Category Europe
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
On Sunday we had more time, so me and Kevin drove out of the city to the northwest. We headed to the historical site Newgrange, but when we got there, we found out we had to buy tickets at a completely different place. So, we drove around quite a long distance (the lack of roads stopped us from taking a shortcut), and finally managed to get some tickets.
The site itself is a big stone age tomb. From a distance it looks like a big grassy knoll that kind pops out of the landscape because it is a bit too … Read the rest
I am currently on a business trip to Ireland. Since it is weekend I had some time off from work. Me and my colleague Kevin used this opportunity to take our rental car and go out explore Ireland.
I actually had to do a little bit of work on Saturday morning, so there was not really enough time to leave the city. Instead we drove to down town Dublin, parked the car near Trinity College and spent the afternoon walking around the city center.
We started with the college itself, and the very impressive library. The main room is long, … Read the rest
I should have written about this earlier but I kept forgetting, so a little late, here goes:
As Chinese New Year drew closer, we finished up the work in Switzerland and planned to go back home. I however, did not go back to Taiwan. Instead I took a short flight north to Sweden were I met up with Yini at the airport. A few hours later, my parents came to pick us up and we drove north. Since we started fairly late, we slept one night in Gävle about two hours north of Stockholm. The next day we continued up … Read the rest
Today I woke up bright and early, and after a hearty breakfast, headed out in the slopes.
I spent the morning exploring different parts of the system than yesterday, and found plenty of untouched powder just a short distance from the main track. The weather was good, only light clouds scudding across the sky and I had plenty of fun.
Just before lunch I stopped off at the local igloo village. The igloo was not quite as impressive as the ice hotel in Jokkmokk but still pretty good. I also checked out the nearby snow mobile park, but it was … Read the rest
My company has sent me to Switzerland to do some work on a machine. So far I have mostly just seen the factory where the machine is, and a bit of local sightseeing in the small town where I live, so not very much to write about.
A bit of local tourism in Badsäckingen
Now that it is weekend however, I took the chance to go skiing. I took an early morning train from my little town near Basel to Engelberg. There I dropped my bags at the hotel, a pretty shoddy military barracks style of dormitory hostel, then went … Read the rest
So, I’ve been in Ireland for almost two weeks and it’s not until now that I have time to write about it. I have been here for work. Basically, my company sold a machine to a company here, and when the customer asked for a modification on that machine, they sent me and two other guys. I have spent most of my time either at the customers facility working, or at the hotel resting (it has been many long days of hard work). However I did get a bit of time to explore the emerald island so I have one … Read the rest