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Iceland Photo Gallery - 1. Reykjavik

In July and August 2006, we traveled to Dubai, Mount Kailash and Guge Kingdom in Tibet, Muscat, Iceland and a brief stop in London.

Iceland 01 01 Sunset On The Way To Iceland Our flight took off just after sunset, but we were able to experience the sunset again and again as we traveled north.

Iceland 01 01 Sunset On The Way To Iceland

Iceland 01 02 Full View From Google Earth Here is a view of Iceland from Google Earth, showing the main places we visited.

Iceland 01 02 Full View From Google Earth

Iceland 01 03 Iceland Express at Keflavik Airport Our Iceland Express flight arrived at Keflavík Airport late on a gray, rainy Wednesday evening.

Iceland 01 03 Iceland Express at Keflavik Airport

Iceland 01 04 Reykjavik Our Room at Room With A View We went through customs, got our luggage, and used the ATM machine located at the airport to get our first supply of Icelandic króna (ISK). We took the FlyBus from the airport to Room with a View. Here is our very comfortable room.

Iceland 01 04 Reykjavik Our Room at Room With A View

Iceland 01 05 Reykjavik Cleaning The Streets In The Early Morning We were rudely awakened around 3am, with much street partying and the sounds of a nearby disco. The young folks party hearty and then stagger home between 6 and 7am. The street cleaners come out around 7am and wash down the debris and broken beer bottles, and before you know it the streets are clean again! Supposedly this happens every Friday and Saturday night all year.

Iceland 01 05 Reykjavik Cleaning The Streets In The Early Morning

Iceland 01 06 Reykjavik Kafitar Outside Although it was raining, our first day in Reykjavik got off to a great start at the bright, colourful Kaffitar, Reykjavik's answer to Starbucks, sitting on the main shopping street.

Iceland 01 06 Reykjavik Kafitar Outside

Iceland 01 07 Reykjavik Kafitar Inside We enjoyed the cappuccinos, juice, pastries and a bagel from Kaffitar. The wall has the trophies they’ve won from both national and world barista competitions, including the runner-up in the World Barista Championships.

Iceland 01 07 Reykjavik Kafitar Inside

Iceland 01 08 Reykjavik Austurvollur Square Birthplace of Iceland The world’s most northerly capital, Reykjavik was first settled in 874AD, its name meaning ‘Smoky Bay’ for the steam rising from the countryside. Austurvollur is a small square where that first settler Ingolfur Arnarson had his hayfields. The elevated statue in the centre of the square, made by Einar Jonsson in 1911, is Jon Sigurdsson (1811-1879) who led the campaign for Icelandic independence.

Iceland 01 08 Reykjavik Austurvollur Square Birthplace of Iceland

Iceland 01 09 Reykjavik Domkirkjan The Domkirkjan cathedral is a neoclassical stone structure in corrugated iron, built between 1787 and 1796, representing the state religion, Lutheranism. It was here that sovereignty and independence were first blessed and endorsed by the church. It's also where Iceland's national anthem, actually a hymn, was first sung in 1874. Since 1845, members and cabinet ministers of every Alþing parliament have gathered here for a service before the annual session.

Iceland 01 09 Reykjavik Domkirkjan

Iceland 01 10 Reykjavik Radhus City Hall Reykjavik’s modern Radhus (city hall) is in the middle of the old town, a blend of concrete blocks and thick green glass.

Iceland 01 10 Reykjavik Radhus City Hall

Iceland 01 11 Reykjavik Radhus At Midnight Here is a side view of Reykjavik’s modern Radhus (city hall) in the twilight just after midnight.

Iceland 01 11 Reykjavik Radhus At Midnight

Iceland 01 12 Reykjavik Radhus City Hall 3-D Inside Reykjavik’s modern Radhus (city hall) is a huge 3D map of Iceland, here showing the Vatnajokull with Skaftafel on the left and Jökulsárlón on the right.

Iceland 01 12 Reykjavik Radhus City Hall 3-D

Iceland 01 13 Reykjavik Radhus And Lake Tjorn Reykjavik’s modern Radhus city hall is on the edge of Lake Tjorn (‘the pond’). The building was constructed in 1987 following an international competition won by architects Studio Granda.

Iceland 01 13 Reykjavik Radhus And Lake Tjorn

Iceland 01 14 Reykjavik Lunch At Baejarins Beztu We ate our lunch at Baejarins Beztu, a tiny fast-food hut famous for serving the original Icelandic hot dog made with lamb. Charlotte and I had “one with everything

Iceland 01 14 Reykjavik Lunch At Baejarins Beztu

Iceland 02 01 Reykjavik Sculpture Adonis Reykjavik abounds with sculptures. Adonis (1974) by Bertel Thorvaldsens, originally made in Rome in 1808, guards the corner of the grounds of the ornate Reykjavík Youth and Recreational Council.

Iceland 02 01 Reykjavik Sculpture Adonis

Iceland 02 02 Reykjavik Sculpture The Unknown Official Here’s one of my favourite sculptures in Reykjavik called The Unknown Official (1994) by Magnus Tomasson.

Iceland 02 02 Reykjavik Sculpture The Unknown Official

Iceland 02 03 Reykjavik Sculpture Solfar Viking Ship Jon Gunnar Arnason’s striking sculpture Solfar (Sun-Craft, 1986), a sleek contemporary portrayal of a Viking-age ship made of shiny silver steel, is beautifully situated next to the water.

Iceland 02 03 Reykjavik Sculpture Solfar Viking Ship

Iceland 02 04 Reykjavik Art Erro Pops History The Reykjavik Art Museum is housed in the converted Hafnarhus (Harbour House), a very stylish steel and concrete warehouse. The museum features a permanent collection of multi-coloured giant cartoon-like paintings by the highly political Icelandic painter Erro, born Guðmundur Guðmundsson in 1932 in Ólafsvík Iceland. Here is one of my favourites, Pop’s History (1967), in which cartoonish bearded Muscovites in fur hats frolic in the snow while excerpts from Pop classics (Andy Warhol’s Marilyn, Tom Wesselman’s nude, Claes Oldenburg’s hamburger) float above in comic-style balloons.

Iceland 02 04 Reykjavik Art Erro Pops History

Iceland 02 05 Reykjavik Art Erro Collage Right Two Panels Erro’s vibrant collages depict everything from Viking warriors to space age superheroes all seemingly caught up in the same explosive battle. This 1988 collage is 1300 x 960cm and has six panels, with the right hand two in this view: 5. Full Moon, 6. Video Prison and Wedding.

Iceland 02 05 Reykjavik Art Erro Collage Right Two Panels

Iceland 02 06 Reykjavik Art Erro Collage Left Panel Here is a close up of the left-hand panel from Erro’s collage, called Wanted. The other panels are called 2. Medusa, 3. The Aggression, and 4. The Dream.

Iceland 02 06 Reykjavik Art Erro Collage Left Panel

Iceland 02 07 Reykjavik Art Erro Chinese Painting With Florence Erro created many political works, one series focusing on Chairman Mao and his Great March around the world. This 1974 painting shows a Chinese soldier looking up at other marching soldiers with their revolutionary flag aloft. Florence’s Duomo is in the background.

Iceland 02 07 Reykjavik Art Erro Chinese Painting With Florence

Iceland 02 08 Reykjavik Art Erro Marilyn Ice Cream for Mao Between 2001 and 2004, Erro produced a series called Marilyn and her Friends. Here is one of the series called “Ice Cream for Mao” (2004), featuring Marilyn Monroe selling ice cream with Mao holding stalks of corn in his hands.

Iceland 02 08 Reykjavik Art Erro Marilyn Ice Cream for Mao

Iceland 02 09 Reykjavik Art Erro Vermeer Girl With The Pearl Earrring Here is one of Erro’s recent works from 2005 called Vermeer, featuring a doll and one of Vermeer’s most famous works, Girl With A Pearl Earning.

Iceland 02 09 Reykjavik Art Erro Vermeer Girl With The Pearl Earrring

Iceland 02 10 Reykjavik Art Petursson Untitled In the summer of 2006, the Reykjavik Art Museum was featuring the winners of the 2006 Carnegie Art Award, established to promote Nordic contemporary painting an Iceland. Here is the second prize winner Untitled by Eggert Petursson, whose sole subject is the Icelandic flora. His unique paintings of the minute tundra flowers of Iceland’s seemingly barren landscape reveal, with dizzying effect, the universe within.

Iceland 02 10 Reykjavik Art Petursson Untitled

Iceland 03 01 Reykjavik Bankastraeti Street Here is the main shopping street Bankastraeti just before sunset.

Iceland 03 01 Reykjavik Bankastraeti Street

Iceland 03 02 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja From Skolavordustigur Street Hallgrimskirkja church is Reykjavik's main landmark and its tower can be seen from almost everywhere in the city. It is located at the top of shopping street Skolavordustigur.

Iceland 03 02 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja From Skolavordustigur Street

Iceland 03 03 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Front with Leifur Eriksson statue In front of Hallgrimskirkja is a statue of Leifur Eriksson, the Viking explorer who first discovered North America. He is shown standing at the prow of a Viking longboat. USA presented the statue to Iceland in 1930. On the statue it says: LEIFR EIRICSSON SON OF ICELAND DISCOVERER OF VINLAND THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA TO THE PEOPLE OF ICELAND ON THE ONE THOUSANDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ALTHING A.D. 1930

Iceland 03 03 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Front with Leifur Eriksson statue

Iceland 03 04 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Back The 74.5m steeple of Hallgrimskirkja is the tallest building in Iceland, and is named after an Icelandic poet and clergyman, Hallgrimur Petursson (1614-1674). The building is flanked by concrete representations of volcanic basalt columns. The design by State Architect Gudjon Samuelson was commissioned in 1937. Construction work began in 1945 and ended in 1986.

Iceland 03 04 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Back

Iceland 03 05 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Altar The light-filled interior of Hallgrimskirkja is quite stark, plain and neat.

Iceland 03 05 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Altar

Iceland 03 06 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Pipe Organ The Hallgrimskirkja 15m high stainless steel organ contains over 5,000 pipes.

Iceland 03 06 Reykjavik Hallgrimskirkja Pipe Organ

Iceland 03 07 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja Down Skolavordustigur Street The view from the top of the Hallgrimskirkja tower is spectacular, looking down Skólavörðustígur to the harbour, with the statue of Lief Ericsson in the foreground.

Iceland 03 07 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja Down Skolavordustigur Street

Iceland 03 08 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja To Lake Tjorn The view from the top of the Hallgrimskirkja tower is spectacular, looking down towards the Radhus (city hall) and Lake Tjorn.

Iceland 03 08 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja To Lake Tjorn

Iceland 03 09 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja To Perlan The view southeast from the top of the Hallgrimskirkja tower is highlighted by the Perlan (The Pearl), designed by Ingimundur Sveinsson. Perlan is situated on the hill Öskjuhlíð where there had been hot water storage tanks for decades, but in 1991 the tanks were updated and a hemispherical structure placed on top. It features a restaurant, an artificial geyser, and the Saga Museum.

Iceland 03 09 Reykjavik View From Hallgrimskirkja To Perlan

Iceland 04 01 Blue Lagoon Iceland’s most famous tourist attraction is the Blue Lagoon, 45km from Reykjavik, an artificial geothermal spa owing its existence to the nearby Svartsengi geothermal power plant. The milky blue waters of The Blue Lagoon are rich in blue-green algae, mineral salts and fine silica mud which condition and exfoliate the skin.

Iceland 04 01 Blue Lagoon


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