Reykjavik

After many months of anticipation, Scott and I have arrived in Iceland. After an overnight flight, our first priority after arriving in Reykjavik was catching some much needed sleep before heading out to explore the City Center. My first impressions of Iceland are that it is cold, windy, and rainy. Scott seems to think that the temperature is great! Our first day was spent wandering around Old Reykjavik. We visited a couple of different shops, shared a lamb soup bread bowl (with free refills), and visited Hallgrimskirkja. Don't ask me how to pronounce anything in Icelandic! I usually jumble the letters together into sounds that I think would make sense and hope for the best!

The view of Hallgrimskirkja from the street.

Hallgrimskirkja is a huge concrete church with a bell tower containing some spectacular views of the city. The outside of the church is imposing, but the inside is a little underwhelming. Looking at the church from the outside, one would expect grandeur on the inside. Instead, with the exception of the organ, it's rather dull. There's not a lot of decoration, even on the alter. Hallgrimskirkja is a far cry from some of the cathedrals of England that I've seen. The bell tower was cool and offered panoramic views of the city. I think on a clear day you could see much further than what we saw, but it still provided a unique view of what we had only seen at the street level all afternoon.

In the evening, Scott and I took advantage of the various thermal pools located around the city. They are apparently the social heart of the city. We have read that politicians even use them as a place to talk to their constituents. There is one thermal pool about 10 minutes from where we are staying. The pool near us has 4 different hot tubs with three different temperatures. After a long day of traveling and being chilled from the weather and the rain, the hot tubs were an excellent way to end the day.

A few weeks before leaving for Iceland, I discovered that an old college roommate was also going to be in Iceland while we were here. So for breakfast on our second day in Reykjavik, Scott and I met up with Madeline for breakfast. We visited a little bakery that served one of the most delicious cinnamon rolls I've ever had and took them to eat under the shadows of Hallgrimskirkja. It was absolutely wonderful to see Madeline as we haven't had the opportunity to meet up in a few years.

After visiting with Madeline for a couple of hours, we parted ways and Scott and I continued to wander the streets of Rekjavik. Upon Madeline's recommendation, we tried one of Iceland's hotdogs made up (mostly) of lamb, pork, and beef. I was down to try it, but so far it has not been my favorite thing that I've tried here. Scott enjoyed his and gladly ate the half of mine that I didn't like. Afterwards we headed to Parliament Square to try to catch a free Walking Tour of Reykjavik. I'm not sure what happened though because we never actually found it. Although we did creep on two different groups who we thought were the tour. The give away that they weren't was the fact that no one was speaking English!!

We did wait about 20 minutes before giving up and continuing on our way. We found ourselves outside of Volcano House and decided to have a look. Iceland is fascinating. It sits on the Atlantic Continental Divide and is home to more than 30 active volcanoes. You can actually take a trip to an intact 4,000 year old magma chamber. They have it rigged with elevators so that you can get to the bottom of it. Unfortunately, it's about $400USD a person, so we did not make the trip. However, Volcano House provided a lot of great information about the types of rock created by volcanoes and the ones specific to Iceland. There was also an informational movie that we watched. Unfortunately, neither one of us took much away from it because between sitting, being warm, and the jet lag, we both spent the majority of the show fighting sleep.

Before dinner, which Madeline had scheduled as a wedding gift, we had some time to kill. Scott talked me into buying an Icelandic Wool Sweater because I had been oohing and ahhing over them for the past day and a half. We wound our way back up to the Icelandic Knitting Association Store to get one. Madeline told us that there's apparently a controversy with the sweaters right now. Some companies are shipping the wool off to China and getting the sweaters made there and then passing them off as authentic Icelandic sweaters in gift shops. If the price difference is any indication, I believe that this is probably happening.

Our view during dinner. 

Dinner was at a lovely restaurant called Kopar overlooking the Harbor. Madeline had requested the table in front of the window for us. Luckily it was available and the clouds disappeared and the sun came out while we were eating. Scott and I shared the seared tuna with garlic chips as an appetizer. I had the salmon while Scott had the catch of the day. Both were absolutely delicious. Scott ordered cheesecake for dessert, and I think we were both surprised by what came out. It had blueberry sauce and a graham cracker like crust crumbled together at the bottom of the bowl with a toffee colored cheesecake filling on one side of the bowl and Skyr (Icelandic yogurt)  ice cream on the other side of the bowl. It was actually pretty tasty, but hard to wrap my brain around the fact what I was eating did not match the picture of cheesecake in my head. It was a delicious dinner and a wonderful wedding gift from a good friend.

Tomorrow, we are off to explore another region of Iceland!