Colburn's Travels

Raining a little today, but not cold.

View of the boats in ice harbor.

# posted by Roger @ 9:53 AM 0 Comments

One of 2 bears shot in the parking lot of the airport.

We were stuck in Greenland for an additional night...now we will see if we can catch up to the original itn.

# posted by Roger @ 9:51 AM 0 Comments

Today is the first day it feels a little cold.

Very stinky here...sulphur.

# posted by Roger @ 10:38 AM 0 Comments

This part of Iceland has many greenhouses all geothermically warmed growing all of Iceland's crops from bananas to tropical fruits.

# posted by Roger @ 10:13 AM 0 Comments

Birthplace of anarchy

Law rock...Alpingi.  Once a year they hold parliament and the law would be recited by leading chieftain from memory.

There were laws and was based on allegiance between chieftains and free farmers which became their followers.  There were 5 courts of law all decided by free farmer, however parties had to enforce their own kidements.  There was no machinery of government in the modern sense and everything was open to eveyone. Lasted over 300 years....longer than other govts so far.

# posted by Roger @ 11:32 AM 0 Comments

Today we are at the town of Geysir....yes, the one that named it.  Alex got wet and said that was so much fun...now we have to wait 5 minutes for it to happen again.

# posted by Roger @ 11:21 AM 0 Comments

The biggest water falls we have seen so far.  The biggest waterfalls in Europe are in Iceland, but  the road was closed :(

# posted by Roger @ 6:53 AM 0 Comments

We have had excellent weather.

# posted by Roger @ 1:12 PM 0 Comments

Everyone got to walk on the glacier. A lot more rocks in it than you would guess.

We could hear rocks and ice faling in...very beautiful.

# posted by Roger @ 9:50 AM 0 Comments

Pieces of the glacier have broken off into this lagoon.

We went on a boat ride....a small boat went ahead to make sure we would not hit a hidden iceberg.   Seals in the background.

The kids really enjoyed eating the 1500 year old ice.

# posted by Roger @ 7:34 AM 0 Comments

NATO radar facility in background...today we are at the south part of Iceland.

# posted by Roger @ 6:36 PM 0 Comments

We literally drive for hours and see one or two cars. Even more empty than westen Australia.

# posted by Roger @ 9:11 AM 0 Comments

Iceland has a big problem with trolls, haunted hiways, and monsters in lakes. Tonight we are troll hunting.

# posted by Roger @ 3:31 PM 0 Comments

This is where you can take the ferry to mainland Europe....lots of snow on the pass.

# posted by Roger @ 10:44 AM 0 Comments

Probably the most natural thermal baths we have been to. Some sections of it were scalding.

# posted by Roger @ 3:48 PM 0 Comments

About 12 mini volcanos all within a few 1000 feet from each other.

# posted by Roger @ 1:17 PM 0 Comments

Eric is the only one with any [temperature] sense.

# posted by Roger @ 12:34 PM 0 Comments

Some are 65 feet high.

Volcano in background.

# posted by Roger @ 9:11 AM 0 Comments

Lava with glacier behind it.

Easy to see why Nasa chose here for their training for the lunar landings

# posted by Roger @ 8:39 AM 0 Comments

This cave has crystal clear very hot water in it....impressive

# posted by Roger @ 7:57 AM 0 Comments

Quoting from the tour book: 'in order to avoid being boiled alive....'

Close to here they attempted to dig pipes for geothermal energy, but by mistake started an eruption.

the ground is so hot that the restaurants cook their bread by burying it in tin cans.

# posted by Roger @ 7:15 AM 0 Comments

We are staying at the 'cow shed cafe' tonight.

The restaurant/milking is across the glass in the picture.

First time the kids have had fresh milk.  Actually first time any of of us have had fresh milk.

The bread we had was cooked underground by themal activity. There is lava everywhere...NASA trained here for the lunar landing missions here.  Steam and volcanic activity everywhere.

Forgot to mention even when we landed at 1 am it was still enough light to see. Even though sunset at 11 pm and sunrise is at 3 am, it is light enough to walk around in the middle of the night and you can see where north is..

# posted by Roger @ 3:31 PM 0 Comments

A beautiful scenic drive through the mountains. There are traces of snow and many small waterfalls. We stopped for a picture at the largest in the area, Godafoss falls.

# posted by Roger @ 11:12 AM 0 Comments

We had good flights from Athens to London to Iceland.  3 hours time difference (got here so late that it was already too late in the USA to call :)).

It is not as cold as you would guess...however, notice our new jackets.  Also Iceland is a lot bigger than you would guess. It would take at least 10 hours to drive across and their roads are good...esp for only 300,000 people. 

In the background of this pict is the volcano that is the entrance to Jules Verne 'Journey to the Center of the Earth'.   1/3 of all the worlds lava has come up from Iceland.  Lava is everywhere.

Off topic the internet connection speed in the middle of no where is amazingly fast.

Tonight we staying in a small fishing village on the NE side of the island.

# posted by Roger @ 3:13 PM 0 Comments

Under construction. They have just moved a lot of the statues to the new museum at the base of the mountain.

# posted by Roger @ 9:29 AM 0 Comments

Temple of Zeus with acropolis in background.

# posted by Roger @ 2:41 AM 0 Comments

Panathinaikon stadium...all marble. Even today marble is 1/3 the cost of wood.

# posted by Roger @ 2:28 AM 0 Comments

Big cotton candies.

# posted by Roger @ 3:22 PM 0 Comments

Downtown Parikia, Paros

# posted by Roger @ 7:52 AM 0 Comments

Rebeca quote: 'Next stop we get to see a block of wood, yeah!!'

# posted by Roger @ 5:08 AM 0 Comments

After a one hour ferry we arrived in Paros. One of many many Geeek islands that honestly look the same.

After 4 days here Alex just noticed everthing is painted white.

We are surprised how cold it is.

# posted by Roger @ 11:29 AM 0 Comments

We are surprised how cold it is this near to June.

# posted by Roger @ 11:30 AM 0 Comments

We arrived to Athens and made a quick connection into Mykonos.

# posted by Roger @ 1:43 PM 0 Comments

Picture of a billboard.

# posted by Roger @ 6:00 AM 0 Comments

Towards the Iraqi border....should we go?

# posted by Roger @ 5:38 AM 0 Comments

Got here just in time for the sun to shine in the right place.

Alex thought the official name was 'the Indiana Jones stage'

# posted by Roger @ 3:05 AM 0 Comments

This is where Indiana Jones The Last Crusade was filmed.

Absolutely impressive.

# posted by Roger @ 2:16 AM 0 Comments

At St Georges church in Madaba.

# posted by Roger @ 6:12 AM 0 Comments

Deuteronomy 34. Where God showed Moses the promise land. Moses is buried nearby, but no one know his burial place.

The place where the walking stick converted to a serpent.

Jordan valley and dead sea in background.

# posted by Roger @ 5:43 AM 0 Comments

We arrived in Jordan. We were very impressed with Royal Jordanian airlines.

After an hours drive we were at the dead sea. The kids took a little while to learn just to do nothing and just float.

It was so salty that even Alex did not like it.

The kids first mud bath... hard to take off.

# posted by Roger @ 9:25 AM 0 Comments

Pyramid night show...lots of lasers, but informative.

# posted by Roger @ 1:42 PM 0 Comments

Can't ask for a better location.

# posted by Roger @ 12:16 PM 0 Comments

We arrived in Egypt after our connection in London...the disadvantage of round the world tickets is connections that make no sense....look at a map.

Sakkara is a tumb before pyramids. It is 'steps' rather than straight. 2700 BC.

Sahara desert in background.

It is not as hot as India :)

# posted by Roger @ 7:09 AM 0 Comments

Indian and Atlantic oceans.

# posted by Roger @ 10:23 AM 0 Comments

Top of table mountain. 

The two oceans...Indian and Atlantic

Robben island (their Alcatraz) and our waterfront (our hotel) in the background.

# posted by Roger @ 7:34 AM 0 Comments

As seen from our hotel room.

The kids have been having a great time looking at the sea lions.

Capetown in every respect reminds me of San Fransisco.

# posted by Roger @ 4:29 AM 0 Comments

This is the two oceans aquarium...Indian and Atlantic.

Those are real nemo's and Rebeca and Alex are inside.

Then they are off to a science class.

And all this browsing made us hungry...time for dinner.

# posted by Roger @ 11:26 AM 0 Comments

This is how it looks when Cape Town is sunny.

# posted by Roger @ 7:44 AM 0 Comments

On a cool day.  Our hotel on the waterfront in the background.

# posted by Roger @ 7:33 AM 0 Comments

The kids have been having a lot of fun at kids club...everything from kite making to fishing.

The island is very big and fertile. The weather is perfect.

# posted by Roger @ 2:14 AM 0 Comments