[Photos taken 02 – 06 August 2025, posted online (hopefully) 06 September 2026. Yes, this entry is now over a year out of date. I suggest we all just deal with it, take a deep breath, and continue onwards. Today the weather is gorgeous, the sun is blazing, and the sky is blue. I’ve just returned from fulfilling a bizarre bucket list item: sleeping alone in a tent in near-freezing calm weather, all bundled up, sort of like the babies in their wagons in Iceland. It was… interesting!]
In Iceland, if you want to officially call yourself an “engineer” you have to finish a Masters degree in engineering. Perhaps because of that, and perhaps because of why not? (there’s no tuition!), Anna and her boyfriend decided to go finish their respective Masters degrees in Denmark’s DTU.
These days, young folks often get accompanied by their parents when resettling abroad, and since Anna’s “in-laws” had previously lived in Denmark for years, they took the first shift, and we the second. Complicating matters was Bjarki needing to stay in Iceland well into August to take final exams to finish his summer-school courses, so our August travels became a big jigsaw puzzle.
After much hmmm-ing and huh-ing, eventually we settled on Anna et al flying to Copenhagen to start getting settled in, and on the same day Emma and I would fly to Stockholm to go visit my brother et al over there. Emma and I would then take the train (!) to Copenhagen, get a rental car, check into an Airbnb, and then commence shopping excursions. Once Bjarki’s exams were all done, him and Finnur would fly to Copenhagen, where we’d all have a few days of “vacation” before the four of us flew back to Iceland, just in time for regular life to hit us like a pile of bricks!
Saturday 02 August 2025
Two days before moving to a different country, Anna decided to use her home grown broccoli to make a bacon and broccoli quiche.
This was a long weekend, but the weather forecast had been atrocious, so we just stayed put, instead of going to the summer house. This was probably me taking a photo of the rainy window, plus the random blue gap in the clouds.
Yummy! We would miss our back-up chef!
Sunday 03 August 2025
Packing for departure, and filling up bags of stuff for the recycling center, with less than 24 hours to spare.
Some peas from the garden!
Anna’s bedroom had stayed relatively frozen in time for quite a few years, including this red Ikea thing that had proudly collected random bits and bobs and dust for years. I was quite pleased to see it go…
The last Anna-included dinner in Iceland for a few months!
She ordered meat-balls a la Finnur for her “last meal”.
Monday 04 August 2025
Bacon and broccoli quiche makes for an excellent quick breakfast! This is at 7 in the morning, at which point Anna et al were already at the airport for their early-morning departure to Copenhagen.
Finnur driving me and Emma to the airport. It was a beautiful day.
Smoke was still coming from the most recent eruptive crater. The eruption was ending at that point in time, and the eruption was officially declared over the following day. (And there have been no new eruptions for over a whole year, although the ground keeps swelling upwards.)
A quick goodbye hug!
Second breakfast, post security.
The intellectual/current events table at the airport bookstore.
This one looked to be right up my alley!
Sitting onboard an airplane at 10:25 in the morning, my favorite departure time.
Flight info!
Smoke coming for the newest crater.
Emma happy with her chicken nuggets.
A new type of scenery!
Siblings!!
Emma following her first cousin into his house.
The newest addition to the family! Getting so big!
Their Mr. Middle is an energetic one, and this photo of him hovering was quite “on brand”.
A Swedish afternoon!
A cheerful one!
There’s an archery range out back!!
I was quite proud to at least always hit inside their back-shed, i.e. not loose any arrows!
Tuesday 05 August 2025
A Swedish view.
Emma crammed between first cousins, on the way to the mall.
We went shopping (as one does in foreign lands), and Emma was thrilled to find sneakers to her liking (but less thrilled that I photographed the occasion…)!
The littlest one did well!
Showing off his 2nd generation Fisher Price car garage!
We were introduced to the Hello Fresh food box delivery service.
Surprisingly good stuff!!
We managed to play Skyjo for a bit!!
Wednesday 06 August 2025
Little sister being a useful support for the car-slide!
First cousins outside!
We found the elusive first born of the household!
First pit stop: KFC for lunch.
We’d decided to visit the electric go-kart track in the mall-basement again.
This time around we’d booked a slot, so all we could do was to wait patiently for our turn.
The massive control panels.
Finally it was our turn!
Next on the agenda was some frisbee golfing!
After much searching online, we’d decided to visit the Järva course, which turned out to be veery nice.
The course was quite hilly, meaning quite a few starting points were overlooking a drop.
Action shot, and he scored!
Emma throwing down into a valley.
A rainbow! Yes, the forecast was for a bit of rain…
Some holes had some options from where to shoot… which I think we mostly ignored.
An adult in a tree!
He found his disc, but also another one which was unlabeled so it was his by default!
We called it quits after 9 holes, as it was getting late, and starting to rain a bit. Hole 9 is also by the parking lot, and continuing would have taken us on another big circle.
Your soggy writer, by the fancy club house.
There was action in the kitchen when we got back! I spent the evening frantically making plans for how to get to Denmark in the next two following days. I ended up buying train tickets via Gothenburg starting the following day, with overnight stay at a train-station hotel in Gothenburg, before we’d pick up a rental car at Copenhagen airport.
