For those of you who don’t know I am in Iceland with my mother for a week.
It’s a short flight, just 5 hours, from Boston to Reykjavik. Unfortunately neither of us were able to sleep, even though the plane was practically empty and we each had a row to ourselves. While on the plane I read Rick Steves’ Iceland guidebook and learned some interesting facts:
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- Iceland was formed by approximately 130 volcanos between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates. It is located where the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans met, just below the Arctic Circle. About 30 of the volcanos are still active today.
- Iceland is about the size of Maine. More than half of the country is uninhabited tundra. Almost all of its 360,000 residents live near the coastline, and 2/3 of Icelanders live in the capital region of Reykjavik.
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We are going on a tour and our tour operator met us at the airport and delivered us to the hotel in downtown Reykjavik. We couldn’t see much of the landscape during the drive from the airport to the hotel because it was dark at 7:30am. In fact the sun didn’t rise until 10:18am and it will set tonight at 5:03pm, less than 7 hours of daylight. After checking in early at the hotel we had some breakfast and then returned to our room for a nap. Actually I napped but mom couldn’t sleep. We set an alarm so that we didn’t sleep too long. By 11:30 we were ready to tackle Reykjavik!
Once the sun finally rose it was a beautiful sunny day. Someone told us they haven’t had a day like this for weeks. Although it was sunny, it was pretty cold. Based on the weather we decided to go to Hallgrimskirkja Church which has a tower that offers panoramic views of the city. We walked about 3/4 mile from our hotel to the church. We passed lots of restaurants, souvenir shops and brightly painted houses.
In 1929 Reykjavik’s Catholic minority built their church atop the hill and the Lutheran state church leaders felt they needed to keep up with the “Jones.” Hallgrimskirkja is the result. It was designed in the 1930’s, started in 1945, and finished in the 1980’s. The facade recalls Iceland’s volcanic origins. 
The inside is pretty plain other than some amazing organ pipes.
We took the elevator up to the top of the tower for great views of Reykjavik.
We walked along the harbor, looking across the water at beautiful snow covered mountains just across the Reykjavik harbor. We also passed the Sun Voyager Sculpture which commemorate Iceland’s early Viking settlers.
Alittle further along we arrived at relatively new Harpa concert hall. It was started in 2007 and was almost derailed by 2008’s economic crash but ultimately was completed in 2011. On a sunny day like today, the geometric glass façade reflects beautifully on the interior black walls which are a reminder of the island’s petrified lava.
The walls inside the concert hall are magma red.
Our guide showed us how they tune the hall for each performance by adjusting echo chambers. It was a great tour which really explained the architecture and acoustics.
After our tour we walked back to the hotel for a little down time before dinner. We went to a local restaurant for burgers.
The evening was clear so after dinner we walked to the harbor to look for northern lights. We couldn’t see any, maybe they just weren’t there or maybe it was too light. We walked by the concert hall which was lite up with changing colors. Here’s a picture.
