Reykjavik, Iceland (Day 2)

Our flight back to Boston didn't leave until 5 pm, so we had the morning to stroll around Iceland, grab some lunch and then head to the airport.  We had to be out of our AirBnB before that, so we tossed the suitcases in the car and decided to finally take that Free Reykjavik Walking Tour!

I know I've said this before about so many places we have visited, but you MUST take these free walking tours because they're chock-full of history and interesting facts, and never more than 2 hours long.  We met up with the tour in Austurvöllur, which is a pretty square that is surrounded by the new Parliament building and the Cathedral.

Our friendly guide was Eric - not his real name.  Actually it WAS his name, but it was short for a MUCH longer Icelandic name that he declared would be on the test at the end of the tour (Eiríkur Viljar Hallgrímsson Kúld - phew!)

Our first stop was the location of the original church (Víkurkirkja), which had been located on the Aðalstræti since the beginning of Christianity (or so it's thought - the first record of it was around 1200).  There had also been a cemetery here, but when the church was heavily damaged in a big earthquake in 1784, the re-construction of the church led to the discovery of more graves.  So it was decided that they would move the new Cathedral down the street a few blocks.  This picture is where the original altar of the church had been.

You will find colorful, corrugated iron buildings all over Reykjavik.  This material arrived in Iceland sometime in the mid 1800s and it was placed over existing homes as an added layer of protection from the harsh Icelandic elements. Look at those doors!

There's a little area around Mjóstræti (street) that has a lot of examples of structures that were built before the Great Fire of 1915.  The Great Fire destroyed much of the city center, but this area was spared, including the home in the picture above this one.

If I lived in Reykjavik, I would definitely have blue corrugated iron on my house!  The building on the left is actually a super cool B&B.  Next time!

Hey, there's a little Viking boat on top of that building! Our next stop was Ingólfur Square, which is named after Iceland's' first settler, Ingólfur Arnarson, who settled here in Reykjavik back in the late 800s.  More on him in a bit!

Ingólfur Square is the home of the city's Christmas market (although obviously not in August) in which they set up a big ice skating rink.  Maybe Grant is pretending to ice skate here!  All measurements and building numbers around Reykjavik are measured from this square.

Austurstræti is the "main street" of Reykjavik and it extends out from Ingólfur Square.  This is where you'll find most of the shops and restaurants.

Including the American Bar.  What???  The best part is that they consider themselves a sports bar and then basically just show a lot of premier league soccer games ha ha.  Their website says, "American Bar captures the American spirit; land of the free -, home of the brave" (Queue eye roll!)

Moving on.... we made our way toward Arnarhóll, which is across the street from the Prime Minister's office.  The current Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir lives in her own home, but she works in this unassuming building.  The office of Prime Minister is the most powerful in all of Iceland (above the President, which is largely ceremonial.)  Interestingly, they also do not have term limits as long as their party has majority support in Parliament.

Over on Arnarhóll, there is a statue of Iceland's first settler and favorite son, Ingólfr Arnarson.  Eric was funny - he said the people who made this statue ensured that Arnarson was shown as an incredibly handsome Viking - even though there are no pictures or drawings of him!

Arnarson was the first European settler, but it's believed that Irish monks seeking solitude had already been on the island of Iceland (which they called Thule) - and they promptly fled the island when the Pagans arrived.  He named the city Reykjavik, which means, "Smoke Cove."

The National Theater (the gray building on the right) and the Culture House Museum are two really unique looking buildings.  The National Theater was designed to look like it had volcanic basalt columns on the façade.

Polar bears aren't even native to Iceland and they don't actually have any in the entire country although sometimes they show up on the northern shoreline. But I'm glad this guy has his mask on!

I needed to see my favorite statue EVER one more time, the Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat. Being a civil servant is a thankless job.

Eric ended our tour down at Tjörnin Pond and pointed us toward the Reykjavik City Hall so we could use the public bathrooms and check out the REALLY big relief map of Iceland!

The topographic map of Iceland is over 75 square feet!  

From the Reykjavik city website (and the placard on the wall in the room), "The model is in the scale of 1: 50,000 but the elevation is double so that the height scale is 1: 25,000."  I found that VERY interesting!  The contour intervals are 20 feet.

The model took over 17 "man" years to make - four men took more than four years to make this.  It's also mounted on mobile frames so it can be moved out of the room if the city needs the space for meetings.  Above is the area near Vik and the Dyrhólaey Peninsula that we were at only a few days before this!

After our city hall bathroom and map break, we walked by the Cathedral one more time.  I wanted to go in, but we were on a tight schedule as we needed to get some lunch before we drove to the airport.

And where did we go for lunch?  Well naturally, we hit up the Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur for some traditional Icelandic hot dogs!  This little stand has been around since 1937!

They're quite proud that former President Clinton made a visit here - and I thought that was super funny.  

The term "Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur" means "The Best Hot Dog in Town."  You can get it with ketchup, sweet mustard, fried onion, raw onion and remolaði, a mayonnaise-based sauce with sweet relish.

It's a popular little stand, but the kids did NOT want hot dogs.  What makes these dogs so special?  They're made of (errr, mostly) lamb!  I didn't notice an overly lamby taste... I thought it was really good!

Grant wanted no part of it... he just wanted to get Subway.

So of course, we had to go get Subway for the kids.  As we walked up toward Hallgrimskirkja, we passed this store which was across the street from the Prime Minister's house.  More corrugated metal and I just love that little balcony up top!

These crazy kids chose Subway for lunch.  Of ALL the things they could eat in Iceland, including hot dogs!  Natalie was reminded that European Subway shops do not have ranch dressing!

I didn't want to wait inside of Subway as I was not paying, and I had already eaten, so I waited outside and captured this really cool photo of one of the flower planters with Hallgrimskirkja in the distance!

Alas, it was time to head toward Keflavik to return our rental car and get to the airport.  Here we are entering Reykjanesbaer, an area made up of three towns -  Keflavík, Njarðvík and the village of Hafnir.

And we had to stop and get gas in the rental car.  The kids wanted me to take a pic of the Bonus pig, which they enjoyed and laughed at the entire week.  Is that pig drunk???

We returned the rental car and made it through the check in line and security before getting into the terminal.  Exit to Iceland... does this mean I can stay?  Do I have to go home???

The flooring in the spot where we stopped to wait until they announced our gate had some kind of tiles designed to look like faux pebbles and I thought that was pretty cool.

I... don't have a lot of words for this one. But thanks?

I ran back to grab some Coke Zero for the flight (ugh, Iceland Air has Pepsi products!) and I grabbed a Gull while I was at it.  I miss this about Europe.  They just cracked it open for me at the convenience store and I walked away with it!  Also, I've been to all of the destinations above my head, and I would not have minded hopping on LH2469 at this point.

We camped out here before they announced our gate...

...which turned out to be 12 miles away from where we were waiting, and the line was a mile long, no exaggeration!

The airport workers PROMISED all of us that they would hold all flights (it didn't matter for us because our flight hadn't started boarding when we got through passport control.)  Meanwhile, they also had to remind us of what we were leaving behind (Seljalandsfoss!)

Bailey's boarding the flight home to Boston.

Iceland Air isn't serving meals right now, except for small boxes for kids like, 10 and under, which somehow Grant qualified for.  He actually ate it all up!  It was a crustless turkey and cheese, a Babybel and an orange carrot juice!

Todd ALWAYS winds up sitting behind someone who wants to put their seat all the way back.  Well after ALL these years of traveling together, we finally got smart and had me sit in front of him because I NEVER put my seat back.  Of course, the guy in front of me did and it left me with NO space. I don't know how normal sized people travel.

I had purchased some cinnamon rolls in the airport for the kids - "Grant, smile!"  (He was making this face on purpose. I'm not sure what he was even looking at!)

There were no Northern Lights on the way home, but the clouds sure were pretty.

After we landed, I took this picture of the route we flew from my PlaneFinder app!  

And after we landed, we entered the 3rd dimension of hell - passport control at Logan Airport.  There were a number of international flights that landed roughly at the same time and they crammed us all in this windowless, stuffy, hot room.  During a pandemic.  We spent the entire trip avoiding humans only to come back to THIS.  We were so mad.  If we were gonna get Covid (we didn't, yay!) it would have definitely been from this place.

We finally got through passport control (which was weird not having to show two passports or explain how we were Americans living in Germany!) and headed for the car.  The trip was officially over, and we were THRILLED to take off our masks!

Until next time, Iceland!

Thingvellir National Park, Iceland

 We took a day to go back to Thingvellir and I really loved the story behind this national park!

Grant looks thrilled to be alive.  Everyday, the other three of us had either Bonus (supermarket) sandwiches or we made some with bread, meats and cheeses - you know, Rick Steves style!  Grant though?  Bread and butter. On this day, we picnicked in the back of the car in the parking lot of Thingvellir National Park.

When you first arrive at Thingvellir National Park, there is a visitor's center you can check out with a video presentation (we skipped it- naturally it was indoors.) But outside has a nice relief map to help you get your bearings. This map nerd (ME) loves a good table sized relief map!  This really gave the kids a good idea of how flat Iceland is in some areas, and how mountainous it is in other areas!  

Nearby to the visitor's center, there's a beautiful lookout spot that overlooks Þingvallavatn, or Thingvellir Lake.

At about 1,300 square kilometers, Thingvellir Lake is the largest natural lake in all of Iceland.  Superlative, check!

Also, down in the floodplain, you can spot the Prime Minister's summer home along the Öxará River, along with a church from the mid 1800s.  Conveniently, this park is also the location where Iceland converted to Christianity back in 1000 AD.

Thingvellir National Park is also the home to the rift between the North American and Eurasian plates.  Although we saw an example of this in another part of Iceland a few days before this, it's all connected.  Interestingly, the gravel trail here used to be at ground level but in 2011, a hole formed in the trail.  The investigation found that there was a 10 meter deep fault beneath the trail, so the excavated it (it was full of large boulders) and built the bridge above it so they could stabilize the trail and connect it to the parking lot and visitor's center.  Rain, snowmelt and earthquakes all contributed to the subsidence here.

Almannagjá is the largest of the gorges in Thingvellir National Park and you can walk right through it!

Bailey family selfie in the Almannagjá rift, which separates North America from Eurasia.

I almost felt like it was like Disney World... where they can make the fakest scene look pretty real... but there's no glamorization here.  The land is all just as it is!  They often have earthquakes in this area, but we did not feel any.

Grant says, "Follow me through the rift and I will take you to the waterfalls!"

I apologize but I might mention a few hundred times how pretty the landscape is here. There's lots of little walkways and incredibly clear water. Although I'm not sure how that summer home of the Prime Minister is gonna fare with climate change!

Follow the paths and there's some really nice viewpoints as you head north to the Öxarárfoss waterfall.  Here, the kids are overlooking Snorri's Booth.  When people traveled from all over Iceland to attend the Althing, they stayed in these "booths" which were shelters people stayed in for their two week attendance each summer session at Parliament.  They have found remnants of over 50 booths here at Thingvellir National Park.  This particular one, although built on top of older ones, likely dates back to the 17th or 18th century.

The Drekkingarhylur, or Drowning Pool (which this little waterfall drains from) was where 18 executions (all women) took place between about 1618 to 1749.  They were tied up in a sack, pushed underwater and held there until they died.  Incest and infanticide were the most common reason for executions at Thingvellir.  The Great Edict in 1564 said that men should be beheaded and women should be drowned, so about 30 men were also beheaded between about 1600 and 1750.  

Thankfully there is a nice walkway that leads you down to Öxarárfoss, another beautiful waterfall.  Because waterfalls are infinitely better than executions.

Öxarárfoss is a 44 foot waterfall and believe it or not, it was actually artificially created hundreds of years ago to provide a clean source of water for Parliament when they met annually here in the summer.  The actual channel was a bit west of here, according to geologists.

Bailey family selfie at Öxarárfoss!

While we were here, a seagull came by and grabbed a fish RIGHT out of the water at the base of the first fall right there. Pretty cool!

Downstream of Öxarárfoss, the Öxará River flows down to Drekkingarhylur, and then down to Thingvellir Lake. Öxará translates to "Axe."

And it was back on the boardwalk to go visit the church and the Prime Minister's house!  The boardwalk is in great shape and it wasn't crowded at all.

One of the COOLEST things about Thingvellir National Park is that it is the original home of the Alþingi, or Althing.  The Althing is the national Parliament of Iceland and it occurred here (in various forms) from 930 to 1799 making it the OLDEST Parliament in the world!  The site was likely chosen because there was fresh drinking water, room for the livestock to feed, and firewood to stay warm (could have fooled me on that one... there's very few trees here!)

This site was the actual site of the "Thing" or Parliament from 930 to 1262, after which Iceland entered into a union with Norway and thus the two countries were joined.  Iceland gained peace and free trade in exchange for the taxes they paid to the Norwegian king.  Norway united with Denmark in 1326, but when the Kalmar Union between Norway, Sweden and Denmark was dissolved in 1523, Icelandic rule shifted to Denmark.  However, the agreement lasted in various forms until 1944 when Iceland became a Republic.  This location was still extremely important from 1262 to 1798 as it was still the site of legislative (Lögrétta) decision making and the judicial (Jónsbók) court of law - although the king's magistrates had all of the power to actually make those judicial rules.

Such an idyllic view of the church that was consecrated in 1859 and a cute little wooden bridge over the floodplain.

I'm not sure if you can see it, but this water was SO insanely clear!

As I mentioned, Christianity was adopted in Iceland around 1000 AD, and shortly thereafter, the first church was built nearby to here- although they believe a church only has existed on this precise site since about 1500.

There is a small graveyard at the Thingvellir church, as well as a few other graves up on a nearby hill where two poets are buried.

The doors to the church were locked, but we could peak inside the windows of the small, cozy church. The pulpit is from 1683 and the painting on the wall behind it, which you can't see very well because I'm so short and I just threw my camera up to the window and hoped for the best, was painted by local farmer Ófeigur Jónsson in 1834.

Todd isn't as old as any of the bells in that bell tower, but one is so old, that no one really knows how old it is - although some say it's from the Middle Ages.  The sign in front of the church says it's "simply old."   Another dates back to 1697 as a gift from bishop Jón Vídalín and another dates back to 1944 - the year of Icelandic Independence.

It's so pretty!

Right next to the church is the summer residence of the Prime Minister of Iceland (although she wasn't currently in residence as it's mostly used for receptions held by the Ministry.)  It was built in 1930 and originally only had 3 gables.  In 1974, two more were added on - one for the local park ranger, and one for the local priest. 

There is also a small cemetery in front of the church (and the Prime Minister's summer home) where former priests of the church or members of abandoned local farms are buried.

On the way back to the parking lot, we enjoyed the beautiful floodplain and clear waters along the way.

But meanwhile, this was going on....  These two were playing a game where one closed their eyes and the other one led them.  Grant was thirsty, so Natalie was giving him some water.

I still can't get over how beautiful this park was.

Seems safe. One at a time, please!

Looking back from the bridge toward the church and Prime Minister's summer residence.

Bailey family selfie at Thingvellir National Park.

Quiet, clear floodplains.  Don't throw your money in here though, because it messes with the ecosystem of the river. 

Grant and I followed Natalie and Todd back up the stairs to Almannagjá rift.

Grant, turn around so I can take your picture!

Just a few Bailey's walking between continents. No big deal.

The kids spotted this caterpillar, so we gently picked him up (with a stick) and moved him to the other side of the gravel walkway.

Sometimes they are friends.  Sometimes.

The kids were not allowed to play the closed-eye game here because I was certain one of them would lead the other off that cliff to the left.

Todd taking one last look down into the crevasse between continents.

The continental drift in 1000 years will be in the souvenir shop HA.

We headed back to Reykjavik for dinner, but stopped by the apartment for a little happy hour first.  Todd reminded us all that Paprika Lays were the first snack we ever had when we moved to Germany in 2015.  Then we all got sad!  They were still as yummy as ever!

We headed into the city to grab some dinner and treats, stopping along the busy Skólavörðustígur.

The ice cream shop was randomly closed, so we ran into a convenience store to get some Kit Kat's (the European Kit Kat's are the only ones Grant can have!) and of course... Kinder Surprises!

Todd and I were really craving some fish and chips, so we put in an order at Reykjavik Street Food and waited inside while the kids waited outside.  I mean, you can't go to Iceland without having some fish, right?!?!

The fish and chips did NOT disappoint!  An excellent choice for a quick, easy and delicious meal!  It wasn't even soggy after we took it back to the apartment to eat it!

Until next time, Thingvellir National Park!