Vacation Begins & Perlan Visit

2020-07-17Friends, Us Standard

[Photos taken 17 – 20 July 2020, posted online 14 January 2021. Covid-19 restrictions were loosened a bit yesterday, so Finnur went to his actual office to work, and I was all of a sudden all alone at home! ]

At long last, our 4-week-long summer vacation began. Unlike other vacations, it began entirely unplanned. With no trips or activities planned, we made an idea board, and a calendar and tried to piece something together as we went along. Our first activities were more dog-sitting, and checking out Perlan.

Covid kept a fairly low profile throughout July, but by the very end, the news turned more ominous as it was confirmed that cases had leaked through the border. Bah-humbug! (50-ish images)

Friday 17 July 2020

As often before, we took Spori on a walk, this time all the way downtown.
The goal was a late lunch for us at Ramen Momo. Here we are waiting for our take-away order.
Downtown was mostly deserted, but a few tourists did enter the noodle place while we were waiting for our food.
Anna eating standing up. There aren’t many benches downtown, probably to deter sleepers.
The soup was good!
At home, greenery was the name of the game. I’m thinking I’m going to let the shrubbery grown more now though, and not use the landscaping service any more, as they just kept hacking it all down.

Saturday 18 July 2020

The big news of the day was that my gym-shoes showed up at the gym lost-and-found, yay!
The day was spent organizing. First up: a Potential Things To-Do board.
Our utterly unplanned vacation, got one planned activity!
Since I was on an organizational roll, we also made a board to gather things-to-fix-around-the-house. Traditionally, I’ve assembled a list in my head, and then thrown up my hands in frustration once it got too long, and brain-vomited things to do on a piece of paper that then floated around the house, and finally disappeared. This time, it was up on a wall! With post-its! Coloring by Anna.
To keep them out of the way, but still ensure some contact, the boards got taped on the walls on the stair-landing.

Sunday 19 July 2020

The first activity was to visit Perlan. They were desperate for visitors, and had brought in a huuuuuuge bouncy-castle-land which opened that day. My plan was to only survey the bouncy-castle, but use the distraction to actually enter the Perlan-building itself, and check out the nature exhibits. The bouncy-castle-land was so popular we had to park a long way down the hill. The blue dot is us deciding which way to walk from the parking lot below.
Anna on the bridge by the ashes-graveyard, Sólland.
The Perlan (The Pearl) visible up the hill. Finnur had the other kids in his car.
The most impressive bouncy-castle-land.
The line into the bouncy-castle land was 2 hours long, so we just went into Perlan. There we watched a cool planetarium-style video on the aurora borealis. Towards the very end a huge animated viking jumps into view overhead with his weapons, and Emma left mildly terrified. Then we made our way to the ice-caves, with a quick stop by the fake bird-settlement-wall.
Emma checking out the points of interest.
The ice-cave entry was only opened every 10-15 minutes, so we had to wait a bit.
A stuffed polar bear was a momentary distraction.
Us old folks also got a photo.
Eerie cool.
Cleverly placed mirror.
Neat “handrail”.
Bjarki and his friend mucking about by the ice throne.
LEDs are amazing.
Anna hiding in a cavelet.
Family photo with Finnur on the ice-throne! It’s very useful to travel with a friend!
Queen Anna!
We went up a flight of stairs to exit to an interactive wall.
It was big!
Anna by teeth.
Bjarki found a sculpture to sit on.
Included in the admission was a discount at the ice-cream store up on the 4th (5th?) floor. There weren’t any good places to sit, so outside we went, and enjoyed the view.
The line for the bouncy castle land still stretched down the hill.
There used to be fancy restaurant at the top floor, where the outermost rim actually moves so you can take in the view of the city in one sitting. But now there’s just a cafe there, and it was busy!
A bit of view.
Of course, Bjarki ran into some classmates of his that were waiting for their bouncy castle slots to begin. I promised to bring Bjarki and his friend again the next day, which was a Monday, when the line would surely be shorter.
Making our way down again. The building was thankfully pretty empty.
Walking down the hill, after a successful outing.
Afterwards, we split up, and us girls went to say hi to Mr. Puppy.
Chatting to grandma Ásdís.
Giving Spori a bit to drink, it was a warm day.
That evening I was in need of some adult conversation, so I pinged a friend who thankfully was up for a bit of a walk.
Walking past the lake on the other side of our hill. The midget flies were out and about, dampening our walking joy by a smidgeon.

Monday 20 July 2020

Bjarki attended a 2.5-hour-long gymnastics practice four times per week for most of the summer. That day the gymnastics practice was at the swimming pool with the jumping board downtown! It was some kind of team award for good progress that summer.
Shortly after lunch we were back at the bouncy castle, and this time the line was much shorter.
Emma on the stairs, waiting for her group to be let in.
They all survived their allocated hour with minimal brusing.
Meanwhile, because this was 2020, the earth rumbled to the west of us, right were the Blue Lagoon is. That put somewhat of a damper on my enthusiasm to go there that summer…