This trip is a bit different than most. Not only that, but it is courtesy of a guest author - @mrs.turbodb!
I had been feeling the pressure of @mini.turbodb’s teenage-hood as being the “last chance” to go do things with our child, before she becomes an adult with better options (like a life of her own).
Friends of mine had recently been to Iceland and Copenhagen and both places were very appealing. Both places met my criteria for our first European family trip (cue images of the Griswolds):
- Most of the denizens spoke English;
- none of us spoke the native language (thus putting us all on equal(ly bad) linguistic footing);
- there was a lot of natural beauty/stuff to see;
- both were places I had never been and really wanted to see!
After figuring out a myriad of details, I presented what I had in mind to the family in an overly-engineered PowerPoint presentation. You see, in a previous life, my job entailed making many such presentations. So, after taking out every book on Copenhagen and Iceland from the library, brainstorming with myself in OneNote, laying out ideas in Word, and coming up with lists and price lists in Excel, all I had to do was rearrange everything a few times - after some well-travelled friend consultations - and plot everything in Google maps so I could build a timeline. After all that, making a PowerPoint just felt like a natural way to go. Obviously.
Surprisingly, the family was on board! Woohoo!
AirBnBs, cars, plane tickets, and touristy tickets got booked and soon, all that was left to do was to go!
We’ve Arrived | Not Vikings 1 - In Reykjavik, we deplaned outside. Last time I deplaned in Iceland on my way to Norway, it was February, and the weather was very different. Windmills in Oresund - Denmark, you are so efficient! (left) | Danish flag on Radhuspladsen - city hall. (right) After a blessedly uneventful flight, we arrived in Copenhagen, a little groggy, but excited for our adventure to begin! Having purchased the Copenhagen Card in advance, we now activated them, which gave us 72 hours of all-inclusive train and bus travel, access to every museum and castle we could think of, and even a boat tour!…
Castles | Not Vikings 2 - After waking up a little later than we (I) intended, we got ourselves together and headed out in a new direction - away from the city. But first, we stopped at the Meany grocery store, which was not mean at all and would give Whole Foods a run for their money. Opting for snaegles (a pastry), they were consumed before we reached the end of the block. Yum. We hopped on the F train toward Hillerup, and easily transferred trains to Hillerod and Frederiksborg Castle. The trip had - once again - been so easy (thank you Copenhagen Cards and…
This is Louisiana, But Not That Louisiana | Not Vikings 3 - From Helsingor and Kronborg Castle, it was back on the train to our next stop: Humlbaek and the Louisiana museum of modern art. Named for the three wives of the original owner - who were all named Louise - Louisiana became an art museum in 1955. Modern art enthusiast and cheese wholesaler Knud Jensen bought the place with the aim to create the “appropriate atmosphere" wherein people "...feel obliged [...] to approach the works of art.” He succeeded in my book! The buildings, the grounds, and the art are so interwoven and beautiful as though the whole place is a…
To Iceland and The Westman Islands | Not Vikings 4 - We were up early - very early - out by 4am to catch our flight to Keflavik, Iceland. Like everything in Copenhagen, the bus to the train to the airport was a smooth ordered process. They even provided bags for our 3oz liquids! Upon arriving in Iceland, we were famished, and unlike sunny Denmark, Iceland was solidly mid-March Seattle in weather: 50F and raining sideways, with dark, cloudy skies. We gathered our bags and headed to the car rental place outside the airport on foot. How had we gone a week without a car and barely noticed? That was about…
Diamonds on the Beach - Iceland's South Coast | Not Vikings 5 - I knew we had a big day ahead of us, but I didn’t realize quite how big. I had carefully mapped everything, calculated n overall driving time, and it seemed doable, but would it be? I wasn’t sure, but I was sure we’d need to leave early - we had places to see. With each passing day, there seemed to be more mist and fog, and this morning it felt like the clouds were attempting to touch the ground and stay there, which was not ideal when you want to take pictures of waterfalls with some degree of contrast with…
The Golden Circle | Not Vikings 6 - Today, I had a plan. Not a vague “go here, then there” plan like I’d had for the last two days, but a minute-by-minute itinerary, and I was sure that it was only mildly hopeless that we were going to follow it. No more 10pm dinners! We were going to have reservations! We had places to eat! It was very tidy and almost immediately we were off schedule. And by off schedule, I mean we were 30 minutes early! Yay! The plan was to “do the Golden Circle” - which is on every tour of Iceland that goes beyond Reykjavik…
West Fjords | Not Vikings 7 - We stumbled into the breakfast buffet at Fossatun groggy from our midge disturbed sleep. Other than @mini.turbodb, who slept soundly while the little critters munched on her skin, Dan (sweltering under a sheet in the cabin) and I (in the car, trying to escape the bugs) barely slept at all. Where we’d been alone at dinner, breakfast was full of European tourists, mostly Germans, which was change of pace from the other places we’d been in Iceland which seemed to have few Europeans. Breakfast was a delight - the best breakfast of the trip. Breakfast at Fossatun also included two…