Reykjavik, Iceland - day 1

We made a major change in the way we travel for this trip - we took only carryon luggage - and IcelandAir has really small allowances.  But we managed to fit everything in these suitcases with room for souvenirs.  It was such a pleasure to avoid checked luggage and to be able to easily maneuver through the tube or metro with these smaller suitcases.  We won't travel with full sized suitcases again!

Our grand adventure begins with a red-eye flight to Reykjavik, arriving at 6:30am in the dark and rain.  We drove the 45 minutes from the airport into Reykjavik, ate breakfast and starting exploring the city.  The weather was WINDY, cold and rainy.

First on the 'must see' list is Hallgrimskirkja church.  In a town where the tallest building is maybe 3-4 stories, this 9+ story church dominates the landscape.

Leiff Eriksson statue out front

the church organ

The city as seen from the top of Hallgrimskirkja.

We got out of the rain for an hour or so and took the tour of the Harpa Concert hall on the waterfront. It's a strikingly modern building.  We didn't get a picture of the outside (it was pouring and windy), so this is from google search.

These cool windows are about 4' tall and three dimensional like a big beehive.

The mirrored ceiling meets the dimensional glass wall.

We checked into our hotel room in the late afternoon - it had lots of personality.  The entrance to the hotel was through a restaurant but that wasn't the most surprising thing - the most surprising thing was that the hot water in the shower and faucet smelled like sulfur.  All the hot water in the city is from underground and smells like sulfur! Who knew?

Jet lag finally caught up with us and we were in bed asleep by 8pm! - end of day 1