the current structure dates from 1304 when a Gothic building was erected around the earlier Romanesque structure which was subsequently dismantled and removed from the interior of the larger church. I can't say it struc [View Full Entry]

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Finally arrived full circle in Reykjavik, the least icy and least firey place in Iceland, having travelled the entire way around the coast of Iceland. I'm ashamed to say it was a huge relief to see civilisation again! However stunning the Icelandic countryside is (and it really is!) it's slightly unnerving to be able to go all day without seeing another living soul and nothing but vast expanses of nothingness. Reykjavik didn't seem as pleased as we were to see it and decided to be as grey and overcast as every other day had been so far. The town was also [View Full Entry]

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Started the day bright and early with a visit to Akureyrí. Stopped for gorgeous photos over the town and lake (see panorama) before continuing onto the town itself. Akureyrí is the fourth biggest city of Iceland and the only metropolis outside Greater Reykjavík. The ”Capital of the North”, as it is often called, is the administration and service centre of Northern Iceland. Although only around 15.000 people live here, it offers an infrastructure that probably cannot be found in a City in Central Europe of similar size. It's truly unbelievable that a town that size can even b [View Full Entry]

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Off to Lake Myvatn today - midge and mosquito capital of Iceland! In fact that's what the word 'Myvatn' actually means. Strange to name a place after its most annoying inhabitant - hardly the best advertising campaign! Lake Myvatn is also apparently a bird watcher's paradise although we saw surpisingly few - perhaps the cold was keeping everyone but the crazy English people indoors! The lake is Iceland's fourth largest and apparently the world's most fertile spot on a similar latitude. It was created after the ice age ended in Iceland some 10,000 years ago. However, it was reall [View Full Entry]

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Up bright and early to pay a morning visit to Dettifoss in Jökulsárgljúfur National Park, Europe’s most powerful waterfall with an estimated 110,000 gallons of water passing over the falls every second which tumbles down the huge gorge of the Jokulsa-a-Fjollum river, the longest in Iceland. If I wasn't awake before, the spray was certainly enough to wake me up if not drown me! We first visited the slightly smaller waterfall of Selfoss before continuing the walk up to have a picnic lunch by Dettifoss. Dettifoss is 144 feet (44 m) high and 330 feet (100 m) wide. In my personal [View Full Entry]

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.....The ice was all around : It cracked and growled, and roared and howled, Like noises in a swound! Not quite as dramatic as the Ancient Mariner's trip but still very impressive! Today began with an early morning boat ride of the Jokulsarlon lagoon and definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I believe it was even worth losing the feeling in my feet and hands for the whole day to see the blue icebergs at close proximity. Not exactly the monsters I was expecting but still very impressive to see. The lagoon is formed by chunks of ice melting [View Full Entry]

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We started the day with what, for me was to be one of the highlights of the trip, a trip to Ingólfshöfði aka Puffin Island. Despite being threatened that the puffins had already flown we were assured that the majority had not yet done so and we were guarenteed to see them. The word 'guarantee' should have put us on our guards to begin with but no matter. We piled onto our tractor pulled cart (standing room only) for a very wet and bumpy ride over the flloded black sand beaches towards Puffin Island. Admittedly it was actually very fun despite [View Full Entry]

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Morning drive from Hella to the Skaftafell Region to visit Seljalandsfoss, our first waterfall of the day. Very fun, if also very wet, as it was possible to walk behind the waterfall although most of us spent the majority of the time trying to protect our camaras than actually appreciating the view! The sun decided to come out for us briefly though did very little to dry us - I am now resigned to spending the whole time here in my very unattracive raincoat! Next onto Skogafoss waterfall which I didn't have the energy to run up to the top of [View Full Entry]

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Less than a week after returning from sunny Ecuador I'm heading to a place significantly colder - Iceland. Although it was certainly cold (our first couple of days anyway) I can't agree with the naming of the country at all as I had to wait until we say actual icebergs before I had seen any ice at all. Still, had a late night arrival in Reykjavik followed the next day by an early morning start to our tour stopping first at Thingvellir. Thingvellir National Park, or 'Parliament Plains', is the site of the first Icleandic Parliament in 930 and the parliament [View Full Entry]

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