Nordic Summer in Reykjavik

 

Reykjavik, Iceland
End of August 2022

The sky is still light at 10 pm (last photo). Sunsets are something so dramatic and beautiful, changing every minute, we watched the sky as an evening show from our room each night.

It's still Summer in Iceland, in fact, they only have two seasons - Winter and Summer. Summer, with temperatures from 45-58 degrees Fahrenheit, is like the Winter I know in my Florida life. This air is refreshing. The windswept landscapes seems otherworldly, but I will get to that soon. For now, we are in Reykjavik, the capital city, population just over 200,000.

 We arrive in Iceland at 6 am, after an overnight flight through NYC - JFK airport. A long day of travel and overnight (with no sleep) is always a challenge, but when time is limited, you seize every moment you can and hit the ground running. Or, at least, keep going all day and then crash early that first night.

Mum and I were eager to get out into the city to re-familiarize ourselves with Reykjavik. Our last visit was March 2018 and I think we have been dreaming about it since. We ended up walking around all morning, afternoon, and then crashed at 7:30 pm into our beds. The sun was still up. 

First, coffee. Actually, first, breakfast at our hotel. Then, off to the favourite coffee shop (with several locations around the city, Reykjavik Roasters. Good quality coffee is something I keep coming back to.

We stopped into the lovely Hallgrimskirkja Church where the organist was putting on some practice/composing that drew quite a crowd. We sat to listen for a bit. We took the elevator to the top for the amazing 360 degree views of the city. One of my favourite things in a city is to get up above it to gaze out and get the scope of the layout. I love studying maps and this is kind of like a live version of a map looking down on it all.

Lunchtime called us over to a new location of Reykjavik Roasters (part of an art gallery) where we got a quinoa bowl before touring the museum around the corner of Iceland's first sculptor, The Einar Jónsson Museum. This was a very interesting museum me to me, and it only made me want to research the pieces more, as they were all symbolic and full of imagery. A lot of the pieces reminded me very much of William Blake's artwork.

We walked down to the waterfront for the views of the city and mountains across the water. We stopped in a bookshop to browse. Yes, it was a busy day and we didn't stop. After some dinner at an Italian spot on the way back to the hotel, we crashed, because the next day would be a fun adventure around the city. I was filled with thanks to be there.