Lake of Dancing Icebergs (Jokulsarlon, Iceland)

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In a country packed with natural travel wonders including thundering waterfalls, freaky rock formations, snaking glaciers and thermal pools, one of the most unusual experiences in Iceland is the glacial lake, Jökulsárlón, full of powder-blue icebergs. From nature’s perspective, this is a recent phenomenon related to the receding glacier with the lake only present for the last seventy-five years.

The smallish icebergs, having split from the front of an arm of Europe’s largest glacier (and one-twelfth of Iceland’s landmass), slowly waltz around the chilly glacial lagoon with the slow deliberate grace of tai chi. The icebergs are too large to enter the river outlet to the ocean. They slowly meander around the lake until the wind and water erodes them to a size where they can finally escape their lagoon prison.

Apart from the peaceful stroll around the lagoon’s shore, a half-hour journey on an amphibian craft weaves up close to the ice show, revealing the unusual formations carved by nature, the varying shades of blue cast in the chunks of ice and the attractive reflections in the brooding waters.

The film-makers love it with the setting being used for a number of features including two James Bond movies – A View to a Kill and Die Another Day.

Enjoy Jökulsárlón, a surreal travel wonder in a sombre atmosphere of gently lapping water, brooding grey clouds and blue-tinged ice giants silently circulating the cold lagoon waters.

Other Iceland Posts
Astride the Continents
Nature's Wonderland
Remote Sign

Opera House Light Art (Sydney, Australia)

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Sydney is currently in the middle of a three week festival based on lighting. Centrepiece of the festival is an ever-changing light display on the sails of the Sydney Opera House, based on the work of Brian Eno, whose work includes producing several U2 albums and composing the familiar short startup music for Windows.

A "Smart Light" walk through Sydney's historic Rocks area towards Circular Quay and the Opera House showcases around twenty light art sculptures. A festival focus is for the lights to be energy efficient and recyclable. As with all sculpture, the displays include the absorbing, bizarre and confusing.

Along with the Opera House, the Museum of Contemporary Art is lit in a changing stellar array of patterned lights, lighting the sandstone bricks but not the windows.

Words do little to capture the enchanting lighting display on the Opera House so hopefully a sequence of photos give some idea.

Travel Website with a Difference - Hitchhiking Around the World

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In 2003, Frenchman Ludovic Hubler commenced a five year journey hitchhiking around the world spending nothing on transport between towns, countries or continents over the entire journey. Hubler refused all rides involving payment. In that time, Hubler travelled through 59 different countries covering around 170,000 kilometres in 10 ships (working on the ship) and 1,300 different cars and trucks.

His daily budget (described in detail in French) was US$10, including around 180 presentations to schools, clubs and universities. Hubler's somewhat chaotic site celebrates an extraordinary modern travel journey complete with superb cartoons of his adventures and numerous photos.

Hubler claims to have spent 20,000 hours (or 833 full days or 2.25 years) waiting for his next trip with a maximum wait of 28 hours. One single car drove him for five and a half days across the Sahara while another took him 1,700 kilometres down the east coast of South America. In India, Hubler got to meet the Dalai Lama who he deeply admires.

Hubler is penning a blog detailing his journey in reverse.

Hubler must have some fantastic stories to tell and surely goes down as the greatest hitchhiking traveller and a truly hardcore adventurer.

Other Travel Websites with a Difference
Heinz Stucke (cycling around the world)
Matt Harding (dancing around the world)

Photo and cartoon courtesy of Ludovic Hubler.

All the World’s a Stage (Stratford-Upon-Avon, England)

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If John and Mary Shakespeare had not borne a son, William, who proved to be the world’s finest English language writer and playwright of all time, then it is doubtful whether the travel wonder of Stratford would have progressed beyond a pleasant English market town. Rather, people gather in their hordes to make a literary pilgrimage to Stratford-upon-Avon and “The Bard”. Stratford has captured and preserved aspects of the city centre around the early 1600s, especially anything remotely related to the writer and his family.

Doing a circular walk around town (the information centre has suggested walking tours marked on street maps), you can pass most of the major aspects of Shakespeare in time order starting at his half-timbered birthplace, containing an excellent museum detailing the shreds of understanding of Shakespeare’s life. Past Nash’s House, where the writer’s granddaughter lived, the grammar school (where Shakespeare likely schooled, though no-one seems to know for sure), another Shakespeare’s house and you’ll find the stately Hall’s Croft.

This elegant medieval mansion was the home of Shakespeare’s eldest daughter and her doctor husband. It hosts a creaky period feel with an intriguing display on the medicines of the time and a strong encouragement to stay healthy in those times.

Notably, High Street briefly escapes the Shakespeare-mania and is lined with well-preserved Elizabethan half-timbered houses from Shakespeare’s time with their low ceiling beams. Except for the cars, a bit of imagination could take you back to those times with the hubbub of people wandering to and from market for their daily needs.

Walking towards the Avon River, the Holy Trinity Church is the last resting place of William Shakespeare. Lit by fine stained glass windows and laying next to his wife in this stately honeycomb-coloured church, Shakespeare’s simple grave is marked by a curse in verse and a fear of being dug up:

      Good Frend For Iesus Sake Forbeare,
      To Digg The Dvst Encloased Heare.
      Bleste Be Ye Man Yt Spares Thes Stones,
      And Cvrst Be He Yt Moves My Bones.

Along the same river are the main theatres including the Royal Shakespeare and the Swan, the latter being modelled on Shakespeare’s original Globe Theatre. Different plays were on different nights when I was there and are well worth experiencing to complete the Shakespeare experience (though tickets were difficult to get). In sunny weather, punting along the Avon is a popular pastime and shows the town at its best.

A kilometer west of the town along a marked footpath is the steeply-roofed thatched farmhouse of Anne Hathaway (top photo). With a resplendent flower garden, trimmed hedges and superb wood-carved four-poster bed, this is the most photogenic of the Shakespeare houses.

Stratford-upon-Avon has strained every thread of detail about William Shakespeare’s poorly documented life, preserving the half-timbered houses of the time. If The Bard isn’t your thing, there are any number other English town that have richer histories, better sights and are less crowded. But if your school studies sparked even an interest in our most famous playwright, then Stratford is for you and a chance to reacquaint yourself with a play that you studied some years ago. And while you are there, head another ten kilometres north and visit the travel wonder of Warwick with its immense castle and impressive church.

Other British and Irish Posts
Soaking Up Culture (Bath)
The Illuminated Manuscript (Dublin, Ireland)
A Bit of British (Gibraltar)
Jacob's Ladder (Cheddar)
Half-Timbered Houses (Lavenham)

Drinks Around the World: Pisco Sour

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With a recent South American theme exploring the travel wonders of Nazca, Riobamba and colourful Caminito in Buenos Aires and a diet of Peruvian guinea pigs, this week's photo is the favourite South American cocktail of Pisco Sour. I have joined Lifecruiser and many others in celebrating an international cocktail party.

The Pisco Sour is the national drink of Chile and Peru. It is made with pisco, sugar syrup, lime juice, egg whites and bitters and is a refreshing afternoon drink.

So here is salut to all those international drinkers at our first cocktail party.