January 2, 2018
Delray Beach, Florida
Rain and lots of it!
On our third day, Sunday in Iceland, we took a private tour of the city of Reykjavik, the capitol of Iceland. We started at 9am but again, it was dark outside when we started. Our first stop was the beautiful and modern music hall - Harpa - whose design was inspired by the landscape of Iceland. Its quite a beautiful music hall especially when the glass building sparkles as the sun rises. It's definitely worth visiting. I'd very much like to visit it one more time and listen to a concert in this beautiful hall.
Inside the music hall
View of the harbor from the Harpa music hall as the sun rises
Next stop was the Hofti house. The famous location of the Reykjavik summit between Gorbachev and Reagan. The house was home to Einer Ben, a famous Icelandic poet and a man who was instrumental in the establishment of Iceland. The house is so isolated as you can see for the photo. I would have loved to been a fly on the wall during the Reykjavik Summit where Reagan and Gorbachev met to discuss peace.
Einer Ben
The Hofti House
The second stop was the famous Hallsgrimkirkja - arguably the most famous church in Iceland. It can be seen from almost anywhere in the city. The architecture is very clean and "nordic". As it is a Lutheran church, not so much pomp and glitz like other churches.
Cool thing about the church is one can go to the bell tower for small fee and get a fabulous view of the city.
And in front of the church is a statue of Lief Eriksson - the first European to discover the Americas. The statue was a gift from the United States
Our last stop was the Perlan Museum, which was fascinating, in that we learned about glaciers by walking through the Glacier and Ice Cave exhibition which was built in the basement of the museum. It was COLD, but fascinating and we got to take photos of ourselves peaking through Ice holes!
The museum also has a fabulous interactive display of Iceland's geography and also an outdoor terrace that surrounds the museum with fabulous views of Reykjavik.
After our tour, we went shopping! I found a beautiful Icelandic sweaters at both the Official Icelandic Hand Knit Organization where you can bring back your sweater for "repairs" and at the Icelandic designer store called Farmers Market where I also bought a blanket. We also went to the flea market but could not find anything we wanted but we bought enough salt and souvenirs at other stores for friends to last a few holidays!
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