REYKJAVIK DAY 1

We arrived at the hotel around 9:30am, well before the 2pm check-in time. When we explained to the front desk clerk that we’d just flown in and were extremely tired she said she would see if the cleaners could get a room ready sooner. Yay! We stowed our luggage in the “secure luggage room” – the hall behind the front desk – unfolded our city map, and hit the street. We walked up Laugavegur Street, which is known as the main shopping street in Reykjavik. However, most of the shops were still closed so all we could do is window-shop. When we reached the end of Laugavegur we were feeling peckish and looked for an open café for a snack and a stimulant. I spied an Illy sign so we made a beeline for it. Some coffee and a couple of delicious croissants later, and we were ready for more wandering.

I saw on the map that the Tjornin lake/park was nearby so we headed that way. We were drawn to a very odd modern building on the lake shore. It was closed, however, so we took photos of seagulls and ducks and admired the lake in the morning light. (We learned later that the odd building was the Radhus, or City Hall.) We walked along the length of the lake and then headed up Njarthagata Street toward the Hallgrimskirkja Church, another model of modern architecture. Unfortunately, when we got to the Hallgrimskirkja Church the outside was nearly completely obscured by scaffolding.

The Radhus:


Feeding ducks on Lake Tjornin:


Taking pictures:


We took some photos of the statue of Leifir Eiricsson, located in front of the church, before going inside to admire the arched ceilings and ferocious looking organ pipes. We paid the fee to get access to the church tower, which the Lonely Planet promised offered the best views of Reykjavik, but sadly one side of the tower was blocked off and it was a challenge to get photos from the other side because of all of the scaffolding.

The statue of Leifir Eiricsson in front of Hallgrimskirkja:


View from the top of Hallgrimskirkja:


Taking pictures:


The back of Hallgrimskirkja, the only part not covered in scaffolding:


We were losing energy so we headed down another famous shopping street, Skolavorthustigur, and then back up Laugavegur to our hotel. By this time it was 11:30am and we decided it would be a good idea to provide a little time zone shock therapy to our systems by having lunch. We went to the café next to the hotel but they only had a limited menu. Mom ordered the traditional Icelandic lamb soup while Simone had some tea and bread. I settled for a bottle of Coke. After lunch Simone checked with the front desk clerk to see if our room was ready – and it was! – so we collected our luggage and headed upstairs to our fabulous suite.

Now, we didn’t reserve a suite. We reserved a 3-bed standard hotel room. However, for some reason the front desk clerk took a shine to/pity on us and upgraded us to a suite with a full kitchenette, dining room, and living room. Hot diggity! We didn’t spend much time admiring our surroundings, though – Simone washed her face and Mom and I hit the sack. By the time Simone finished washing her face Mom and I were blissfully unconscious.

We snoozed until late afternoon. We all showered and then headed out on the town in search of a cash machine and dinner. Friday night is the “runtur” or pub crawl in Reykjavik so there were a lot of people on the street looking for places to eat and drink. One pub, Dillons, had a live band belting out reasonably good rock music. We looked at the price lists of a few places and were a little taken aback at the prices. We eventually realized we’d have to suck it up and pay the piper, so to speak, so we settled on an Italian restaurant close to the hotel.

We all ordered pasta and thankfully it was very good. Mom had mushroom ravioli, Simone had penne with chicken and bacon, and I had tagliatelle with mussels, scallops, shrimp, and squid. I’d heard that alcohol was expensive in restaurants but was unprepared for the 1,200 kronur ($12) price tag for a glass of house white wine. Still, I thought “What the hell!” and ordered a glass of wine with dinner. Mmmm.

After dinner we watched a little bit of Icelandic TV (all 5 channels!) and then went to bed. Mom doped us all with melatonin and we slept like the dead.