Our flight from JFK to Reykjavík took just under 5 hours on Delta.  When we boarded, DW and I had the only two seats in our Comfort+ row (aisle and aisle).  At the last minute they put two young children next to me, with their mother several rows behind.  That wasn’t going to work for anybody [!] so I gave my seat to the mother and I moved over to the window next to DW.  We still had an empty in the middle, so it was a nice roomy [and quiet] flight.

Moving through Customs and baggage claim at KEF went smoothly and our driver Sigi was waiting for us.  The ride into the city took 45 minutes and DW dozed for a good bit of it.  [It’s amazing that she can’t sleep on planes, but the minute she gets in a car or bus she’s out like a light.]

One is not overwhelmed by flora in Iceland.  Its beauty lies in its ruggedness.  The architecture out near the airport is simple and utilitarian.  There was a hint of graffiti (certainly more so in the city).  There were also some curious rock formations that looked like cairns as imagined by Giacometti [we later learned that they are indeed sculptures, called “Stone Trolls” or “Silent Sentinels,” by an Icelandic artist].

Arriving at our hotel [Konsulat by Hilton] well before 8 am, our room was not ready but we were invited to have breakfast.  That helped.  [This was in addition to the free breakfast we were entitled to the next day – very classy move by Hilton.]

Our room was available before 9:30 so it gave DW a chance for another nap. I caught up with email before we headed out.  We bundled up as temps here were in the 50s and overcast [as opposed 90 as we left NY].

We walked over 5 miles exploring Reykjavík, basically following the Rick Steves Reykjavík Walk.  We started in Ingolfur’s Square, where they have stone pillars that recreate the carved wooden pillars that the first settler of Iceland, Ingolfur Arnason, threw off his ship so that the gods could show him where to settle.  Three years later the slaves he sent to find them ended up in a “smoky bay” [translation of Reykjavík; named for the thermal vapors in the area].

[Also note the Icelandic custom for names.  You have a given name [first name], but instead of a family name you take your father’s name and add –son [or dottir, as the case may be].  So Ingolfur Arnason was the son of Arni, and his son was named Thorsteinn Ingolfsson.  This is still used in many Icelandic families, which makes it hard to keep track of who is related to whom [just like in a Russian novel…]

Then we wandered in and out of narrow streets, past colorful houses [painted brightly to cheer the locals in the dreary winter], some with wood siding but many with vertical, corrugated metal to withstand the cold and wind and resist fire.

We descended below street level to visit the digs of The Settlement Exhibition, where they have uncovered the remains of a 10th century longhouse and farmstead.  A couple of doors down the street is the one-story Black House, originally built around 1760 for the textile industry.  Here we saw an extensive photo exhibit depicting life around 1900 including the effects of the dreadful Spanish Influenza.

On we went to City Hall—2 glass buildings surrounded almost entirely by water teeming with ducks [but no Canada geese, thank God].  Its lower lobby had an immense topographic floor map of Iceland that was helpful to visualize our coming itinerary.  [And which, even more amazingly, was gone when we went back a week later.  It was so big and substantial-looking that we were amazed they could store it away as needed.]

Reykjavík is very small for a capital city, and this really comes out in Austurvöllur, Iceland’s Parliament Square.  This is a small square, and on the south side is a small building that houses the AlÞingi, the ‘world’s oldest parliament.’ [Note the odd letter: the Icelandic alphabet has 32, but most of the added ones are pronounced ‘th’ – I can see them now, sitting around the fire during a long medieval winter, thinking “this will really confuse tourists in the 21st century!”]

Next to the parliament building is the small but well cared for Lutheran Cathedral [Dómkirkjan], which would be overwhelmed in size by the newer Hallgrimskirkja church on the hill.

Leaving the old town area, we walked past the Prime Minister’s office [a converted jail, and nowhere near as fancy as the stores around it – there is a new jail, but it houses mostly white collar criminals – we were told that there are no gangs and very little violent crime in Iceland] and up the main shopping street to the big new church on the highest hill in Reykjavík.  

Hallgrimskirkja church was designed in the 1930s to one-up the Catholics, who had just built their Cathedral on the second-highest hill on the other side of town.  From a distance it looks like a sand castle, but up close one sees that it resembles basalt columns, which would relate to the volcanic history of Iceland.  The inside is austere, but was warmed up during our visit by an organist practicing for a concert later that week.

Standing in front of the cathedral is a statue of Leifur Eiriksson, which was donated by the US government to mark the AlÞingi’s 1,000th anniversary in 1930.

Across the street, we wandered through the Einar Jonsson sculpture garden.

Since it was such a nice day, we headed down the hill to the water to see the Sun Voyager stainless steel sculpture, which is shaped like the skeleton of a Viking ship.

We continued walking along the water to the Harpa Concert Hall.  Its glass paneled exterior catches the light on a sunny day, but it looked rather dull under the clouds and a sprinkling of rain.  [They offer guided tours that include either a mini-concert or a brief singing demonstration to show off the hall’s great acoustics, but they weren’t available on the days we were there.]

We had noticed that the Windstar Star Breeze cruise yacht was in, so we walked around the Miðbakki old port area to see it.  [We’ll be on her sister ship Star Legend next fall.]

Back to the Konsulat for more sleep before Happy Hour in the lobby and dinner.  They had told us that the hotel offers happy hour with free drinks and food every evening – but during this first stay there was a large group of Diageo liquor sales reps and they had reserved the bar area for a private function so the hotel hadn’t set anything up for the other customers.  I just wanted a quick glass of wine, but when we asked about the happy hour they immediately started preparing a tray of sushi.  [We don’t like sushi, but after all their trouble we felt compelled to try a little.  It didn’t kill me, but I still don’t care for it.]

The hotel desk got us a reservation at Grillmarkaðurinn restaurant, a rustic cave-like place with really good food.  We shared two of their signature dishes:  a trio of mini-sliders (minke whale, puffin, langoustine), then ‘The Fish Gourmet’ sampler platter with ocean perch with crab, arctic char with pesto, and cod with langoustine.  It was all yummy.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•