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31.12.2012 15:35

Christmasholiday

We spent our vacation with my family in Austria. After a good trip via Salzburg we had a very good time in Vienna. As we had promised Hjördís to go to the Christmasmarkets and allow her to make a candle, we spent most of Sunday, 23rd of December, walking over different markets in heavy rain. Hjördís made a beautiful candle, which she proudly wrapped in a lot of paper to make sure it would survive the trip home. On 24th we got a few last minute presents and spent the evening at my brother's place. Under the Christmastree there waited a huge pile of presents to be opened. The kids of course loved doing that and it was so nice to watch them and be happy for them. 25th was another familymeeting. We went out to have delicious lunch together, but in the end my brother was so unlucky that Philip punched his eye accidentally and he had to go to hospital to let it check. In the meantime we went to my grandma's place and enjoyed some sparkling wine and good talks. After lunch on 26th we went to one more Christmasmarket, that was still open. We were accompanied by Kristina, Philip and Anna. First we took a walk through the Emperor's park in Schönbrunn, had a look at beautiful ducks and then strolled over the market. Soooo many things to see and discover. Think the toys were Hjördís' favourites as you were allowed to try them out. Afterwards we took the underground to the centre of Vienna and had a very good walk over Kärtnerstraße, Stephansplatz, Graben and Kohlmarkt. We enjoyed the wonderful lights and the good weather. 27th we spent mostly in shops and on 28th my family decided to celebrate my upcoming birthday. 29th it was time to say Goodbye, which was hard as usual, but it is good to look forward to meeting again ;)
We thought our trip would be all the way to Húsavík that day, but we were definitely wrong... First difficulties arose at the airport in Salzburg, when we went through the security control. I forgot to remove my keys from my pocket and of course the machine detected them. So I was the "criminal" in the family, at least I thought so. But then Hjördís' handluggage was sent front and back through the scanner, and the guards not so sure what to think about the stuff in there. We removed her NintendoDS, but that was not the problem. There was something looking like a blade, which made the guards uneasy. After having a better look, we realized, it was the candle!!! So after produceing a very long queue we finally got through. The flight was nice, nothing special happening, enough time to read.
But when we arrived to Keflavík, it was soon clear, that we wouldn't take the drive back to Húsavík that day. So we organised a place to stay overnight and decided to leave early the other morning. Early it was, around 7 o'clock, when we started the drive. The first part was ok, sometimes a bit windy, but nothing to be seriously worried about. Right after Blönduos the view changed to nearly 0, strong windes and a lot of snowdrifting. We had to stop as the Rescueteam was moving a car from the road, somebody else had just left there. After that we "crawled" forward, going really slow as visibility was very poor. What a change when we drove down to Skagafjörður! Very good weather, free roads and we were getting the news, that the road we'd have to drive was cleaned the very moment. So our hopes stood high to finish the trip that day. Around 12.30 we arrived at Akureyri and were told that Víkurskarð was closed, but it was not sure if they would clean it that day. We had just missed a group going over after a cleaning vehicle and after listening to the workers, we didn't dare to try and get stuck. 2 hours later we decided to have a look and were very disappointed that we had listened to these guys as it wouldn't have been a problem then, but now there was of course already too much snow again. After several phonecalls and waiting for about 2 hours at the bottom of the road, we got to know for sure, that nobody would clean the road that day. You can probably imagine, how disappointed we were. So close, but still so far from our goal. At least we were lucky and could stay overnight with Sævar and Regina. We had a nice evening, chatting, eating, drinking.
Today we started early again, arrived at Víkurskarð at 8.30 and were told, that we could pass behind the snowplough as it would go all the way to Kross, which is halfway to Húsavík. This was great news and we were so much looking forward to having a fast trip, to come home finally. Well, we were mistaken again. The plough turned around when we came down the pass and we were left alone, trying to make our way. The visibility was rather poor and the snow started to make big piles on the road. First everything went well, but then we got stuck close to a bridge and Ingólfur was busy digging the car out off the pile. Luckily the lorry collecting milk from the farmers was on it's way to Akureyri and dragged us through this pile. Our drive continued, but when we came to the next big pile, we just decided to wait for the next plough to come and not risk to get stuck again. After around 1 hour another car arrived, the driver on his way to Egilsstaðir. I didn't envy him trying to get there. 30 minutes later, the plough arrived and cleared the way to Kross. From there we thought it would be short, the road hopefully just cleaned and easy to drive. Well, it went quite ok (if you like hopping over snowpiles...) to short after the car museum, where we saw a pile we were sure we wouldn't manage to get through. So we turned and were thinking about using the other possible way via Góðafoss. We met a car on our road, stopped and talked to the driver, who wanted to go to Húsavík with his family, too. All of us tried to get more information about roadcleaning and if the other road would be free. We were just told, that we were more or less stuck, no more roadcleaning today and we should just call the Rescueteam to get us home. In fact we already had been in contact with Bensi, who is member of the Rescueteam in Aðaldalur, and he was ready to help us. We decided to drive as far as we could and then wait for help. Not long after stopping and starting to wait suddenly a snowplough and a queue of cars appeared and we finally had the chance to finish our trip. You can't imagine, how happy we were after nearly 3 days on the way from Vienna to Húsavík. What was worst in our opinion is the fact, that Vegagerðin, who is taking care of cleaning the roads, is not working very organised. Yesterday they cleaned all around Húsavík and to Kross, but the team in Akureyri did not clean the roads to there. Today it seemed to be the other way round and nobody could give us any information about if and when they would clean the roads.
I attach a few pics, so you can maybe imagine, what kind of trip it was.