On Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011, we left the Mystic Rose in
Killarney and parted ways in Limerick with Kathleen. She left for home and we took off for Iceland
– a place I had wanted to visit for a very long time.
We were greeted at the airport by a tall young Viking employed by the
tour company through which Kathie had booked our Iceland day tours. We chatted as he drove us to Reykjavik
through the dark; he told us he had lived for a short while in the town where Kathie
lives. We arrived at our apartment at 2
in the morning. Even though exhausted
from the long day of travel, we still noticed how nice our apartment was – it
had a kitchenette, big screen TV attached to the wall in the small living area,
and was essentially white on white – even the stone outer wall of our basement
level bedroom was painted white. It was
very Scandinavian, yet homey and calming.
We brushed our teeth, threw ourselves into our white duvet-covered twin
beds, and fell fast asleep.
On Wednesday morning we grabbed some breakfast at a bakery on
Bergstathastraeti, hit up an ATM for some kronur, and headed for the 871+/-2
Settlement Museum. Along the way we
passed a tree wearing a sweater…
…and the parliament house with this lovely garden across the street.
About 871+/-2 in Frommer’s Iceland guidebook:
“In 2001…workers excavating an underground parking garage stumbled upon
the remains of a Viking longhouse. It
turned out to be the oldest known evidence of human habitation in Reykjavik,
dating from 871 plus or minus 2 years – thus the name of this engaging new
museum. The excavated ruin lies amid a
large room, surrounded by high-tech panoramic displays that tackle the larger
questions of why the Vikings came to Reykjavik, how they adapted to the
conditions, and what the landscape originally looked like. The ruin itself is basically just a wall
foundation, and the museum’s greatest feat is to bring the longhouse back to
life using digital projectors.”
I thought it was pretty cool to be right there where the early settlers
actually lived and to be able to imagine their everyday lives with their
families.
After that, we did lunch at the Sea Baron in the old port area, where
we had some yummy lobster bisque with bread and some vegetable kebabs. Of course, we followed all of this with ice
cream before hitting the streets to do some sightseeing.
Hard to miss along the harbor is the huge national opera house that opened
in May 2011. Harpa is home to the
Icelandic Symphonic Orchestra and the Icelandic Opera, and it hosts
conferences, art exhibits, and small concerts.
Wouldn’t it be cool to go to a conference or concert here?
Of course, that last photo - the artsy one - is Kathie's.
On to Hallgrimskirkja, or Hallgrims’ Church. If you’ve seen the movie “Thor”, you have a
pretty good idea of what Hallgrimskirkja looks like. Such a cool place but you can’t appreciate it
fully until after you’ve been to Reynisfjara.
The architecture is striking, both inside and out. That day, the light reminded me of Ohio in
the winter. I meditated in a ray of sun
as we listened to an older gentleman practice on the massive (50 feet tall)
organ, which was built in Germany in 1992 and has over 5,000 pipes. Heaven.
After picking up some groceries at Bonus, Kathie and I had dinner at
Salon, which was not fabulous. Kathie
developed an MSG headache. Major drag.
2 comments:
Just like living it all over again. Wow.
And what was our young Viking's name. I have a couple in my book. Ellert was the landlord, Michael Stefar another, and I think Hoskulvur Husey was our older guide.
I think our young Viking's name was Ulfar, pronounced Oolvar - or maybe it was the other way around.
Love that place.
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