Monthly Archives: October 2016

Hanging out in Heathrow and Gatwick

by Wendy
Spending quality time in an airport like Heathrow isn’t difficult. There is so much to notice. It’s enormous, one of the busiest in the world, with plans to expand. Prepare to navigate crowds, queues, escalators, elevators and moving sidewalks to get where you need to go.  Continue reading

A Salute to English Breakfasts

by Wendy
There are so many things I love about London. One thing I don’t think I’ve mentioned before is the full English breakfast.

As far as I can tell, there are variations of the full English, but a plate often consists of fried or poached eggs, beans, toast or fried bread, sausage or bacon (or vegetarian option), mushrooms, and tomatoes. Sometimes kippers, or maybe bubble and squeak. Continue reading

I Heart Stairs. And Heights

by Wendy
There were a lot of stairs on the Iceland and England trip. Not like running up and down my basement stairs to deal with laundry. Not like walking up and down a few flights to my office floor instead of waiting for what must be the city’s slowest elevator. This was more in the line of trudging up hundreds of steps in a narrow corridor or next to a steep drop-off. The work was usually rewarded with an impressive view, but that didn’t stop me from complaining. Continue reading

Funny Travel Stories

by Joe
It always seems to me that unusual events or actions occur when you travel. Some occur to you and some are incurred by you. Either way for some reason these events can turn into the stories we tell our family and friends sometimes more often then about the things we saw or did and become magnified in their humor. Here are some of the funny stories from a recent trip to Iceland and London with my daughter Wendy, her husband Jack and my wife Cindy. Continue reading

Dover: A Delightful Day Trip from London

by Wendy
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Interested in taking a day trip from London to another part of the country? Consider Dover. We had a brilliant time in this southeastern city on the coast of the English Channel. Continue reading

Shower Power

by Wendy
We interrupt this (semi) regular blog for an important announcement about showers in hotel bathrooms overseas.

I should know the drill by now. But I get distracted and forget that certain steps have to be taken to adapt. After one careless shower in an Iceland hotel that left me using almost every towel to mop up water on the flooded floor, I was more cautious and did not run into any other problems. Continue reading

Iceland, really?!

by Cindy
Iceland, really?! This was my response when my daughter and son in law asked her Dad and me to join them on a trip to Iceland.

I have been to places with beautiful sounding names – places like the Caribbean, Hawaii, Tahiti. But the Land of Ice? Really? I had to ponder this for awhile. Continue reading

Iceland Hotels

by Joe
Iceland has a number of very diverse options for finding a suitable place to lay your head at the end of the day. For a country about the size of the state of Kentucky in square miles but only about 8% of the population, it has many new, old, expensive, B&B, and hostel type hotels. Although there is a wide price range, be prepared to pay more than you would in the USA. There appears to be new ones being built all over the areas we visited which is probably due to the large increase in tourism in recent years. I don’t recall seeing the traditional US chains but I do recall seeing a Hilton listed once when we were researching places to stay. There are other chains that are Iceland based: Icelandair Hotels, Fosshotels, Center Hotels, Keahotels.

My daughter Wendy, her husband Jack, my wife Cindy and me spent 6 days and nights in Iceland recently. We stayed in several areas: by the airport, in Reykjavik, in the southeastern part of the island as well as by the Thingvellir National Park. Although there are many “budget” options available they are limited in facilities and creature comforts. There also appears to be a great camping community at most of the major attractions we visited. We saw many backpackers, campers, hikers and people making their way via bicycles. Continue reading

Random Iceland Tips from Jack and Wendy

by Jack and Wendy
Iceland is such a popular destination right now. Flip through a travel magazine and you will likely see an article on the country. There are decent deals and free stopover options on Icelandair and WOW. We just missed running into several acquaintances who were visiting in the weeks prior or after our trip. There is a lot of information available if you’re planning to go to Iceland, but we are here to offer a few hopefully helpful tips from our perspective. Continue reading