No volcano is holding us back

Greetings from Bergen, Norway.  The volcano erupting in Iceland was not spewing ash so it did not affect our travel plans at all.  We've explored a little bit already, but also done a good deal of napping today as we had an early flight.  The city is surrounded by mountains and there are houses perched all up the cliffs that look somewhat precarious (to me anyway).  Tomorrow we'll go up the Floibanen funicular and get a great view of the surrounding area.  Monday is the boat trip into the Sognefjord, the Flam railway, and the train to Oslo.  Pictures to come!

In other news, I have been dominating Chrissy in our early cribbage games.

Also, the crosswalk sign guy here is wearing a fedora which is great.

And finally for everyone back home in Central Mass, who knew Worcester was selling sauce in Norway?

Adventures in Iceland

Rye bread ice cream @ Cafe Loki

 Hallgrimskyrka with statue of Leif Ericsson in downtown Reykjavik

 The eharmony of lost gloves?

 Jim on the jetty out by  Grotta lighthouse

Playing dress up @ the National Museum of Iceland

Jim atop Lagafellsklif out in Mossfellsbaer

 The bus stop in Mossfellsbaer

Totally awesome, and very warm icelandic wool legwarmers,  modeled at the Viking hotel in Hafnarfjörður

Delicious Pylsa (hotdogs) with everything including mustard, remoulade, raw onions and fried onions

It has begun.

We arrived to a dreary misting Iceland at 6:30 this morning and promptly went straight to the hot springs at Blue Lagoon.  Once we got there the weather started to improve and we got to enjoy the 100 degree water and rub mud on our faces.  It is a strange place, but it's a pretty cool experience and nice since we basically hadn't slept after taking the red eye the night before.

We're staying in Hafnarfjörður right on the harbor just south of Reykjavik, but since everything in Icelandic is completely impossible to pronounce we've just been calling it Harfnarf.  The landscape in Iceland is crazy and we hope to do more exploring tomorrow.  Until then, check out this epic cat we found in a nearby park (also said to be the habitat of elves).

We made it to the airport

Photo courtesy of Margaret Peterson. Post courtesy of free WiFi at Logan.

Our whole life pretty much squished into a grand total of 100 liters (backpack volume)

Almost There...

Again, welcome to our travel blog.  Over on the right hand side you'll find the latest stats for our cribbage games on the road as well as a list of the places we've been so far.  If you don't know, Christiana and I met at BU in part because she saw me playing cribbage and we've always loved the game.

Everything is packed in the storage unit, and it all fit!  This is extremely exciting news as we were pretty skeptical about fitting everything in there.  We're relaxing in Leominster now for a bit with just a couple odds and ends to do before we take off on Tuesday night.  More soon, but right now, we're going bowling (candlepin, as if you needed to ask) with Mark and Max!

Jim

A Disclaimer

Hello!

Welcome to the first post on our travel blog.  First, a disclaimer:

You'll notice that the web address is wickedawesomesabbatical.blogspot.com.  The Oxford English Dictionary defines sabbatical as "a period of paid leave granted to a college teacher for study or travel, traditionally every seventh year."  Well, we aren't on paid leave, we aren't college professors, and this is not the seventh year of anything.  So, we're 0 for 3.  But, since the idea first started kicking around in our heads we've been calling it a sabbatical and we're sticking to our guns.  Sabbatical does have the word travel in the definition so that will have to be good enough.

Also, astute readers will notice that the title of this blog makes me Pinky and Chrissy The Brain.  This seems appropriate.  Narf.

We hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and we'll have more to come once we actually hit the road.  First we have to finish packing up this apartment.  Then, Iceland!

Jim