Iceland, the Faroes and Norway, 2011

Groggy in Iceland. We parked next to the Iron Maiden 2011 tour jet. Now headed to the Blue Lagoon to wash off the jet lag.

Surreal walking off a jet, exhausted, to see a bleak moonscape and a power plant spa.

Scenes from Iceland's national holiday today: mummers, 20s Buick

11pm and bright as day. Getting cold though. The sun nominally sets for three hours this time of year in Reykjavik. Lots of outdoor drinking

Reykjavik has this amazing new concert hall right on the downtown harbour.

Preparing to fly a Cessna 172SP out of Reykjavik BIRK tomorrow. (With an instructor). Glaciers? Volcanoes? Elves?

Lovely dinner at the Lobster House of Reykjavik. Snails, whale, horse, and of course lobster. Also good Icelandic cheese.

Beautiful day for a walk in the cemetery.

Heading to Reykjavik airport BIRK for a sightseeing flight. I have no idea how to navigate; hope our CFI does!

GPS track from our Iceland flight in TF-GUS maps.google.com/?t=p&z=15&ll=64.130818,-21.930588&q=http://share.gps.motionxlive.com/shr/x/kmz/4ac04e08538389d76958dd0cb73dceb7

Photos from the Reykjavik flight in TF-GUS. Glaciers, no elves.

Flying from Reykjavik to Torshavn on OY-RCD from the Faroese airline. 3 planes in the fleet!

Heck of an approach to Vagar. Also sighted landing in the Faroese: D-EFUX, a Piper single from Bergen, Noreay.

The Faroes are dramatic scenery. Ken is also quite dramatic in our bridal suite with a view.

Feeling terribly smug to be in the Faroes. End of the world, beautiful, fascinating.

In Gjógv, Faroes. Incredibly beautiful and remote.

Can't get over how beautiful the Faroes are. Drove all over today.

Pleased by sophisticated cuisine in Reykjavik (Sjavarkjallarinn) & the Faroes (Koks, Hotel Føroyar) Who knew what you'd find this far north?

Still in the Faroes, a bit glad to be flying to Bergen tomorrow. It's beautiful here but a little dull, 2 full days was plenty for a taste.

Btw, today's drive around the Faroes has satisfied my quota for two way roads through one lane, unlit, 4 mile long tunnels.

Hello, Bergen, Norway. After a week of Iceland and the Faroes it's nice to see a tree or two.

Settled in Bergen, two Hansa beers later. Photos: our 1700s hotel, a kitschy Viking statue.

Norway is even more crazy expensive than Iceland and the Faroes. $12 for a draft beer, $11/g gas, $7 fast food burgers.

Ferry from Gudvangen to Flåm, crazy high mountain down to steep fjord.

Having a negative antibody reaction to Norway. $60 for a Blandanavian fish entree of adequate quality is starting to annoy.

So halp! Does Bergen, Norway have a really excellent modern restaurant with a chef working hard to cook interesting food?

Norway has very progressive gay school programs.

Surprised to find a statue of Mark Twain in Bergen. Also, an extra from Yellow Submarine.

Bergen dining success at Søtt + Salt, Chef Morton (?). Fine international cuisine, well executed, good setvice, local fish. Impressive.

Bergen evening scenes: prolonged sunset, American lowriders.

Driving north, to Balestrand on Songjefjord. First challenge: navigating the aorta of Bergen.

At the lovely 19th century resort hotel Kviknes. Life just slowed down. kviknes.no

Fjords are fascinating. They're like rivers, only they open to the oceans. No wonder this land spawned Vikings.

Also fascinated by runes: secular literacy in 1100. Rare to have European writing that old that isn't from the church tradition.

Wondering if the new maps.google.com mobile web interface is a plot by Google to make the iPad look bad. Usability is terrible on iOS.

At the Hotel Storfjord, in a beautiful nowhere near Ålesund.

Tweeting from a ferry in the middle of a Norway fjord is like tweeting from an airplane, only cooler.

Enjoyed my $30 pizza in Christiansund. Instead of pepperoni it had klippfisk, salt cod. Pretty good actually, and $30 lunch seems a bargain.

Fairy on the ferry. Also, dramatic clouds, machines. flic.kr/p/9XHkmM flic.kr/p/9XGWqo

Lovely end of the evening at Norsk Aquavit No1 Bar. Nice bartender gave us a bit of an education.

Ken was the schlimazel today. Shit on by a bird, then clean clothes soaked by a car splash. I laughed at him, then iron-dried his clothes.

Ken and I finally met our cheese match in Norway: Gamalost. Revolting, no pleasure in the hairy, stinky, dry crumbs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gamalost

Speaking French in Norway. Trondheim has a lovely summer outdoor market, including a great French cheese vendor. Chevre > gjetost.

Trondheim was a nice town. Now we fly to Bodø and a week driving up to Tromsø via Lofoten, far northern Norway.

Photos: airport wifi, Kviknes hotel, Balestrand St Olaf church.

Also, Obama sure looks like a craven jackass politician when it comes to civil rights, no? Not my new bicycle.

Thai food in Bodø, very spicy and delicious. Needed a bit of that.

Bodø harbour, also a view from the 13th floor bar. We're above the arctic circle now, 67° 17' N.

Drinking until sunset during the midnight sun.

Supported Norwegian marine research tonight by eating whale ham. Sort of like prosciutto, but more whale-ish. Delish, really.

Hadn't realized Bodø was a NATO air station. Bit of a fighter airshow going on in town. Also, Gary Powers was shot down on a flight to Bodø.

Visited the maelstrom near Bodø. May add tidal phenomena to the list of don't-visit along with mines and amusement parks

At the Norwegian aviation museum in Bodø. Interesting WW2 history and they have a significant collection on display.

I touched a U-2. Nice flush aluminum skin.

Amazing story of a disastrous attempt in 1897 to reach the North Pole by balloon (!) bit.ly/mt3nNI

Headed out of the big city of Bodø, for the quiet of Lofoten. Out hotel had the national Jehovah's Witnesses convention, the bar was quiet.

Staying in a rorbu, a cozy Norwegian fishing cabin in Reine. Crazy mountains.

The town of Å, with racks of cod heads hung up to dry.

Ferry from Bodø to Moskenes in Lofoten. Forbidding mountains rising out of the sea.

Sørvågen telegraphy museum: 1906 wireless station. Not very interesting, honestly.

Did I mention how beautiful Norway is? Great weather today in Lofoten.

Did you know north of the arctic circle, the sun shines from the north at "night"? Feels wrong, but makes sense.

Svolvær for lunch, on our drive all the way up Lofoten.

In Andenes, a sad town. "Almost a trading center" I'd a town motto: now a shut down NATO sub hunting air station.

Andenes is also home to a rocket launching facility, with NASA trailer.

Andenes is turning out to be a grim tourist stop. Highlight of the hotel: sheets provided so we can make our own bed! Early ferry tomorrow.

Night of anxiety dreams punctuated by light industrial harbour noise. Ferry away is in 2.5 hours.

#11 in line for the ferry, I like my chances. Seldom have I disliked a place as much as Andenes.

These Northern ferries carry full body immersion suits instead of just lifevests. Not a warm feeling.

Survived the ferry, reward us more amazing beauty on Senja. Our hotel in Hamn is incredible.

Fourth hotel in a row to put Ken and me in separate beds. Getting fucking annoying.

Some snafus with the service in Hamn I Senja, but the scenery is delicious. So was the one waiter.

Last night in wilderness: tomorrow, Tromsø. It's the "Paris of the North"! Ken and I looking forward to our choice of three star restaurants

Made it to Tromsø, "Paris of the North". Definitely a real city, a welcome change.

Drinking red wine and dark Mack beer, sitting at an outdoor cafe in the sun. At nearly 70N, in Tromsø. Content.

Evening light is lovely in Tromsø, Arctic Cathedral in the distance.

I think Tromsø's beer Mack is my favorite Norwiegan beer. The pilsner is nice, but the dark beer is great. Nothing unique, but solid.

Great dinner at Emmas in Tromsø emmas.as But missing home. Tomorrow, Oslo, then three days later back to San Francisco.

I wish they'd ban smoking in outdoor restaurant seating in Europe.

A gentleman can iron his own shirts when necessary.

Lovely French dinner at Brasserie France in Oslo. Nice to be in a real city again.

On the Fram, Amundsen's amazingly huge and solid polar exploration ship. frammuseum.no

Here's a theodolite, a sort of 19th century GPS.

Wonderful visit to Vigeland sculpture park in Oslo.

Last full day in Oslo, then the long journey to San Francisco. About ready: Norway is nice, but missing the comforts of home.

Enjoying a beer on the harbor. The Aker Brygge development in Oslo is a great success, sort of urban Eurorenewal.

Beginning the long journey home: Oslo, Reykjavik, Seattle, San Francisco. Some 20 hours of flying and waiting. Will be cranky.

Welcome to the US: inane customs forms, security announcements bleating, and the stale smell of urine.

Ken's making chili for our first dinner at home after three weeks of Blandanavian cuisine. Best boyfriend ever.