Morning commute

In the mornings, I walk about 10 minutes from home, then I take a bus that drops me off near work (except when the weather is bad, then I just take a bus closer to home but with a much more winding route).

I took these pictures last week, when the sun was rising by the end of my commute. By now, it's obviously darker, as the sunlight keeps receding until the winter solstice.

For the commute, I could shave a few minutes by walking along a main street of the city. But I'd much rather walk in quieter and less polluted areas, so I end up going through courtyards, alleyways and a cemetery parallel to the main street.

Oh, and it had snowed a bit the previous night.

Obviously, I wasn't the first person to go to work that day

Snowy leaves

Red Nintendo mushroom graffiti guy

Green Nintendo mushroom graffiti guy

Tree, stone, and former prime minister

Snow on moss

Leaning tree

Brave flowers

Cemetery alleyways

Graves here often have professions listed on them. This guy was a doctor.

The sky was looking slightly ominous

The university library, built to look like a fortress (complete with a moat around it)

Strætó

Sunrise

Esja in the pink light

Florence

For the last few days of our trip, we went to Florence. It was almost a shock to be back in a somewhat crowded, polluted and noisy city after being in Iceland for a while. But it was fun! :).

We walked quite a bit in the town, and saw galleries and museums too. We also ate nicely and had plenty of wine with our food during our trip. It was so cheap to do so, compared to Iceland, that we just couldn't stop ourselves :). I assume that's how Icelanders always are when they are traveling abroad.

Here are the pictures:

We stopped by Pisa on the way, and ordered this massive 'Tuscan Sampler'-like dish at a restaurant. Tasty!

They're not waving, they're doing the 'look-I'm-holding-the-tower' picture

The Arno river

The Ponte Vecchio and other bridges, as seen from the Uffizi gallery

The obligatory several-animals-in-a-row picture

The non-obligatory that-is-a-big-rat picture

Detail of the outside of the Duomo (cathedral)

The marble floor inside the Duomo

The golden doors of the baptistery

By the river

Coffee!

It's been a long time...

But I'm back :).

The last month or so has been a bit hectic, so I apologize for not posting more frequently. I have pictures from Norway and from some trips in Iceland too that I will be phasing in later. But for now, I will post the pictures from our most recent trip, to Italy (for our first wedding anniversary!).

We first went to an area called the Cinque Terre first, a group of 5 villages on the Northwest coast that seem to hang off the side of mountains. Very picturesque. The weather was great (we had our warmest temperatures in over a year, given the cool Icelandic summer). We even managed to swim in the sea! We had forgotten to bring our swimsuits, but thankfully we did not forget to bring underwear. So we used that.

We stayed in a room with a view of the harbour of one of the 5 villages, hiked on the path between the villages (there are no direct roads between them, only hiking paths), and took a cooking lesson. And just relaxed.

Here are some pictures from that trip.

The view from our room in Manarola

The view of the same town from the harbor, where we went for a dip

The hills looked a lot like Lebanon

Corniglia (that town on the left) from the South

Jó enjoying her seafood pasta there

Corniglia again, this time from the North

Vernazza

Narrow streets in Vernazza

The obligatory cat picture

Jó modeling for some mushroom pictures

Chopping onions

Fresh pasta with mushrooms... Mmm...

Snæfellsnes

We finally managed to make a trip to Snæfellsnes last Sunday. I don't have much time tonight.. So, here are some pictures!

The glacier

A closer view

If you've ever read about the lifting stones at Djúpalónssandur.. You'd realize I'm not made to be a fisherman

Climbing Jó

Bárður the giant

The lave fields coming from the volcano are quite impressive

We had coffee at Hótel Búðir, which was very nice

Jó... doing something

You can never have enough lava fields

Pretty mountains

Berries

Réttir

We made a quick stop by a réttir (annual sheep round-up) the other day. It was a tiny round-up (and it was mostly over by the time we got there), but here are a few sheep pictures, of course.

Packed sheep

Into the van

Little lambs

It's the 2nd sheep from the right, officer! I'd recognize him anywhere...

We wanted to hike, and went to Hveragerði...

But the weather looked like this.

So we stopped by the greenhouse / tourist trap that is Eden, and I got to hug a giant puffin.

Jó was able to make a friend too.

We'll have to come back another time for that hike, if the weather improves.