We spent our last day, or last half day (11/26/2018), walking around the city, buying souvenirs and trying to soak it all in before we headed back to reality. I wanted to see Hallgrimskirkja, a parish church in the National Church of Iceland, which is Evangelical Lutheran. The church was built in the late 1940s and is the tallest building in metropolitan Reykjavik. We went up to the top, via elevator, which is 73 meters high, to watch as the sun tried to break through the dark morning sky. You get incredible views of the city, the harbor and mountains and volcanoes in the distance. We made a quick stop in the Settlement Exhibition which was uncovered during excavation and contains the remnants of settlers from the 800s. It was very interesting and had several interactive components in English and Icelandic. We really lucked out with the weather on this trip; on most days it was warmer than in Minneapolis, it was sunny most of the time, with the snow and rain mostly happening when we were in a coach to or fro. The only disappointment was not seeing the Northern Lights, but from what I could gather, a lot of people didn't see them. The time of year was right, but either it was cloudy or there was just not solar activity. We had some delicious food: salmon, cod (gave fish and chips a whole new meaning), Icelandic cheese, seafood soup, the most amazing bread, and the freshest water EVER. One of the fun things about being in Iceland near Christmas time was learning about the tradition of the
Yule Lads who are sort of related to Santa Claus, but unique to Iceland. There are some pictures below of a few of the lads at Keflavik airport.
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We spent our last day, or last half day (11/26/2018), walking around the city, buying souvenirs and trying to soak it all in before we headed back to reality. I wanted to see Hallgrimskirkja, a parish church in the National Church of Iceland, which is Evangelical Lutheran. The church was built in the late 1940s and is the tallest building in metropolitan Reykjavik. We went up to the top, via elevator, which is 73 meters high, to watch as the sun tried to break through the dark morning sky. You get incredible views of the city, the harbor and mountains and volcanoes in the distance. We made a quick stop in the Settlement Exhibition which was uncovered during excavation and contains the remnants of settlers from the 800s. It was very interesting and had several interactive components in English and Icelandic. We really lucked out with the weather on this trip; on most days it was warmer than in Minneapolis, it was sunny most of the time, with the snow and rain mostly happening when we were in a coach to or fro. The only disappointment was not seeing the Northern Lights, but from what I could gather, a lot of people didn't see them. The time of year was right, but either it was cloudy or there was just not solar activity. We had some delicious food: salmon, cod (gave fish and chips a whole new meaning), Icelandic cheese, seafood soup, the most amazing bread, and the freshest water EVER. One of the fun things about being in Iceland near Christmas time was learning about the tradition of the Yule Lads who are sort of related to Santa Claus, but unique to Iceland. There are some pictures below of a few of the lads at Keflavik airport.
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