Iceland has many unique tourist draws: its own flavor of hot dogs, puffins, glaciers, steam vents, waterfalls, Northern Lights,..and a bra fence.
Enough said?
Jazz track with video along the fence
The Bra Fence In Iceland Explained
road rumble and video along the fence
https://www.funiceland.is/nature/places/the-bra-fence-in-iceland/
From Atlas Obscura
For all the reasons that food and energy prices are probably not coming down anytime soon, an interesting set of tips.
Some of these tips are more practical than others depending, for instance on available space in cupboard and refrigerator / freezer.
Those wacky marketing folks at IcelandAir are at it again.
RantWoman WILL find the link to all of Blanche "the World's Worst Photographer's" trip around Iceland, but not tonight.
Iceland has not completely disappeared from RantWoman's consciousness. RantWoman was thinking that wind and waterfall spray and a need for a parka in Iceland might be nicer than 100 F temps in Paris--until RantWoman heard that the latest European heat wave has reached as far as Iceland.
RantWoman will for now spare readers her own misadventures with Instagram during Blanche's trip, except to say Instagram seems to be a good place to pick up free tourism tips. Want to contribute to economic development in a small community in Iceland? Want to go to Norway and house / pet sit? RantWoman thinks she even saw a comparable opportunity in Spain where she at least speaks the language. More on these ideas later, perhaps.
Here is the really important news.
Oops. Apparently RantWoman missed the most recent total eclipse in Iceland.
Total solar eclipse hits Europe for first time since 1999 as millions watch from Spain to Iceland
2026 Solar Eclipse in Iceland: The Complete Guide | Guide to Iceland
RantWoman remembers on partial eclipse long ago when she was in elementary school in CO. A couple years ago there was a fairly convincing partial eclipse in Seattle. By convincing, RantWoman means she almost missed the visual moments but definitely noticed that the air suddenly got dramatically colder for a few minutes. Honestly, for RantWoman just watching the eclipse on the ground might be sort of a let-down, especially if one has the option just to be airborne along the entire arc of the eclipse.
But enough reminiscing! The real point: plan ahead for the opportunity to see the next total eclipes in Iceland, in the year 2196
At stake, apparently both a drawing for a trip to Iceland in September 2026 and a chance that IcelandAir will somehow deliver 2 adults and 2 children to Iceland the next time there is a total eclipse over Iceland, estimated to be June 2096.
Hurry. There are only a few days left to enter and RantWoman is generously pasting the promo from her email. Click on the button below. Do it before August 19!
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#NonDriver #KingCountyMetro #GoldenGardens
RantWoman has once or twice walked from Golden Gardens south to Ballard. Not in a few years.
RantWoman is THRILLED to read this summer bus. RantWoman will check to see whether her ORCA Card and bus pass work to pay the fare, but RantWoman is THRILLED.
Stay tuned for more raves.
Iceland
RantWoman already did one post about clothing for a trip to Iceland and the topic is important enough to hit again, with a couple RantWoman specific notes
RantWoman has been having fun imagining personas, people / market segments who might jump at a chance for an impromptu summer trip to Iceland. People from hot climates. People who work in tech or call centers or are at least middle class.
It's about 60 degrees F in Seattle today. It is a temperature where transplants from cold climates are already in shorts and transplants from warmer climates are still wearing layers. The sun is glorious so no frets for today about water resistance though that is a perpetual theme in Seattle and , RantWoman imagines, in Iceland.
This video is a FUN way to look at the practical problem of how to pack--or what to plan on renting on arrival.
RantWoman is grinning about the following communication from IcelandAir:
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Lately RantWoman has gotten interested in construction techniques and other strategies for surviving COLD climates.
Here, one old, traditional, and one modern.
A German living in Iceland
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| Ahem. RantWoman's instructions ask for packages to be delivered to her apartment door. That is not hard. |
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| Couldn't these two items have come in one package instead of two? |
#MetGala #MetGala2026
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| The daily trees photo |
Iceland Iceland
Land of volcanoes that can eat small villages and occasionally disrupt global air travel. Sobering to think of that in this the year of our Lord 2026 when all global energy prices are through the roof.
Thanks to RantWoman's volcano video habit, YouTube has previously sent RantWoman assorted tourism themed videos. Based on these videos, RantWoman has formed the impression that Iceland is very interesting geologically and if one wants to chase the aurora borealis. Also, nature is gorgeous but experiencing it can be challenging. The weather is to put it diplomatically unpredictable. And travel is EXPENSIVE.
Part of RantWoman's fun has been elaborating and adjusting that impression as well, repeatedly, as asking Google / Gemini questions and coming back with answers that keep RantWoman coming back for more and even thinking about how travel to Iceland can be affordable for many categories of travelers. More in a moment, in a few cases just RantWoman's queries replicated for readers to do their own next steps.
Land of many summits of world leaders. RantWoman is the kind of nerd tourist who might go to and even enthusiastically participate in a half day or even a full day opportunity to replay one of the summits held in Rekjavik. RantWoman has not gone looking to see for sure whether such a tourist attraction might exist but would seriously consider participating in it if it existed.
Land of many churches interesting to photograph, not just the famous tall one in Rekjavik.
what churches can one visit in iceland - Google Search
Land of lots of hot springs and geothermal energy. Lots of the videos talk about people renting cars to travel independently. If RantWoman is travelling alone, renting a car or even a camper is not really an option. Global fuel prices are forecast to stay high for quite a while so RantWoman has wondered about but not researched, what is the electric vehicle scene like in Iceland. Is there geothermal electricity generation? Is that ubiquitous enough that people could simply plug cars in at every stop and charge without needing special charging stations? Is this whole paragraph just a dream that might need to be more fully realized
Land where one can't name their child Harriet? The short answer: a concept near to RantWoman's language nerd hear, to wit noun declension.
why can t you name your child harriet in iceland - Google Search
Icelandic girls can't be called Harriet, government tells family | Iceland | The Guardian
Icelandic Naming Committee - Wikipedia
RantWoman did it. RantWoman submitted a VERY barebones video entry saying basically, RantWoman has a lot to say and cramming it all into a one-minute video is not happening so please check out this blog. RantWoman is having fun thinking about this contest. That is the main thing.
PS. There is a question in the application form about how comfortable one is being on camera. RantWoman can manage. RantWoman has other thoughts about whether one is supposed to be good or bad at social media in general, but the application does not ask that.
Stay tuned for some of RantWoman's favorite YouTube channels.
Iceland Iceland
Whether one is abstractly planning a trip to Iceland or just massaging the idea for the IcelandAir Bad Photographer contest, here are some YouTube channel suggestions, sometimes based on one example from the channel.
RantWoman is amused by a few points:
--All the videos with the word "Mistakes" in the title.
--Advice from everyone not to buy expensive bottled water and shopping at the regular grocery chains, not the big tourist-oriented store in Reykjavik. Also comments about using the city bus from the airport and saving money over lagoon prices by going to the many public pools.
--Very adamant safety culture: no speeding. No drunk driving. No stopping except in designated lookout points to take photos. Park only where authorized. No walkiing on hot lava. Avoid sneaker waves. Do not get too near all kinds of edges of things. TAKE WEATHER WARNINGS SERIOUSLY. Only 4x4 vehicles are allowed on the F roads, roads not on the ring road.
--Equally consistent culture about cleanliness: NO pooping out of doors. Shower completely nude before entering the various pools. Take shoes off when asked
--Contradictory advice about the Blue Lagoon, staying in Reykjavik...
Learn Icelandic in 10 minutes 🇮🇸 Essential Phrases for Tourists Visiting Iceland
or at least an introduction before checking out the next video
Stop Using Google Maps in Iceland. Use This Instead
Info about weather and alerts specific to Iceland.
Note: other videos say use Google Maps to check location of Air BnB
How to Explore Iceland Like a Local (Avoid These 5 Mistakes!)
Skip the Blue lagoon because there are other cool hot springs near by
Visiting Iceland Summer 2026: Travel Guide & Best Local Tips! 🇮🇸
Base in Reykjavik and do day trips
What NOT to Do When Traveling To Iceland | 15 Mistakes To Avoid!
Don't base in Reykjavik.
Waterproof gear
5 Proven Ways to Avoid Crowds in Iceland (Like a Local)
travel in winter
Hidden Gems of Iceland: Avoid the Crowds & See the REAL Iceland!
Iceland Travel Tips: 10 Things You Need to Know (From a Local) 🇮🇸
5 Mistakes You Make When You Arrive in Iceland
Car rental, the "Flybus, and PUBLIC TRANSIT. RantWoman loves public transit and does not care that it will take longer. Maybe the Flybus for the first day, but public transit at some point.
The Blue lagoon is on the way from Keplavik airport to downtown Reykjavik but ...
20 Things Tourists in Iceland Learn Too Late
Weather can be even more fearsome than RantWoman previously imagined.
20 Things Tourists in Iceland Learn Too Late
VERY limited public transportation outside Reykjavik. No trains. Only intercity buses. RantWoman is a bus / slow travel nerd and might really enjoy some travel by bus
3 Iceland Itinerary Mistakes That Will Cost You Days
Don't spend too much of your trip at Reykjavik at the beginning.
Don't rush the South Coast islands
The Westman(?) Islands and The PUFFINS.
What will make Ideland unique to Me?
Iceland Itinerary Mistakes 90% of People Don’t Know About
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| Window trees building clouds |
Contest Reminder:
Really bad photographer | Icelandair US
When RantWoman travels, RantWoman likes to immerse herself in local cuisine, culture, and history as well as geography. Consider the question, delivered to Gemini "what do people in Iceland eat for breakfast?"
At home RantWoman cycles among homemade porridge of the week, cold pizza, and sometimes other leftovers, often with a banana or hard-boiled egg.
Thank you Gemini, sort of. Submitting the question in natural language is cool. Here are a couple snippets from the first screen of results.
Why you should be eating an Icelandic breakfast
(summary: the basic low-fat, high-fiber, high protein regimen recommended in many places.
Thank you Gemini?
Porridge or muesli? Checks out.
Good yogurt? checks out.
Rye bread or rye crisp: RantWoman likes both fine.
Pickled Greenland shark? RantWoman likes pickled herring on flatbread but does not eat it very often. As for Greenland shark...?
How I Learned to Eat Fermented Shark with Iceland ProCruises - Food, Wine & Travel
So definitely a bit more of a big deal than mere pickled herring. RantWoman is fascinated to learn more about Greenland sharks. RantWoman also hopes that pickled Greenland shark is not an every day menu item.
As for Gemini
1. RantWoman is still not sold on Gemini offering to "help" abut email.
2. RantWoman appreciates getting info from multiple platforms but is lazy about wanting to sign in or even to read user agreements for these same platforms, especially since one BIG driver of whether RantWoman is going to come back to a site or portal is how easy it is for RantWoman to use. This is probably a trial and error iterative process. Most of the time RantWoman can live with that except RantWoman tends to want info NOW and in easily digestible form.
But speaking of easily digestible, RantWoman will check out other meal customs another time.
RantWoman, as has already been established, is a bit of a nerd who spends a lot of time on the bus.
During today's bus travels RantWoman's mind wandered again to the recent King County fare enforcement officer report and to RantWoman's own experience riding around for more than a month with a demagnetized ORCA card, a card that only very occasionally produced the beep indicating that the card read properly when tapped.
Adventures of RantWoman: Reporting on the Metro Fare Enforcement misses a number of points.
(Please do not tell RantWoman about paying her fare on her phone. Between a white cane, a purse, and whatever baggage RantWoman is carrying, taking out a phone and waking it up to pay a fare is more than RantWoman even wants to attempt.)
RantWoman currently has a small couch on a cord around her neck but the whole time her card was not beeping, RantWoman was pulling the card out of somewhere and trying to tap it. RantWoman is white and bathes regularly so maybe drivers just believed her when she said she had a pass. Or sometimes, the imperatives to stay on schedule outweigh more detailed inquiry.
That entire time, RantWoman had in fact paid for avalid pass, online through the MyORCA app. At some point, possibly after RantWoman encounterd a fare enforcement officer, RantWoman followed directions on the back of the card and called an 800 number. RantWoman was referred to her local transit agency. The person RantWoman spoke to looked up the number of transactions which had registered for the previous month. It was substantially lower than RantWoman's estimate of the number of her trips. Then it registered with RantWoman that she just needed to get her disabled pass replaced.
RantWoman imagines that her situation is probably a small minority of situations that look to drivers like someone has not paid a fare. RantWoman has no idea whether these comments are helpful in deciding what the report actually means, but here the info is anyway.
RantWoman is playing crash test dummy checking out the process to apply for taxi scrip as administered by Metro. RantWoman recently learned that, although her income has been looking tup, she probably qualifies for Taxi scrip for those transportation moments when the bus won't do and travel is needed within King County.
Understand, RantWoman REALLY likes the bus for being easy to get on and off, for leg room, and for some level of adventure if, for instance, RantWoman is venturing to a part of the county she does not know well, and of course for modest physical exercise. RantWoman does like the idea of taxi scrip not expiring so RantWoman can have some on hand if needed and not have to worry about it expiring.
1. a search string for the Google or copilot, RantWoman does not remember which
King County Metro taxi scrip
RantWoman has in mind a nice path to an application even though RantWoman did not specify that in her search string. Instead RantWoman got a whole paragraph full of information she already knows. RantWoman lives in King County. RantWoman is definitely over 18. RantWoman qualifies according to the household income table she found a couple steps down.
2. Because of a recent software update on the computer RantWoman is using, some stupid message asking me which ads RantWoman finds most annoying--besides the stupid question when RantWoman is on a mission.
3. Redo the search adding "application form" to the search string
Noodle around with a bunch of "people also asked" suggestions and god knows what, especially since RantWoman tends to try bad eyes first and then remember to tab around and / or do a links list.
4. Behold: a bare minimum form to apply. Form requests RantWoman's name and contact info. Form does not ask whether RantWoman already has a Regional Reduced fare permit though RantWoman does. The form just asks for contact info and promises a response.
5. RantWoman notices a list of cab companies that will accept taxi scrip. RantWoman will come back to the list depending on a couple aspects of experience. RantWoman does not expect to use taxi scrip very often. RantWoman also notes that taxi scrip comes as paper that works like money except that cab drivers have to submit the paper for payment. RantWoman has heard that cab drivers are sometimes reluctant to deal with taxi scrip because of the processing time.
Here RantWoman is going to acknowledge that paying cash for paper probably is really important for some riders. HOWEVER, RantWoman also fantasizes about either an app, maybe like the app that allows RantWoman to pay for laundry or a refillable debit card, perhaps like RantWoman's ORCA card. The card would need to work for drivers who accept credit / Debit cards and Rant Woman would like to know her taxi scrip balance. Okay, it;s a fantasy...
Elapsed time to step through the hoops and write a blog post, plus or minus a couple distractions 45 minutes but the task would get easier if done regularly.
Friday afternoon RantWoman had APPOINTMENTS, two medical appointments across town from each other. The day was sunny and beautiful, as long as one does not count tree pollen. Scratch that: sun was almost too much and RantWoman needed to wash down itchy eyes multiple times with artificial tears RantWoman was fretting a little about timing, but it all worked out.
First leg of trip: cross a street where the accessible ped signal now talks, a big improvement over the rat-a-tat that was supposed to be a woodpecker but that sounded to RantWoman too much like gunfire. Routing: 8 + 70 . Not surprisingly, the first 8 was just going by as RantWoman was getting to the stop light, but at that time of day the #8 bus has 10-minute headway. Short wait at Fairview for the 70. Rotten truth: RantWoman needed to go three stops. The distance would be easily walkable--except for the GIANT chasm in any plausible pedestrian routing otherwise known as Mercer St and freeway ramps.
Nice day for uphill walk for a medical test. Cross the street at the marked crosswalk. Luckily traffic out of the parking garage was minimal. RantWoman is not crazy about driveways or parking garage exits and sometimes goes up the other side of the street to avoid cars. RantWoman has enough vision to pull this off but it's tricky because of no marked crosswalk.
Medical test was almost uneventful. Uneventful as in a form that made RantWoman want to grumble "can't you just put an electronic version in MyChart. Even more "fun," one always gets a plastic bracelet at check-in. Frequently there is this funny moment where the person checking RantWoman in somehow misses Ambassador Thwack the badly behaved white cane and asks RantWoman to verify that the info in tiny print on the bracelet is correct. Uhhhh.....
Test flew by and soon RantWoman headed back down the hill to catch the 70 on further north. Destination, the U District Light rail station and two stops on the train to Northgate. RantWoman long ago used sometimes to walk that distance but between timing and pollen and almost too much sunlight, RantWoman was really happy with the bus.
Some of the time RantWoman feels a pang about an aging body. Some of the time RantWoman also reminds herself that a number of people in RantWoman's family tree did not even live to the age RantWoman is now.
Distance from Northgate Light Rail station to eye doctor's also is walkable but insane from a pedestrian perspective. Easy bus ride from the light rail station and a short walk with car minimizing street crossing options left RantWoman almost an hour early for her appointment so RantWoman...stopped at TARGET to see about a snack. RantWoman has two rants: the very minimalist snack options and Starbucks used to have an automated checkout. Friday automated checkout was gone and there was just one person at Starbucks and there was a bit of a line.
The wait made it almost too easy to Not Buy anything in honor of Blackout Friday. Almost. Besides the fact that RantWoman needed something for lunch, RantWoman's other rant is that the current anti-#DEI fashion is bonkers. RantWoman is not fully versed about the Black creators able to distribute their product through Target. RantWoman, though, is PEEVED on accessibility grounds: a few years ago, the National Federation of the Blind sued Target about inaccessibility of their stores. Target to their credit looked at the issues raised by the suit and at their elderly customer base and then took a number of steps to make Target someone friendlier to people who are blind and / or visually impaired. Target does not seem to have undone some of that though price tags are still....
RantWoman has no idea whether Target is just talked about rolling back #DEI commitments to appease the mobs horrified by some previous gestures, RantWoman emphatically wishes some of the companies falling into line with the current fashion would grow a spine and say "we are doing ..X;;; because it serves our customers. Plus, nutball pronouncements from the current administration aside, anti-discrimination laws STILL EXIST!
So Dear Target, thank you that I was able to pay for my snack and please consider this rant a free tip!
Eye Doctor appointment was decidedly low torture: just the blue light special to measure eye pressure. No dilated eyes or chasing weak lights around a circular background. Vision definitely not better but not dramatically worse than previous visits. Steady is good.
One easy street crossing to a bus back to the light rail and 3 stops to Capitol hill. RantWoman generally loves buskers but the Friday band at the station as a smidge too loud even for a sunny celebratory Friday. Anyway, easy just to pop out lf the station, get on a bus and be done with street crossings for the day going home.
