Becoming fietsters

So we left Iceland, a place and people we’ll never forget, and have started our cycling adventure around Europe. Just like in Iceland, we want to really get to know the places we visit, live with the locals and absorb the culture of each new country – the rest Europe has a lot to live up to!

We cycled to Hull to get the ferry after a quick stop in the UK to pick up our bikes. As we cycled on board it felt the beginning of a real adventure… And the Netherlands didn’t let us down. Rob lost his phone on the first day, we fought killer Christmas trees, got fleeced at a Dutch car boot sale and were attacked by hailstones the size of golf balls.

As two novice cycle tourers, we decided to start our journey in the Netherlands where bikes rule the road and there’s an amazing network of easy, flat cycle paths.

Our bikes rest at one of the many route signs

After a shaky start trying to navigate through Rotterdam we learned how to follow the scenic green cycle routes and quickly fell in love with the quaint towns and tasty cheeses of the Netherlands.

The bikes enjoy hanging out in Gouda

Our first stop was a ‘Gouda’ one, sorry for the 'cheesy' joke… where of course it would have been rude not to have bought some of the local delicacy. Not sure the Dutch would approve of the way we ate it though!

Rob enjoys a smashing meal

Endeavoring to get to know the Netherlands a bit better, we arranged a work exchange at a bamboo nursery in Leusden near Amersfoort for two weeks through workaway.com

Sunset on the nursery

In exchange for feeding and watering bamboo plants and Christmas trees, weeding, cutting and potting bamboo and generally helping around the nursery four days a week, we got to unpack our panniers in a caravan, were given access to a vegetable garden, some euros to buy food each week and got to spend time with some lovely people.

Our home for two weeks

Louise excels at potting bamboo... 

Rob wanted to make a Holland pot joke here, Louise wouldn't let him...

Over the two weeks we learnt a bit about bamboo, a few Dutch words and how to avoid being prickled by Christmas trees after making the mistake of wearing shorts on the first day. We also got a real insight into life in the Netherlands, we explored the area, ate some chocolate sprinkles on toast and we even went to a Dutch car boot sale where you could buy everything including the kitchen sink.

Our hosts didn't find the joke as funny as we did...

Exploring at a nearby lake

Street art in Amersfoort

We got fleeced six euros for two camping stools at the car boot sale, but at least we’re using them.

Louise drafting the blog on a €3 stool

We’ve set up our next workaway job and it’s just around the corner, in the Midi Pyrenees! So we’ve got six weeks on the road, google maps recons the 1500km or so will take us 80 hours to cycle, but we thought we’d give ourselves a little bit longer just to be sure. And the whole point of our adventure is to take our time getting to know places, taking detours and getting a little bit lost – all part of the fun.

And there's always something to see

Campsites can be quite expensive, so our best option is wild camping. Unfortunately it’s impossible to find a pitching place that isn’t in view of someone’s house in the Netherlands, and it’s illegal… Luckily we discovered Paalkamperen sites, literally translated as pole camping, these are very basic free campsites usually found in forest with a water pump and room for a couple of tents.

Drying out after a night of thunder,  lightning and very painful hail stones

This campsite in the middle of a forest was hard to find, but we loved it

And of course the money saved on camping has to be spent on something else...

Rob cleans up nicely when we splurge on a B&B

We’ve found the Dutch to be very nice people, or perhaps the people we’ve met just feel sorry for us cycling with all our belongings in the rain… So far, we’ve been given a bottle of wine, a bottle of coke zero, the use of camping chairs and a free night in a B&B in Dordrecht where the lovely lady who runs it washed all our clothes, let us take over her basement to dry our tent and fed us lots of tasty food. Her equally lovely husband gave us his map collection for our onward journey through Belgium and France making Rob a very happy boy! And cycled with us for the first 10 minutes (and nearly came to France) to make sure we took the nicest route.

Next stop Belgium, beer, chips and chocolate here we come.

We had an ice time in South Iceland

It would be a bit of an understatement to say that the South of Iceland is an exciting place. It’s home to the largest glacier in the country, Vatnajökull. It´s where the Eyjafjallajökull (easy for us to say) eruption that stranded flight passengers all over the world in 2010 took place. And it’s even possible to see the newest island in the world. We decided to take a trip there and do some adventuring of our own.

We’re getting quite used to seeing amazing sights, but were once again wowed when we visited Jökulsárlón glacial lagoon.

We took a zodiac boat trip out to the edge of the glacier where we were lucky to see some ice fall into the lagoon and become one of the many icebergs that float around providing nice resting spots for the seals.

One of the most beautiful sights was on the opposite side of the road, where the icebergs wash up on a black beach after the tide pulls them out to sea.

And a smaller lagoon nearby was pretty special too.

Icelandic Mountain Guides gave us some crampons and took us on a guided walk on the Vatnajökull glacier.  

During an incredible hike from Skógar to Þórsmörk, we saw a few more waterfalls.  

We walked between the Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull ice caps and over the new craters Magni and Móði, which were formed during the 2010 eruption and are still steaming. We heard that some hikers, who stood still for too long last year, set their boots on fire with the heat. Luckily the lava has cooled down a bit since then and we managed to complete the 25km hike fully clothed.

We got a little taste of Iceland´s Highlands with some spectacular views on the way into Þórsmðrk and particularly enjoyed making it across Heljarkambur, a narrow 50m traverse with a vertical rock face rising on one side and a steep snowfield dropping 75m on the other.

The hike took us about 10 hours including a dinner stop between the glaciers at Fimmvörðuháls, where there is a hut that hikers can use to take a break or even stay the night in. We completed the hike, camping at Húsadalur in Þórsmðrk, adding a couple of kilometers and river crossings to the route. The next morning we took the bus back to Skógar and enjoyed some more river crossings that were a bit more fun without the cold wet feet.

Having learned all about the Vestmannaeyjar at the Volcano House cinema in Reykjavik we were really looking forward to visiting it’s only populated island, Heimaey, especially Louise who didn´t have a nap during the films.

Vestmannaeyjar came to international attention in 1973 with the eruption of Eldfell volcano, which is considered the largest natural disaster in Iceland’s recent history. The eruption destroyed many buildings, and forced the evacuation of the entire population to mainland Iceland. It is possible to climb to the top of the crater, which is still hot, and walk over the lava that has covered over 400 houses.

Before and after, a photo of a photo of the eruption

Signs above the lava, remember the streets below

We camped in an extinct crater, which we later found out on a boat trip around the island was also next to a giant elephant…

The boat trip also gave us the opportunity to see the newest island in the world, Surtsey, which was created in a volcanic eruption in 1963. Tourists will never get to visit Surtsey, so this is probably the best view we’ll get.

Surtsey is the island in the distance on the right

On our first night, and continuing our midnight adventure theme, we climbed to the top of Stóra-klif assisted by some ropes and chains that definitely wouldn’t pass the health and safety regulations back home. The views were amazing and we even met a puffin.

That wasn’t the only puffin we met on Heimaey. At the island’s Aquarium and Museum of Natural History we got introduced to Toti, a two year old rescue puffin, who was taking a bath in the back of the museum. And if that wasn’t exciting enough, when Rob went to collect his backpack, kindly kept in the staff office for us, he was startled by a baby puffin hiding behind it – very cute.

We´re not sure if it´s the nicest beach in the world as stated by our Lonely Planet, but another highlight of our trip was walking barefoot on a beautiful black beach in Vic.

Bless bless, xxx

It’s not so grim up north, we had a whale of a time!

As a proud Yorkshireman and wee Scottish lassie, we have always known that the north is the best at home and it´s not bad in Iceland either. 

The 400km drive, fuelled only by hotdogs and coffee, became more exhilarating as we encountered snow-capped mountains, verdant valleys and white water gorged ravines.

On our first night, we camped next to Goðafoss (goða = god and foss = waterfall). We thought this would be a lovely place to sleep on our way to the north, but little did we know that we would accidently discover our new favourite way to explore Iceland’s most popular sights…

We arrived around 10pm and checked into the campsite, which we had all to ourselves. After setting up camp we found that we could finally satisfy both of our desires at the same time…

Rob loves beer, Louise loves waterfalls

The night got even more magical as we took a midnight walk to the waterfall without seeing another person. When we awoke in the morning to see the Goðafoss carpark crammed with tour busses, we decided to explore as much of Iceland as we can with the midnight sun. It’s easy to do here because it never gets dark during the summer months, not even for a second.

Husavik, Iceland’s whale watching capital, was our next destination. Well we have to do something during the day.

One of Rob’s heroes is Jamie Oliver, so when Lonely Planet described Pallurinn, a place to eat in Husavik, as Iceland’s answer to Jamie, there was only one place we were heading for lunch before our boat trip.  In true Jamie tradition, our amazing street food inspired smoked lamb sandwich was ready in under fifteen minutes!

Whale watching with Gentle Giants was one of the best things we have ever done. We’re not sure if there is one amazingly trained hump back whale that is called on for tours, or if we were some of the luckiest whale watchers ever, probably the latter.

To make sure we didn’t miss any dolphins or whales, the highly informative and eagle eyed guide shouted out times from the clock directing us to each sighting, and there were lots. Rob isn’t easy to impress, but there was definite yelping and wowing as he ran from 11 o-clock to 2 o-clock and back again as the whales came so close to the boat we could almost touch them. If that wasn’t enough, this all happened on a beautifully sunny day with snow capped mountains reflecting in the crystal waters of the fjord.

The rest of the trip was just more of the same old stuff really...

Camping in idyllic surroundings with our Swiss miss, one of several things we have found here and would like to bring home, others include liquorice chocolate, deep fried onions and caviar in a tube (much nicer than it sounds). 

Ásbergi

Some breathtaking waterfalls

Rob gets close to the most powerful waterfall in Europe, Dettifoss

Hafragilsfoss

Selfoss

Goðafoss

A few hypnotic rock formations

Dimmuborgir, Mývatn

Ásbergi

Ásbergi

Hljóðaklettar 'The echo rocks'

Hljóðaklettar 'The echo rocks'

Hot pools inside caves

Grjótágja, Mývatn

Craters 

Hverfjall, Mývatn

More lava, this time steaming hot 40 years after the eruption

Krafla, Mývatn was like walking over a massive BBQ

And one or two gravel roads

They aren't all this good, Hafragilsfoss

Unfortunately, our camera battery ran out on arrival at the very pretty island of Hrísey, so we don´t have any photos of the houses that all look like they have been artistically designed for a photo shoot. And we didn't manage to capture the residents driving to the shop on their restored classic tractors or us camping on our own private campsite. We pitched our tent next to the sea and had extremely nice facilities at the swimming pool opposite. We had packed in a hurry to avoid missing the foot ferry to Hrísey and forgot to bring a lighter, luckily the kind people at Brekka gave us some matches, which ended up being quite expensive when we accidentally stayed to enjoy a wonderful Icelandic meal including the usual specialities of lamb, fish and of course ice cream. We couldn't resist an early morning hot tub enjoying the views over the ocean to the mountains before we left.

Our last photo on the way to Hrísey

Back at Fljótstunga, Rob is fast becoming an internet sensation. Not only has he made it onto trip advisor for his incredible lava cave tours http://bit.ly/19iQSgw, he is also feeling like a celebrity after being recognised by a family who visited the farm after reading our blog. And there was us thinking our 1000 page views were all by Louise´s mum! 

We thought it was about time we shared some photos of Viðgelmir, the cave we guide visitors around, so here they are...

Drip stalactites

Lava doing its best to impersonate chocolate

Spotlight on the interesting colours of the cave

Stalagmites

Bless bless, xxx