Exploring Reykjavik

Hallgrimskirkju Cathedral

The view from the tower.

The old harbour.

North Atlantic Puffins.

The massive organ.

Sunday, August 13th

From the airport I took a 50 minute FlyBus shuttle to Reykjavik, and my prebooked guesthouse, the Aurora. En route the peninsula around the airport was a vast, flat, treeless, lava area. As we approached the city there began to be trees and a hillier terrain. When I arrived at 7am, I asked if I could leave my bag as I couldn't check in until 2. I was pleasantly surprised that the lady told me to help myself to the provided breakfast.

As I sat eating I finally felt like I am officially on holiday. It's been a long time coming, as I had dreamed and planned this trip for years and now I am in a country where I am immersed in a multitude of languages and I cannot read or understand any of the signs around me as they are written in Icelandic. The national currency is the Iceland Krona and one Canadian dollar will get you about 84 Krona.

I left the guesthouse and walked the short distance to the very impressive Hallgrimskirkju Cathedral situated on a hill overlooking the city. I purchased a lift ticket and went up 9 floors to the tower which provided excellent views over the city and the harbour.

From there I walked down the street to the old harbour. As it was Sunday morning the city was very quiet. I came across a display of large display of same sex couples posing in various areas of Iceland as part of their Pride Weekend celebration, which ends today. The harbour used to be a fishing harbour but has been taken over by tourist excursions.

One of the things I was hoping to see in Iceland was puffins. I decided to buy a ticket with one of the tour operators offering one hour trips to the breeding islands just outside the harbour. It was a nice boat that carried about 30 people. We visited a couple of outlying islands where we saw puffins outside their dens, floating on the water and flying back and forth. They are very appealing birds. I put my new camera to the test, but it is hard to zoom in and get good shots from a rocking boat.

After that I wandered back through this city of 220 000 people to my guesthouse. I checked in and was assigned to another small building around the corner. It seems I have the room to myself, at least for tonight. I edited my puffin photos and then decided to attend an organ recital at the cathedral. The concert was great, the organist was an American and he played five pieces by American composers. The organ is massive and I was left wondering how anyone constructs such an instrument. The playing and the acoustics were amazing. Interesting to note, because the organ is at the back of the cathedral the pews have reversible backs, so that the assembly can face the front for services or the back for recitals.

I wore shorts most of the day, although I wore my rain jacket over my fleece and my Australian toque for upper body warmth. I put on my zipped legs for the evening.

When that finished, at 6:30 I went to a small grocery store and purchased a sandwich and a drink for dinner and headed back to the room. I spent the rest of the evening editing, typing and reading.

Not a bad first day, considering I've had about six hours of sleep the last two nights. Time to catch up.