This summer, we've exchanged our traditional summer destination for a chilly and refreshing Iceland - "The Land of Fire and Ice". It was very unusual to pack warm clothes in the middle of the summer, but it was at the same time very exciting, since we were planning this trip for a long time.
All was ready for a 11- days long road trip around Iceland. Reykjavik was our starting and ending point. We arrived at Keflavik airport late in the evening and took a Fly bus to the city (great and convenient option, warmly recommend it for Iceland).
The arrival day was chilly and rainy, a total difference from the 38 degrees Celsius that we left at home. And here it was, the first “specialty” that we were waiting for… the white nights. I’ve already experienced the white nights during my travel to Norway, but it was the first time for my wife and my son (they’ve already experienced the long nights in Finland and now this was just the opposite). Due to flight delays and long travel, we were all tired and went directly to bed the first night. I slept well, while my son insisted that he needs the eye mask to sleep 😉!
It's one o'clock in the morning 😮
The second “specialty“ was waiting for us at our hotel. My wife, was the first one to take the shower, and suddenly I heard her screaming: “Noooo, that smell..it is very strong… yuck”. I immediately remembered what I was reading about the Icelandic capital and the use of geothermal water, which has a smell of sulphur. Reykjavik (and some parts of Iceland) uses both, water from low temperature geothermal fields for direct heating and as hot water in the houses, while it uses the high temperature fields for the production of electricity and its district heating systems.
I must admit that the smell was quite strong, it was the smell of rotten eggs, and we couldn’t get used to 😊.
Next day we were full of energies for a fresh start. We had a large, modest room with a small kitchenette, right next to the famous Reykjavik church. Great locations for walking around the city and to buy our breakfast at nearby grocery shop. As we read before our trip, Iceland is expensive, that is a fact and that is why we were mostly buying our food at the supermarkets.
We walked to the Hallgrimskirkja Church, the most imposing landmark in the city that is visible from almost any part of the city. It is 74,5 meters high. They are saying that from the top, on clear days, you can have a great view of the city, we had cloudy and foggy days in Reykjavik so I can’t tell you how is the view 😊.
We stepped into this Lutheran church, which was surprisingly empty, and all our attention was captured by the might pipe organ. There is no admission fee for the church, just for the tower. The architect who created this masterpiece was always inspired by Iceland’s landscape and nature. He tried to implement natural elements, like the mountains, glaciers, and volcanoes, and in this way he creates an ‘Icelandic style of Architecture’.
In front of the church there is the statue of Icelandic Viking, Leif Eiriksson. He was the first European to set foot on the North American continent around 1,000 AD. The Icelandic sagas are telling that Leifur found North America 500 years before Christopher Columbus.
We made a short walk to the main square Austurvöllur and walked around the cathedral and the parliament house, passing by the town hall and having a short walk around the Tjörnin lake.
It was time for the vivid Laugavegur and Skolavördustigur streets, for some window shopping and stop at one of the numerous cafes. What we absolutely loved were the street paintings, with rainbows and other images.
The time has come for a small snack, and we walked up to the famous bakery Brauð and tasted delicious cinnamon rolls. You just have to try it, it is a must!
And of course the obligatory coffee stop in a lovely bar that looked more like a bookshop😀☕
Our next stop was right on the seashore at the famous statue Sun Voyager. A stainless steel statue that was designed in the mid-1980s to commemorate the bicentenary of the city's constitution.
We head on to the glass building of Harpa concert hall and we turned back in the city to stop at the most popular hot dog place in Reykjavik – BBP (Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur ).
This, family business, hotdog stand became popular after 2004, when Mr. Bill Clinton stopped by and had a hot dog there. I was preparing to take a nice photo of the hotdogs, but my wife and son were so hungry that they almost jumped on the food. It was a good one, nothing special, but worth stopping by and trying it.
The weather changed quickly and there was a rainy afternoon in front of us, so we decided to choose one of the indoor attractions that Reykjavik is offering – "Fly over Iceland". It was awesome 😊. You sit comfortably with your feet dangling and you are suspended in front of a 20-metre spherical screen. On the screen they play great images/ movie of Iceland - special effects, like wind, mist and scents, combined with the rides motion will really give you the impression that you are flying in a plane over the country.
As mentioned already, on the last day of our road trip we returned back to Reykjavik, and we spent the morning at the Perlan museum. It is a great interactive museum, where you can easily spend a few hours. The most fascinating was the planetarium and the explanation about Northern lights, but also the artificial ice cave. It is an ice tunnel—measuring 100 meters in total. To build it, they used 350 tons of snow from the Icelandic mountains. The temperature in the ice cave is kept constant at minus 15 degrees Celsius.
Timelaps of a melting glacier
On the way back to the hotel, we visited the seafront area of the city, including the marina.
Before jumping on our plane home, we had a relaxing afternoon at the Blue Lagoon Spa. For sure, this is one of the most popular attractions in Iceland. The milky blue thermal waters create a great contrast with the black lava stones around the spa. In the vicinity there is also a geothermal power station. A lot of steam will be all around you 😊.
This is not a natural attraction, even if many travel sites list it as a “natural attraction”, but it is fed by runoff water from Svartsengi geothermal power plant. The Spa contains both, seawater, and freshwater of geothermal origin. The water in the lagoon is about 38 degrees Celsius, there are some spots where the hot water enters the pools and it is really hot, on some other locations it is more refreshing. My wife doesn’t like hot water, so she avoided those hot springs 😊. The waters are rich in minerals like silica and sulfur.
We had one drink and one silica mask included in our spa ticket. It is quite funny to get your drink inside the thermal pool, and we had great fun being all white over our faces (with the silica mask). There are many other spa treatments available, but we didn’t have much time, so we just spend our time chilling in the pleasant thermal water.
Overview of Reykjavik area? Reykjavik with Perlan, Fly over Iceland, the city centre and the cinnamon rolls, a big YES, definitely worth to visit it! Blue Lagoon – great, and if you have time, you should add it to your travel map, but if you visit any other Spa in the region, I think that they can be as great as the Blue Lagoon (will write about Myvatn spa in one of my next posts).
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