Iceland Notes and Motes

Of course the real reason for our trip was the Corrie Street tour (see entries below) in Manchester UK.  We bought the tour tickets (cheap) last spring when the tours were announced just on the off chance that we would have enough points for a freebie business class (bad backs) flight over a long weekend.  We didn’t and we were wanting to save the points we did have for our next big trip (looking like Southeast Asia) so I spent a few minutes searching for a cheap flight Toronto-Manchester direct and came up with Icelandair at $711 (all-in).

Photos of the Iceland bit of the trip can be found HERE.

Icelandair also had two interesting features to their flights.  Free stopovers of up to seven nights and an auction system (which we have not seen elsewhere) that allows you to put in a standing bid for any upgrades with the airline then notifying you of whether you have won or lost business class seats a few days before your flight.

I bid $150 each and, hey, presto we got business class seating on every segment and full business class treatment (food the only difference) on the Reykjavik-Manchester-Reykjavik segments.

We truly were accidental tourists so didn’t have any real plans though Geri wanted to get to the seriously active volcano while we were there.  In the end we couldn’t as the amount of sulphur dioxide it was putting out meant airpacks for anyone within a couple of thousand metres.  

Still, the town was fun and the 5 days we were there was about perfect.  We’ll likely be back too as we were/are quite impressed with Icelandair and would almost certainly use them to get to Europe when we’re pointless (so to speak J).

Random thoughts and musings:

1. The drive in from the airport is over a huge lava field about 1000 years old and so pretty desolate.  You can appreciate the beauty of it after a while.
2.   Only native tress a kind of birch that is really not much more than a shrub.
3.   Lot and lots and lots of moss on the rock.
4.   Only native fauna worth mentioning are arctic foxes.  Everything else imported.
5.   I did not have my BlackBerry and missed it greatly.
6. Homes in the lava field have raised boxes full of trucked-in earth as gardens.
7. The stuff very rough.  Must be hell to try and walk it.
8. Dirt roads scrapped into the lava are blacker than asphalt.  And beaches all black sand.   Reminded us of Nicaraguan beaches – also volcanic.
9. The only lineups we saw the whole trip were at the airport and at hot dog stands.  The hot dog culture a little odd.  Real frankfurters though, so worth the wait.
10. The Blue Lagoon very touristy but worth a visit and very pleasant.
11. Heating here by hot geothermal water.  Virtually free.  Electricity also geothermal-=generated and cheap.
12. Home heating is a total-loss system (water goes in at 85 degrees, heats house and then goes off to do something else at around 30 degrees.  So owners use hose and tap into heating system to clear snow and ice from driveways etc.
13. While we couldn’t get to any of the really active volcanoes in person this trip we did go to a couple of film presentations.  One at a funky little place in an attic over an old fish cleaning plant that has been turned into a tourist attraction in the old harbour area.  Fun as much for where we were as what we were seeing, plus I managed a nice nap too.  :-)
14.   The Frederikson Ale House down near the harbour was our local for the trip.  The folks who work there were all really, really nice and they had a reasonable selection (given our short visit) of beers.  Even a decent stout.  Ate there once and very good fresh fish and chips with “socialism sauce”.
15.   Beer only legal here since 1989.   Brewers here do a good job of catching up.  :-) Especially Einstock.
16.   Happy hours very big here.  VERY.
17.   Got to watch a couple of Icelandic films on the flights, plus The Grand Budapest Hotel.  The Icelandic film very Scandinavian – only more so.  And full of fish(ing) metaphors.
18.   Everybody takes credit or debit cards and cash a bit frowned on.  Hot dog stands and street vendors included.
19.   There is not a single McDonald’s in Iceland.  Despite their apparent enthusiasm for their own varieties of fast food.
20.   The Salvation Army runs a backpackers hostel, not a shelter.  Pretty impressive social benefits here.
21.   Look for photos of the corrugated siding on older buildings.
22.   With heating virtually free people leave doors and windows open even on chilly evenings.
23.   Icelanders are water wastrels.  Water bubbles-up everywhere, sometimes hot, sometimes not.  Lots of lakes with large rivers flowing out but nothing visible going in.
24.   Iceland the opposite of California.  Here the tectonic plates are moving apart and then the gaps being filled-in by lava.
25.   At one point on a geotour we drove from the European plate to the American plate.
26.   Lava from a volcano will follow river beds leading to some spectacular sights.
27. The geysers and hot springs we saw lots of fun, very impressive.
28.   Swimming lessons are mandatory by law.  Can you guess this is a fishing culture?
29.   Schooling/daycare starts at 2 years.  Daycare fees but free or dirt cheap by our standards through uni.
30.   All schools, even in tiny villages, have hot pools.  Dig a fencepost and you have a hot spring.
31.   Headstones are decorated with lights for Christmas. 
32.   Hot water-heated greenhouses now provided 50% of their fruits and veg.  Bananas and grapes even.
33.   Hot water lines coming into the city are on the surface (at least partly due to the difficulty of trenching lava).  Are on wheeled trolleys so that in earthquakes they can move and not break.
34.   There are a LOT of earthquakes.
35.   Gullfoss (gold falls) waterfall very pretty.  Explanatory signs compare it to Niagara Falls “in the United States.”  :-)
36.   Huge muni library.
37.   Almost as big as the factory trawlers offloading fish already cleaned and packaged and frozen.
38.   Overall very expensive place since the 2008 meltdown.  Mostly imported items driving inflation, but an island in the middle of the North Atlantic with a population of 325,000 imports a lot.
39.   The hop-on, hop-off buses here the first and only disappointment we’ve with them.  Didn’t help much in figuring things out.  City small enough not needed I think.
40.   Police unarmed.
41.   No trained seal ‘have a nice day’ from servers etc.  But some real conversations, some of them taking a minute or more.  Friendly, small-town feel.
42.   Our photos include some of the southern tip of Greenland on the flight home.  Wow.
43.   Icelandic films not for anyone but the interminable cheery who are looking for a downer.  A danger to all others.  But fab especially when you consider the size of the country.  While most speak English their culture benefits from not having the same first language as Hollywood.
44.   Made the Phalleogical (i.e. penis) Museum almost literally on our way to the airport.  Just popped-in the front door for some photos in the gift shop.  At least I can prove it exists.  :-)
45.   I bought two ab-fab hats as sounvenirs.  Pretty snappy, see photos of.

Check here again in a couple of years and you’ll see another e-postcard as we fully intend to go back.

Manchester's People's History Museum

Lovely place, quite impressive really.  And a more than decent cafe on the main floor (inevitably named The Left Bank).

The Chartist etc. bit triggered memories of long ago English history classes.  The more recent displays a bit depressing in that I lived through and can remember many of them (even participated, in a small way, as with the Miners Strike).  Next thing you know I will wake up to find myself stuffed and in a display case.

Lots of hands-on things for kids.

I LOVED the union banners on display.  Just wish there were more.  Nobody does a good banner like the British.

The only down side to the place is that it pretty much killed the day for us, especially as we (yet again) did not bring one of our little folding stools for Geri and her back started to go after a couple of hours.

With a bit of luck and a shitload of money the Workers Heritage Centre in Hamilton will be like this in 50 years or so.

After we made off to Mr. Thomas' Chop House, a very nicely maintained Victorian pub turned slightly trendy restaurant.  Food fab (picture a 21st century take on corned beef hash) and a couple of pints of Black Sheep.

Photos of the museum HERE and of the walking we did before and after and of Mr. Thomas' HERE.  But best of all, shots of a couple of nice oddities in the men's and women's WCs at the museum HERE.

G and D on the Street!

Geri and I have both been fans of Coronation Street for decades.  Fans since before we became fans of each other, so to speak.

Before the show went to the 5-days-a-week schedule tours were offered by the studio and we were planning on using up some of our Aeroplan points to fly over and take it, make a cheap fun weekend out of it.

But in 1999 the schedule was bumped-up and the tours stopped as the set had no down time.

This past spring however, they resumed as the old set was abandoned for a brand new one across town.  There won’t be any tours of the new set either (for the same reason) but for a limited time there would be tours of the old one before it as torn down to make way for housing.

So we decided to give it some thought.  Pending a conclusion we booked our tickets for what was announced as the last day for tours, 4 October.

In the end we couldn’t resist and while we didn’t have the points for business class seats (needed because of back problems) we did manage to find cheap seats on Icelandair with the added benefit of a possible stopover at no extra cost on the way back.  We were quite impressed with the airline.  Not least because they run an online auction for available seat upgrades and we got biz class seats for the Keflavik-Manchester-Keflavik segments.  The bits into and out of Toronto not, but not too terrible as there was a stop in Iceland long enough for some stretching and because we paid for ‘comfort class’ (economy seats but with the centre seat covered with a tray and somewhat more legroom, what  Lufthansa tries to pass-off as its business class) and the flight is only about 4 hours.

So, for a mere $30 or so plus airfare we got to spend 2 hours playing on the old set.  Which I think works out to about $25 per minute if you take the estimated cost of our trip as a whole and divide it by 120.  :-)

Anyway, here’s the lowdown on the tour:

1.          The tour crowd was 40 in number with a new group going through every 10 minutes from 0800 to 2230 every day.  Even with breaks for the guides still over 20,000 through each weekend day.  Many fewer on weekdays I would expect.

2.          75% women, broad age range.

3.          One in our group doing a Bet Lynch imitation, another dressed as Hilda Ogden.

4.          Overall much more fun than the Tower of Buckingham Palace I must say.  :-)

5.          Real royalty too: Reg Holdsworth put in an appearance in a bright pink jacket.  Geri asked him if the jacket put him in character and he replied “Yes, along with the matching underwear.”  He was quite the sport and must have stood for hours for photos, autographs and was quite chatty.

6.          The indoor behind the scenes stuff was mildly interesting.  No photos allowed there or on the indoor sets except for the tour-does-you-pay shots of tourists at the bar on the Rover’s set.

7.          Green room, dressing rooms, make-up room, interior sets of various houses along the Street all on the tour.

8.          The costumes kinda fun.  They have an archive of old clothing for each continuing character.

9.          Bit of an explanation of where they shop for costumes for each of the characters, who buys their own etc.

10.    Quite the collection of wedding dresses too.

11.    Apparently the actor who plays Norris falls asleep every time he is having his makeup done.

12.    Small theatre with video of highlights of the show over the past 60+ years.  A lot of beer has been wasted over the years by being thrown at or poured over characters.  :-)

13.    People on the tour found the theatre got rather dusty now and then during the sad bits.  A couple behind me we quite sad after the Haley retrospective.

14.    Bit of a history of Liz’s boobs too.  And yet she still denies having had enhancement surgery done. :-)

15.    Some uncaught bloopers that made it to air.  Kinda fun.  Sets and equipment exposed, that sort of thing.

16.    Display of props.

17.    Only two coffins every used in the 148 funerals on the show.  One for 146.

18.    Diedre’s glasses collection.  :-)

19.    102 weddings, all dresses kept.

20.    The Rover’s interior much more realistic than I had expected.  Photos of Geri pulling me a pint and of me along behind the bar are amongst out photos (see end of this postcard for the link to them all).

21.    Horror expressed by all that Betty’s hotpot was bought at the local Tesco’s and often eaten cold by the actors if many takes required.

22.    Roy’s train set was on display.

23.    The Jack and Vera was fun and includes their urns

24.    Hilda’s hair rollers and the Sharpes hairnet there too.

25.    Outdoors was the best bit other than the Rover’s interior set.  See our photos.  Some of the fans used their access to photo or video their re-enactments of various famous scenes (there was a lineup at one point as a bunch of women took turns being photographed lying where Tina did after she was pushed.

26.    Yes, yes, I did one.  See the photo and guess. :-)

27.    The tour is so popular (see the numbers above) that it has been extended to the end of October and permission from the Council to keep it going for the rest of the year has been applied-for.

28.    #corrietour is the officially-encouraged hashtag.

29.    See our photo HERE.  They say a great deal more about how much fun it was than anything I could write.

Settled in Manchester

So, settled with our hosts, Geri’s friend Anne and husband Roy, in Manchester. 

Love Icelandair and am thinking that at their prices even with no stay over in Iceland they might come in handy after I retire and our source of aeroplane points disappears.  We were upgraded at the airport to business class for the Toronto-Keflavik segment.  All for $200 less than Air Transat and about $350 less than Air Canada.

Very friendly folks in the airport in Iceland, hoping that carries on outside the doors when we get back there on Monday.

British border officer not only a Corrie fan but says as most of the cast live in or near Manchester she sees them regularly returning from holidays and tours.  Didn’t even blink an eye when we told her we were entering the UK for three days to visit the set before it is torn down.

That’s the old set.  Rumour here has it the new set on the edge of town may be open or opening soon for tours.

Not much to report.  I am watching an episode of allo Allo (HA!) and doing this while people fuss about various things.  Dinner her and then a pub.

Tomorrow is the big day as our tour tickets get us onto the set at 14:40.  I had thought later, closer to midnight when it closes for demolition.  Was thinking that the closer to closing the more cast and producers would be around (a least one of each supposed to be there all day for speeches and photo ops).  Would have enhanced my chances of being discovered and getting a role, even if just a walk-on.  Was thinking I could pitch a mysterious character who follows Ken home from his extended trip to Canada. Lurking in the Rover’s with a pint in every episode would be perfect for me.  Uses my skills too. :-)

No photos yet as I see to have charged all our camera batteries but neglected to return them to the camera case.  My obsession with only buying cameras that use AA batteries pays off finally as I just need to buy a set or two on the way to the pub tonight after dinner and I can take another of my obssesive-compulsive behaviours out for an airing and shoot lots of photos for uploading tomorrow morning.

More later, inevitable.  :-)