Paris. The city of romance, pastries, and French. I didn't get any of the first, I had plenty of the second, and I've decided that I should definitely acquire more of the third. 

I only had a day there this time, and most of that time I was exhausted, and therefore not entirely lucid. But it was great after I got some sleep.

I was able to hit a lot of the major tourist sites last year, so we decided to wander around in some of the less-central parts of town first. 

St. Paul's cathedral.

After our excursion into St. Paul's, we wandered off the beaten path into an area recommended by our Parisian friend. there were almost no tourists, and it was lovely. We found a café for lunch.

Beef tartare with green salad and hot potato salad. I must confess: the beef tartare was a bit of a surprise. I had no idea that the dish was served raw. But it was an interesting experience, and I enjoyed it, even if I might not often order the dish again.

Rolls and a fruit smoothie.

Crème brûlée. Wow. One of the culinary delights of my life. 

 Enjoying Parisian architecture.

A funny store front: "Monsieur Poulet--Original Chicken Clothes." Only in Paris.

 Crossing the bridge towards the Notre-Dame cathedral. 

 The view from the bridge.

There are walkways under the street level. I feel like I should use this idea in a book—the world under the world. . . . 

Charlemagne. Near the Notre-Dame. He is very regal looking, I think. And somehow forbidding, too. Which is appropriate, considering that he is going to war. 

The cathedral. While we were there, the bells rang. It was beautiful. It started with just four bells pealing, and then one by one, lower bells joined. I recorded it, but I'll have to wait for better internet to upload them. 

A little cathedral, out of the way of tourists. There were very few people inside. I sang—the acoustics were wonderful. 

I think I need to learn French. Last year I felt a little overwhelmed by all the French, but this year I found I could understand a lot of what people were saying. Maybe I'll get some CDs and start listening in the car. 

I am now safely in Verona, Italy. I had a wonderful day at church. I went to Bergamo, and they were reorganizing three wards. So there just happened to be a couple at church from Verona who offered me a ride. This was really nice, because my flight got in late last night, and so I was tired. Thanks to their generosity, I got into Verona nearly two hours earlier than anticipated, and I could take a nap. 

The opera workshop starts tomorrow. I'm not sure if there will be a lot to blog about, so there might be a dearth in blog posts for the next little bit. We'll see. 

Thursday was another marvelous day. We got up fairly early for a tour (again with Gummi, our LDS Icelandic tour guide). We had a lovely day along the south shore of Iceland.

We first drove down to the Skogafoss waterfall. But on the way, we passed a bunch of beautiful scenery, as well as Hekla, Iceland’s most famous volcano. Of course, I got a picture for dad. 

Mount Hekla. I had to take a driving photo, so the quality is not great. Sorry. 

A stop for pictures along the way. 

One of Iceland's glaciers.

Beautiful scenery. these are driving photos, so the quality is not great. 

Stopping before heading to Skogafoss waterfall. 

Some of the Westland Islands off the southern coast of Iceland. 

A close-up of the glacier on Eyjafjallajökull, an active volcano. Eyjafjallajökull last erupted in 2010, and closed down much of the air traffic from the US to Europe for around six weeks. Of course now it’s calm and peaceful. 

All of this area was covered in inches of ash in 2010. But out of all of Iceland, it was only a 5-mile stretch that had any ash fallout (right here). The rest of it blew out to sea. And within 6 weeks, new life was already springing up in the affected area. 

The Skogafoss waterfall is just under the Eyjafjallajökull volcano. It was just beautiful. There was even a double bow. 

We got to hike up above the waterfall, and everything was just perfect. 

Interesting plant. 

Interesting flies on the interesting plant. 

The view on the hike up. 

Looking over the waterfall from above. 

The river above the falls. 

Right now, I feel like Iceland is my muse. I would have love to hike even further in, and then just sit and write. But there was no time.

Sitting above the falls. 

Enjoying the view.

After Skogafoss, we had lunch and then went for a ride on some Icelandic horses. These are smaller than normal horses. They are closer to the original Nordic breed. The Vikings who stayed in Scandinavia bred their horses with others from western Europe in order to make them bigger, but the Icelanders never did. So these horses are like the ones that they brought over with them in the early days of settlement. They are generally kind-tempered and gentle, and they have 5 separate gaits. We only got to experience two of them—walking and trotting. I must admit—trotting is not my specialty, especially on Icelandic horses. Sarah said that she felt it was easier than on a full-sized horse, but it wasn’t easier for me. I finally worked out a trot that was comfortable about 10 minutes before we finished. But it was beautiful and fun.

Finally! Some pictures of the fields of flowers!

After riding the horses, we got to go to the Solheimajökull glacier. It was incredible to see the glacier and how it is melting and receding. We even got to walk on some parts of the glacier. (We only went where it was safe. We didn't venture very far.)

The lake right underneath Solheimajökull.

Glacial debris left after the glacier receded from this area. 

The large rocks also have been picked up, carried, and left here by the glacier. At the far end of this lake, you can see where the glacier is melting, creating the lake.

It's difficult to see in this picture, but there are grooves that are engraved in the rock from the glacier's movement. 

Often the glaciers actually melt from beneath, leading to arches within the ice.

There is a very fine mud around some areas of the glacier. You should be careful not to step in it because it liquifies and becomes like quicksand. 

 The ice on Solheimajökull has been crushed and compressed for centuries. The meltoff is perfectly clean. I even ate a couple chunks of ice. It is very tasty, although it is harder than normal ice, because it is so much denser. It takes longer to melt in the mouth, as well.

Our guide told us that the water in Iceland is very pure. Any running body of water is safe to drink once you let the silt (if any) settle. Even still bodies of water are safe, so long as there are no livestock in the area.

It's possible to see the compressed air bubbles that are in the ice. 

More glacier photos.

Sediment that builds up on glaciers actually acts as an insulator. And that is one of the ways to know how safe it is to walk on a glacier—by how much sediment buildup there is. After a heavy rainstorm, it can be hard to know where it is safe to step. 

A driving photo of a rainbow. 

After the glacier, we went up to a lookout point along the coast. There is a lighthouse on top of the Dýrholaey puffins’ cliffs. The weather, which had been sunny, took a drastic swing. We hiked up to the top of the lookout, and it was blowing hard, and raining, and it was very cold. But it was exhilaratingly beautiful. The sea was rolling in, and the puffins and other arctic birds were wheeling about in the storm. I loved it!

Although it was really cold by this point and most of us were quite wet, we went to the Reynisfjara shore.

 Some of the beach is sandy, and some of it is filled with beautiful smooth black rocks. 

The puffins and other arctic birds were coming and going from the ocean. The rocks here are basalt, but due to being under enormous pressure during their formation, they have turned into columns and other interesting shapes. I could imagine coming in from the sea on a stormy day like this one and huddling in this cave by a small fire. Naturally, I felt this place was quite magical.

Close-up of the ceiling of the cave. 

To the side of the cave.

The cave was probably 25-30 feet high. 

Looking out to sea from inside the cave.

Basalt columns.

The lighthouse rock.

Lastly, we returned by way of Seljalandsfoss. We were able to hike behind it. There is a legend that a very rich man once hid his silver behind this waterfall. After his death, a young man went to retrieve it. But the handle on the chest broke and all the silver poured out. So now, when you see glittering in the Seljalandsfoss waters, you know that you are just seeing the remnants of the silver.

The Westman Islands.

I’m really sad for my time in Iceland to end. I have really loved it here. I’m sure that I could learn Icelandic pretty quickly, especially since I’m already starting to pick up words here and there, and I can often follow the gist of what is happening. There is a part of me that would love to move here for longer.

A couple of last thoughts. Iceland has excellent dairy. They have a yogurt-like food called skyr that transports me every time that I eat it. I will miss that.

Also, it’s interesting to watch Icelanders. I can see resemblance between them—it is clear to me that the Viking stock has not been much diluted. I’ve seen loads of people with the same nose, or other similar facial features. It’s been interesting.

P.S. Unfortunately, I had a few videos I wanted to upload. We had blazing fast internet in Iceland. But now I'm in Italy, and it's not so good. It took me around 2 minutes to upload a video in Iceland, but here it says that it will take 327 minutes. So you won't get to see them. . . . sorry.