FIRST FEW DAYS IN MAASTRICHT

Well, we’re settling in to our new digs in Maastricht after a bit of a bumpy start.  The driver, who the Eertwegh’s (our hosts) had arranged to pick us up at the airport, didn’t show up.  We got into Brussels airport  at 9:45 p.m. and, after spending about $25 trying to phone the neighbors and get on line to try and contact the Eertweghs in Mexico, to no avail, a young couple let us use their IPhone and we were able to contact the neighbors who connected with the Eertweghs in Mexico, who gave us the phone number of the driver.  He finally arrived at one in the morning and we arrived at our new home just after 2 a.m.

Needless to say, we were exhausted and after sleeping in late, tried to hook up the computers and the Vonage Line only to discover that the converter was broken.  The neighbors have been terrific. They had to come over to tend to the new lamb that had been born the previous day and try and force the Mama to feed her…we’ve included a photo of the little one who has now been taken away by some folks who are well versed in bottle feeding lambs who have been rejected by their mamas.  So….we got all the dirt on how to feed the sheep and the hens , rooster and peacock and info about the house and then, they so kindly offered to go find us a new converter.   So a few hours later we were completely operational.

Our New Friends

We named her ZLO the Baby Lamb

The weather the first day was grey and rainy (thought we were in Seattle) but we ventured out in the car the ten or so blocks to the market, stocked up and made dinner at home.  This house is like a Japanese museum.  Irene Eertwegh owns a Japanese shop/gallery in downtown Maastricht and all the décor in the three story old brick home is Japanese.   From the initial photos that we see on the Swap site, we thought they lived in the country but their home is actually at the end of a city street of row houses with this incredible back yard area where all the animals live, and with a vegetable garden and beautiful patio full of bonsai  plants. 

We are now feeling more comfortable with our surroundings  and , I fear,  have become bicycling fools.  The Eertweghs left us their bikes to use and we did a practice run today to the little downtown area of this part of Maastricht and are going to take on the trip to the old part of Maastricht the end of the week  to see the Friday Market.  It’s, apparently, about a 25 minute bike trip and we got good directions from John, the neighbor.  Parking is very expensive here and it seems like everyone uses their bikes for transportation.  From what we’ve seen of Maastricht so far, which is very little, it looks beautiful.

We’ll have more to report by the weekend.  We’ve included a few photos of the Blue Lagoon that we took on our way to the airport in Reykjavik.  As we hadn’t had the chance to go there during our stay, Barbara, the daughter of the woman whose apartment we were using, was so kind as to take us to the airport and insisted that we had to see it before we left.  It was really quite amazing







The photos don't really show how very blue the hot water is





Weekend in Reykjavik

Saturday was pretty mellow.  We slept in then went downtown to check out the Flea Market and the Worldwide Friends Latin American Festival.  The Flea Market was a little overwhelming….like 1,000 garage sales all under one roof and certainly no bargains.  The Festival was pretty funky…imagine being in Iceland and listening to Salsa and Merengue.  It was held in the back lawn area of some shops and the main purpose, I think, was to recruit volunteers to go work on some little island off Cartegena.  It was fun watching the people from all over and the dancing.  We decided to pass on the Blue Lagoon as we didn’t feel like paying $50 a piece to get in….this didn’t include any of the spa treatments.  We opted to go home,  take a nap, cook dinner and play Upwords….I beat Bill!!  We wanted to be rested for our big adventure on Sunday.

Woke up to almost hurricane strength winds, rain and cold but headed out anyway to drive the Golden Circle.  Fortunately the weather calmed down a bit and all the sights we visited were incredible.  Pingvellir was our first stop.  The site lies on two tectonic plates that are constantly diverging causing fissures and gullies throughout the zone. It’s also the where the first parliament was founded in 930 A.D. The landscape was fascinating and beautiful.

Second stop was Geysir where the term Geyser originated and was the first one discovered in the world.  It goes off every five minutes and we’ve included some pretty good photos.  The Geysir Info Center and shop was an experience in and of itself.  Beautiful  things but prices off the charts.  We really had to resist buying an actual can of Icelandic Mountain Air for a mere $10.00.  I guess we could have bought a bunch and given them for Xmas presents. Then off to Gullfoss…a pretty spectacular waterfall.  However, the weather got bad again and it was freezing so we headed home with a stop along the way to see this little lake in a crater.  It was beautiful but one of those things that you couldn’t really capture in a photo…though we did take some.  We back at the home front and are going into down for our last dinner here in Reykjavik.  

We’re off to Brussels tomorrow afternoon.  The Maastricht people arranged for a driver to pick us up at the airport and take us to their home about an hour away.  They’re arriving in Mexico Monday morning.   So, our next posting will be from our new home for the next three weeks where we’ll  be feeding the sheep and other animals and exploring this part of the world.

Bill & Susan's Travels: Bill & Susan's Travels: First two days in Reykavik...

Bill & Susan's Travels: Bill & Susan's Travels: First two days in Reykavik...: "Bill & Susan's Travels: First two days in Reykavik : 'Message body Well…here we are in Reykjavik. We arrived, at 8:30 Thursday morning (we’r..."

Bill & Susan's Travels: First two days in Reykavik

Bill & Susan's Travels: First two days in Reykavik: "Message body Well…here we are in Reykjavik. We arrived, at 8:30 Thursday morning (we’re 7 hours ahead of Seattle) and Arnar, whose sister’..."

First two days in Reykavik

Message body

Well…here we are in Reykjavik.  We arrived, at 8:30 Thursday morning (we’re 7 hours ahead of Seattle) and Arnar, whose sister’s home we are staying in, picked us up, took us to the market and got us somewhat acclimated to our immediate surrounds, took our luggage in (maybe he thought we were too old to carry it ourselves) and has been an all around terrific host.  He and his family and sister are going to come to Mexico in January after a ski trip to Whistler.

Iceland is really interesting  and very different from other foreign cities we’ve both been to.  Driving to the area  right outside of Reykjavik, where we are staying, felt like parts of the Big Island of Hawaii with miles and miles of Lava fields.

The apartment where we’re staying is delightful with a sweet patio off the living room and cozy down comforters on the bed which we were able to try out by taking a short nap.  The weather is cool (apparently it never gets real sunny here) but very pleasant. 

After our nap we headed into Reykjavik to explore.  The town is small and very charming.  There is an amazing church on the edge of town (see photo) and is quite an architectural feat.  We checked out the menus on the sidewalk (of course) trying to find a restaurant that was somewhat affordable.  The prices here are very high but we finally found one, the “Viking”, and had a fabulous meal, even though we opted to pass up the $7 ice tea and $8 beer for delicious water.  I had ocean catfish….probably the best fish I’ve ever had and Bill’s lamb was delicious as well.

We did a lot of walking and the old (or rather new) hip is holding up perfectly.  We wanted to stay up as late as we could to get ourselves on this new time zone.  It’s very odd when you keep expecting  it to get dark and it never does.

So…good night for now and look for the next installment.

Day Two in Reykjavik……we got a great night’s sleep and went back into town to check out the tourist info center for maps and info on how to do the Golden Circle.  This is about an eight hour day trip to the most interesting sites in the area.  We’re planning this for Sunday. 

Did a lot of walking and took a lot of photos which we’ve posted and went up to the tower of the church.  Then, we went swimming in one of the indoor thermal pools right in the city with hot tubs outside.  Bill got in free because he’s old and I had to pay $4.  The pool was great and we met an interesting guy from Edmonton who’s lived here for 3 years.  We had a nice home cooked meal and are fine tuning our Blog.  We have to pace our eating out or we’ll be broke by the time we get to the Netherlands.  We’ll probably go to the Blue Lagoon tomorrow and poke around the surrounding areas.

 

Bill & Susan's Travels: getting ready for the trip

Bill & Susan's Travels: getting ready for the trip: "We have been staying in a great downtown condo by Pike Street Market here in Seattle and now getting ready for our 11 week trip starting in ..."

getting ready for the trip

We have been staying in a great downtown condo by Pike Street Market here in Seattle and now getting ready for our 11 week trip starting in Iceland and ending in Turkey.