Stresa

Today was a rest day for weary bodies...as much as we want to make this day interesting. It was not. 

We walked down to Stresa for lunch and then back up for exercise. And then we did laundry...it was an opportunity to wash our entire collection of clothes as we would not have another laundry stop for a while. 

We would like to say though, how much we appreciated seeing the sun rise at 0830 and be present UNTIL 5pm! As beautiful as Iceland was, there was only so much of "4 hours of sunlight" days we could take. 

Lake Maggiore

The view from our balcony

Chilling. Enjoying doing nothing

Even time for a hot tub

Steep journey down, and then back up!

Very quiet piazza

Christmas gnomes?!

Um...why was there a dog on the roof?!?!

Butt Buster Bikes

It appeared that adventure holidays may not quite suit me. The aging body continued to get a battering with the buttocks taking a turn today. We had organised an e-bike tour with Susanna to explore the area as the towns were mostly quiet/closed being the off season. 

As we arrived quite late the previous night, we wandered down the hill to buy some breakfast from the local supermarket before Susanna picked us up for our tour. The plan had to be modified somewhat because of the snow from 3-4 days ago. She drove us up to the village of Armeno we cycled up through the village of Coiromonte and onto Tre Montagnette for a bird's eye view of Lake Maggiore. On a clear day, you could see all the way to Switzerland. Cycling through snow and ice was HARD! I almost fell off the mountain...Let's just say it was a relief to get back onto bitumen!

We cycled down the way we came and continued down towards Orta San Giulio. We wandered around the main piazza as well as visiting the Sacro Monte, a collection of 20 devotional chapels atop a hill with spectacular views of Lake Orta. Thankfully from here, Susanna drove us back to Stresa. The butt could take no more. She was kind enough to take us to a supermarket for us to buy provisions as our rental was in the "Beverly Hills" of Stresa but required mountain goat skills to get to anywhere. If you are interested in active endeavours in the area or anywhere in Italy really, contact Susanna. She was warm, helpful and great with the children. Her English was good enough with some lost in translation along the way but she made up for it with high enthusiasm!

Beautiful Lake Maggiore on our walk towards the centre of Stresa

Even vending machine coffee in Italy was better than coffee in Iceland. Sorry Iceland!

Anything nutella was a hit! Even supermarket ones

Having breakfast on a bench like hobos

Susanna and her great van set up

Making sure we remember how to ride a bike...

We needed many stops even on e-bikes 😂

Beautiful views everywhere

Our destination

Not really sure what the background was of anymore!

Lake Maggiore

Time to get going

Back through Coiromonte

And onto Orta San Giulio

A virtually empty Piazza

Island of San Giulio

The ceiling of Chapel 1 at Sacro Monte

Chapel 6?! I had lost count by then

Statues inside

The children chose hot chocolate (the nice thick Italian style) over visiting the island of San Giulio

More nutella based pastries! Happy kids

Goodbye Iceland Hello Italy

Snow everywhere

 

Today's brief post will mainly convey our gratitude that we, along with all of our bags, made it to out of Reykjavik and into Italy. The heavy snowstorm that closed the roads and cancelled our snorkelling tour also cancelled many flights. We arrived at Keflavik airport to a sea of stranded passengers who obviously had to sleep at the airport. 

Flights today didn't seem to be affected by the snow. The check in system was mostly automated with many airlines all sharing the same check in kiosks as well as bag drop counters. Security was a short 5 minutes. There was no lounge at Keflavik airport and none of the cafes were open, meaning there was no good hot coffee. Gasp! We waited and waited for our SAS flight to take us to Copenhagen. It kept getting delayed by 15 minute intervals as we watched our 3 hour buffer get dwindled away. The plane finally arrived and we were off. Upon landing at Copenhagen we had 45 minutes to make it onto our next flight to Milan Malpensa. We had never walked so fast and an airport had never felt so big. Somehow, our bags made it too. It was a relief to see it falling onto the luggage carousel upon arrival at Milan. From there it was smooth sailing, our private transfer was waiting for us and drove us to Stresa uneventfully. The house was warm, spacious and had very comfortable beds!

Lots of space

Modern and clean bathrooms

Really comfortable mattresses!

Silfra Fissure & Reykjavik Food Walk

Harpa Concert Hall. The meeting point for our walking food tour

On account of a heavy snowstorm overnight, roads out of Reykjavik was closed which meant tours were cancelled including our Silfra Dry Suit Snorkeling tour. Although we were disappointed as we had come a long way and that was one of our must-dos and the selling point of Iceland, there was a small part of me that was secretly relieved! We've had long days, muscles were still aching from my herculanean ice climbing efforts and I really wanted to go back to the hotel's hot tubs! The Hilton Nordica had a fantastic spa set up which was included for executive lounge guests or diamond members. There was a range of indoor and outdoor tubs (38 and 41 degrees), saunas and steam rooms. Their change rooms and showers were great. We braved the outdoor tub amidst the flurry of snow...

After a brief consideration of the penis museum, the family opted to stay out of the crazy wind and snow outdoor and nap/play/device the afternoon away. Our plans to head into the downtown Reykjavik early before our food tour were derailed by the absence of taxis from the snow! We ended up at our designated meeting point only 15 minutes before our tour...

The reason our tour was cancelled and why we chose to stay in

The outdoor tub

The friendly staff recommended that we put our towels in the sauna for a more pleasant exit post soak!

Felt nice and warm in the water

White tips...

The Reykjavík Food Walk tour was organised by Hidden Iceland but was run by Wake Up Reykjavik. The tour had a great food selection of modern and traditional Icelandic cuisine with some sight seeing thrown in along our walk. The weather conditions were not ideal for a walking tour...but we made do. What would distinguish the tours from being good or excellent would be the guide. We had Stevie and he was hilarious. It was a great way to end our time in Iceland before we fly to Italy tomorrow. 

A few thoughts and observations to finish off:

• We were undecided whether or not to bother coming in winter. Seeing the northern lights was not high on our bucket list, and there were summer months attractions that we could not see eg puffins. However, getting to Iceland in the northern European summer would be unrealistic for us in the near future. We took a family vote and it was yes from 5/5. We were glad we came! Winter had its own beauty despite the cold. The scenery was still stunning and the children loved the adventure. Yes there were many long days that were exhausting but that was offset by the exhilaration of the various unique activities. 
• Free wifi everywhere including all our tour vehicles. Happy kids = happy parents!
• We've mentioned Hidden Iceland a few times but they were a dream to deal with. They were happy to accommodate the fact that a private tour for our whole stay was cost prohibitive and worked out a way for a happy medium that was not self-drive. All our interactions were positive and they were friendly, responsive and helpful. Their small group tours were the smallest at a maximum of 12 guests compared to 16 of other companies. Their vans/cars were super clean, comfortable, had charging cable and the previously mentioned wi-fi...
• Who would thought you could acclimatise to the cold so quickly. After a few days of -11 to -15, anything warmer than -10 felt comfortable and anything close to 0 felt almost warm!
• With good winter weather gear, the cold shouldn't be a factor. Good footwear, gloves and head/face coverings are vital!

Thank you Iceland for an amazing 6 days! Hopefully one day we get to come back in the summer months.

Off we go in the snow! What was not well captured was the wind blowing snow everywhere!

My favourite was the first stop. Modern Iceland. Cured atlantic char, lamb shoulder at the back

Parliament House

Plokkfiskur, Icelandic comfort food. "Fish mash"

Rye bread

Atlantic char again but cooked a different way

The Icelandic hotdog, lamb meat with raw onions, fried onions, sauce and mustard!

The Prime Minister's office

Next up, Icelandic bar! Mal trying the "Black Death"

Lamb stew

The famed fermented shark

Yes we all tried it. 

The Rainbow Road. Yeah no point taking photos here. Moving on!

Hallgrímskirkja

Last but not least...dessert! Rye bread ice-cream with whipped cream with rhubarb sauce and icelandic doughnut

We walked home because it was faster than finding a taxi