Our good friend Sue Bavey is launching her new book, An Icelandic Adventure, on 23 November. It tells the story of a family trip to a place on our bucket list, Iceland. We've been lucky to read an advance copy and it's excellent. You can pre-order the book by clicking the cover below.
To help her celebrate we're doing a Soundtrack Of My Trip. It's excellent and will certainly put you in the mood for hitting the pre-order button.
You can find the playlist on Spotify by clicking the link below.
Alternatively, here's the playlist.
Birthday by The Sugarcubes
As a treat for my birthday, we had a 2:00pm reservation at the ‘Lava Show’ which was a long walk from the centre of Reykjavík. We could have taken an Uber, or tried to decipher the public bus system, but decided to walk instead, having spent too much time sitting around at the airport and on the plane the day before.
The show was located in a more industrial area, not too far from the ocean. We entered a warehouse-type building, where we were given protective eyewear, and then ushered into seats that formed a horseshoe around a long chute which was obviously what the lava was going to flow down.
Visitor by Of Monsters And Men
Instead of being visited by a kindly man bearing gifts on Christmas Eve, Icelandic people believe there are thirteen visitors, each with an interesting name: Spoon Licker, Pot Scraper, Door Slammer, and Window Peeper, to name but a few. They are the sons of an ogress named Grýla (pronounced KREE-la), who eats naughty children, and the story is used to scare Icelandic children into behaving well at Christmastime. The family lives in a cave and has a large, vicious cat known as the Yule Cat, who is said to eat people who have not got any new clothes to wear for Yuletide.
Sunny Road by Emiliana Torrini
Further along the ring road, we found more beautiful fields of purple and white Alaskan lupins and the impressive 197 ft (60 m) waterfall, Skogafoss (meaning: ‘forest waterfall’) in the distance. We decided not to climb up this one, despite it having a staircase built conveniently into the side of the rock, as we still had a long journey ahead of us.
Mountain Sound by Of Monsters And Men
Our Super Jeep was a remarkable vehicle with a dashboard panel that allowed the driver to inflate and deflate each tyre individually, altering the psi via pumps as we encountered deeply uneven mountain tracks and crevasses on steep roads. The jeep often felt like it was about to tip over and the driver would quickly get to work deflating one tyre and inflating another from inside the warmth of the jeep.
Way Down We Go by KALEO
After we had spent more time playing in the snow and then driving onwards over the glacier it was time to descend the mountain once more and my heart again leaped into my mouth as I hung onto the back of the seat in front of me for dear life.
I Want More by KALEO
I wonder if we will be back again for a third trip to this awe-inspiring country of so many breathtaking contrasts. I certainly hope so. It was a really fantastic week filled with new experiences and amazing sights, and we all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
Don't forget you can pre-order the book by clicking the cover below.
What a great soundtrack to go with an excellent book.
I was fortunate to read an advance copy of this one. It's probably as close as I will get to my bucket list destination of Iceland in the near future, as it's one of the few remaining countries which still has quarantine for dogs!