The Home Exchanger

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap, Part 6: Iceland as Mordor?

We returned to Reykjavik after this and sat around the pilot's house sleeping late and shopping at a nearby mall for fish, lamb, and potatoes. We went to the movies. My wife and I drank beer. The pilot called every day to ask how Emma was doing and we said she was fine and she was. We liked her a lot. She spoke our language.

A week later we drove to Landmannalauger, which is a base camp for deep mountain hiking. Though only about 2500 feet above sea level, we were able to see vast distances and rounded hills in shades of pale blue, gold, tan, brown, orange, red, and green. We walked by geysers, plumes of smoke, snowy fields, and pools of boiling water. It was devilish and heavenly.

"This looks like Mordor," my daughter Madeline said. "But also like the moon."

And no wonder - the ancient Icelandic sagas, which inspired Lord of the Rings, were written on the island 700 years ago.

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap, Part 5: Icelandic Countryside

So we drove seven hours northeast of Reykjavik to Jokulsargljufur National Park where we rented a farmhouse for three nights. The drive took us through amazingly varied landscapes: deserts, volcanic fields, alpine-like meadows, arctic vistas. It was truly lovely. The farmhoue itself looked a lot like the one I recalled seeing in that neat little movie, "In Cold Blood". It seemed as if it was made out of tarpaper, balsam, and linoleum. But the kitchen worked and the sun never set and the place was nearly clean. My wife pitched the kids:  "It's an experience," which they didn't buy, not at all, but who asked them, anyway? Not me, certainly not me.

The main thing, in fact, was that where we were was exquisitely beautiful. Each day we took long, easy hikes on volcanic terrain where we saw spectacular canyons, deserts, an Dettifoss, a powerful, terrifying waterfall. When we weren't hiking, we rode Icelandic horses, which are the size of ponies, first brought as a breed to the island 1100 years ago by Norse settlers and their Celtic slaves. Gentle and curious, they provided an ideal perspective for viewing the landscape.

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap, Part 4: Reykjavik

I have been to Iceland four times in the past two years on work-related trips to report on food fairs, night clubs, sheep round ups and fancy hotels. I knew my way around Reykjavik. Actually, most people know their way around Reykjavik after an hour or two--it's small, manageable, sweet, and friendly. During the day there's very little to do except stroll around and look in shop windows or drink a coffee or have a beer. At night the place rocks until the next morning and you can dance with complete strangers innocently or dangerously depending on how much you value your current relationship. Icelanders tend to be somewhat aloof with one another, but are intrigued by foreigners until they get bored with them too. But by then it's time to go to sleep.

The trick is to get outside of the small and sleepy capital into the countryside that is so spectacular it makes your brain numb. On earlier trips, I had not managed to get very far. This time was different--we had a free and decent car through the exchange.

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap, Part 3: The Dog Exchange

An Icelandic pilot, his wife (a nurse) and their two very young daughters needed someone to take care of Emma, their gorgeous French sheep dog. Fine, we said. I like dogs. I love dogs. I often prefer them to people.

We also wanted to convince our teenagers - Madeline is 18 and Nick is 15 years old - to leave their friends and instead hang out with their bickering, self-centered, and downright creepy parents. I felt like going to a new locale would distract them.

My strategy worked. Within 24 hours, Nick termed Iceland "sick", which he says is the same as "lovely."

The pilot met us at the airport, shook hands, gave us the car and house keys, and boarded a plane to Boston.

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap, Part Two: The Dog Problem

One big reason we decided to go to Iceland was because of  the dog. The person who normally takes care of our dog was unavailable this past summer -- having inconviently died in November, 2004 -- and we couldn't find anyone else foolish enought to walk a big Bernese mountain dog three times a day in the heat. And heaven forbid put the dog in a kennel! He's never seen a kennel. The shock would be too great. We were certain it would kill him. We'd come home, the dog would be dead.

We decided to trade homes with anyone, anywhere in the world, as long as they would take care of our dog.

As members of Intervac, we were contacted by a half dozen families wanting to come to Boston. Families got in touch with us from Sweden, Iceland, France, Germany, England, and Denmark. Our dollar is getting whipped by the Euro and Europeans are eager to come here and shop. Ask any European what they love about America and they will all tell you it's the prices.

But only one family responded eagerly and with experience to The Dog Problem.

Scott Haas' Icelandic Home Swap: Part One

We are delighted that our friend Scott Haas, author of Are We There Yet? , NPR contributer and longtime member of Intervac, has agreed to be a guest blogger for this site from time to time. Here he speaks about his most recent home swap - Iceland, this summer. This is Part One.

Picture Hawaiian lava fields and the deep, blue Pacific. Palm branches swaying, black sand beaches. A romantic melody plays on a steel guitar. Now chop down 99% of the trees, drop temperatues to the 50s, add rain and cloudy skies, earthquakes, geysers, enormous waterfalls, and 200 volcanoes, eardrum-shattering techno music blasting until 5 AM in downtown clubs, 24 hour sunlight in the summer and total darkness in the winter, men and women who resemble Vikings, and glacial lakes and mountains covering 80% of the terrain until it looks like "Jurassic Park"...That's Iceland.

I recently returned from two weeks there with my wife and our two teenagers. All of us agreed that no place we'd been to as a family was more exotic, spellbinding and natural.  It doesn't have Italy's warmth, France's food or the madcap fun of Disneyworld, but it has...it has...hmmm, what does it have? Why did we go?

FAQ: Why Do You Publish Catalogues?

October 15th is the deadline to be included in Intervac's biggest catalogue of the year. The December catalogue is for people who want to swap their homes mostly in the Spring or Summer of next year. I have been absolutely swamped taking orders and getting the US portion of the catalogue ready for production.

Why do we still publish catalogues? I hear you web-savvy folks saying. Many of our members are still not very comfortable using the Internet. Still more prefer the convenience of thumbing through our book and looking at all the listings at once.

Another question we get asked a lot is whether our Web members are included in the catalogue. The answer is yes, as long as you join before October 15th.

It's Not Too Early to Plan Next Year's Home Swap!

This proves it is not too early to plan for next year's home swap. A family based in DC is swapping with a family in Vancover for two weeks in May 2006. The exchange has already been arranged and the home exchange agreement completed.

So it's not too early to start planning!

Link to a Villa Rental Web Site

Here's a link to a web site where The Home Exchanger is listed. Check it out if you're interested in holiday villas and luxurious cottages rental offers or information about Caribbean vacations. The name of the link is Villas - Retreat Cottage Rental Northeastern Us

City-Country Home Swap Arranged

Not all Intervac home swaps take place during long vacations - many home swaps are actually done over a weekend.

Take this home swap taking place this weekend.  A family in downtown DC is trading homes with another family who live in a country cabin in Virginia.  One family gets to stay in the city, another in the country. The families have agreed to swap bikes!