Chundering Heights

After the long travel we hoped for a long, deep sleep. It certainly was deep, however i was brought to a reluctant conciousness by the bright sun forcing its way through the heavy curtains at around 6 am. I headed out on a walk so as not to disturb Marjan.

Managed to find my way to a supermarket for some fruit and lunchy things, and a seven-eleven look-a-like called a 10-11. There I picked up a SIM card from a young woman from England enjoying the relaxing pace of Iceland for a bit. Not a lot happening at that time of the morning. The busiest place was Dunkin Donuts which seemed to have attracted the sort of crowd that Dunkin Donuts would attract in Iceland. Tautological yeah!

By the time I got back, Marjan was up and eager for a feed, so we breakfasted at the hotel buffet and headed off for a walk.

Started off walking up Skólavörðustígur towards the cathedral. Always start the day uphill and coast from there........a motto to get a weary traveler through the day. Nice street...full of spine tingling prices......and a view of Hallgrimskirkja at the end of it.

Hallgrimskirkja is a fairly modern church. designed in the 30s to resemble the geometric lava flows, it was named after a 17th century hymnster....sort of like an old style hipster. Lovely to look at; outside and in. We decided to get up the tower for a look. Unfortunately some weary tourist, or queasy believer, was overcome by the movement of the elevator, or the presence of the divine, and decided to share his, or her, breakfast with the rest of us visiting for the day. It made for a smelly ride.......but the views from the top were awesome.

Having been as high as possible in old 'smoky bay' (the meaning of Reykjavik) we then wound our way downhill through the Asgard region of town...streets named after Norse gods. Lovely old houses, many using lots of corrugated iron. Then down to the art museum......really weird sculpture using two whole horse skins......around the local pond with the heated water for the ducks.......to the town hall and its dripping moss walls......recruited into a famous soccer team.....into a flea market............past a recommended restaurant, which we bypassed after seeing it had steaks for $70 (6900 krona....the big numbers are doing my head in), and onto a street vendor selling hot dogs for $3. Apparently the hot dog is an Icelandic tradition....so we became traditionalists and passed up the $70 steak for the $3 hot dog.

We decided to take a break/nap back at the hotel, where we added to the hot dog with some nice local bread and a yummy local white mold cheese. Hopefully we will have some more energy for another burst later.

Well, Marjan had a very solid nap, and we managed to get out for the second session. A walk along the waterfont and a visit to the newish Arts Centre/Conference Centre called Harpa. Apparently it was quite controversial. I liked it, and it is quite impressive for a country, let alone town this size.

We then did some more wandering around the old town, particularly around the parliamentary quarter. By then we were hungry....it is a vicious cycle....walk...eat...eat.....walk.....eat.....we looked at a few recommenced places. The fish and chips place was full and had people waiting for tables, the recommended lobster soup place was full and we did not fancy an outside table, so we settled for a pubby type place and each had fish.

We followed that with a walk around the pond, checking out the sculptures and watching the arctic terns fish and feed their chicks. Then a little more walking through some quieter streets. .....the bustle dies down about 25 metres from the main streets....and an ice cream for desert.

Enough for the first day. Hopefully a solid sleep will get us back on the right sleep pattern