France Day 4: Lyon Zoo and a Hilltop Church with Friends

[Written 23 AUGUST 2014.  It’s quiet here.]

Our friends, Holla and Óli, were in the area with their kids and Óli’s mom at the same time we were.  (By ‘the area’ I mean they were a one hour drive away from us, in Chambéry.)  They wanted to check out Lyon though, so we planned to go visit the Lyon zoo, and then maybe the hilltop church.

It was a super-sunny day, and pretty warm too, so we weren’t the most energetic people ever, but the day mostly went fine. (31 images total)

Three kids and a piano. So quiet!

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France Day 2: Homebound Splashing and a Fancy Restaurant

[Written 18 AUGUST 2014.  No Bárðarbunga eruption yet.]

Since our first full day in France wasn’t quite as relaxing we needed it to be, our second day was as relaxing as we could make it.

We basically stayed at home for most of this lovely Friday, filling up the splashing pool in the garden for some water-play, and napping while Emma napped and the big kids computerized themselves.

Around 6 pm we decided we really needed to do something about our non-functioning mobile internet, so we went back to street with the cell phone store.  As luck would have it, the store was very close to a restaurant our house-owners had recommended in the guide they left us, so that was our designated dinner-place.

It was only when we arrived at the restaurant in question that it dawned on us that it was a faaaancy restaurant!  So, just to be sure, I was sent inside to ask if we could a) bring kids, and b) be casually dressed, and if so, then c) could we eat there, please?  The receptionist was quite positive, so we booked a table for 7 pm, and spent the time until then at the cell phone store (still no luck getting the MiFi to work). (23 images total)

Emma has the rather disturbing habit of drinking any and all water she comes into contact with, no matter the source or location.

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France Day 1: Food and the Quest for MiFi

[Written 15 AUGUST 2014.  It’s dark outside before midnight!]

We have a travel rule which states “after a strenuous day there shall be a quiet day”.  Since traveling is strenuous, the first full day in Lyon, France was mostly quiet.  Well, we tried anyway.

We desperately needed to buy groceries, so that was the first order of business.  We started out by visiting the local ‘organic’ store, just to see what it looked like, and sure enough it was very organic-y, as in mostly expensive dried goods, some dairy, and fruits – which meant we needed to visit a second store to actually buy what we needed.

The organic store was close to the local shopping street though, so we parked there to begin our attempts at getting  mobile internet (MiFi) so that the phone GPS maps would work.  First we had to eat lunch, and I floored the kids by knowing a bit of a totally foreign language (to them).  Yay for trudging through French for four years in junior college!

After buying an internet card for the MiFi gadget, we headed to the big local food store.  It was called Monoprix, and we were totally saved by one very helpful attendant who gave us tokens to free the shopping carts, because we had zero coins on us.

Once we got back to the house, Emma napped and the big kids got computer time.

After a bit of hanging out later that afternoon we foolishly left the house without any maps or guidance or working internet (our mobile internet gadget didn’t work! boohoo!) but somehow made our way to a fancy shopping district downtown-ish where we had dinner.  We walked around for a bit afterwards, mostly by the river Rhone.

(It would turn out a couple of days later that a) our mobile internet gadget needed a firmware update to work with the French cards, and b) our rental car had GPS navigation built in all along.  Yeah.) (21 images total)

At the place where we had lunch, and the server spoke no English. Emma’s asking for some pepper in her hand.

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Visit to a Daycare Playground

[Written 07 AUGUST 2014.  Where’s my wine?]

Finnur went back to work the week after our US vistors left, so me and the kids had a lot of quality time to cover.

We were all pretty low energy that day, but desperately needed fresh air, so I biked up the hill with the kids, and visited a nearby daycare playground we hadn’t visited before. (3 images total)

Kids on a see-saw. Emma was not pleased.

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And That’s the End of the US Visitors…

[Written 31 July 2014.  Sniffles.]

All good things must come to an end.  Boohoo. (14 images total)

Wednesday 9 July 2014 – Thingvellir

The day after we drove to visit the Seljalandsfoss waterfall, and the Sólheimajökull glacier, we packed up, cleaned, and drove back to the capital area.

As promised, we stopped by Thingvellir on the way.  We hiked up to the Öxarárfoss waterfall, where Finnur flew his drone.  I did not take a single picture, I don’t know why.  (Well, I took a few pictures of a couple using their camera, but that was it.)

The following Thursday and Friday were quiet days.  We were all plenty tired, and the travelers needed to charge their batteries for the trip back.

Thursday 10 July 2014 – Fancy Dinner

Morning computer time in session.

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