Category Landtravel
Today has been a day of driving, but in Iceland that’s not necessarilya bad thing. Going along the countryside roads and seeing this fantastic landscape in all its glory from the comfort of the car is great. We really only stopped a few times to stretch our legs and snap a few shots of the spectacular view.
We took the coastal road, zigzaging as it follows the line of the fjords. The mountains tumble into the sea and the road hugging the edge all the way. It seems people universally find mountains and water to be beautiful and with such … Read the rest
Today we had a glacier tour booked, but since it was all the way back in Skaftafell, we got up as usual, hopped in the car and drove off, going west this time so we could see the scenery from the other side as we zoomed by. Except for picking up a forlorn hitchhiker standing in the rain, it was a smooth and uneventful drive.
At skaftafell we had a quick lunch, put on all the warm clothes we had with us and reported to the glacier guides. They fitted us with safety harnesses, helmets, ice axes and crampons (kind … Read the rest
We left Vik this morning and drove out into the ever changing, ever spectacular Icelandic landscape. Due to the rain, we only made a few stops to look at the scenery and quickly made it to Skaftafell national park.
Yini dancing in the rain during a short stop to look at the scenery
Yini jumping, in the background fields of volcanic sand.
Us and the volcanic sand fields, with our car in the background 
Not sure why this thing is sticking up from the ground here
Skaftafell is an outlier of Vatnajökull, one of the worlds biggest glaciers. Due to … Read the rest
Yesterday, Renegade Wife and I slept as long as we could to kill the jetlag, then spent the afternoon exploring Reykjavik. It’s a pretty small town for a capital city, and we didn’t see all that much. Today we headed out in our battered old rental car (the company Sad Cars that we rented from has older cars and lower prices than most other rental firms) to see the real Iceland.
We did what is commonly called the Golden Circle, a tourist rout that heads north out from Reykjavik then bends off towards the inland and comes back in a … Read the rest
It so happens that me and my girlfriend Yini got married a little while go. Not to squander the precious wedding leave the companies give us (almost two weeks added on top of the annual leave), we decided our honeymoon should be some place we wouldn’t normally go. So, in a few hours, we will fly off to Iceland, and it will be a real land travel vacation. We have booked a couple of hotels, we have a rental car, and we have the ring road round the circumference of The Land of Ice and Fire. Both me and Renegade … Read the rest
Yini had to go back home and work but us five boys continued our exploration of Taiwan’s east coast. Our train arrived in Hualien on Sunday evening, we found a hotel a stone’s throw from the train station, then went out for dinner and bought a few strange snacks to share in the hotel room.
On Monday morning we rented a couple of scooters, then rode out of town to famous tourist destination Taroko Gorge. Axel and I have been there before, but the spectacular lime stone cliffs, rivers and waterfalls make it well worth another visit.
Collecting a map … Read the rest
A couple of friends have come to visit me during the new year. After a very nice new year celebration, we decided to go explore the rest of the country for a bit. The eastern part being generally nicer, we decided to go there.
On Friday morning, me and my friends Anton, Axel, Marcus and Robert took the high speed rail south to Kaohsiung, then crossed to Taidong in the east by normal train. After we found a hotel, we borrowed a couple of bikes and rode around by the seaside.
Setting out 
BAmboo tunnel 
Biking in the woods 
Group
It has been what I like to call November weather, that is around ten degrees and rain, for the last week or so here in north Taiwan. So this weekend, Yini and I did like the migrating birds and moved south for the winter. On Friday evening, we said screw you to the cold weather and took the high speed rail to kaohsiung. As we left rather late, we stayed the night in Kaohsiung then left for Taiwan’s premier beach town, Kenting in the morning.
I’ve been to Kenting several times before, and I’ve spent most of those times either … Read the rest
A while back, me and Yini rode our motorbike from Tainan on the south west coast, round Taiwans south tip, then up along the east coast to Yilan in the north. I wrote about it here. We also made one trip from Taoyuan in the west, across the mountains to Yilan, then around the northern tip back to Taoyuan, see this post.
Though a bit further inland than those two trips, we have also been between Hsinchu and Taoyuan (both in the north west) several times, and a few weeks ago, we rode from Hsinchu to Erlin in … Read the rest