Travel – Page 27 – Geeky Girl Engineer

Puffins

Posted on May 19, 2014 by geek

While at Reynisfjall, we hit the puffin jackpot. There were puffins flying around, presumably out to the water to catch fish. Some of them landed on the cliffs near us, and I got some great photos.

Puffin

Puffins

Three puffins

Five puffins

Puffin

While traveling east along the Ring Road on Day 4 in Iceland, we stopped to the west of Vik at Reynisfjall and Reynisdrangur. These are two spots right on the coast that offer spectacular views. The waves were crashing, a rainbow formed, and the view was gorgeous even without that drama. Also there are basalt columns which are just amazing.

Reynisdrangur basalt columns

Reynisdrangur beach

view of Reynisfjall from Reynisdrangur

view of Reynisdrangur from Reynisfjall

Reynisfjall beach

Reynisfjall view of rock outcrops

Reynisfjall view of bay

Rainbow to Reynisdrangur

Wave crashing at Reynisfjall

Skogafoss

Posted on May 19, 2014 by geek

Day 4 in Iceland had us traveling east. We stopped at Skogafoss, which is another must see waterfall in Iceland. Iceland is an island full of waterfalls. Seriously, you can’t go 10 minutes without seeing one. However Skogafoss is beautiful, and if you take the stairs to the top, you will be treated to magnificent views of the countryside. You can then hike past the waterfall viewing platform, where it follows the river that feeds it and reveals one waterfall after another. All of them are gorgeous. Lonely Planet refers to it as Waterfall Way. I don’t know if that is the official name, but it is certainly an apt name.

Skogafoss

View from top of Skogafoss

Waterfall Way

Eyrarbakki

Posted on May 19, 2014 by geek

Day 4 in Iceland. Today we left the little village of Eyrarbakki, where we had been renting a house, and traveled eastward along the Ring Road. I thought Eyrarbakki was such a cute village, that I decided just to post a few photos of it. It is a small little village right on the coast that evidently is a very old village that used to be an important fishing area.

Eyrarbakki

The church

A little museum

One of the houses

Cute little houses

Right on the coast

Bruarfoss

Posted on May 17, 2014 by geek

While visiting the Golden Triangle, we visited a second waterfall besides Gullfoss. Bruarfoss is a waterfall that my sister found out about through lots of researching on Iceland. It is kind of hidden, and it was not that easy to find. It is between Geysir and Þingvellir Park, just east of 355. You have to go into a summer house neighborhood to get there. You have to earn the waterfall, you might say, but it is totally worth it. The blue of the water is just beautiful.

Edited to add: Due to inquires, the following is best way I can describe how to get there. Take 37 northeast until you pass 355. Right after 355, look to your left (north), and you will see a neighborhood of summer homes. In May 2014, the first two turnoffs (i.e. closest to 355) into that summer home neighborhood had gates. The third did not. Thus after you pass 355, take the third left into the neighborhood. The roads were poorly marked in the neighborhood, but basically follow the road you took in past most of the houses to the back of the neighborhood, there was a very small turnoff to the left with enough room for about two cars to park. The turnoff was not at the end of the road, and it was not marked, but it was at the edge of a grassy area with no houses. There was short foot trail to a creek. At this location on the creek, there was a short foot bridge. My camera recorded the GPS coordinates of this foot bridge as Latitude: 64° 15′ 48.372″ N, Longitude: 20° 30′ 34.308″ W. Cross this bridge and follow the trail to a larger foot bridge that overlooks Bruarfoss whose GPS coordinates are Latitude: 64° 15′ 51.282″ N, Longitude: 20° 30′ 53.322″ W.

Bruarfoss

Bruarfoss pool

Bruarfoss outfall

Bruarfoss downstream

Bruarfoss water

Gullfoss

Posted on May 16, 2014 by geek

During the Golden Triangle visit, we of course visited Gullfoss. Gullfoss is an absolutely stunning waterfall. It is well worth the visit.

View of entire Gullfoss falls

Gullfoss, some of the highest falls

Gullfoss, middle section

Gullfoss canyon formed at end

Rainbow formed from Gullfoss

Geysir

Posted on May 16, 2014 by geek

Day 3 in Iceland. We did the Golden Triangle today. I’ve decided to post photos separately because there are just too many. Iceland is just amazing and amazingly beautiful. So first post today are from Geysir. Geysir, the original geyser from which all other geysers are named, actually rarely erupts. However, there are several other geysers and hot spots near it, and Strokkur does erupt quite frequently.

Geysir

Strokkur

Strokkur starting to erupt

Strokkur erupting

Strokkur flow deposits

Blesi

Fata

Fata water edge

Heimaey, Iceland

Posted on May 15, 2014 by geek

Day 2 in Iceland. We drove to Landeyjaharbour to catch the ferry to Heimaey. Generally tourists, including us, go to Heimaey to try to see puffins. Unfortunately we seemed to have visited the island too early in the season. We took a cruise around the island but didn’t see any puffins. However the island is beautiful, and the terrain is impressive, all of which is a result of the volcanic origin of the island. On the south side of the island, the effects of the 1973 volcanic eruption are evident. I am disappointed not to have seen puffins, but at least we did see gulls, guillemots, and eiders. Also, our cruise featured a trip into a cave where our captain played the saxophone to demonstrate the cave’s acoustical properties.

We walked around the town a little and had lunch a neat little coffee shop called Vinaminni Kaffihus, which is next to Arnor Bakari, and now I feel like I am gaining the ability to read Icelandic. On the ferry back, we were accompanied by I think almost the entire town. They were going to support the town’s school’s handball team which was evidently playing in the national championships or something like that. The entire ferry was decked out in support of the team, and there were eight buses waiting for the them on the mainland. We briefly discussed that since the entire town seemed to have left the island, that we could invade and take possession of the island like modern day pirates. However, we had no idea what to do with the island, and Icelanders are so nice, we didn’t want to do that to them. We decided just to go to Reykavik for dinner instead.

Island near Heimaey

Heimaey islands

Cave on Heimaey, in which our captain played a saxophone to demonstrate the acoustical properties

Heimaey shore

Heimaey harbor

Colorful ships in port

Street sign. Puffins everywhere.

Eiders

Gulls and Guillemots

sea urchins

Blue Lagoon

Posted on May 14, 2014 by geek

Day 1 in Iceland. I think I got about 20 minutes sleep on the plane. We drove to the western edge of the Reykjanes Peninsula to see the lighthouses in Garður. Then it was on to Iceland’s most visited tourist attraction the Blue Lagoon. Some genius turned what was a pool formed by wastewater from a geothermal power plant into a rather expensive, somewhat posh hot pot to which all tourists flock. It is really cool though. The water color is this gorgeous, cloudy sky blue. Also, they give excellent massages while you lay on a float in the lagoon. When you’ve been on a plane for six hours with no sleep, walking around a wonderfully heated pool and then getting a massage is quite frankly, a great cure for your exhaustion. Walking around the lagoon is great exfoliation for your feet, and they have buckets of silica from the lagoon to rub on your face for a facial. From a geology standpoint, the pool is really neat because you can walk through micro heat spots, not to mention to entire heated by geothermal heat thing. In some areas the pool is warm and in some areas, the pool is hot. The lagoon was also a great place for me to play with my new GoPro camera, which can be used underwater.

The area around the lagoon is bizarrely pretty. It is dark craggily, sharp volcanic rock that is covered with this lush, soft in appearance, green plant. I am guess the green is actually lichen or a moss, but I need someone to educate me on what it actually it.

Power plant which caused the Blue Lagoon to form

Blue Lagoon

Bridge over Blue Lagoon

I’d be curious to know if this bridge is ever not slippery

Not often you see a lifeguard dressed like that

Rock edge of Blue Lagoon

Precipitate on rocks

Surrounding terrain

Lichen? Moss? It covers the volcanic rock

Master Bathroom Floor Tiled

Posted on March 17, 2014 by geek

I spent the weekend tiling the master bathroom. I got off to a late start Saturday, partially due to wet saw odyssey. However, Saturday, I got all the tiled laid out and cut the majority of tile that needed to be cut. I have never used a wet saw before, so I decided to cut the tile beforehand because I wasn’t sure how it would go. I was particularly concerned about cutting the tile near the toilet supply pipe and drain pipe. Then Sunday, I cut the rest of the tile and then did the actual mortaring the tile into place. I didn’t finish until early Sunday evening. I learned quite a few things during this experience.

Arranging and cutting the tile beforehand was a good decision. By arranging everything in advance, I was then able to make the measurements to cut the tile properly. Cutting the tile beforehand saved me critical time in laying the tile before the mortar set.
Laying tile on top of radiant heating mats makes the task that much more difficult. It is not incredibly difficult, but a plastic trowel is essential, so the trowel doesn’t cut through the wire. A thicker layer of mortar is necessary, and getting the correct thickness is tricky. Also, it makes leveling the tile more difficult, especially when some of the tile overlays the radiant heat, but some does not.
In my opinion, laying tile on the floor is more difficult than on the wall because you have to keep moving your location. Also it is horrible on the knees, back, and lower legs.
As long as I worked by continuously moving back towards the door, one row at a time, I was able to keep the tile evenly spaced and in line. I started at the back of the water closet, and then worked backwards into the main bathroom. At the end I encountered an issue because after I got to the end of the tub, I needed to start at the end of the aisle that leads to the wall cabinet that will sit next to the tub. Because I kept removing two rows at a time to keep a continuous layer of mortar, I had trouble keeping these tile exactly in line with the tiles down the main aisle. There was a small discrepancy where the two areas met where the grout line will be slightly thicker than the rest of the grout lines. Hopefully no one will notice but me. Problem was the mortar had already set at the back of that small area, so I couldn’t move the tile to make it fit. In hindsight, I should have marked the wall or something, so I would have known exactly where to lay the tile in that small area.
When the mortar directions say it has a 20-30 minute working time, it really does. You don’t get more.
Since I laid the tile out in advance, I then had to walk across many of them while working. At least three broke while I worked. The tile is 12 x12 inch marble tile, and many have a lot of veining. Those that broke, broke on veins. While they are clearly fragile, I do not know if it they would have broken after having been set on mortar and allowed to set. Thus, was their breaking before laid, a good or bad thing?
As stated, I am using marble tile. The tile is green, gray, and white. One of the reasons, I laid the tile in advance was so that I could lay the prettiest and greenest tile in the highest visibility areas. This was a good decision.
Keep a small, preferably disposable, bowl with some water and a rag near you to clean up potential excess mortar that comes up between tiles when pressing down a tile to level it.
I need a new or better, or probably both, power drill. I bought a mixer attachment for my power drill to mix the mortar. When I tried to use it, it didn’t work all that well, and the drill started smoking a little. I ended up using the trowel to do most of the mixing, especially to get the powder out of the bottom corner.
I am not as young as I used to be, and my knees, back, and lower legs are rather upset with me at the moment.
Ferdinand the basset hound is rather underfoot. Okay, I knew that beforehand, but he really confirmed it today.
Ferdinand can sleep within 15 feet of an operating wet saw. No, he is not deaf as he can hear a plastic bag holding sandwich bread being opened across the house. [I always give him a piece of the bread loaf ends.]
Floor tile laid