Stronghold Königstein - Rule the world

Schönen guten Tag!

Right before leaving the coffee shop we chatted with the owner of the shop a little bit longer and she told us, that we should take the "Malerweg" to the fort. Malerwege are hiking tracks which are qualified to be the most beautiful hiking tracks in europe. 

Königstein - Feel like little kings!

Schönen guten Tag!

It has been already too long for me to stay home (6weeks). So I asked John to plan a little trip for me and so he did.

We have been visiting the Sächsische Schweiz! It was about 3h by train and we stopped in Königstein.

After arrival we had a wonderful view on the Elbe and of course the first thing we did was exploring the "city". Maybe it was jsut a village. The flood a few years ago damaged the village really bad and you still see which houses have been restored and which houses havnt. 

Reykjavik - The city that never sleeps, well during the summer!

Góðan daginn,

our last four days we stayed at Reykjavik to explore the most populated region on iceland. Besides the main attractions we visited a lot of small, cute, quiet places and just beautiful sights.

At our first day we stayed for some time at Björks favorite cafe to have some coffee. Actually the coffee was one of the best in Iceland, so I can understand why she likes this so much.

 

Street Art in Reykjavik - More present than ever expected

Góðan daginn,

now after 4 days in Reykjavik I have to admit, that street art is a serious topic in this city. 

When I came here I thought, that REK is a kinda old fashioned city, so I expected not as much of a young, modern, street art loving place as it is.

The icelandic people integrated the street art in the picture of their capital as good as possible. Every few steps you can stop and stare. 

I guess I could come back to this city to explore more of it's art, music and culture and won't get bored! We had to check firstly the old fashioned culture and sight seeing stuff kkkk

Mount Esja - Reykjavik

Góðan daginn,

at day 2 in Reykjavik Christoph and me went hiking. We wanted to hike Mount Esja, and so we did.

It is approximately 920 m high and it took us 3.5 h for the whole trip. We had to drive about 20 min on road #1 northwards from Reykjavik to the parking park.

From there we started out trip. In the beginning everything was green and kinda warm, about 13°C.

 So we were happy that we chose this day for the hike. 

Icelandic National Museum - THOR!

Góðan daginn,

after finally arriving back in Reykjavik we decided to visit the icelandic national museum.

Actually we were expecting big stuff! We all know about Vikings and their history. Of course they landed here and had all their nordic gods. 

 Well we found Thor, the god of thunder! Yes directly in the beginning of the exhibition we found him! It was amazingly tiny !

Last bow blew us away - Sun and cloud kissing

Góðan daginn,

on our way back to Reykjavik we decided to drive one last bow, one last Fjord to take. Iceland's mother nature didn't let us down. 

 When we came to the top of the Fjord the sun gave us a slice sight of sun and cloud kissing. And that was the result:

Lava tube cave - Vatnshellir - Beyoncé, Bacteria and a troll!

Góðan daginn,

the Lava cave Vatnshellir is located in the national park, which we were driving through.

Christoph's biggest wish for the national park was the visit in a lava tube. So we stopped by randomly at one of the caves. I guess we were pretty lucky by stopping at this one. Our tour guide was very friendly and gave us a lot of information.

Iceland national Park - Snaefellsjokull

Góðan daginn,

on our last day traveling threw the country we visited the national park Snaefellsjokull. It was again very impressive. The ride itself was amazing! Most of the landscape was lava stone covered in greenish moose! It is really cool how nature conquers the destroyed back!

Stykkishólmur - Picture book harbor!

Góðan daginn!
After a long ride at the west coast we arrived at our hotel for the night in Hotel Stykkishólmur. When we came to the hotel the parking lot was fully packed with cars and we got seriously the last space. When we were about to check in there was a group of approximately 20 old icelandic women waiting at the reception. One of them told us, that they had 60 years anniversary from school. Haha, Next year I have ten years graduation anniversary. 

Anyway, to escape the trouble at the hotel we went for dinner and the only restaurant which was still open (at 9 pm most of the icelandic restaurants and stores close) was the Route 66 (it was a fast food restaurant included in a gas station.

Go West - Life is peaceful there!

Góðan daginn!

The ghosty hotel gave me a very mystic sleep, so I was a little tired the next day. But the next day we wanted to go south again. As you see in the map we were in the second Fjord in the north (second from the left). and we wanted to go to the very west. 

 I guess as a goodbye present the ghost hotel father gave us a hint that we could see some seals. As animal friendly as we are we wanted to see them.

Ghosty Hotel - Hotel Blönduós

Góðan daginn,

we arrived in the city called Blönduós yesterday around 6pm. After coming there we had to call the Hotel stuff to get them to open the Hotel for us.... We felt a little uncomfi, but it was not the first time for us to stay alone in a Hotel in Iceland.

Turf houses - Glaumbær

Góðan daginn,

on our route yesterday, driving from east to west in the north of iceland we passed some turf houses. When Christoph asked me to go to Iceland I checked the Marco Polo travel guide and just said... Okay lets do this, but I have to see some of these turf houses... an snow by accident my joke came true kkkkk

Hùsavik - Whale Watching - Unbelievable!!!!!

Góðan daginn,

Christoph had to convince me to do another whale watching tour, because the first one was so super bad. We just saw 3 whales for seriously 2 seconds. So I thought, that the 50 € were pretty lost for this tour. Of course it is nature and not a zoo, so I can't blame the company, or the whales, but I was a little bit disappointed.

Whale Museum in Hùsavik

Góðan daginn,

after staying in the Fosshotel Husavik we decided to visit the Marco Polo recommended whale museum in Hùsavik. From the outside it looks like a big industry hall, but in the inside it is really cute and very informative (good characteristic for a museum). 

Hot spring - Jarbodin vid Myvatn

Góðan daginn,

after seeing the sulfur spring we came across another hot spring.... we came across a nature bath! Spontaneously as we are we stopped, got our swimwear and 2 towels and paid 20 € each person to have a once in a lifetime experience (maybe 2 times, because in Reykjavik is another one we wanted to visit). 

Sulfur Spring - You take my breath away!

Góðan daginn!

After checking the snow covered mountains and the two waterfalls we wanted to go to the third waterfall of the day and finally to the city we wanted to spent the night. But on our way we smelled something really special! Something sulfuric... it's name was Nàmaskard!

It didn't take a long time until we found the reason for the baddest smell in iceland! 

It was a sulfur spring in the middle of a desert like landscape!

Dettifoss, Selfoss - There's the place the waterfalls are produced.

Góðan daginn,

I guess now we know where all the waterfalls come from... Of course from the top of Iceland. 

Yes it is very icy and frosty and snowy and really ice princess like there. On our way to the west we had to leave the coast and drive through the mountains. It was very icy on top of the mountains, but still kinda warm in the sun. Just during the windy time we seriously froze our a** off! 

Iceland - East coast for life!

Góðan daginn,

after having the ice-cube-James-Bond-experience we travelled northwards along the coast. Besides from today I have never seen so many different landscape profiles like yesterday in less than 12 hours.

In the morning the Glacier bay, then on our way to the north we had the following views... just check and be mesmerized :-)

That's why they call it ICEland - Jökulsárlón

Góðan daginn,

yesterday morning we wanted to go and check if there is actually some ice in good old iceland.... and yes, we found a lot of it. There is a glacier tongue which ends in a river, which of course leads to the ocean. And in the bay the tongue ends in the river there are a lot of f***ing huge ice cubes in the water.

I guess I found some ice.

The place is called Jökulsárlón.

Beach Boys - iceland style!

Góðan daginn,

on our way to the next stop (in the south-east of iceland; Jokulsarlon) we stopped at the coast and went to the beach, which was a gigantic black lava stone beach. Of course it was very rough, like a lot of stuff in iceland.

Over the rainbow - Skógafoss

Góðan daginn,

the last big stop yesterday was the waterfall "Skógafoss"(62m high). I was a little bit emerged, because we have seen already three waterfalls. But this one was really a good idea to visit. 

Waterfalls, Lavabombs, glacier tongues, icelandic horses and a truck!

Góðan daginn,

yesterday we had quiet a long tour planned. We travelled through the south of iceland. On our way we had a lot of huge events. THe first two were waterfalls (even the third, but the third was so super amazing, I have to separate this one).

The first stop was Urridafoss, a very nice waterfall, but after seeing Gullfoss the day before it was just quiet okay. 

Þingvellir - Plain of moot - Midnight dreams!

Góðan daginn,

after a very long day (whale watching, going to the airport to get our luggage, the Gulfoss and Geysir) we wanted to check the place where even the vikings met twice a year for moot! The icelandic people came together there and discussed about their state, trade and all the other stuff they wanted to discuss hehe. 

And we know now why they chose this place. It was outstanding peaceful and beautiful!

Geysir - Explosive Adventure; 10 times me!

Góðan daginn,
after Gulfoss spectacle we drove about 7 km westwards to see the most famous of it's kind: Geysir! The one and only water firing spring from deep below. Because of the Big Geysir all the other water spying holes in the world got their name!

We arrived and saw the huge fountain and many steaming hot tubs!

Gulfoss - Power of nature!

Góðan daginn,

Gulfoss, what an amazing wonder of nature! 

We arrived at the waterfall in the canyon of Gulfoss at approximately 8 pm. 

Still during very nice daylight! (Super convenient to travel around here, because the days are so super amazing long)

Iceland - Reykjavik - Whale Watching

Góðan daginn,

this morning me and Christoph had to get up super early to go to the old harbor to take part of a whale watching tour.

We were pretty excited!
The way to our boat took us into the whale watching station. It was another boat with a whale skeleton. Hehe...

Perlan - Pearl of Reykjaviks!

Góðan daginn!

After getting our room and having dinner (Iceland Burger hehe) we wanted to go to Perlan (a huge dome on top of a more or less small mountain).

We checked in at a icelandish "Späti (7eleven)" and we found all the sweets I like to buy in good old Friedrichshain at Herr Nielssons! Hehe what a great surprise! 

Düsseldorf - Copenhagen - Oslo - Reykjavik... That's the plan!

Góðan daginn!

Yesterday my brother and me started our journey to Iceland!

The plan was taking the airplane from Düsseldorf to Copenhagen, then from Copenhagen to Oslo and then from Oslo to Reykjavik! So we visited a lot of scandinavian countries. But of course this connection was lot cheaper then the direct flight.

We boarded the machine in time... it was a seriously wonderful morning!

Happy Flashmob at BCRT!

Finally,

Krithis Flashmob has been a huge success! Even if the video material is not as impressive as the action we have been into.... maybe because you're not dancing, maybe because there is just the final few seconds on video material.... but still it has been a huge blast for all of us...

I guess for Krithi it has been the most exciting day of her.... last week hehe

 Xeni baked a fantastic cake for the birthday bash! Even if the Minion-Pants are lying about Krithis age is the cake one of the most fabulous cakes I have ever seen!

 Hehe, before eating he got stripped...

 Eye action!

So thank you everyone for participating! Next flashmob is waiting for us!

Happy Flashmob - Krithi

Hey,

some of you already know about the plan for Krithis Birthday Bash!

We want to organize a flashmob in the cafeteria ( Ground floor) at the 24th of March at the BCRT. 

Here you can check the choreography and practice on your own, with your friends or kids!

Please don't tell Krithi about the flashmob, because it should be a surprise. 

If you have any further question about the moves and groves for the dance you can send me (Michael) or Xeni an E-Mail. 

thelen-m@web.de

p.burazi@yahoo.de

After the jump you can check the choreography in front view, then you will have the chance to get a very nice explanation for every single step without music and then we will dance and you will see us from the back. So you dance exactly the way we will.

The date for the dress rehearsal (Generalprobe) will be revealed later. It will be in approximately 2 weeks from now on (around the 17-22.03.14).

Have fun!

Michael and Xeni