2016 is shortly coming to and end and I had a handful of vacation days to burn. I decided to knock off a few bucket list items and head to Europe in the freezing cold. Cheapest round trip (no layover) was into Dublin. I have actually never had a Guinness so I could not think of a better place to have one than in Ireland. I have always wanted to snowboard the Swiss Alps so Zermatt would be next. The Heineken Brewery in Amsterdam was closed in 2000 when I was there last (so mad) so I needed to check this off as well. Last but not least I have always wanted to see the Aurora Borealis (aka the Northern Lights) and I have heard that Iceland is the best place to do so.
Ireland
Dublin was going to be the first and the last city I visited on this trip. Spent the first 2 days here and came back for 24hrs at the tail end of the trip to catch my flight back to the states.
The have a new bike rental program in Dublin, you buy a pass and can take a bike and return it to any of the dozens of rental stations spread around town. It's a great way to see the city and was only a few bucks for a week pass. First full day I decided to test these rental bikes and headed north to Malahide Castle which was about 16 miles north of Dublin.
Just as the sun was going down I noticed the clouds were starting to break up so I raced up the hill to my favorite spot and was able to get a few pics of the Matterhorn through the clouds. The next day I only had a few hours in town until I had to make my way up north back to Zurich and of course the skies were empty of clouds. Not having enough time to hit the slopes I decided to take Gornergrat Bahn which is the highest railway in Europe. The train takes you from Zermatt (5,262 ft) to Gornergrat (10,135 ft). I don't get cold much. At all. But at 10,000+ ft and the temp being roughly 10F it was difficult to wander around the top. It was freezing.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam is also a heavily influenced bike city. There are bike lanes like we have here but they do not share the roads with cars as much, they have their own dedicated lane. I have never seen so many people riding bikes at one time. This made for easy access to the destinations I wanted to visit throughout the city.
I made my pilgrimage to the Heineken factory which was NOT closed this time thank goodness. Also visited Van Gogh once again because I did not remember it at all when I visited in 2000.
Iceland is home to the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull. Without hiking miles into it you could see the tail ends of it spreading out of mountain ravines.
The first day on my 300 mile journey to the east side of Iceland was picture perfect. Clear skies, open roads, I could not have asked for anything better. There were nearly two dozen sights I wanted to see on this journey but I was really limited due to the amount of sunlight in the day. So half of the locations were split into the drive out there, the other half I would tackle on the way home the next day.
Ended up catching the northern lights on the first night after eating one of the best lobster rolls I have ever had. Waking up in the AM I was reminded that weather in Iceland is quite unforgiving. It was nearly freezing and raining sideways. These pictures make it look cold, but they do NO justice. It was the coldest I have ever been.
Icelandic law prohibits the importing horses into their country due to the specific breed they have there. At a first glance they look like they have not had a cut in years but this is the way the breed has developed since the 9th century when they were brought here by Nordic settlers. I learned real quick that they would not eat bananas (the only thing I wanted to sacrifice) and that they love cashews (had to give these up to get good pictures)
Iceland is home to hundreds of geysers but their most famous is named Strokkur. Strokkur erupts every 5-10 minutes everyday 24/7. Normal eruptions are about a hundred feet into the air but can be 120+. The water in Strokkur and the other geysers in this area is roughly 200F. The two plates that collide in this area move at roughly 2cm per year which cause this activity.
One of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland is Gullfoss, which was also my personal favorite out of the handful of them that I got to visit. It was gigantic. Having seen Niagara Falls once before I would have to say that I liked Gullfoss much more.
In the end I was able to cross off every bucket list item I wanted to see or accomplish with the exception of snowboarding the Swiss Alps. Guess I will have to return again next year.
Ireland
Dublin was going to be the first and the last city I visited on this trip. Spent the first 2 days here and came back for 24hrs at the tail end of the trip to catch my flight back to the states.
The have a new bike rental program in Dublin, you buy a pass and can take a bike and return it to any of the dozens of rental stations spread around town. It's a great way to see the city and was only a few bucks for a week pass. First full day I decided to test these rental bikes and headed north to Malahide Castle which was about 16 miles north of Dublin.
Zermatt, Switzerland
A quick flight from Dublin to Zurich landed me in Switzerland. Zurich is at the high north end of Switzerland so I took 2 trains from there to finally end up in Zermatt. Zermatt is the home of the Matterhorn and is a very small skiing town tucked into the Swiss alps. Both days I was there it snowed so much that the mountain was nearly closed down, crushing my dreams to snowboard the Swiss Alps but there is always next time. The extra time I had made for some great photos of the Matterhorn.
Day 1 the snow was coming down like crazy. Zero visibility in town, and even though the Matterhorn is only a few miles away it was completely shadowed by the amount of snow coming down. It was well below freezing all day but I still decided to take a hike up into the mountains to get some pictures.
Just as the sun was going down I noticed the clouds were starting to break up so I raced up the hill to my favorite spot and was able to get a few pics of the Matterhorn through the clouds. The next day I only had a few hours in town until I had to make my way up north back to Zurich and of course the skies were empty of clouds. Not having enough time to hit the slopes I decided to take Gornergrat Bahn which is the highest railway in Europe. The train takes you from Zermatt (5,262 ft) to Gornergrat (10,135 ft). I don't get cold much. At all. But at 10,000+ ft and the temp being roughly 10F it was difficult to wander around the top. It was freezing.
Gornergrat made for some good shots and it was cool to see the Matterhorn from a different vantage point. By the time we made it down I had just enough time to take a few more pics of the Matterhorn before taking off on the train back to Zurich.
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Amsterdam is also a heavily influenced bike city. There are bike lanes like we have here but they do not share the roads with cars as much, they have their own dedicated lane. I have never seen so many people riding bikes at one time. This made for easy access to the destinations I wanted to visit throughout the city.
I made my pilgrimage to the Heineken factory which was NOT closed this time thank goodness. Also visited Van Gogh once again because I did not remember it at all when I visited in 2000.
By day 2 of Amsterdam I was ready for a break. Zermatt was nice due to it being such a secluded city yet Dublin & Amsterdam were quite the opposite of this. I was ready for Iceland.
Reykjavik, Iceland
The entire island of Iceland is the home to roughly 300,000 people. Long Beach alone has almost 500,000 people to compare the two. This place is tiny, remote, and like nothing I have ever seen. Stepping off the plane made me think I was on another planet. I have never seen a country quite like Iceland. This was the only country in which I was relying on a rental car to get around since many of the sights to see were far from the capitol of Reykjavik.
My first stop right off the plane was to the Blue Lagoon. The Blue Lagoon is an outside spa located in a lava field in the middle of nowhere next to a geothermal power plant. Super heated water vented from the ground near a lava flow is used to run through turbines at the power plant, the steam and the hot water pass through turbines to create electricity. The leftover mineral water is fed into the lagoon and is said to have medicinal properties. After hitting the swim up bar I was able to relax and enjoy the Icelandic sky.
Reykjavik is a very small city for a capitol. Since nothing grows or is made in Iceland (except wool and viking helmets) everything has to be shipped in. That means everything costs $$$$. The first two days in Iceland I dedicated to traveling as far east as I could with my destination being a small town nearly 300 miles away. At this time of year the sun rises around 9am and it goes down about 3pm, so you really only get about 6 hours of sunlight. And when I say rise, I really mean the sun comes up a little bit over the horizon and then goes back down. It never actually leaves the horizon from the tilt of the earth, which is so odd. I had to really plan the destinations I wanted to see with the short amount of light I had each day.
Iceland is home to many top Crossfit athletes so I had to stop by Crossfit Reykjavik to get in a workout. It was one of the largest boxes I have ever been to and I even saw Annie Thorisdottir as I was leaving.
Iceland is home to many top Crossfit athletes so I had to stop by Crossfit Reykjavik to get in a workout. It was one of the largest boxes I have ever been to and I even saw Annie Thorisdottir as I was leaving.
There is one major highway in Iceland and it runs in one big circle around the island. No need for a GPS when you really cannot get too far lost off the main road. Most of the waterfalls and locations I had planned to see were right off the highway which was nice, others not so close. A few of them I had to scratch off because they required ice hiking shoes which I did not have, or it required you to hike miles into national parks. Having only my Joe Josts sweatshirt and jeans was not adequate hiking gear.
Iceland is home to the largest glacier in Europe, Vatnajökull. Without hiking miles into it you could see the tail ends of it spreading out of mountain ravines.
Ended up catching the northern lights on the first night after eating one of the best lobster rolls I have ever had. Waking up in the AM I was reminded that weather in Iceland is quite unforgiving. It was nearly freezing and raining sideways. These pictures make it look cold, but they do NO justice. It was the coldest I have ever been.
Where the Vatnajökull glacier meets the Atlantic ocean there is a small lagoon called Jökulsárlón. Large chunks of the glacier that fall off the main chunk float around in this lagoon, slowly break down, then continue into the ocean. On the edge of the lagoon there is a black sand beach dubbed Diamond Beach. All of the glacier chunks wash up on this beach which is quite a thing to see. This beach was actually one of the top 3 locations I wanted to visit but it was so cold and the rain was so rough that I could only get a few pics. My hands were freezing up and I was completely soaking wet.
Icelandic law prohibits the importing horses into their country due to the specific breed they have there. At a first glance they look like they have not had a cut in years but this is the way the breed has developed since the 9th century when they were brought here by Nordic settlers. I learned real quick that they would not eat bananas (the only thing I wanted to sacrifice) and that they love cashews (had to give these up to get good pictures)
Iceland is home to hundreds of geysers but their most famous is named Strokkur. Strokkur erupts every 5-10 minutes everyday 24/7. Normal eruptions are about a hundred feet into the air but can be 120+. The water in Strokkur and the other geysers in this area is roughly 200F. The two plates that collide in this area move at roughly 2cm per year which cause this activity.
One of the most famous waterfalls in Iceland is Gullfoss, which was also my personal favorite out of the handful of them that I got to visit. It was gigantic. Having seen Niagara Falls once before I would have to say that I liked Gullfoss much more.
In the end I was able to cross off every bucket list item I wanted to see or accomplish with the exception of snowboarding the Swiss Alps. Guess I will have to return again next year.
