Chapman v1.1 has landed in Reykjavik

Flight for Montreal will be leaving shortly

On Texel

The house we have rented on the island of Texel is amazing. We will post more photos later.

Bound for Texel

Schiphol Airport Amsterdam

Will in line at the Amsterdam airport getting ready to fly back to Canada

Amsterdam Part Deux

In Amsterdam

Our view out of the wind mill

This is by far the coolest place we have stayed in so far. Molen ter sleepe is a converted wind mill near the village of Maarkedal, Belgium. We will post more photos later

Tyne Cot Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery and Memorial to the Missing

11,956 total burials, of which 8,369 are unnamed.

Carbalicious!

Did I mention the croissants for breakfast?! This is part of our lunch in Dinant. What a gorgeous town!

Houx Belgium

If I could make some changes during this trip it would be to spend more time in Belgium.  The area around Houx and Dinant is stunning and steeped in history.

We are renting a spot called Le Loft, which is the former school house in Houx. I could spend an entire week here.  It is private, charming, and close to numerous activities.

Houx and Dinant suffered terribly during WWI.  In 1914, the German army committed atrocities against Belgian civilians in this area.

One metre from where I am typing this, two civilians were lined up against the outside of the school house wall and were shot.  The rounds passed through the bodies and left two very visible pock marks on the lime stone outside.

Right above us are the ruins of the Poilvache castle.

Der rote Baron

I wasn't sure if I was going to buy a stein when I was in Germany.

Of course at had to buy this one brother.

On route to Belgium

We left Selestat this morning for Belgium. Our AirBnb host surprised us with bakery delights for our trip: chocolatines and delicious brioche. Saw some gorgeous and non-touristy villages, such as Obernai, on the way. Getting closer to Metz, the landscape is looking a lot like Ontario!

The Bells

I just finished googling "why do church bells ring at 10pm" as our friend Saint-Georges Church was ringing its bells for 15 minutes straight.  Melanie suggested that it was a signal for some sort of invasion. The internet offered no explanation.

Our little corner also seems to be the local gathering spot for some more of the hardened socialites of Sélestat,  Throw in a motorcycle or two and it makes for an interesting evening.

Saint-Georges Church has seen a lot of action since its construction in the 12th century.
During WWII, many parts of Sélestat were heavily damaged, including Saint-Georges Church. Walking by the church today, you can still see the pock marks of the battle damage.

Sélestat

The view from our bedroom window in Sélestat.

 The boys sleeping late in the morning.

We visited the château du Haut-Kœnigsbourg yesterday, making this a 4 castles in 3 days trip.

Vauban and Neuf Brisach

Marquis de Vauban was a Marshal of France and the foremost military engineer of his age. He is known for his skill in both designing fortifications and breaking through them. He also advised Louis XIV on how to consolidate France's borders, to make them more defensible. Vauban made a radical suggestion of giving up some land that was indefensible to allow for a stronger, less porous border with France's neighbours.

His ideas informed many of the fortifications in Canada including the Halifax Citadel and Fort Beausejour.

So any way, we visited Neuf Brisach today. The city's layout was that of an 'ideal city', accoring to Vauban, with a regular square grid street pattern inside an octagonal fortification. Generous space for a central square across the four blocks at the middle, flanked by an impressive church. Individual blocks were offered for private development, either as affluent houses in private gardens, or as properties for commercial rent. Simpler housing was provided in long tenement blocks, built inside each curtain wall, which also had the effect of shielding the better houses from the risk of cannon fire. Access was provided by large gateways in the principal four curtain walls.

Looking towards one of the entrances

Inside the church.

Two dorks and two storks.

Alsace Villages

We started the day in Selestat on the hunt for breakfast croissants and then headed to the very impressive Haut-Koenigsbourg castle for a tour. Stopped here for a shot of the vineyards that surround the castle.

Three castles, two countries, one day

We started off our day early with a 7:00am breakfast at the hotel. We drove 10 minutes in the rain up to Schloss Hohenschwangau and then walked to Schloss Neuschwanstein. From there we drove to Schloss Sigmarigen.

The drive from Germany to France was interesting - our first experience on the Autobahn, We made into Sélestat aound 7pm.

The Great Escape

Many of the scenes in The Great Escape were filmed in and around the town of Fussen.

One of my favourite scenes is where Australian Flying Officer Louis Sedgwick (James Coburn), "the manufacturer", is resting in a café when the local Resistance stages a drive-by assassination of three German generals sitting in a roadside cafe. James Coburn is spirited out of the way by a timely phone call. 

The boys watched the movie before we left on our trip. This is Sam "the Manufacturer" looking over the river.

Over Scotland

Heading to Munich

At Keflavik International Airport waiting to board our flight to Germany.  Two hour time change with a four hour flight will put us into Munich around 1pm local.

Our last day in Iceland

We had a super busy day.  First on the Agenda was Gulfoss -  which is a waterfall located in the canyon of the Hvítá river in southwest Iceland.

From there we headed north east towards Hekla, one of Iceland's most infamous volcanoes.  We made many stops along the way and were absolutely struck at how beautiful Iceland is.

Post cards have been sent.

We are packing up and will be heading out very early in the am to catch our flight to Munich.

The Power of Nature

While out geocaching, William and I came across this geothermal plant near Efri Reykir.

In Iceland, geothermal energy provides about 65 percent of primary energy needs.

Unpronounceable Volcano

On the way back from Vik we stopped at the farm which was most affected by the 2010 eruption of Eyjafjallajökull. 

The snow capped mountain in the background is that mouth full of Icelandic destruction.

Vik horses

We drove to Vik today which is in the far south of Iceland. We spent an hour riding horses along the fabulous black sand beach.

What We Did Yesterday

Now that we have had a little more sleep, we detail what we did yesterday.

From the airport in Keflavik, we drove south to the small village of Gridnavik on the coast. We then drove to Strandakirkja on the coast.

At Strandakirkja we stopped at the the church for which the village is named.

The Church was originally built sometime in the 12th century. The story relates that there is one night when a group of sailors tried to navigate back to Iceland in a storm. The southern coast of Iceland is notorious for its hidden reefs and rough coast. The distressed sailors prayed to God for a safe return and vowed to build a church wherever they landed. When they ended their prayer an angel, seemingly made of light, appeared before their bow. The angel guided them through the rough surfs and led the crew into a bay for safe landing. The sailors, making good on the promise, built a wooden church at the site and named it Strandarkirkja. 

From there we went to Selfoss, bought some groceries, postcards, and famous Icelandic hotdogs called pylsur.

We then drove to the Kerið crater. Kerið is a volcanic crater lake located in the Grimsnes area in south Iceland.. The caldera, like the other volcanic rock in the area, is composed of a red volcanic rock.  Kerið’s caldera is one of the three most recognizable volcanic craters because at approximately 3,000 years old, it is only half the age of most of the surrounding volcanic features. It is believed that Kerið was a cone volcano which erupted and emptied its magma reserve. Once the magma was depleted, the weight of the cone collapsed into the empty magma chamber. 

From the crater we then drove to the Laugarvatn Fontana geothermal baths.   Here we walked outside with a guide and saw bubbling hot water come out of the ground.  At the end of a board walk we stopped and watched as our guide dug into the ground and pulled out a large steel pot.  Inside the pot was a a steaming mass of rye bread that we then took back to the spa and enjoyed with lots of butter - it was delicious. We will be coming back here on Sunday to enjoy the hot water baths.