Iceland Travel Guide

Take the Flybus from the airport at Keflavik to Reykjavik and stay in the downtown hostel.

Next day, look for the smallest bicycle shop in the world. If you are not sure whether the shop you are in is small enough, keep looking. There is a smaller one. This is the one you want. 

Announce to the owner that you wish to purchase a used bike to get around Western Iceland, with the idea being that you would sell it to another traveler at the end of your journey. He will tell you this is not possible. Thank him, and leave. It is very important that you do not dispute the bike shop owner on this point. Thank him, and leave. Crucial. 

Return to the shop the next day. He will have somehow “procured” a used bike that is barely suitable for riding on a bike path, much less cross-country.

Go to Thingvellir, Geysir, and Snaefellnesness. Take dips in hot pools wherever possible. Use the cycle to cross the Kjolur Route through the Central Highlands. On the way, a lanky Pole with a runny nose will point the way on your map. This is Polski. He has been helping travelers on the Kjolur Route since the Early Age, roughly 980 - 1140 AD. 

At Hrerravellir, enjoy the hot pool. Meet young magi from CERN as you reposition the hot water hose. 

Upon your return to Reykjavik, set up your bike opposite a jewel shop on the main commercial street. Place a sign on the bike offering it for sale for kr175,000. Within five minutes, the jeweler will emerge and purchase your bike for that exact amount. 

Thus you will have re-enacted the Saga of Vilaf, of the Hill People. You may return to your home lands triumphant. A large feast will be assembled in your honor, and you will be invited to blow the horn of an ox 19 times. 

Kjölur Crossroads

 
 

Hub on Wheels

Ideal day for this ~45 mile bike ride through the neighborhoods of Boston. Started at about 8:15 on a car-free Storrow Drive, finished four hours later. Met up with Loan Shark right fielder Karla G. at Arnold Arboretum; we rode together until Carson Beach.

I was on the Zipcar team; earned a free day of driving credit, then spun the mystery wheel at their booth on City Hall Plaza and won an additional free day in one of their BMWs. Plus other assorted swag, including a water bottle, T-shirt, face cleanser (?), space-age energy drink, and so forth. Whole thing a benefit for the Boston Digital Bridge Foundation.

Mayor Menino is promising better bike facilities in Boston, but we've heard that before.

Interactive map from Bikely:

HoW45

http://www.bikely.com/

Bike Ride: Hub on Wheels Preview

Checked out the last segment of the Hub on Wheels ride scheduled for this Sunday. Looked at the segment starting at Cummins Highway in Mattapan, through Forest Hills Cemetery and Franklin Park, and then to Codman Square and down to the Neponset River Bike Path, which I'd ridden before.

Came home via Morrissey Blvd and finally stopped to check out the white Victorian tower on Fort Hill in Roxbury that I had seen from the Orange Line trains for years but had never seen up close. The tower is a water standpipe that stands at the site of one of the fortifications that were used during the Revolutionary War in the Siege of Boston, which ultimately lead to the departure of the British from Boston.

Distance: 24 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Soldiers Field

A quick errand at Harvard today. Does this even count as a "bike ride?" Anyway, here it is.

Distance: 13.9 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Hemlock Gorge

Rode up to Newton today. After a stop at International Bicycle Centers to pick up a crank puller, checked out Hemlock Gorge, site of 130-year-old Echo Bridge, which supports an aqueduct that once carried the bulk of Boston's fresh water. More shopping stops on the way home at Home Depot and Village Market in Roslindale.

20.8 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Great Blue Hill

After climbing up Washington Street to the summit of the Stony Brook Reservation, I zoomed down through the Reservation on the paved path, winding up eventually at Mother Brook. Circled through Dedham and then went over to the Blue Hills Reservation to climb Great Blue Hill (all of 635', but supposedly the highest point within 10 miles of the Atlantic Coast in the U.S. south of central Maine). Checked out the Blue Hill Weather Observatory (oldest in the U.S.) at the summit before heading back home.

20.7 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Parks-a-plenty

Larz Anderson Park

Dane Park

Cold Spring Park

Arnold Arboretum

Franklin Park

20.4 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Cutler Park

Halfway through last week's Boston Logistics and Industry Ride, I decided to see if I could follow the Charles River all the way around to West Roxbury. But I only got as far as Charles River Canoe and Kayak on Commonwealth Ave. in Newton before having to head straight back home.

Today I picked up a bit more Charles River shoreline, negotiating the surprisingly rugged glacial drumlins and then gliding over the marsh boardwalks of the DCR's Cutler Park in Needham and Dedham. After a quick zip through West Roxbury's Millennium Park, I didn't have enough time to fully explore the neighboring Brook Farm site, an 1840s Transcendentalist experiment in communal living that only (or maybe that should be "actually") lasted seven years, but I'll be back.

Interactive Map:


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Bike Ride: Wollaston Beach

Distance: 21 miles. Interactive Map:


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UPDATE: In response to Eve's Apple's comment about getting thirsty at Wollaston Beach: The DCR is renovating the beachfront with new sidewalks, stairs, and pavilions, but so far there is still an appalling lack of drinking fountains ("bubblers" in local parlance). Not sure what's going on here -- all of the other DCR land I've biked through lately has had ample drinking water. Like Eve's, I ended up having to pay to quaff, buying bottled water from a vending machine at a restaurant.

Bike Ride: Neponset River and Carson Beach

Another warm and dry day and this time I was prepared for a swim at Carson Beach, after checking out the Neponset River bike path along the southern edge of Boston, and the Harborwalk Path starting at Tenean Beach.

Distance: 16.5 miles. Interactive map:


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Bike Ride: Boston Logistics and Industry

Started at South Boston's Carson Beach with airliners gliding into Logan over Dorchester Bay. Then around Pleasure Bay and past the Conley container terminal to the South Boston piers — a couple of Navy ships in port today, one in drydock undergoing repairs. Followed the still-discontiguous but improving "Harborwalk" to the North End and walked the bike over the Charles River Dam and Locks.

Followed the bike path along the Charles River, crossing here and there as needed, all the way out to Waltham and the site of the first power loom in America, the prototype for the giant Merrimack River textile mills of Lowell and Lawrence.

With time running out and quadriceps barking, hauled my way back home over the hills of Newton and Brookline.

Distance: 43 miles. Interactive map below:


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Bike Ride: Stony Brook Reservation

Milwaukee Who? In the years before Prohibition, Boston had more breweries per capita than any other American city. My neighborhood of Jamaica Plain hosted as many as 17 breweries at one time, all clustered along Stony Brook, known for its exceptionally clear water.

Prohibition killed off brewing in Boston. But in the 1980s, Jim Koch founded Boston Brewing Co., locating it in the old Haffenreffer Brewery on Germania Street in Jamaica Plain. Using an old family recipe, he created Sam Adams beer, launching an entirely new market segment in U.S. brewing: the craft beer. Nowadays, Sam Adams is brewed in industrial quantities in giant breweries in Pittsburgh and Cincinnati, but there's still a small working brewery at the Haffenreffer site, where brewmasters test new formulations. Plus there are the inevitable brewery tours and tastings.

Stony Brook rises in the Stony Brook Reservation, which straddles Enneking Parkway on the Hyde Park - West Roxbury border. It then flows northward and empties into the Muddy River in the Back Bay Fens, and from there the short distance to the Charles River. Unfortunately, today Stony Brook is completely "culverted," routed through concrete pipes buried six feet under.

Distance: 10 miles. Fully interactive, zoomable map below:


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Bike Ride: Blue Hills Reservation via Hyde Park Ave.

Living at the end of a subway line, I thought I resided on the fringes of Boston. But Boston extends miles and miles to the south along Hyde Park Ave, terminating in something called "Readville," which has been rumored not to even exist. To the south of Readville lies the Fowl Meadow wetland, part of the Neponset River Reservation. (Here in Massachusetts, "meadow" means "swamp" and "Reservation" means "Park.")The meadow was saved from certain destruction in 1967 when grassroots activists blocked plans to extend I-95 through the meadow and straight into the heart of downtown Boston.

Distance: 19 miles. Fully interactive, zoomable map below:


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Bike Ride: Houghton's Pond via Blue Hills Ave.

No time to go swimming at the pond — too bad because it was a very hot day. Returned via Truman Highway. 19 miles.


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Back to Boston

We dropped off our rented bikes at Rainbow Cycle, climbed into Helen's rented Opel and drove through the Burren for a last look at the Cliffs of Moher before heading back to Shannon Airport and our Aer Lingus flight back to Boston.

Two Days to Galway

It took two full days of steady cycling to get from Westport to Galway. This is primarily due to the fact that Greg is always one to go the extra 12 miles when planning a route. Why go the direct route when there are more circuitous routes? Why indeed?

We overnighted at a youth hostel in Cong and pedaled the final, triumphant miles into Galway in a driving rain. Helen met us at a hotel in Eyre Square. We toweled off and made for McDonagh's Seafood and the greatest fish and chips in the world.

One Night in Westport

After a few days in Ireland, I must admit that the "Cosy Irish Pub with the Peat Fire" scene can wear a bit thin. Sure, on our first night in Doolin we went to Gus O'Connor's Pub and were invited to drink cider out of a Gaelic Football trophy, but otherwise our pub experiences had been on the dry and boring side. Not that a small town Irish pub is the place to go when you're looking for a rip-roaring good time -- they're supposed to be kind of quiet and living-roomy, owing to their original function as sort of a communal living room. In general, the pubs we happened to visit seemed to cater mostly to pensioners and tourists from America, which got old.

Westport struck us right away as livelier than the other places we'd been -- no surprise, since it is the largest town we've been to for any length of time. Greg and I decided to go to a non-pub bar-type establishment that was hosting a local classic rock cover band, "Jagged Rocks" or "Jagged Stones" or something like that. The place was full of Irish locals our own age and the band was pretty darn good. Although it wasn't traditional Ireland, it was probably the most accurately Irish place we visited.

Clifden to Westport

Last evening in Clifden, after our quick spin around the Sky Road west of town, we made ourselves some spaghetti in the hostel kitchen. Joining us in the dining area / lounge were a half-dozen members of a mild-mannered Dutch motorcycle club who were making a moto-trip through Ireland. (Nothing like those Danish motorcycle gangs, who have been known to employ rocket launchers in their feuds with other gangs.) Greg and I privately dubbed this group "Motosauce Hollandaise."

We also went across the street to Mannion's Pub and attempted to play pool on the tiny little snooker table they had there, with the tiny little yellow and red balls, sans numbers. I wish I knew the rules of snooker. A very brightly-lit place. At about 9:30 some musicians came in, but it was clear that they would be amplifying their performance so we skedaddled back home and went to bed. Greg later reported that he could hear some amplified off-key crooning wafting across the street and into our hostel dorm room. I was apparently asleep during this time.

This morning we decided to abandon the protein-rich Full Irish Breakfast (sausage, bacon, eggs, and baked beans) that we had been eating on a daily basis, opting instead for carbohydrates in the form of danishes for Greg and bread and Nutella for me. I didn't notice a big difference in energy level during our ride today, but Greg said the new breakfast made a big difference for him. But then again I have substantial fat stores on which to draw during vigorous exercise, while Greg has 3% body fat and therefore must either burn what he eats or else he burns his muscles. So nutrition is a bigger issue for him than me.

Today's ride from Clifden to Westport was probably tops in terms of scenic beauty and remoteness. The weather was off and on misty, but we avoided a complete drenching. Our route took us from Clifden to Letterfrack, then off the main road to Tully Cross, past Lough Fee and then the Killary Fjord (Ireland's only fjord) to Lenane (site of filming for the 1989 film "The Field"), thence up the road a piece to Aasleigh Falls and back around the northern side of Killary Fjord for a few kilometers. The road turned north at this point toward Delphi; just past here, at the foot of Doo Lough (Dark Lake), we turned right onto a narrow paved path, barely 12 feet wide. This route took us up through a remote, high-walled valley with a steep climb over a ridge before we zoomed down into Drummin, Liscarney, and and finally Westport, a lively County Mayo city where we'll spend the night tonight at the Old Mill Hostel.

Motorcoach to Clifden

Today we decided to dash north and west to Galway, the 'capital' of the Connemara region via bus. That will give us more time to explore this region and get back to Galway on Sunday to meet up with Helen. We took a bus from Kinvara up to Galway and then transferred buses, taking one west to Clifden, on the Coast.

Enjoyed a short but sunny afternoon spin on the Sky Road around a high peninsula west of Clifden. Electric green grass, blue ocean, grey rock walls, brown heather. Tonight we'll stay at the local hostel and try to check out some more music while we plan our route back east through the Connemara region to Galway. We may stay here another night and do a day circuit here locally and then head straight back East to Galway. Or, we might leave and take a big swing north toward County Mayo before returning to Galway.