Pool Day in France and Reflections of Iceland

As we got in quite late the day before and had to establish ourselves in Continental Europe, we took it easy on our first day in France. We started out by going to a massive grocery store about 10 minutes away. It was the size of a Walmart and took us quite some time to get through (and was a little overwhelming) after a month of smaller Icelandic grocery stores.

We spent the day in the backyard pool (what a thing to have 80 plus degree temps and sun after a month in Iceland) and Ezra and Naomi connected with the kids who lived in the main part of the house upstairs in multiple foosball matches. This also gave us some time to plan out our week more clearly!

In addition, here are a group of final thoughts related to our time in Iceland:

-You can’t drive very fast in Iceland. Even on the ring road, which is pretty much a highway, the highest speed limit is 90 kmh, which is equivalent to 55mph.

-There are also no police issuing speeding tickets in Iceland. There are speed cameras all over the country and you get speeding tickets in the mail. This is a wonderful system as it frees police up to do more important police work on actual crimes. Even more importantly, it places a major limit on potential racial profiling and other problematic in person police interactions at traffic stops. Imagine how many fewer beatings, shootings, and instances of discrimination there would be by law enforcement if there were no traffic stops!

-Icelandic hot dogs are tasty and the only affordable option for food in the country. They are also available everywhere, including gas stations.

-I love all the black buildings in Iceland. Like, all black. They are beautiful. Traditionally they used this color for several reasons, including the fact that it matches the volcanic soil of the country, absorbs heat, and black tar protects wooden structures from the harsh weather elements.

-You must know the rules for Icelandic roundabouts. Many are two lanes and the inside lane ALWAYS has the right of way. Think about that for a minute and imagine how many people could be cut off or involved in accidents.

-Icelandic culture is not one of late nights. Even though the summers basically provide 24/7 light, businesses still close quite early. Maybe it is just the culture, or maybe there is so much darkness the rest of the year that they just don’t adjust in the summer. I had assumed that in the Icelandic summer, much like in Spain and Italy, dinner and post-dinner events would just be skewed a bit later.

-There are so many small single lane bridges (Einbried Bru) in Iceland. The first car up has right of way. We never had an issue with it. As most of you know from reading the blog, we also now have had multiple experiences with single lane tunnels (Einbried Gong).

-We described Iceland as “the beginning of time, but with grocery stores and the internet.”

-Everything in Iceland, even parking lots in remote places, is paid for by credit card. We did not use cash even once the entire time we were in country!

-In honor of Iceland, Ezra changed the phrase “up your butt and around the corner” to “up your fissure and around your two tectonic plates!”

-Ezra says he has now graduated from being a feral yard child to being a feral world child.

-Glaciers have their own weather systems. No, really. You will be driving toward a glacier, but once you actually get right upon it, there are usually far more clouds and a 10-20 degree temperature drop. They are massive in size and actually do change the weather around them.

-The “frunk juice” mentioned in the previous post are just 2-liter water bottles we filled each morning and stored in the frunk (front trunk) of the Tesla. We called them frunk juice. They came in handy as there weren’t many spots to refill your water bottles out in the middle of nowhere.

-The eastern side of the country was quite a bit warmer than the rest…and much greener. We haven’t looked into and don’t know why.

-Besides the frunk juice, our other greatest hack was washing out our emptied large yogurt containers and using them to pack leftovers for meals on the road each day. We brought along a metal spork for each of us as well and the system worked brilliantly. We will continue with it in other countries.

-It is amazing and eerie and beautiful to see the amount of moss covering the lava fields all over the country (and I mean covering it!) It is several inches thick in many areas. The moss is a vital part of the ecosystem as it breaks down the lava rock, creating nutrient rich soil. Iceland is very protective of the moss and asks you not to step on it. Disrupted moss takes 70 years to regenerate fully!

-We went to all 7 regions of Iceland! I highly recommend it if you can. It was cool to notice the differences and experience the awe and beauty of each of them.

-On Iceland Air, they have a number of promotional videos for Icelandic tourism available. They were fun to watch. The best of them (Ezra loved it and we have watched it many times) is this one!

See you on the next mountain!

July 26, 2025 – Total Steps 4,477 (Mostly Flat)