We love to relax in the hot pool after hiking

Fantastic hiking on Mount Esja today. The weather was beautiful and clear when we started the mountain but when we were standing on the top there was a fog. That's how it is, you never know how the weather is going to be at the top.
The climbing took us maybe six hours up and down again. We finished with going to the swimming pool to relax in the hot pool. That's how the Icelanders do it. Icelanders have a lot of pools, usually there is at least one in every community.
We love to relax in the "heitur pottur", hot pool, after hiking.

The beds in St. Petersburg

When I am travelling abroad I always try to get into touch with the locals, e.g. by staying at guest houses or homes, rather than staying at international hotel chains. Sometimes it makes the travels more difficult but usually not. In my family we laugh at our vacation in St. Petersburg 2007. We took the train from Helsinki to Russia and then metro/underground to the hostel we were staying at. Of course we didn't understand one word in Russian and nobody at the railway station understood English so it was a little bit difficult finding out which metro train to take into town but finally we found out and got to our hostel. We didn't realize at that time the difference in standards between Russia and Scandinavia. When you are staying at a guest house or hostel in northern Europe it is extremely nice, very clean and well taken care of and you have hot running water and nice beds. The hostel in St. Petersburg was nice and clean with nice staff but we smile when thinking about the beds in our room. My bed and my daughter's bed were so hard (bad) that we had the feeling we didn't sleep one second those four nights or so we were staying in St. Petersburg. :) But the city was beautiful and we met a lot of nice people. I remember especially the nice young guide we had on our sightseeing around town and the woman who shared cabin with us on the way back to Finland. Vacation memories - the most fantastic memories of all!

Earth quakes in Iceland

We've been having some earth quakes in Iceland since yesterday. Well, usually we have some earth quakes every day but yesterday we had three earth quakes quite big, +3 on richter. That is quite some. I just noticed this on the news this morning but I felt something happening yesterday, the earth shaking. It is just so usual in my part of the country to get some earth quakes that I didn't think much about. But it is always interesting to know how big they are and we had those three more than 3 on richter. That is quite much.

Attending Travel Convention

Attending the Travel Convention in Reykjavik tomorrow and on Sunday. Will be interesting to meet all this people. Have been contacting people today in order to set up some meetings. Will also meet people randomly and tell them about Mountain Climbing's hiking tours in Iceland. Nice!

Northern lights offer

The Northern lights are one of the magnificent wonders in the Icelandic nature. Mountain Climbing has now a special offer: USD 38 or ISK 4.900 per person. The Northern lights tour is available every evening. Pick-up starts at 7pm. Pick-up and drop-off is included in price.

Speed in Iceland

Tourists have been stopped by the police after speeding along route 1 in Iceland the last few days. Maximum speed is usually 90km in Iceland, in the city 50-70km depending on streets. The route around Iceland is narrow and can be very different from what most tourists are used to, maybe even with snow or glazed roads. Too risky, I'd say, to be driving at e.g. 128km speed.

Join Iceland Hiking

Want to try the national hobby of Iceland - hiking? Join Mountain Climbing on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=178771275539