Ice Ice Iceland Baby...

We went to Iceland.

Succinct aren't I?

Ok, that deserves some elaboration. We went to Iceland way back in July 2007, but didn't get around to adding it to the blog. Well that's just not right, since Iceland happens to be a pretty dang amazing place. Check this out: If any image deserves the term "spiffy", then I think this one qualifies easily. It just radiates spiffiness... Ahem. Anyway, this is one of the many beautiful spots you can visit in Iceland. Specifically, this is a shot of Gullfoss - one stop in our Golden Circle tour. The other stop was Geysir, the original water-shooting-out-of-a-hole-in-the-ground attraction that all others are named after. Check it out in action!
Oooooh... Yup, very oooh.

We also made our way around Reykjavík, which is a absurdly attractive city. The houses are all painted various colours and together they create a very lively effect. We toured the local attractions, including a very cool looking church (the largest in Iceland at that) and generally had a great time.

What else? Well, how about a tour to the rather brilliant Glacial Lagoon in Jökulsárlón? Now that is really something to see! Great blocks of icebergs constantly break off Vatnajökull glacier and drift on the lagoon before being carried to sea by a glacial river. Scenes from four big movies (A View to a Kill, Die Another Day, Tomb Raider and Batman Begins) were shot at and around that spot. Check it out:
Once you get there, you can jump in a amphibious boat and scoot around the icebergs in the lagoon. Very chilly and also extremely fun. Highly recommended.

There were a bunch of other things we did, but this is already getting a little lengthy... Needless to say there was a great deal of enjoyment to be had going offroad in a massive 4x4, visiting various magnificent attractions and best of all... Puffins! (No, you can't keep them, we already asked...)

New York Redux

Pop off to New York for the weekend... Sounds like a great idea right? Well, only if you have amazing stamina and no requirement for sleep!

A few key points:

1. Immigration queues are evil.
2. Airport security queues are evil.
3. Standing in an airport security queue for an hour while the PA announces the final boarding call for your flight is the work of the devil. Also, it is evil.

Apart from that, we had a lovely time! The shopping was good, although I think we caught things a little too mid-season and there wasn't as much on offer as normal. Our plan to buy iPhones was killed by the latest firmware revision that makes them un-unlockable... *shakes fist at Apple*

Now to plan our next trip...

Southern Spain Trip

Well, it has been a while! We have been travelling and working so much, we left this poor little blog behind and didn't do any updates. Time to fix that! Ok, so check this out:

Looks nice doesn't it? That was taken from where we stayed, a villa about 30km from Malaga. It is run by a couple of expat-Brits and was a really great place to stay and travel out from. So, where did we go? Well, on the first day I went scuba diving (that's the beach on the right). Which was so awesome. It was my first time diving and I can't wait to give it another try. Later that day I went kayaking in the ocean, which was also a blast - highly recommended if you get the opportunity. Julie went on an all day horse ride, which was a fun and somewhat challenging experience.

A peaceful slumber for both of us that night, the proverbial sleep of the dead (tired).

The next day saw us off to Granada and to the Alhambra palace. After some initial GPS issues getting to Granada - Tom Tom, you have a lot to answer for! - we went on a walk around the town and soaked up some of the atmosphere. Oh and bought lots of souvenirs, can't forget the souvenirs.

So the main attraction is the Alhambra and you can certainly see why, the place is quite amazing. The Arabic design and architecture is very cool looking and I'd recommend you go see it yourself if you happen to be in the region.

Once inside the grounds, you can wander about and see all the different buildings, gardens and excavations. You can also book yourself into seeing one of the main palaces, the residency of the Sultan, which of course we had to see.


So on the last day, we took it (relatively) easy and just went on a hike through a national park. As you can see from the picture below, it has a certain arid beauty to the place.


After the hike we went off to the Nerja Caves, which was okay, but nothing all that special. A little bit too "touristy" and not quite enough "caveiness" for our liking.

So that wraps up my quick summary of our trip to Spain. Stay tuned for more updates!

The hills are alive...

So, Salzburg, the land of that musical... You know the one.

We decided (unwisely) to take an indirectly flight. I cannot overstate how boring it is sitting at airports waiting for your next plane to be made ready. Honest, just don't do it, simply step away from the invitingly cheap tickets and just enjoy a nice direct flight instead.

Anyway, once we were there, we found it to be a charming place. I mean honestly, what's not to like about this:

So over the course of two days, we went off and did a tour of the sites seen in the movie, hit up the local sites (Salzburg Fortress was brilliant) and wandered the local streets. Overall it was a great weekend away and I'd recommend it to anyone who may like food, scenery or culture. So pretty much everyone :)

Oops! Mass update time...

Ok, so we missed updating the blog for a while.

Bad Matt and Julie! Bad!

As some penance, I'm filling in some of the gaps. Not properly of course, I'm not that motivated. Rather here is a highlight tour of our various escapes, along with a link to the photo library for each:

Amsterdam - link - Brilliant place, tons to do, lots of variety. Very highly recommended.

Scotland - link - Beautiful area just filled with really nice people. Didn't spot the Loch Ness Monster, so will have to go back to double check.

Dublin - link - Nice city, great if you enjoy a beer or ten.

Brussels - link - European capital. Not as much to do as you might expect.

Stockholm - link - Great city, shame about the weather and flights. Well worth the trip.

Vienna - link - Expensive! Lots of galleries, doesn't stack up so well against Paris/Rome though.

San Francisco and Yosemite - link and link - Fun and hijinks in the US. Some mysteriously cold weather put a dampener on things. Damn you global warming!