A glimpse at the city of Reykjavik and some of the snow covered mountains surrounding it. The steeple on the right belongs to Hallgrimskirkja.
After much anticipation and waiting we are finally here! We are in gorgeous Iceland.
The Flight and a brush with the Aurora
Ready for our flight!
We left the Boston airport around 10pm Eastern time and arrived in Reykjavik at about 6am local time. The flight itself was between 4 and a half and five hours. Christina and I tried to spend as much time sleeping as possible, with mixed results. The most exciting part of the ride was when were flying near the coast of Greenland… I looked out the window and caught my first glimpse of the Northern Lights. Unapologetic, I woke Christina up to see as well. The angle of the plane, as well as the lights made it difficult to really appreciate it, but we at least got our first taste.
Icelandair flights are full of interesting touches to educate and excite their customers about Iceland – such as this pillow printed with an Icelandic lullaby
We finally landed, made our way through customs and got our car rental. One thing you always read about when researching a trip to Iceland is that the weather is chaotic at best. A common phrase is “If you don’t like the weather in Iceland, just wait five minutes.” We didn’t understand they meant this quite literally. In the 30 minute drive from the Keflavik Airport to our hotel in Reykjavik, we went from rain, to bright sunshine, to snow, to fog, back to sunshine. At one point, I’m pretty sure it was all of those at once. This extended throughout the day… multiple snows, punctuated by a sunny day so bright our sunglasses weren’t enough. We honestly lost count of the weather changes in the single day.
Hallgrímskirkja – Our first stop
Hallgrímskirkja – Literally the Church (kirkja) of Hallgrímur (an Icelandic poet/Reverend from the 1600s).
After arriving at our hotel, checking in and getting our bearings, we drove in to the heart of the city and strolled around a bit. The first landmark we saw (and at 250 feet tall, it’s hard to miss from anywhere in the city) was the Hallgrimskirkja Church. We weren’t able to go inside today, but there’s a 50 foot tall pipe organ inside, as well as an elevator that takes you to the top and allows you to look out over the city. We will try to actually go inside later in our trip when we have more time in Reykjavik.
We spent a little more time in the general vicinity of the church walking down streets and taking some pictures. If you don’t believe me about the weather, you can see just from these next few images how drastically different they look from the one above.
Looking down a side street from the church, we spotted our first rainbow of the day.
Looking back up at the church from down the street.
My beautiful bride near the church – it had just stopped raining.
A Change of Plans
After 15-30 minutes of exploring we decided to head back to the hotel and get some breakfast. The food was quite good, and while nothing too crazy, it had some nice Icelandic touches. Locally made Rye bread, fresh fish (which Christina had 2 servings of!) and an Icelandic yogurt called Skyr. We found the Skyr quite good and look forward to eating more of it along our trip!
Breakfast!
After breakfast, the plan was to join a free walking tour and learn all there was to know about the history of the city. However, after I accidentally fall asleep several times at the table, we decided it was probably better to rest instead. Christina checked with the front desk at the hotel and thankfully they already had our room ready (it was barely 10:00am at this point). We took a quick 2-3 hour nap and woke up invigorated and ready to continue exploring the city.
Exploration!
We did a quick drive around some of the city to get a feel for it. Eventually, we ended up parking and exploring on foot. One of the main roads, Laugavegur, is known as a main shopping road for tourists, so we headed there first.
Along the way, we passed by a lake (Reykjavíkurtjörn) where the locals feed a number of ducks and swans. Part of lake is frozen over right now, and Christina and I got a kick out of watching the birds slip and slide as they went from one person to the next looking for more food.
Ducks and Swans slipping around on the ice looking to be fed.
We continued to explore around the heart of Reykjavik seeing lots of interesting shops, restaurants and architecture on the way. We stopped briefly for some outstanding crepes during our exploration well.
As we are learning to expect, our sunshine turned into snow briefly on our walk.
Trying on Icelandic furs and Icelandic wool sweaters
A look back out over Reykjavíkurtjörn… once again you can see the Hallgrimskirkja steeple in the center.
We ended our day with a trip to try and see the northern lights. There’s a cute lighthouse at the very edge of the peninsula that’s supposed to be good for viewing the Aurora. Unfortunately, the mix of cloud cover and low solar activity meant no luck on our first Aurora outing, but we’re hopeful to see something, particularly as we head out into some more rural parts of the country this week.
Today, we hit up the Golden Circle, enjoy some relaxation in a geothermal pool and make our way down to the Vik on the southern coast. Here’s a map if you’re interested in seeing the route.