Passport success!!!

Here we are, about a hour after finding out that my passport application was fine and the temporary one can be picked up tomorrow. Glasgow here we come!

We are actually having tapas and cava outdoors in a thunderstorm. It was terrific. The food came from the restaurant across the street.

We're not in Kansas anymore

Nor, did we get to Liverpool. By the end of the day, we took a walk around near our Hostal in Barcelona, thinking of all the good things that had happened. The taxi ride to the airport in Santiago was on time and swift. The snack provided by the hotel was lovely, with fruit, biscuits, water and juice. And then in Barcelona airport, I located my purse only five minutes after noticing that it was missing. And the young man, running with his wife and me, through the bowels of the airport to get our boarding pass specially stamped, actually dragged my bag, so I could run faster. He was so nice, and was truly disappointed when I announced at the passport control, only 100 metres from our gate, that I had dropped my passport, somewhere, in the "great race". 

The Gardia Civil we're very concerned and checked all the various security lines and also all the cashiers at the duty free store, the one we'd had to weave through at break neck speed, hoping not to break bottles on the way. By this time I was back at passport control and Les was talking to one of the officers, who recognized me.......I'd had to go back through. I was, at first, angry with Les, for not flying on to Liverpool, bit quickly was quite relieved that he had stayed behind. 

On the return trip to the Gardia Civil in the security area, the senior chap actually walked us to the office a few floors below and outside the building, to fill out a police report. But oh, I had lost the passport between security and passport control, and that is international territory, so I had to attend another Gardia Civil office in a different terminal. Directions were clearly given and off we went. Again, we found them very helpful and I have a lovely police report. They were so helpful with directions to the Canadian consulate in the Plaza de Catalunya.....open until 5:30. On to the airport/city shuttle and made it by 4:30. Again, very helpful, kind, calming staff. Lots of forms to fill, pictures to take. And then the young man taking the pictures gave us directions to a Pension nearby. Again, kind sympathetic people, 120€ for two nights. By 8pm, I had filled in the forms, contacted four people to be references, and felt absolutely shattered. We went for a meal at the closest restaurant. Surprising good. Three courses, including beer or wine for 15.50€ pp. and the courses were great: huge salad, halibut and flan. 

So we are thankful that people are so kind. 

We returned to the consulate this morning with forms and photos, and the young, efficient woman told me that unless anything went sideways (what more could possibly go wrong?), my temporary passport would be ready by 10am tomorrow. So we fly to Glasgow tomorrow night.

Below is our view from our room at the pension.

A wedding in Santiago

As soon as we stepped out of the door of our hotel in the morning, we realized that something was different. Beautiful old cars were streaming by, so we followed along and there, in the square in front of the cathedral, the Praza do Obradoiro, a show of old cars was just being set up.

And Les found the one for him. Finally something to match his hat!

And the weather stayed beautifully for the wedding. Imagine, an outdoor wedding at 7:30pm, in Santiago at the end of September! As risky as having one in Victoria at that time of year.

Here are the bride and groom, Lanzada and Victor. The woman in white is the officiant and the gentleman at the mic is Victor's very good friend and colleague. Before the marriage vows were spoken, there were about 6 people who made short speeches about the couple, wishing them happiness. Each one was different, from a different perspective. All in Spanish, so I caught some of each of the speeches, but not all of any of them.

At the reception, the bride and groom both made a speech, and it was during Lanazada's speech that she disclosed that the marriage proposal took place in our home in Victoria! That was pretty special for us to hear.

So, today we will see the happy couple again, enjoy more of Santiago and tomorrow morning, fly to Liverpool.

Santiago de Compostela!

We've reached Santiago, but this time, we didn't walk in. There are pilgrims all over, some looking tired, some thin, some cleaned up and ready to enjoy the town. This photo is of the line up outside the Pilgrim Office, at 3:45pm, for pilgrims to receive their Compostela, a certificate for walking at least the last 100km. The line will go in the door and then up a long winding staircase, so these folks will be in line for an hour.

And then we checked into our hotel. What a view! And those are spires are the Convent of San Francisco, attributed to St. Francis who went on pilgrimage to Santiago in 1214. He always offered care to walkers, a tradition which remains to the present day.

Just before we left for the party, we couldn't resist another photo, taken at 9pm out the window.

Adventures and missing adventures!

No, we have not fallen off the edge of the world, but we have left Iceland (and my pink walking shoes) flown to Paris,

Luggage for a year for two, waiting for our train at Gare de Lyon
 to catch a train to Montpellier. Doug and Carol treated us like royalty, even though we had brought the rain with us. And then yesterday, we left Montpellier (and our passports) and took the train to Barcelona. We had been on the train for two hours when I opened a small pouch to retrieve my earphones to listen to the dialog on the TV. And there,much to my surprise, was one passport only, Les' Canadian passport. My stomach fell out and we started sorting out where else the passports could be. Several phone calls and texts to and from Doug, and he located the passports......neatly locked away in the suitcase we had left at the apt. And then to work out where to have it sent.  By this time, we are waiting outside our AirB&B in Barcelona and our hostess was nowhere in sight. The café nearby had wifi, so I was able to confirm that the DHL at the airport was the only sure pickup for us. Meanwhile, Doug and Carol are driving to the DHL in Montpellier and texts, emails and phone calls back and forth.  Thanks to their quick action, the passports arrived at the airport at 7:30am and we picked them up at 11:30am, 24 hours after we had discovered they were missing. Whew!

We'll be back to the aiport tomorrow to fly to Santiago.
Oh, and the hotel in Iceland found my shoes and are mailing them to Montpellier. I have NEVER lost anything (does underwear on the camino count?) so we realize that the last month had really been tiring. And the hospitality we received in Montpellier had us lulled into a very relaxed state. Note to self: never pack after a two hour lunch ;-)
Doesn't it look marvy?

Living in clothes for a week

Really! It's amazing how long you can stay in one outfit. I had to throw on a skirt one evening because I'd had to wash the mud off my pants, and it's so cold and damp, today was pouring, that we tend to put on the same thing everyday. The very best buys for this trip, are the little black coat I got at MEC, and a pair of Clark's Gortex shoes and the suitcase the we bought the day before we left. Five pounds lighter and wheels work well and 9 months worth of clothing inside!!
For those who'd like to see pictures of Iceland, that are way better than ours, please take a look at our friend Ed Jackson's site. He's been to Iceland many times in the past 40 years and is a fabulous photographer. You can find his site here. Enjoy!
I'll load some more picture tomorrow. We're drying out from heavy rains that were on and off today, but still we saw some great natural phenomenon and small, well interpreted museums.

Oops, I forgot the hot spring!

We concluded yesterday with a 15 minute gentle uphill walk to this hot spring. As you can see, one side of the pool is the mountainside. This pic was taken just as we were getting out to leave and yes, that's Les in shorts!!! The gentleman in the pool, on the right, is from the next valley over and spends his winters in the Azores. Says we're welcome anytime and there'll be no problem finding him as he is one of the only two Icelandic people living in the town. He visits this pool in the winter and says the atmosphere is fantastic because everything around is white and beautiful.

A sunny day!!!!

I was too tired to write last night. It was a short night......up looking at the clear night sky, filled with stars, then the glow of the volcano and then some northern lights. So a short night and a long day driving in the sun, stopping for short hikes and hot springs. But we began the day with a drive eastward for 95km to see this.

And this

A glacier had receded so quickly, it had dropped off these mini glaciers. Walking along the fine, black, volcanic beach was also very cool.

We turned westward, stopping for walks, and then had lunch at a picnic table overlooking this beach at Vik.

We're back in Reykjavik now and it's pouring with rain. After breakfast we'll set out for the Golden Circle. 

Why we changed our route

Thanks to Stephan at Foss Hotels, we spent the day in a safe zone in the south of Iceland, visiting waterfalls, a fabulous museum in Skógar and a small peninsula, Dyrhólaey. From the top, looking one way, we could see the glacier Myrdalsjökull, which, earlier today, we had walked to the foot of one finger. Looking out to sea, we could see black lava columns. Will post some pics in a few days. But below is a map of Iceland and the green shaded part is where the gas is. Our initial plan would have had us sleeping last night in the north west part of the green, then spending the day driving east and south to the bottom edge of the green bit.....likely deformed and unconscious with all the fumes ;-) we are staying in Núpar, just east of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. Go ahead......try and pronounce it!

So what's the food like in Iceland?

We had a drizzly day today and clocked over 425km. and that included a two hour climb up and down Eldborg, a splatter ring crater. After driving around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, seeing spectacular scenery, we pulled into the Selfoss Hotel. Our room has views of the river and nearby church.

When we booked our car and hotels, we also prepaid for three of our meals.

So this is what we had tonight for about $50 each and if we'd ordered from the menu, it would have been $80 per person. Beer not included.

Lobster bisque with shrimp and a huge lobster chunk. Cream and a touch of chocolate!

Roast lamb on a bed of mild parsnip/white carrot? with a type of scalloped potato, an artichoke purée.

Dessert of Skyr, which is like a cream cheese/yogurt. This was flavored with lemon, some chocolate at the bottom, blueberry sorbet and that crumbly stuff is NOT chocolate, but crumbs of rye bread!

The whole meal was delicious and our table overlooked the river. Food here has great importance and the presentation is always fabulous.....at least so far.

Readjusting our itinerary

We arrived in Iceland at 6am yesterday and after a cup of coffee in the airport, drove the hour into Reykjavik. Ou room would not be ready until at least 3pm, so we walked downtown to a fabulous breakfast at The Laundromat, then took in a few sites on foot. Although bleary, we decided to drive somewhere (can't remember where) and we took the wrong exit, couldn't find the valley we wanted to be in and all the time, a little voice was saying "you shouldn't be driving......you're too tired", so we went to the public pools and totally relaxed. Two very large pools, three hot tubs, a steam room, all thermal heated and for less than $5. By the time we dried off and dressed, our room was ready, and we were ready for a nap. Dinner was a walk to Reykholt Fish and Chips, of course. Great fresh fish.

Today we started off with the intention of doing the Golden Circle, but just before I let off the handbrake, we decided to drive north, around a fiord, through small towns, to Barnafoss (falls) and then to Reykholt for the night. Easy driving and fabulous landscape. One of the highlights was driving along, seeing smoke or vapour coming from farm fields and then the most powerful hot spring. 212 degrees! And spewing boiling water! They've built a large pipe and for the last 35 years they've been pumping the water to surrounding cities. It takes 24 hours to get to Borgarnes and by the time it gets there the temp is down to 168. By the time it gets to Akranes, it's only 138. Our hot water tanks at home are set to 120!

There's the water pipe.

So now for tomorrow. We had planned on going further north to Akureyri, but the volcano is now spewing noxious fumes which are in the north and north east of the country. People have been advised to stay indoors. So we've made changes and will stay in the south, driving and hiking in Snæfellsnes Peninsula and then the next day, to the south east to the Vatnajökull area to enjoy a few glaciers. 

It's cold, I'm wearing four layers, as is Les, and I bought myself a hat!!!

A wonderful leaving

I did not expect that I would have anything to put up on this blog until we got to Iceland, BUT, on the ferry from Victoria to Vancouver, we saw a woman with a bright pink backpack, two pods of Orca whales and then the woman with the pack again. I found the pack on the ground, looked around and there was a woman with an iPad mini and some photocopied maps. I thought "Aha, a pilgrim" and sure enough she was.......for the Via Francigena. When I approached her, about what she would be doing, she was eager to share. She is walking to Rome from Lucca to honour the person who donated a heart to her 10 years ago. When she gets to Rome, she will light a candle for the donor and their family. And why did she choose this route, even though she had many friends who had walked the camino? She had read Julie and Neville's book, An Italian Odyssey. She was so excited that I knew Julie and Neville and we exchanged intimate information.....how does a lady pee discretely in the forest? How can I carry enough water without having a pack that's too heavy? Her pack was 17lbs without water and most of that was not just the lotions and potions that add weight to most people's bags, but all the medication that has been required since the transplant.
So what we expected to be an unremarkable ferry trip became a truly extraordinary experience of nature and coincidence.

The lights of the city are hard to leave

Yesterday, we drove Chris to the aiport for his trip back to Toronto, so another stage of our preparations has now come to an end. Just enough time left to pack up, clean up and have a sleepover with our grandaughter. But oh, it's hard to leave this view.........Victoria waking up, with the lights still on the Legislative building. Next posting will be from Iceland!!