The title of this post says it all: Reykjavík was stormy and bitterly cold when my mum and I went sightseeing. There are a few reasons that might explain why I wasn’t the biggest fan of the city. The cold is one. The overcast sky, the darkness, and the slippery roads all contributed as well. In this post I tell you all about what we did during the one day we had to explore the city. 

Harpa

Whenever I visit a city for the first time, I always create a little itinerary. It helps me figure out an efficient way to walk through the city so that I don’t miss anything I’d like to see. These plans are not set in stone, of course, but in the case of Reykjavík we managed to do everything on my itinerary. The extra difficulty though was time. Sunrise would be around 10am so I took that into account when we set off.

I thought Harpa would be a nice place to go during the late morning sunrise. Harpa is a concert hall & cultural centre. It’s mostly renowned for its glistening extorior which reflects beautifully in the sea. We didn’t give ourselves time to explore the inside as well, but if you want there are tours at certain times of the day or you could see a show.

Tjörnin

The walk from Harpa to Tjörnin (“The Pond”) was accidentally quite amusing. First of all, I generally just like the way the tiny timber houses look in the city centre. There’s no high-rise.

Second of all, they have set up statues next to those quaint houses. These statues range from modern to classical and I like how it makes the houses seem more fancy.

Tjörnin itself is quite a sight to behold. This lake contains hundreds of squawking birds.

The water is almost level with the pavement so we were constantly looking at our feet so that we wouldn’t slip, but I also paid attention to the surroundings. There’s a beautiful church and some cute timber houses on the other side of the lake.

The main sight near the waterfront is Ráðhúsið (City Hall). A great example of postmodern construction standing on concrete stilts. Again, we didn’t visit the inside.

Hallgrímskirkja

Luckily, by the time we reached Hallgrímskirkja it was almost light. I was seriously struggling with taking good photos in the darkness of the morning. The overcast sky didn’t help, but at least we saw Hallgrímskirkja and the incredible view from the top of the church in daylight.

You might not be able to tell straightaway but Hallgrímskirkja is a church. An immense white-concrete church. The columns on either side of the tower represent volcanic basalt. Remember how I saw these volcanic basalt columns at the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland and on Jeju Island in South Korea? The architect did a fine job on the outside of the church.

The inside of the church, on the other hand, is quite plain.

However, everything inside the church is still massive, including the organ.

The best way to see a city is always from above, so it goes without saying that I wanted to take the elevator trip up to the 75m high tower. What I didn’t think about was that the tower would be open. Therefore, completely free to the force of the elements. I thought it couldn’t be any windier until I reached the top of the tower; with shaky hands I still managed to take some photos from the view.

Perlan

At first I thought the walk to Perlan would be too far. You can see the dome on the photo above. The walk might take you a bit outside of city centre, but it’s also quite pleasant because the building is located on top of a wooded hill called Öskjuhlíð. Woods also mean shelter from the storm.

I heard that the viewing deck at Perlan is quite magnificent. That’s why I tacked it onto my itinerary. What I didn’t realize was that this viewing deck is also exposed to the elements. So I walked around the dome really quickly to take some photos and then we made our way inside for some lunch.

The dome itself is quite nice, I wouldn’t advise you to walk the 2km when it’s an overcast and cold day like the one we had. I’m sure there are supposed to be mountains in the background, but due to the clouds we couldn’t see anything. The view would be much better on a clear day.

Sólfar – The Sun Voyager

The need for me to visit this monument took us from Perlan all the way back to the icy cold seaside.

Sun Voyager is a dreamboat, an ode to the sun. Intrinsically, it contains within itself the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom.

I have to say for myself that I didn’t enjoy the sculpture and surrounding mountains as much as I could have if it would’ve been warm & sunny.

Shopping

When my mum travels, she likes to shop. Unfortunately, the shops we found in the main shopping streets Laugavegur & Skólavörðustígur contained mostly souvenirs and tourist items. I had set out to buy a lopapeysur (Icelandic woollen sweater) but when I saw the prices I reckoned a simple Icelandic sweater would do just fine. Apart from that our desire to shop was not tingled by the items for sale and by the prices.

The shops themselves all looked incredibly cute though, and the inside of the shops was a nice way to hide from the freezing cold.

Dinner

We had dinner at two places in Reykjavík. There’s only one worth mentioning because the food was outrageously delicious, namely Harry’s Seafood & Grill. I had the pan-fried Haddock in white wine garlic capers, cream and parsley served with potato wedges carrots and broccoli. It was delicious! The best food I have had in Iceland!

Conclusion

I think my message in this post is quite clear. I would’ve enjoyed Reykjavík so much more in the sunshine. You can walk easily from A to B, and having the sun on your face would make it so much more pleasant. In terms of the itinerary, I would like to heartily recommend all the sights I described in this post. However, keep in mind that if you visit them in stormy and ice cold conditions you might be a bit jaded like I was. Luckily, the rest of Iceland made up for that!