Hike Iceland - My Commune with a Glacier

To me there is nothing better than getting outdoors and going for a nice long trek. I love the adventure, the physical challenge and exploring new places. I also have a certain proclivity towards glaciers. I think that they are amazing, though I have never actually seen one up close. Last month I got the chance to do just that.

I didn't go to Iceland just for hiking, I was there on business. But over the weekend, I decided to get book a tour. There are several hiking and trekking tour companies in Iceland so it wasn't hard. With the help of the front desk clerk at the hotel I was staying at, I got in touch with a company that offers tours right from Reykjavik; turns out that you don't necessarily have to travel far to get out in nature or to commune with a glacier.

Anyways, I made my choice of tour operators and told them what I wanted to do. They suggested a tour that fit my time frame and desire to explore a glacier, in this case S?imaj?l glacier. I think this translates as 'sun home glacier,' at least I think that is what it translates to with my rough knowledge of Icelandic. This particular glacier is located about two hours away from the capital city.

The tour company picked me up from my hotel in the morning and off we went. I was amazed at how quickly we were in the country - Reykjavik is not a very big capital city and most of Iceland is uninhabited. When we arrived at the glacier, I instantly fell in love. The weather was picture perfect and the contrasting colors of blue sky and the white glacier were outstanding.

We took a few minutes to go over a safety brief, put on our extra clothes and crampons and then we were off. Our tour guide was very knowledgeable and told us all kinds of facts about Iceland, glaciers and such. But, what I liked best was when everyone stopped talking. Rarely in our busy lives do we get to experience absolute silence and that was one of the early pleasures of this glacier tour - we all stopped walking and talking and there it was, total silence. I turned my face to the sun and just soaked up this moment.

Later, we got to explore some crevasses and beautiful blue-white ice sculptures. When you touch this kind of ice, you are amazed by how smooth it is - like polished glass. We got to walk through long ridges that were like narrow ice hallways.

What struck me about this glacier was that it seemed to have a positive affect on everyone's mood. It is kind of like the glacier is pumping out negative ions and it helps you feel content and grounded in that moment. I also think that the glacier, by the fact that it has been around for so long, imparts a certain sense of history and almost embodies a wise personality. Maybe it was just me, I tend to anthropomorphize everything.

One the way back to the city, our guide also stopped by two beautiful waterfalls, Sk?oss and Seljalandsfoss. Being from the western US, I am not used to seeing so much water and I was struck by the raw power and beauty of these falls. Raw power and beauty is a good analogy for Iceland in general.

All-in-all I was very satisfied with my Iceland hiking tour experience. This particular tour wasn't very strenuous, so if you want something more physical, you can choose a different tour. I think that one day I would like to come back here and do one of their multi-day tours.

For all those nature lovers who also love a good adventure hike, you should check out Iceland. It is like a hiker's paradise, especially if you love glaciers.

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Source: http://www.upublish.info/Article/Hike-Iceland---My-Commune-with-a-Glacier/132640

New Forest Hotels and New Forest Holidays: The Dream 'Green' Vacation

For most people, a dream holiday allows you to indulge your passions, discover new things, go on adventures, and spend time with your friends and loved ones, all while contributing to environmental protection at the best value for money. If this is your dream holiday, then New Forest Holidays are for you.

At the New Forest National Park, situated in southwest Hampshire, you can explore and discover the wonders of the English countryside, regain your sense of oneness with nature, bond with your family and friends, and escape the hustle and bustle of modern life. You can bring your family and friends with you and never worry about boredom. With the myriad of individual and family activities available in New Forest Holidays, there are always activities and places, animals and people, sights and sounds to tickle your fancy.

With New Forest Holidays, you can go hiking or biking, horseback riding or go on guided tours, fishing or sailing or jet-skiing, golf or kite-flying, or do nothing. For nature lovers, you can go wildlife spotting or bird watching. You can go to family-oriented activity centers to bond with your family, or appreciate art through the numerous museums and galleries, or go shopping for presents, or enjoy the cinema and theater. Indeed, with New Forest Holidays, you can have the best of both worlds.
But a dream vacation would not be a dream vacation without good accommodations. You want to see the park, not become one with it! To start your dream vacation, check out the New Forest Hotels or visit our website. Our online map shows the nine locations within the park and its surrounding areas where our 24 hotels could be found. It even depicts the road network to help you plan your route to the park. The full list of our hotels provides a description of the hotel and the rooms, the AA rating, the starting room price, and the location. We guarantee that we will provide you with excellent service at the best possible price. We have efficient and friendly employees delivering friendly service, top-notch room accommodations, a wide range of cuisine, and modern conveniences. We have even posted pictures of New Forest Hotels to show architectural styles! After all, New Forest Hotels could be your second home during your New Forest Holidays and we want to make it happen for you.
Once you have decided on any of the New Forest Hotels, we recommend for your convenience that you contact us through our website. Just enter your name and your e-mail address, the subject of your message such as inquiries, comments or reservation, type your message and press "send." We assure you that we will provide feedback to your message. We also provide news updates for our customers via our website. The news section contains news that is of interest to our existing and potential clients, especially developments such as hotel renovations and additions, promos, and innovations such as price comparisons.

With New Forest Holidays, you can go hiking or biking, horseback riding or go on guided tours, fishing or sailing or jet-skiing, golf or kite-flying, or do nothing.

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Source: http://www.upublish.info/Article/New-Forest-Hotels-and-New-Forest-Holidays---The-Dream--Green--Vacation/131897

The End of Your Camping Trip

After you have enjoyed an excellent family camping holiday on one of the best campsites you have ever visited you realise it is time to go back to the harsh reality of home and work.

Of course it is not just a case of leaving this wonderful camp site and heading off for home, you must pack away your Camping equipment correctly and also make sure you leave the camp site how you found it so other people can enjoy the benefits.

Take a look at the below tips which owners of campsites will appreciate that you try and follow so that their ground always looks immaculate, remember word of mouth is one of the most affective forms of advertisement.

Putting Away Your Camping Gear
It is good to pack rags ready to wipe off your Camping gear before stowing, this only needs to be a quick clean as you can clean properly when your camping holiday is over and you are at home. Try to pack your Camping gear as you had it when you came to the camp site. Also it's a good idea to separate dirty clothes so that they will be ready to be washed when you arrive home.

Remember to Check Your Cooler
Dispose of any food wastes, remembering always to put any rubbish in the bins that the camp site has provided, empty out excess water, and replenish the ice, as needed, for the trip home, if you have been on a family camping holiday it is important that the children have fluids for the journey home.

Put Out Your Campfire
Make sure the campfire is out on your camp site. Dowse the area with the excess water from your cooler or another source.

Gather All Trash
None wants to come to a camp site after someone else has been there to find traces of old food and rubbish around, we all want to have a good camping holiday from start to finish so clean up for the next people.

Check and Double Check
A broom and a leaf rake come in handy for grooming campsites and gathering up the last of any litter there may be.

Before the Off
Before leaving, take advantage of this opportunity to take a final look around your camp site and use the facilities to spruce yourself ready for the journey.

Final Check
One last check, walk around your vehicle and look around the camp site to see if anything was missed.

Say Goodbyes
It is always nice to make friends on a camping holiday, you could always go away together again, so remember to say your goodbyes.

Clearing away after a successful camping holiday.

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Source: http://www.upublish.info/Article/The-End-of-Your-Camping-Trip/116977

Planning for Christian women's retreat

Churches across the world understand the benefits of a booming Christian women's retreat. This is merely a group of women that assemble often to cheer one another with the Word of God and talk about various topics. Christian Women retreat is an occasion for women to be revitalized as they thrash out unlike issues in their personal and official lives and how they are relevant to religious living and being a brave observer. Few other things, like assignment projects, trips and bear groups are also archetypal during times of women's retreat. They are in turn extremely special part of church, which reaches out to others when they want.

Often, a women's bureau are the people that plan up for Christian women's retreat. Planning an unforgettable women's retreat is something, which is not hard, but it take little time. A women's retreat must be something, which is planned and detained no less than once or twice a year. It further needs to be a particular event that is well planned and designed so that it would really be a superb and pleasurable event for every woman who participates in it.

When the women's bureau states to plan for women's retreat, they need consider that the affair have be planned to lodge up women from all steps of life. Women of all ages, countries, and races should be allowed to attend this retreat; so the prime step when planning for a memorable retreat is to decide upon the theme or subject for the Christian women's retreat, which would be fit for women for all the steps of life. It is also significant that the theme is one, which comprises all women, both independently and as a group. Additionally it is an extremely vital step as when the women get jointly for this retreat, it would be the real time of consideration, reflection, giving out, caring, relationship, and renewal.

The initial part of the superb retreat should be the hearty welcome. You would desire to affectionately welcome every woman as she comes from the door. Next, you would need to plan a first-class, healthy meal for the retreat. You might as well want to arrange the lunch, which is light and also healthy. Sandwiches, fruit, vegetables salads, soups, and any dessert like cheesecake, chocolate cake or even cookies could be a great idea for lunch. If your Christian women's retreat is more than a day long, you would have to plan every day individually. It is excellent to have a daily arrangement that you chase.

Planning an unforgettable women's retreat is something, which is not hard, but it take little time. A women's retreat must be something, which is planned and detained no less than once or twice a year.The initial part of the superb retreat should be the hearty welcome. You would desire to affectionately welcome every woman as she comes from the door.

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Source: http://www.upublish.info/Article/Planning-for-Christian-women-s-retreat/116743

Camping Holidays in France

When you think of a French camping holiday you may start to think of cold wet weekends away, you could not be so wrong, and with absolutely thousands of campsites in France, you have so many different ones to choose from, and whether you have your own tent, are touring with a caravan or a motor home, the choice of camp sites is endless.

If you were to pick an area of France, then you will not have any trouble in obtaining information on campsites in that particular province and in fact you would probably be spoilt for choice. But there is one place called Brittany that is one of the most popular destinations for a family camping holiday in France and this is due to sandy beaches, hidden coves, rock pools and the coastline that the children just adore.

Yet the Alps is a vast area waiting for the more adventurous camper with mountainous climbs, pretty villages and lakes to explore along with Chamonix, which is the highest town in Europe.

Then there is Paris, the capital city of France, which has everything a beautiful city can offer, and with several campsites around Paris, the closest is just a few minutes from the centre, you will also find others that are located near to Versailles and Disneyland Paris, let alone others near golf courses and fishing lakes.

And although most people end up going through the Rhone Valley without really much of a stop, it is well worth taking a detour either side of the river which is where you can find some beautiful countryside to explore, and in this area you will also be able to find some glorious wine produced on these slopes bordering the river, along with major towns like Lyon.

Most places will be able to provide hook ups for electricity from either 6 amps or 10 amps, plus many other facilities. And on a lot of different sites, rather just touring you can even hire out the caravans, chalets or mobile homes, but whatever you decide is best for you, this is a great way of touring through France.

As you can imagine, there are a vast amount of campsites with lots of different facilities, which you will find are rated with stars in a similar way to that of hotels, so the more stars a site has, the better it will be, although inevitably the more expensive they will be, especially in certain areas of France.

A camping site with one star is a basic site and there is no where near as many these days, due to competition from other campsites, whereas a two star camping site is rated for comfort and has some good amenities, then three star and four star campsites are of a very high standard, not only for the amenities and facilities they have to offer, but also for the quality of these facilities. For example, on a four star site you will often find top class restaurants that are even frequented by the locals for their phenomenal French cuisine, but also complete pool complexes and evening entertainment as a regular occurrence.

But apart from the typical camping sites available, you can also find places to pitch such as camping on farms, but lots of these do not have a wide range of facilities available, in fact some are so basic you will need to have all of your own facilities or they may just about have a toilet and hot shower for you to use.

One quick point, please do remember that it is only in authorised locations around France that you are able to camp and not in places such as woods, yet saying that, when travelling through France it can take hours or days, and we have seen many tired travellers putting up their tents on the grassy areas in the service stations alone the toll roads!.

Most people think of camping as purely a summer activity, but for an extremely reasonable holiday, which can be as low as 50 to 60 percent less in cost, you can go camping in the low season, and dependant upon the area of France you wish to go to, some campsites are even open all year round and still even have facilities such as indoor swimming available.

France can therefore offer you freedom and flexibility, whether you wish to stay in one place for the duration of your holiday, or why not try hopping from camping site to campsite, these types of holidays can offer you everything from excitement and family fun by the coast in places such as Brittany, through to the more sedate holiday staying in the grounds of chateaux in rolling countryside of the Loire valley, but for the more adventurous, you could even have a camping holiday incorporating adventures like kayaking in the Dordogne, or mountaineering in the French Alps

You will be able to get to see ancient ruins, quaint villages, monuments and scenery that you would never think possible in any country, but France has it all, and this is possible in many regions within only a few miles of where you have decided to stay, yet do not forget about the wonderful activities that are available to you on site, which sometimes makes it a hard job deciding on whether you want to leave!

When you book your next camping holiday in France it may take you longer than you think! as France has over 11,000 campsites that all have lots of different facilities available, so you will be spoilt for choice.

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Source: http://www.upublish.info/Article/Camping-Holidays-in-France/116263