Reykjavík - on our own!

Beautiful morning. Enjoyed a sleep-in and slow breakfast looking out at the view.

Have finished my Burial Rites book by Hannah Kent about a woman on a remote farm in the 1800s condemned to die for a murder.

I had earlier in the trip been reading one of the Martin Beck series of mysteries by the Swedish crime writing duo Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö: Roseanna. This was about a murder on one of the boats on the Göta Canal, specifically Lake Vattern. I know: the Göta Canal seems a long time ago … the book was quite intriguing.

Took a free shuttle bus from the pier to the HARPA Concert Hall which was opened in 2011. It has received numerous awards, both for its architecture and as a concert and conference centre - and seems to be the pride and joy of the locals as it is a symbol of their resilience when the 2008 GFC sent the country into bankruptcy. The Icelandic populace was divided between having a half-finished construction site facing their downtown - a humiliating reminder of their country’s financial state - or spending money no-one was sure they had.

After checking-in (our very nice room was ready early!!!), we took the bus to PERLAN. 

Amazing! (Also amazing is that I managed the bus ticketing technology using the Klappid card - had to use my ingenuity and ring David back home to get the code sent to HIS phone as mine wouldn’t accept it as E-Sim seems to block these).

The technology used in the exhibits at the museum was just out of this world. The Ice Cave was -15 deg C (that’s MINUS); glad I had my puffer jacket!

The planetarium for the Northern Lights exhibition will be the closest I get to seeing these! (too early here for the real thing as too much light still - September would have been OK).

Fun fact: hot water is drawn from geothermal wells deep down in the earth: power bills here are SUPER CHEAP!

Plus an exhibit showing the Geldingadalir Eruption of 2021 on the Reykjanes Peninsula where we were yesterday: amazing photography!; and great views in 360 degrees from the observation deck.

In amongst all this, we had the drama of MF’s hearing aids which had gone missing when he was standing in the queue for the Northern Lights exhibition. Where were they? On the ground in the museum? On the bus? Back on the boat? 

He decided they were on the bed back at the hotel when he took them off to apply sun screen.

So we relaxed.

We walked back into town (initially via the walkways in the lovely park area surrounding PERLAN)  - rather than try my luck again with the Klappid app for the bus - quit while you are ahead!

It was a lengthy walk but interesting. 

We stopped at the iconic Hallgrimskirkja church at the end of the equally iconic (and by now ubiquitous) Rainbow street. 

The saga of the hearing aids takes another twist … this is very Icelandic as the Islanders speak of the 'sagas' regularly.

On taking off his cap to go inside, MF was handed a set of (2!) hearing aids by a quick-witted woman who saw them on the ground and must have somehow figured they’d come from MF. Now go figure. WE are still trying to work this out and, sitting there in the church, I said to MF he should get down on bended knee and thank God for a miracle.

Afterwards, we were aiming for a restaurant by the harbour I’d read about but Google Maps could not find it; in fact it turned out it no longer exists (despite having an active website - argh!). But I had a Plan B which was very close by and we got our yummy lobster soup for (our by now quite late) lunch - after a wait in a queue.

We returned quite weary to our hotel and had a 15 minute lie-down before exiting once more (armed with beanies and gloves as the wind was ferocious by now and freeezing) for our (late) afternoon excursion: Walk with a Viking - yeah, I know: sounds corny and it WAS!; the guide was a bit odd but we saw a few interesting neighbourhoods. Reykjavík is a very pretty city with lovely architecture. 

We certainly got a glimpse into the Icelandic character … one of our guide’s interesting spiels was about 13 Icelandic Yule Lads; and there is an evil Yule cat too. He told us this outside the Xmas Shop. I DID say it was corny.

I asked our guide for a recommendation for dinner. His suggestion was near our hotel which was convenient as we were feeling stuffed! Turns out he works there and it was a good thing he turned up as the other waiters (whilst very pleasant) were ‘under the pump’ and I thought we’d never get fed. Stefan came to the rescue and in fact we got our first drinks gratis which is great because everything is soooo expensive in Iceland. (FYI a cup of coffee costs $A10).

Walked 14 kms (!).