Visits to "I" lands - 2014
   For our winter escape in 2014 we decided to include visits to Ireland, Iceland and the Cook Islands - as well as stops in the good old USA.

  The Ireland visit was 2 weeks of golfing and touring with a couple of good friends. We stayed in nice hotels which included excellent breakfasts, saw castles and quaint villages, played some beautiful golf courses (albeit not overly well), and enjoyed many excellent restaurant dinners. You may have heard it said that "nobody goes to Ireland for the food", but we would beg to differ. It was far from being just boiled potatoes and Irish stew.

  The Cook Islands (Rarotonga) was a couple of weeks of relaxation in a little beachhouse - and somehow sunset always seemed to happen at gin-o'clock!

  This posting is mostly dedicated to the 2 weeks we spent circling Iceland in a campervan caravan with brother and sister-in-law Jim and Mary Ellen. We met in a B&B near Keflavik airport and picked up our rental vans the next morning. We have had campervan holidays in the past - but this is by far the biggest vehicle we have used. It was quite comfortable - and well suited to the wide open spaces of Iceland. We easily found scenic overlooks or other nice parking spots for our overnight stays. This was a first campervan experience for Jim and ME - but Jim soon "ramped up" on the skills required to have a level bed. (By the way - John supplied the words and Jill, Jim and ME took all the photos. Click on any image for a bigger view.)

  Our first stop was at at Þingvellir national park. This is a wild and wonderful place where the mid-Atlantic ridge rises above the sea and the earth is splitting as North America and Europe drift further apart. It also marks the historic meeting place where Icelanders have practiced their form of democracy for over 1000 years. We had a lovely ramble down the wildflower bordered path to the waterfall and dinner in the parking lot.

  The next day we continued the Iceland "Golden Circle" with visits to the Geysir thermal area and the very impressive Gullfoss waterfall.

  Our 2 week stay was in late June and early July - so while the sun did get below the horizon in the middle of the night, it never got dark. Unfortunately, that didn't mean that we did a lot of sitting in the sun. It seems daft to complain about the cold when you visit a place called "ice land", but it was colder than we had expected. We thought that we might get temps between 10-15C (in the 50s F) but we often had daily single digit highs (in the 40s F). The weather never really inhibited our activities (though the rain parkas were well used), but it meant that we couldn't sit outside in the evenings and enjoy the locations where we parked. This is unfortunate because one of the charms of a campervan holiday is the ability to find a nice spot to enjoy. We mostly found nice spots, but had to enjoy them from inside the vans.