EEEK! We FINALLY were able to go on a big, summer family vacation! I bought tickets for us to go to Iceland last November but when I purchased them, I had no idea what the Covid world would be like in August of 2021. It wasn't the best timing, but three out of four of us were (are) vaccinated, and since about 95% of our trip was going to be outdoors in the middle of nowhere, we decided to go for it.
Mandatory masks on the plane! You either wore an N95 (which I was struggling to breathe in) or you could double up on triple layer or filtered masks. I think we actually saw or encountered more people on the flights to and from Iceland than most of the rest of our trip!
Of course, you had to take your mask off when you had an adult beverage.
Todd fell asleep pretty quickly, and Grant was playing on the iPad. Natalie had just closed her eyes when I looked out the window and saw THIS. I almost changed our trip to winter just to see these, but I'm glad I didn't. All Northern Light photo's were taken by Natalie's iPhone which has a better camera!
It's funny because they didn't actually look like this. You can very easily see them, but they aren't as green as they appear here.
Todd was sleeping but I had to wake him up to see this! Not only did we get to see the Northern Lights, but it was also the peak night for the Perseid meteor shower and I saw NINE shooting stars!
Eventually, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise on approach to Keflavik airport. You can see Snæfellsjökull National Park peaking through the clouds.
We landed on the tarmac and took the bus to the terminal just as the sun was rising.
Who here is tired?!? Let's go get our luggage.
There were a ton of quirky little statues and signs between the airport and our apartment in Reykjavik. I appreciate that.
All I know is that I did one of the smartest things I've ever done when traveling. I noticed that our apartment was available on AirBnB the night before we arrived, so I asked the host if I could book it. But I couldn't book it through AirBnB because it was going to try to charge me the cleaning and service fees again (for one night!) So she agreed and only charged me $40! Best decision ever, because we got to the apartment around 9ish and CRASHED.
But after a 2.5 hour nap, Todd ran out to the Bonus and grabbed us a feast of bread, salami, cheese, strawberries and paprika chips, which we ate for lunch before heading out to see the city. We all missed Lays paprika chips a LOT. We used to buy those at the Edeka all the time. Todd reminded us that it was the first snack we ever ate when we moved to Germany. Sniff sniff.
We finally ventured out into the city! Can you believe this weather?
Reykjavik isn't a huge city but it actually does have some really good street art.
Our first stop was probably the most famous stop in all of Reykjavik, the Hallgrímskirkja!
In front of Hallgrímskirkja sits a statue of Iceland's most famous explorer, Leif Eriksson (or, errr... Leifr Eirícsson if I was Icelandic!) These three are pretty decent explorers, too.
Leif Eriksson is known for being the first European to set foot in North America (although admittedly... half of Iceland sits on the North American tectonic plate, so maybe someone else was the first?) But Leif first landed in North America (he called it Vinland) around 1000 AD. Interestingly, no one quite knows where he landed. Some say it was Newfoundland, and some even say it was around Boston! It's likely that it was in the Newfoundland/Labrador area though. Leif was, of course, the actual first European to land in North America as he did so about 500 years before Columbus.
The statue of our pal Leif was actually a gift from America in 1930 to celebrate the 1000th anniversary (what?) of Iceland's first parliament at Thingvellir in 930! In Icelandic, that is spelled Þingvellir - and we will have more about this cool national park in another post!
I will probably mention it a few times, but this trip was not like ANY other we have done before, and hopefully not like any other we will take in the future. See that tower? You can go to the top for a fee. In an elevator. Nope. Not right now. We missed out on the best views in all of Reykjavik because of stupid Covid. Oh well. Moving on.
Let's take a family selfie in front of Hallgrímskirkja before we go inside, shall we? After all, it IS the largest church in Iceland! Superlative, check! It's not the tallest building, however. That superlative belongs to Smáratorg 3, which is in the southern part of the city. It's just a 20 story office building!
This church took 41 years to build, and this pipe organ was built in Germany.
Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran church, and a modern one at that, so you will not find a lot of ornate decorations like you might in an old Catholic cathedral. We spent about 3-4 minutes in here, even though you can see it wasn't crowded. Our goal was not to spend a lot of time indoors, anywhere.
These three are goofing off in front of the Hallgrímskirkja, as usual. Grant is wearing a Bruins shirt (ahem... go Bolts!) and some guy stopped him and said with a thick accent, "Go Bruins!"
Just across the street from the church is a restaurant with a traditional grass covered roof on it. This is known as a turf house. During and after the Settlement days, turf was used to insulate the homes - although today it's used mostly for nostalgia since Iceland has an incredible heating system (known as geothermal heating!) Turf homes were popular in Iceland for over a thousand years, though!
Although not as spectacular as some of the others, it's important to always take note of the manhole covers in Europe, because you know I love them so much! This symbol is all over Reykjavik since it is the Reykjavik Coat of Arms. It was only designed in 1951 but it shows the throne pillars of Ingolfr Árnarson, the first permanent settler of Iceland. More on him in another post, of course!
In Reykjavik, a lot of the buildings have corrugated metal covering the actual structure. This acts as a protective cover over the wood that's beneath it (if the building is old enough - wood is not used in construction anymore). Otherwise it's just a way to beat the harsh Icelandic winters. It's also low maintenance and it's useful because they don't have a lot of natural resources to use in construction anyway.
This is another example of the corrugated sheet metal that covers many structures in Reykjavik.
Rainbow Road hasn't always been a permanent feature in Reykjavik. It's been painted this way for Reykjavik Pride, a celebration held for the LGBTQ community since 1999 - but in 2019, they permanently painted this section of Skólavörðustígur Street and it's been here ever since. The residents - and even the mayor - participated in the painting of the road.
The kids loved the Rainbow Road and the (um) bustling Skólavörðustígur (which is the actual name of the road here) - and I gotta be honest, I have no idea how to pronounce that, and I'm not even going to try.
This is Hannes Hafstein in front of the Prime Minister's office. He was the first actual Icelandic Minister under Home Rule - meaning he was the first Minister who actually was based in Iceland (rather than Denmark.) More on this in another post, too! Can we take a moment to appreciate the flora here though?
Hey, it's our little friend from Germany!
Austurstræti is also known as "East Street." It's one of the oldest parts of the city.
They're super proud of this museum. Sounds about right. Naturally they bragged that it was the biggest in the world. (Ok, ok... it's the ONLY one in the world!)
Austurstræti 16 is one of the most well known buildings in the old town area. It's currently a hotel and restaurant. The state architect of Iceland Guðjón Samúelsson designed this building in the early 1900s after the fire of 1915. It's known as the Apotek, which of course is because it was once a pharmacy. This building was one of the first of it's kind, and many buildings in the city were modeled after it.
Natalie and Grant in Austurvöllur - a public square in Reykjavik which faces the Parliament building (not shown here.) I took another picture and Grant had his hand in front of his face, so eyes closed is the best that I could do here. This is why you take five pictures to get one good one, which I clearly didn't do! Anyway, the flowers were SO pretty in this park!
Interestingly, while Hallgrímskirkja is the most well known or sought out church in Reykjavik, this is actually the Reykjavik Cathedral - also a Lutheran church, built in the 1780s-1790s. We couldn't go inside because they were having a funeral (notice the hearse in the bottom right corner.)
And THIS unassuming building is just the Icelandic parliament!
I love how LGBTQ friendly Reykjavik and Iceland are. Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, Iceland's first female prime minister (2009-2013) was the world's first openly LGBTQ head of government. She and her wife Jónína Leósdóttir were joined in a civil union in 2002, and married in 2010 when same-sex marriage was legalized here. This walkway leads to city hall, and crosses over Tjörnin lake. Tjörnin means "lake or pond."
Ok I'm not even kidding... this is my FAVORITE STATUE OF ALL TIME. This one is called, "Monument to the Unknown Bureaucrat." As a couple of faceless bureaucrats ourselves, we appreciate this wholeheartedly (well, I do anyway!)
After we were down at Tjörnin lake, we made our way back into the city. This picture is pretty spectacular. Neither of my kids have their eyes open and who knows if mine are open because I have sunglasses on. I'd like to say that this was accidental...and it absolutely was on Natalie's part. However, Todd took three pictures and Grant's eyes were closed in all three pictures so he was obviously doing that on purpose.
Hallgrímskirkju with Rainbow Road leading to it. I feel like this is almost the yellow brick road, leading to Emerald City!
All right, all right... you can have some ice cream before dinner. We really missed European ice cream shops that do not sell any type of peanut ice cream.
We finally started to make our way back to the apartment, heading up Laugavegar Street. Natalie wanted to participate in the street art. Hey that 3 is backwards!
Not to be outdone by his sister... although he's entirely in FRONT of the start line.
Eeek, I love this building!
Get out... this is a building that I need to color with a medium point Paper Mate flair pen.
Todd ran into a restaurant to grab us some Doner and pizza and I took this picture down the street toward the northern coast of Reykjavik.
Laugavegar Street is funny. Nope. No, I don't.
THERE'S POLAR BEARS ATTACKING MY KIDS. Oh wait. There are no polar bears in Iceland.
This baby bottle of Makers is almost $85 USD. I'm glad I bought mine for way less than half of that in the Logan Airport duty free shop. Todd took this pic when he went to the state run liquor store - the only place you can get alcohol in Iceland. You cannot buy it in the grocery stores (like the Bonus). If you don't buy it at the state-run liquor store, you can buy it at the duty free before you leave America, or you can purchase it at the duty free at Keflavik airport. There are only 54 state-run liquor stores in the entire country!
That's all we have for now... but stay tuned for another post on our final day in Reykjavik!
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