Day 37 - Day 1 AW Conference, Roo relaxing

Day 36 - Hanging with Pamela

Today we had a day of good food, wine and company. Anne-Marie caught up with her old school mate Pamela and had a wonderful breakfast at "Duck and waffle" on the 40th floor of London. An amazing view. After a little shopping the boys joined us for lunch and late into the evening.

Day 35 - Fly Reykjavic to London - Leaving the crazy Vikings behind

Waking at some terrible hour and a little hungover from the night before we said goodbye to Iceland and made our way to London. Arriving in Luton airport we assembled the bikes and made our way through peak hour traffic to our hotel in Shoreditch, a favourite little area of Reuben's.

Arriving at our compact little Hotel our plans to have a no drinking day were quashed when informed on checking in that the Hotel has complementary wine and cheese in the lobby from 5-8pm. Who could say no to that, not Reuben and Anne-Marie.

Silly hotel put us in the basement with no reception and no wi-fi so Reuben nursed his flu with BBC iPlayer.

Awaiting departure from Reykjavic.

Aboard the train to London.

Free cheese is best cheese.

Day 34 - Reykjavik, Iceland - Flu and Puffin

As we woke Reuben had now caught the virus and Anne-Marie was feeling a lot better. Although the new place we were staying in provided us free breakfast and washed our clothes for us the walls were so thin we could here everything. With two nights of barely any sleep we were feeling sorry for ourselves.

Getting on the bike we decided to make use of Reykjavik's awesome bike paths, check out the coast line, suburbs, a few more touristy sites and find a few supplies before we packed up the bikes.

Reuben still keen to try some horse, whale meat and puffin before we said goodbye to Iceland. After we packed up the bikes we headed off to a Tapas restaurant for the evening. Horse still off the menu after the veterinary strike. The rest was delicious.

Show us your fish baby.

Iceland

Malt beer over Reykjavik.

Imaginary trumpet.

Instant beard.

No cars, bike gates.

Duck.

Like a wooden Indian, a wooden Viking.

Atop the water towers.

A sewer processing plant by the sea.

I know how he feels with this flu.

For an irreligious society they still have some fancy churches.

Day 33 - Reykjavik - Videy Island, Art and Dinosaurs

With the sun shining we got on our bikes and rode around Iceland's capital. Anne-Marie had caught a virus and had a temperature so any big rides were out of the question. The whales were punishing her from the previous day.

Catching a little ferry across to Videy island we rode around the rough, uneven path admiring the scenery, pieces of art, and ending up only a little battered and bruised from the off road efforts.

A quick trip to a couple of wine bars and the movies to see the new Jurassic Park film ended the day.

Reuben on the dock.

Icelandic sculpture walk.

A volcanic rock sculpture.

I'm a Viking!

I made it to the top!

Doing Lachie proud, taking the racer off road.

You cannot see the cliffs from back here.

The paths are not really made for cycling.

Leaving lunch. Horribly expensive lunch.

Heading back to the ferry on the cobbles.

One of many basalt pillars.

Iceland has lots of wrecks to commemorate.

Lots and lots of wrecks.

Anne-Marie heads west.

The German's have crazy cruise ships.

Looks like fish scales.

Recovery beer.

Day 32 -A dinner date with Chef Tyffi

We said goodbye to our quiet hostel and cycled to the centre of Reykjavik to spend the next 3 days at a guest-house more centrally located.

Anne-Marie with her normal awesome forethought had pre-booked a tour with Chef Tyffi months and months ago. He picked us up along with an American couple living in Abu Dhabi and another lady from Port Melbourne of all places. He drove us around Reykjavik showing us some of the touristy and quirky places while collecting ingredients for dinner. With an excellent sense of humour and entertaining local knowledge (did you know Icelandic youth have a phone app that tells you how closely you are related to a prospective date) he invited us back to his house where he cooked us up an Icelandic feast.

Anne-Marie had been adamant she would not try any whale meat. However when the whale blubber was prepared, placed in front of her as one of the delicious appetisers and all the guests were tasting it she folded like a house of cards, much to Reuben's delight. Other specialities included dung smoked trout, Lambs brain in jelly and cod tongue. It was glorious - Reuben.

Riding the bike with a bike.

Killing the grass with hot soapy water.

Meeting the locals.

Buying cheese.

A big grassy artwork with drying fish on top.

A foot warming pool permanently heated from the geothermal ground water.

One of the delicacies we didn't get to try.

Apparently there'd been a vet strike and horse was off the menu for a while. 

Chef Tyffi's tasty starters.

Chef Tyffi in his kitchen.

Black Death, Originally the only liquor available after the end of prohibition in Iceland.

The prime minister's house.

Anne-Marie struggles to keep warm in the 8 degrees while Icelandic children bathe at the beach.

White sand specially imported from pacific islands.

(to give Anne-Marie some credit, the sea is warmed here with geothermal water)

Eat that blubber baby.

Eat it, eat it!