Hot Tub Operational and Curtains Part 1

[Written 10 August 2012]

Hey look, we have a functional hot tub! 🙂

Anna, Bjarki and Eyrún try out the hot tub. They seemed to like it! 🙂

While Finnur kept an eye on the kids, my cousin Ríkey and I got started on making curtains for the living room. I’d bought a thin fabric that measured 3 m tall by 8 m wide (about 10 ft by 26 ft) and it needed to by cut in half (2 x 4 m) and then shortened to 195 cm. Thankfully the bottom edge was already ‘done’, but wrangling so much fabric was non-trivial!  Here Ríkey shows her apprehension as she’s about to start cutting it in half.

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Back Home

When we arrive home we found a new patio in our backyard! P.s. On Monday morning Anna started on a horse-riding course (three hours every morning all week) which I’ll blog about later.Read more

Cleaning House

We all felt our week in the north went by really quickly, and all of a sudden it was time to pack our stuff, clean the house, and leave!  I realized I hadn’t really documented what the house looked like on the inside, so here are a few (too many?) pics for that purpose.

Starting to empty out the kitchen. Trying to remember what foodstuffs had been left behind by others, and what was ours was a little tricky.  The dishwasher is hidden next to the sink.

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North of Akureyri

Hildur Sif shook her Wednesday fever overnight, but acquired trunk-wide rashes instead.  Bjarki also joined in on the rash-fun but since neither of them looked terribly sick or seemed at all bothered by their rashes (flea bites?  hot tub gunk reaction?) we decided to head out anyway, and explore the area to the north of Akureyri.

Make sure you know how to drive on gravelly roads if you ever plan on driving in Iceland. 🙂

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Fever!

On this Wednesday, we had initially planned to drive all the way to Mývatn, a picturesque lake almost two hours away.  When the day dawned, we discovered that Hildur Sif had a fever and was acting rather sluggish.  We therefore cancelled our plans (the lake isn’t going anywhere any time soon) and we (the fourRead more

A Church and Ice Cream

We had somewhat big plans for Tuesday, but since Monday became a bigger deal than we’d realized beforehand, we opted for a low-energy day instead.  We therefore hung out for most of the day, but ventured north a bit in the afternoon to visit a fancy looking church and try some straight-from-the-farm ice-cream.

The kids’ favorite car-reading material became this multi-page ad-paper from Playmobil (acquired at Toy’R’Us).

Bjarki finally agreeing to disembark the car.

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Horses, Cows, Water and Food.

After such a lazy Sunday, we felt energized to actually do something the following Monday.  We opted to have the kids ride horses, visit a coffee house with a view over a fully automated milk farm, go swimming in Akureyri, eat dinner and then head back to home base.

Kids playing nicely together in the morning.

Shortly after lunch we called up the horse rental place (Hestaleigan Kátur) and made an appointment for 13:45. On our way there, we met our friend Kata out on a run, but we couldn’t stop for long because we were late!

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Lazy Sunday

Sunday was such an excellent day weather-wise, that we decided to just hang out and chill the entire day.

Hildur the Cool.

Northern-ish view.

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Getting Settled

Our summer-house was located 30 km (19 miles) south of Akureyri (Iceland’s capital of the north), which meant that we had to drive all the way there to get gas and groceries (Americans: feel free to roll your eyes at our ‘long’ distances).  Yes, we were pretty much located in the middle of farm country, but it was really lovely.

Our first day was therefore spent driving to Akureyri and back and then just chillin’ at the house!

Getting ready to set out to Akureyri.

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Carpentry and Travels

Friday morning the carpenter(s) showed up bright and early and set up their gear.  Most of the work was done by a younger guy, while his boss (an older gentleman) showed up now and again to check things out.  By the end of the day the lowest deck was almost fully completed. We then wavedRead more