Trip Summary :
London:
Accommodation : It was my first time staying in an airbnb and I would say it was a good deal and experience. We had the entire unit to ourselves and it was a home away from home. The airbnb were clean and well kept and the plus point is we can do our laundry in the comfort of the accomodation without the need to venture out.
Food : All the restaurants recommended by my son were good. I especially loved the lobster. The London duck served in Fortune Cookie restuarant was value for money and was delicious. It was great being able to find Cantonese/Chinese/Singapore food in London. The pastries are very good here, even if they were from the Deli corner in the supermart. My guess would be because they were originated from here. Ate a lot of almond and maple pecan pastries during my stay here. And the price is a steal. One need not pay the price of pastries with the standard of hotel. Vegetables like brocolli ad white button mushrooms are cheaper than Singapore, probably because they are local produces.
Attractions: Visited most of the major attractions including Buckingham Palace and Tower Bridge and Westminster is a beautiful place. There are many churches in London of all shapes and sizes and I love and am impressed by the different designs and architectures.
Transportation : Tubes are abundant which made travelling very easy. I am just surprised at some of the older stations that were so hot without good ventaliation and with only 2 huge lifts as people mover. There were no stairs at all.
Others: London is a little dirty, compared to Singapore. Many bags of rubbish were lying along the streets for days. But on the other hand, it was very much like Singapore because of its right hand drive. I felt so at home when travelling in UBER or when hubby drove. A very busy city like Singapore!
Cornwall: A quiet, laidback and countryside town to relax in a beautiful airbnb. Not many attractions and most can be covered in a few days. The airbnb we stayed in Newlyn is so cosy and homely.
Iceland: Land of fire and ice with countless waterfalls, hugemonous glaciers, volcanoes, craters, boiling mud pools and hot springs and spectular geysir. Daylight in Summer was abundant with about 20hrs. The sun never sets! Temperature hovers around 10-12C at the south and below 10C in the North. Sparsely populated, most people you meet are actually tourists! It is certainly not a place to live in Winter! No wonder the population is so thin.
Accommodation : Arranged by the travel agent. Most are tourist class or hostel turned hotel. Certainly not the best choices. The only good one was Liti Geysir.
Food : Super expensive. About 4-5 times the cost of Singapore! Most lunches we took were home made sandwiches. There are many Thai restaurants here, surprisingly. Breakfast provided by most hotels were basic western fare. Food items sold in supermarkets are also expensive.
Facilities: Restrooms should be set up in the stretch of highway 1 from Hofn to Lake Myant via East Fjords. The stretch was so remote and deserted and long without a single restroom! And the pentiful restrooms at Dettifoss were very terrible beyond description. Most restrooms are free except the one at pingveiller National Park. Credit cards are used to pay for that.
Attractions: All the natural attractions (glacier, towering mountains & volcanoes, mud pools, hot springs, waterfalls, craters, lakes created by God are so beautiful!
Itinerary:
Day 1 - Breakfast at Krisflyer Gold Lounge T3 -> Flight to London -> Windsor Castle -> Check in Bath airbnb -> Dinner at Red Lion
Day 2 - Mcdonald's Breakfast -> Bath Town Centre -> Burger King's Lunch -> Stonehenge -> Drove to Newlyn, Cornwall -> Checkin airbnb -> Dinner at Red Lion
Day 3 - Breakfast -> St Ives, Cornwall -> Coffee/Tea at Beach cafe Bar -> Church service at Fore Street Methodist Church St Ives -> Lunch at Hub -> St Pandennis Castle -> Kenyance Cove -> Lizard Point -> Newlyn Town Centre -> cook Dinner
Day 4 - Cook breakfast -> Merry Maidens -> Minack Theatre -> Land's ends -> Lunch at Mackerel Sky Seafood Bar,Newlyn -> St Michael's Mount -> Cook Dinner
Day 5 - Newlyn at dawn -> Cook breakfast -> check out -> Lunch at Lock Inn -> Bradford on Avon -> Check in to West Ashton bnb -> Castle Combe -> Lacock Village -> Cook Dinner
Day 6 - Cook breakfast -> Somerset Lavender Farm -> Drove to London -> Vietnamese Lunch at Banh Mi Bay, Holborn -> Uber to London airbnb at Swallow Court, Kensington -> Check in -> Dinner at Flat Iron , Beak St -> Oxford Street -> UBER to bnb -> Oxford Street
Day 7 - Cook breakfast -> King Cross Station Harry Potter 93/4 platform -> Borough Market -> Tower Bridge -> Tower of London -> Lunch at Burger & Lobster -> Museum of London -> St Paul Cathedral -> Harrods Department Store -> Hyde Park -> Dinner at New Fortune Cookie Chinese Restaurant
Day 8 - Cook breakfast -> Portobello Road Market -> Papa John's Pizza Lunch -> Convocation at London School Economics -> Dinner at Hare & Tortoise -> Watch Wicked at Apollo Victoria Theatre
Day 9 - Cook breakfast -> Covent Garden -> St Paul's church -> Trafalgar Square -> The Athenaeum -> St James Palace -> Buckingham Palace -> St James Park -> House Guards Parade -> Big Ben -> Westminster Abbey -> House of Parliament -> Lunch at Giotto Italian -> Chinatown -> Piccadilly circus -> Little Venice -> Dinner at New Fortune Cookie Chinese Restaurant
Day 10 - Cook breakfast - > Checkout bnb -> Travel to Gatwick Airport -> Fly to Iceland -> Arrive in Reykjavík -> Check in 22 Hill Hotel -> 22 hill Hotel Review -> Dinner at Ban Thai -> Hallgrímskirkja Church -> Laugavegur: The Main Shopping Street
Day 11 - Breakfast -> Pick up rental car -> Seljalandsfoss, a walk behind the falls -> Gljúfrabúi Waterfall -> Lunch fish & chip -> Skógafoss -> Mýrdalsjökull Glacier -> Vik -> Black Beach -> Check in cottage at Hótel Eyjafjallajökul
Day 12 - Breakfast -> Check out -> Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon -> Mt Lómagnúpur -> Destroyed Bridge, Skeidararsandur -> Skeiðará -> hiking trail to Svartifoss -> Lunch fish & chip -> Fjallsárlón Glacier Lagoon -> Jökulsarlón Glacial Lagoon -> Check in Guesthouse Hvammur, Hofn
Day 13 - Breakfast -> Check out -> East Fjords -> Dettifoss -> Selfoss -> Lunch Sandwiches -> Námaskarð Pass, where boiling mud pools -> Lake Mývatn -> Dimmuborgir, the "Dark Castles" -> Hverfjall Crater -> Pizza Dinner at Dalakofinn Laugum -> Check in Hótel Edda Stórutjarnir
Day 14 - Breakfast -> Goðafoss -> Akureyri City -> Ólafsfjörður -> Siglufjörður -> Hofsos -> Skagafjordur -> Víðimýri church -> Glaumbæjarkirkja -> Glaumbær Folk Museum -> Check in Hótel Mikligarður -> Dinner at Hard Wok Cafe
Day 15 - Breakfast -> Icelandic Seal Center at Hvammstangi town -> Hraunfossar and Barnafossar Waterfalls -> Deildartunguhver hot spring -> Check in Hótel Litli Geysir -> Gullfoss -> Great Geysir and Strokkur ->Dinner at cafe at Geysir Centre
Day 16 - Golfoss again -> Breakfast -> Faxi Waterfall -> volcanic crater Kerið -> -> Þingvellir National Park -> Reykjavík -> Check in 22 Hill Hótel -> Lunch at Noodle Station -> Reykjavík-> Dinner at Krua Thai Restaurant
Day 17 - Flybus to Keflavik International Airport -> Fly to Gatwick, London -> Lunch at Clerk & Well -> Check in Leonardo Heathrow -> Dinner at Hotel
Day 18 - Fly to Singapore -> Home Sweet Home
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