Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
Since my final full day was so nice that I actually had to use the sunglasses I’d thankfully thought to pack, I decided to walk out to Laugardalur Valley and visit the zoo. It’s open all year round but I suspect that it’s a bit livelier in the summer than when I went.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
This sculpture garden and museum is one of the three parts of Reykjavik’s Art Museum and was recommended to me by a member of staff when I visited Hafnarhús.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
The third and final stop on the Golden Circle Tour, was Thingvellir National Park, a UNESCO heritage site that is important for two reasons. Firstly, because it is the location of the Great Atlantic Rift, where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are separating and secondly, for being the site the Vikings selected for their first parliament, or Althing.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
Geysir is another of the locations that forms part of the Golden Circle Tour, as discussed in the previous post about Gullfoss. It is the site of the original erupting hot spring that then gave its name to all such hot springs around the world, which has been active for roughly 10,000 years.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
One of the guided tours I took part in during my trip to Iceland is known as The Golden Circle Tour, which takes in the Gullfoss Waterfall, Geysir and Thingvellir National Park (these last two will feature in later posts).
Before we reached our first stop on the itinerary however, we took in a greenhouse that is managing to produce tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables by harnessing Iceland’s geothermal energy. We had a very interesting talk from a member of staff who explained her usual routines and exactly how they manage to produce such good crops (Iceland not being known for its fruit production!)
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
One of the things I had pre-booked before arriving in Reykjavik was a whale-watching tour, something I’d not done when I was living in Vancouver. The tour was run by Elding Whale Watching who were great, with a very informative guide, and my pre-booking ensured that I was picked up at my hotel and taken down to the harbour, so didn’t have to worry about getting there on time myself.
There are of course no guarantees on these kind of tours that you will get to see any whales and indeed the best time to see them is between May and September and I was there at the beginning of October. But, amazingly, we did see some minke whales.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
Luckily the day I had decided to dedicate as a museum day is the day when it started raining and just didn’t stop, which meant I visited a few more places than I’d actually intended to. The main museum I was interested in and which I had heard good things about, was the National Museum of Iceland.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
This is the part where I go through the sights I saw as I wandered around Reykjavik that don’t fit into their own category. I did not see all of these things in the same day, so please don’t try and replicate the tour, you may find yourself with very sore feet!
One impressive building, only opened in 2011, is the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre, which hosts international events and concerts. It was designed by Olafur Eliasson and in a theme common in Icelandic design, it was built to reflect the surrounding landscape.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
Hallgrimskirkja, or Hallgrimur’s church, is the tallest building in Reykjavik and the largest church in Iceland, designed to resemble the basalt lava flows of Iceland’s landscape or an erupting volcano, depending on which tourist guide you read. Whatever the architect’s vision, it certainly is a distinctive building that you can see from practically everywhere in the City – and makes a great compass point if you need one.
Please note photos have been removed due to lack of hosting space.
The Settlement Exhibition, is built around the remains of a Viking longhouse – excavated in 2001 and the oldest relics of human habitation in the capital. Photography was allowed inside but because of the low-level lighting I decided not to attempt it, so I’m afraid the only photo you get in this post is of the outside of the building.
Louise Jayne's Blog 