Travel Tuesday - Subways

 The first subway system I rode was the London Tube system back in 1990.  A very old system, my great grandfather worked on the tunnels before moving to the United States before World War I.  I fell in love with being able to get near to everyplace I wanted to be in the city, quickly and inexpensively.  

A few months later we went to Paris, another amazing system. My traveling companion was not as enthusiastic as I was, it was nearly the last gasp of that relationship.  

Then came the Washington DC system, the sunway one of the reasons DC was on my short list of places we wanted to live. We live a 10 minute walk to from nearest station. 

Chicago was next, the CTA Blue line is the best way to get from O'Hare airport into downtown Chicago, and the system will take you around the city with amazing efficiency.  

San Francisco, the SF system is a little more complex and I wish it covered more of the city, but it is amazing.  Unless it is the middle of the night, it is fastest way from the airport into the city.  I landed in San Francisco near midnight one night, took a taxi into the city - 100 miles an hour in a Prius, a wild ride.  

Philadelphia has a good system, actually two or three that don't play well with one another.  A hard system to figure out, but a good system. 

Portland has a nice line from the airport into the city, as does Seattle.  

Los Angeles has a limited system, nice newer, modern.  I rode it from West Hollywood to Union Station to go to the home of the French Dip Sandwich.  

Toronto has a nice system, I have used it a couple of times.  

The photo above is the entry to the Hudson Yard Station on the 7 Line in New York City, it reminded me of the entrances to the London Tube.  

Music Monday: Memorial Day "Peace Train" featuring Yusuf / Cat Stevens

I always revert to the American Military Cemetery in Normandy when I think about the sacrifice of war.  Every world leader should spend a day every month visiting cemeteries to remind them of the toll of war. 

This is especially poignant this year Putin's ongoing war in Ukraine. I had another post scheduled, and with all of the horrors in the world today, I just can't. The sacrifice of the young must end.  There is no glory in the loss of the future. 

The Sunday Five - Random Thoughts

 We were headed north to Geysir, and there was a sign for something scenic on the right side of the road.  We pulled in, paid 400 krona each, and had no idea what we were going to see.  The anwer, a volcano crater with water in the bottom.  You never know what random things you will see. 

1: Have you ever rented a car in a foreign country? 

2: Have you driven on the opposite side of the road as you learned to drive on? 

3: Would you feel comfortable living across the street from this crater? 

4: What would I be surprised to find near where you live?

5: Have you seen a volcano? 

My Answers: 

1: Have you ever rented a car in a foreign country?  Several times 

2: Have you driven on the opposite side of the road as you learned to drive on? Twice, the first time in London, then in Ireland, not for the faint of heart. 

3: Would you feel comfortable living across the street from this crater? I was surprised at the farms houses literally across the road, I guess this one has been dormant for a long time. 

4: What would I be surprised to find near where you live?  George Washington had dinner on this hilltop a week before he died. 

5: Have you seen a volcano? A couple of them, that was on my bucket list.

Please share your answers in the comments.  

The Saturday Morning Post - Sometimes We Just Need to Be Silly

Greetings from the Board of Directors at Spo Reflections.  We have seized this blog thingy for the day to express our demands. 

Our minions need to spend more time rolling down gentle grassy slopes, or pillaging. One or the other, but do something diverting. 

You all work too hard, and take things far to seriously.  Laugh for a change, sing a silly song, listen to a tale that scares you.  Emotions are meant to be let out, not bottled up, some of you haven't farted in years and it shows.   

Speak up when outraged.  Being polite gets you nowhere.  Speak up, VOTE! If you don't lead change, some other pillager will.  

Stop worrying about what you eat, and think more about what is eating you.  We are not obsessed with what others think of us, and many people find us attractive because we are who we are, we are comfortable in our own skins, and a few animal pelts, and horns, don't forget to the horns.   

You all have spent over two years hunkered down in your caves, get out and breath in the sea air. Feel the sun on your beard, the wind in your hair - at least what is left of it. 

Find a friend, and tell racious stories, tall tales, lies if you can.   

Do something that makes you smirk when someone asks, what are you up to and you say, "nooothing!" 

Take 15 minutes this weekend to just be silly! Or we will come seize you by the bloggs and take you out for a night on the town you will always remember.  Oh we shouldn't make promises like that, some of you would enjoy that.  

Fabulous Friday - Seljalmdsfoss

The women sitting in my row on the plane back from Iceland (the middle seat was empty!) said, "there are 200 named waterfalls in Iceland, and in past two weeks she thought she had seen all 700 of them." Seriously there are probably 10,000 waterfalls in Iceland, and about 200 of them are named.  At one point I stopped to take a photo of a bay, and when I opened the car door I could hear water running down the cliff face behind me. I turned and there it was, no name, no sign, just spectacular.   

This one is noteworthy for two reasons, the height, and you can, if you are prepared to get drenched, walk behind it.  It is about 2.5 hours drive east of Reykjavik on Iceland 1.  Just before you get to this there is a turn off that goes to a ferry, take that turn, it is a 15 minute drive to one of the most spectacular black-sand beaches in the world.  I didn't have a waterproof coat with me, though I did have a waterproof camera in the car.   We didn't walk around behind, but we did some great photos.  I took a photo of a sweet couple from Spain with his Nikon D40.  Neat! 

Thursday Ramble - The Reentry

The French refer to returning to work after a vacation / holiday /break as reentry.  I can only describe my reentry as brutal. That first week back work was 50+ hours, including a couple of hours on Saturday morning.  Lots of looming deadlines, people changing their minds, and a little great news, my department budget is within 7% of being fully funded through the date that I could retire. And we are making progress on that.  A couple of new projects in the next few months, and I can pass the funding and budget work off to the next generation.  

Summer is settling in, the trees are so green they are almost black.  Local strawberries that taste like the strawberries we raised on the farm when I was a kid are in season.  Heavenly! 

In the center of Reykjavik, on top of a hill, is a brutalist masterpiece church.  I understand it is cast in place concrete. There is an elevator that goes to the clock level, and a couple of flights from there to the belfry, with openings to the air just below the top.  Well worth the 1,200 krona per person to go up (about $8.70 US.)  They don't take American Express. The bells chime every 15 minutes.  

Credit cards in Iceland.  Iceland is a nearly cashless society.  I think I only saw one sign that had a minimum sale for a credit or debit card.  They use mostly touchless cards.  The European standard is a pin and chip card.  Those are rare in the USA.  I have two of them.  Gas stations are often unattended, and only take pin and chip cards, so if you are renting a car, it really helps to have one.  One of mine worked, the other one didn't.  I called both of them before we left to verify that they would work and to let them know when and where I was traveling.  

Iceland has a national effort to reduce waste, including waste paper.  You are asked if you need a receipt for a purchase. If you don't ask for it, it is not printed.  A little thing but it will save a few hundred trees a year, and be little less will go into the landfills or incinerators.  In places like Italy, merchants are obligated to give you a receipt for even the most mundane of purchases.  The Fiscal Police (Tax police) watch for receipts in small merchants and will fine the merchant for failure to provide a receipt.  Tax avoidance is a national pastime in Italy, and unthinkable for people in Iceland. 

Something that struck me was the honesty and sincerity of the people.  I felt safe, I didn't count my change, I didn't worry about where my wallet and passport were.  I left my computer in the hotel room (it wouldn't fit in the in room safe.) 

 

The Way We Were Wednesday - Rather Long and Narrow

 We ran across this 1964 Comet convertible on King Street a few weeks ago on a wonderful sunny Sunday afternoon.  I was shocked by how long and narrow it is.  The hood the the trunk are five feet long, almost as long as the car is wide.  It is in amazing condition, cars of that era were not built to last.  The underside of the metal panels were not painted or treated to stop rust and corrosion, the cars often rotted from the inside out.  This one has either been carefully stored, or she has had work done.  Maybe a lot of both.  It is easy to pour far more money into a car like this, than it will ever be worth.  But how fun.  Most likely it someone's grandmother's only driven for a few weeks each summer and carefully garaged the rest of the year.  My grandmother's never owned anything like this.  My mother's parents retired early and lived with very little money.  My father's parents bought a new car every 2 or 3 years from the end of World War II until they stopped driving.  But the cars were always as simple of a full size Ford or Mercury as they could buy.  After my grandfather died, my grandmother splurged on a couple of flashy cars. The first one was some special edition Mercury that she only kept a couple of years. It was a two door and the big long doors become difficult.  It was traded for a huge Buick 4 door that she kept until she stopped driving, about 10 years and only about 40,000 miles.  It was long and wide (and great fun to drive.) 

Travel Tuesday - Athens

 I mentioned recently, that memory is a fickle thing.  We met friends in Athens about 15 years ago.  Kent and Carole had been there on a sabbatical assignment for most of a year.  They were our tour guides for several days in Athens, and out into the Greek countryside.  We had lunch with Kent last month in New York.  He said if he could get away he would go back to Greece for a vacation.  I said what a wonderful time we had there.  He asked "what did you see?"  I reminded him that he had been our tour guide, that he had driven fearlessly through the villages where cars passed centimeters apart.  He seemed to remember.  He has been to Greece dozens of times, he has helped countless people explore the history that Greece holds.  It was understandable, but sadly worrying that he didn't remember us meeting up with him there.     

YouTube Monday : Two and a Half Men | The Best of Berta

Late in her life, as dementia lowered her inhibitions, my mother found sitcoms entertaining, the rauncher and more tasteless the better.  I had never watched "Two and Half Men" until I spent time with her, Thanks Mom, these are funny. (My father cringed, went in the other room, played solitaire on the computer and listened to faux news on TV.) 

The Sunday Five : Cars and fuel

1. How long until we are all driving electric cars?
2. Have you owned a diesel car?
3. What is lowest price you remember ever paying for fuel (petrol, gas, diesel)?
4. Have you ever run out of fuel?
5. When do you think we will have self driving cars? 

My Answers:

1. How long until we are all driving electric cars? 20 years
2. Have you owned a diesel car? A long time ago, once.
3. What is lowest price you remember ever paying for fuel (petrol, gas, diesel)? I remember the first time I paid over $1 a gallon.
4. Have you ever run out of fuel? Coasted into a filling station once.
5. When do you think we will have self-driving cars? 10 years

Please share your answers in the comments. 

 

The Saturday Morning Post : Becoming Familiar in Unfamiliar Surroundings

We try to stick to a two-night minimum hotel stay when we travel, staying in one place at least two nights if at all possible.  One night, is just sleep, two nights and you can start to get a feel, to become familiar with unfamiliar surroundings.  

Traveling to places where I don't speak the local language helps me to explore. Being surrounded by words that have no meaning, yet becoming comfortable in the surroundings.  Iceland makes light of a unique language, spoken by maybe 400,000 or 500,000 people worldwide. I was pleased at the wide array of books in Icelandic.  English is taught as a second language and is common.  We did get far enough off the beaten path to meet people who spoke little English.  A wonderful thing to experience.  Still the familiar we'd like lunch, or a bottle of water are universal and communicated without or with a limited language.  

If I use that experience, I can for a moment understand what it feels like to be an immigrant or foreign visitor in my home country.  A home country that is largely monolingual. Not an easy place to visit.  

The chef/server/bartender in the amazing food court across from the hotel (more on this one day) said people keep saying you should go to New York, or Washington DC, where should he go? So how to answer the question of where or how to visit the USA?  New York, DC, Chicago, LA, SF, are major and massive cities and worth experiencing, just as Reykjavik is the largest city in Iceland, and worth the time to become familiar with. But they are not the United States, just as Iceland changes in an hour or less outside of the city, the USA changes dramatically when you leave the cities.  Seeing Ohio, tells you nothing about New York City, seeing New York City shows you nothing about Colorado.  Spend time and become familiar with the surroundings.   

Fabulous Friday - Simple

 Sometimes the most spectacular is the simplest.  A diamond solitaire,  a single rose, a simple chair and its shadow. Often we fiddle and fuss and try to gild the lily, rather than leaving well enough alone.  

If it works, don't try to fix it. 

Fashion is fleeting at best, dress simply, and be kind. 

We obsess over our looks, when it is really our character that people fall in love with - lust is temporary and more fickle.  

If you took this chair and added a nice fluffy print pillow to it, the pillow would overwhelm, and when someone tried to rest on the chair they would be pushed forward, or tend to totter off if it was below them. The simple form and function of the chair is best left alone.  

I saw this chair, just setting there casting its shadow.  I didn't change a thing, it was just fine the way it is.  Most of us are just fine the way we are. 

Thursday Ramble : So Many Thoughts

 So what is new? 

An email from the appliance guy, the new refrigerator is in the warehouse, still waiting on the ovens and dishwasher.  The new refrigerator won't fit where the old one is at - we are moving things around in the kitchen as part of the remodel.  They will hold it for us for a while. 

The exchange rate for Iceland is hard to get my brain around, about 137 ISK to 1 US dollar. Prices seemed high, and many were.  Getting home and checking the charges after the exchange rate things were not as bad as I thought, dinner out for the two of us averaged about $120, maybe 20-25% more than here in the DC area. It is mostly a cashless country. American Express is not accepted every place.  Have a pin and chip card - most petrol stations are unmanned.  I have two, the one from a major European bank was declined at the pump,  the one issued by Chase for one of the major discount chains in the USA worked on the first try. That retailer had a major security breach about 10 years ago, and is one of the few in the USA that insisted that all of their store cards would be pin and chip (Visa or Mastercard.)   

There are a hundreds of tours available, we really like moving at our own pace.  I rented a car for three days, and we set off, on and off the beaten path.  We drove the Golden Circle one day, another day we set off north west, turning down back roads, through the farms, finding our own way.  We didn't see everything, not even everything that was on my list, but we loved what we saw, and we did it at our pace, stopping when we wanted, moving on when we were ready.  

When renting a car in a foreign country, I always add all of the insurance that is available.  It doubles the cost of the rental, but as the guy the with the rental company in Reykjavik described it, if the car comes back on a tow-truck as a smoldering wreck, you are covered along with anything you hit. (Reminds me of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.") He said 30% of the rental cars are returned with cracked windshields in the spring.  Without the optional glass breakage coverage, that will double the cost of your rental. Once again I returned the rental car in perfect condition, and I didn't cause anyone else to panic and have a bad day (a cryptic reference to my last international rental experience.)  The drivers are patient, kind, considerate, except for the roundabouts at rush hour. 

There are a million things to write about, 

The Way We Were Wednesday - The Air and the Land

I have mentioned before that I grew up around airports and small airplanes, my father's hobby.  I know this was taken in Michigan, probably in Lapeer County, but I am not sure what town it is.  The wing tip in the bottom right, I was probably in the back seat, a low wing aircraft, most likely a Piper, it might have been a Mooney - the two that were most available at the time and place.  

Michigan was surveyed in straight lines, main road ran north-south, east-west, most often at one-mile intervals.  There are corrections for the curvature of the earth every few miles. Some variation based on trails before the survey, or to skirt around natural obstacles. Each square mile is 640 acres - divided in quarters - then divided in half for 80 acre standard farms. One-half mile, by one-quarter of a mile is 80 acres.  Most the land descriptions start with section, township and range, then quarter, then half quarter.  There are 43,560 sq. ft. in an acre - I learned that for an exam in 1978 and it has stuck with me. 

The farm I was raised on had an anomaly, one border was a creek bed.  A factor that was important when my father sold the last of the farm.  He was paid a premium by the adjoining land owner who feared a fight over the property line. 

My growing up is firmly rooted the land, in the layout of the countryside, and in seeing it from the air.    

Travel Tuesday : That Moment

I commented in my department meeting a couple of weeks, that I knew I needed to get away, and hoped that I would be less grumpy when I returned.  One of my colleagues had a bit of a breakthrough moment on that comment, it was me being stressed when I was occasionally short with her and others.  I know when I get stressed, I get grumpy. The best solution is a change of scenery. 

A note to Iceland:

Dear Iceland, 

Please don't change, stay wild, and clean, don't cave into McD's or Starbucks (there are none of either in the country,) but please build more scenic pull-offs so people can stop and absorb the wonders around them. 

I pulled into one of the few wide spots to take this photo, opened the door, and I could hear the birds, and a tiny waterfall rushing down the cliff face across the road.  It was one of those magical moments, when I knew I was someplace different, someplace wondrous. 

I was in Reykjavik a couple of days, when I realized I was one of the few people with a mask hanging around my face.  Iceland mastered test and trace early on. The adult vaccination rate is extremely high.  While we were there the minister of health declared that Iceland has reached herd immunity, enough people immune to COVID 19, that the illness would have a hard time getting beyond isolated outbreaks.  The moment, feeling safe in public. I won't say a return to normal, I am not sure that normal was all it was cracked up to be.  But certainly a light at the end of the tunnel.  I splurged on a taxi back to the airport Saturday morning ($133.) The taxi driver was a local, he said the United States Centers for Disease Control called the Iceland health minister and asked how did Iceland do it? His answer was, we did what I was trained to do, when I went to medical school in the United States, follow your training. 

It was 6 days filled with moments. 

My Music Monday : The Hardest Karaoke Song in the World

I listened to this on the plane a week ago, heading into Iceland.  "What could possibly go wrong?" Nothing did, it was a wonderful week, never enough time, and always many more things to see. Relaxing, diverting, different.  Travel feeds your soul, and many of us are in need to nurishment. 

The Sunday Five: Cats

 1: Do you prefer cats or dogs? 

2: Do cats like you? 

3: Have you ever been attacked by a cat?

4: When will cats rule the earth? 

5: Did you have a Garfield with suction cups on the feet stuck to a window at one time? 

My answers: 

1: Do you prefer cats or dogs? Cats are quieter, is that answering without answering. 

2: Do cats like you? Yes. 

3: Have you ever been attacked by a cat? I reached down to pet "Princess" while she was eating, and she climbed up my arm, scratched my face and jumped off the top of my head.  I have been told the attack was provoked. 

4: When will cats rule the earth? You mean they don't? 

5: Did you have a Garfield with suction cups on the feet stuck to a window at one time? Yes, in my first Mazda hatchback.  

Please share your answers in the comments.  

The Saturday Morning Post - Something Different

My Saturday Morning Posts, are usually written about a week ahead of time, something different this one was written in mid-April because of planned travel.  I haven't missed posting every day in over five years, I have no intention of starting to miss days now.  My guess is my blog will stop, about 10 days after I die.  (I do have a draft obituary for someone to post when the time comes -hopefully it needs revising a few times between now and when it needs to be posted.) I doubt that I will be able to schedule that one to post, now that would be something different.  

We are out doing what my parents would have described as spending our children's inheritance. Since we don't have any children, it is our money and we can do with it what we like. And we like taking care of ourselves, traveling, eating well, and feathering our nest. We like doing something different, things that we enjoy, and doing them our way.  

My father loved going out driving around, he called it bumming around, no particular plan, stop for lunch, stop to visit friends, drive around and see what was new, what was old, revisiting places from the past.  It was his something different.  I think my mother would have preferred more of a plan.  She was wound a little to tight sometimes.  

Hopefully you haven't noticed something different, I try hard to create a sense of continuity in my posts.  Regular service will resume. Maybe  I will even try posting the day I write something, that would be different for me. 

  

Fabulous Friday: It Is Great To Be Alive

I avoid talking about my health, if you want the gory details, complete with MRI images, take a look at May - June of 2015. Once a year, I indulge in an annual update.  May 13th, is the anniversary date of the surgery that preserved my mobility and largely restored the feeling and muscular control in my feet and legs - really everything below the bottom of my ribs.   

So how am I doing? Well.  As I had been told, in time, my body would compensate for changes, and it largely has.  I have fewer - actually few  episodes of pain, and those are generally brief, and I have learned to cope.  I am stronger, more able to move.  I need to be careful not to overstretch or bend in the wrong direction. The feeling in my feet is much the same, about 90%.  My balance is still improving.  I am still not comfortable riding a bike, and I do miss it.  But my walking has gotten better, walking on uneven surfaces much better.  

I am forever thankful that I lived in an area with some of the best doctors in the country, with good insurance, and the ability to pay for what the insurance didn't (about $5,000 in deductibles and copays.) I am grateful that my fun and irreverent local family practitioner realized that what she was seeing when I went to see her, was unusual and insisted that first round of tests be done the same day. Timing was critical, if I had waited a month for tests, it likely would have been a couple of weeks to long. (She insisted that I cancel a work trip I was scheduled to take.)  

Take care of yourself. When something doesn't feel right, or is interfering with life, see a doctor.  It is great to be alive.  To be able to engage in the great adventures. There are no guarantees that we can do what we want for as long as we want.  Things are different than before, but they are good.  Focus on what we can do, and make the most of it. 

So how am I celebrating my lucky day this year? We are finishing up a week in Iceland. 
 

Bonus Blog on a Thursday Afternoon

I usually write ahead of time and schedule,  I usually don't mention travel until after it has happened.  But I am feeling relaxed and time to share.  

I have been in Iceland for the week.  We flew out Sunday evening,  assuming we test negative for Covid  we go home this weekend.   We have spent a couple of days in the northernmost world capital, and a couple of days with a rental car exploring bays, volcanoes, waterfalls and geysers. The first geyser identified and studied in the world is here, the one next to it erupts every 10 minutes or so.  

The people are wonderful, the food is amazing (fresh fish like you wouldn't believe.) Everything is EXPENSIVE.  This is not a place for a budget traveler.  It is a place for anyone who wants to be treated well, and kindly, and find awe and wonder around every corner.  

I have been stressed, and grumpy, I needed the break, and this has been a good break.