Reykjavik

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I arrived in Reykjavik last night. I have arrived a day early for a group excursion which starts tomorrow, but I wanted to have a day to have a look around the capital. It also meant that I could fly direct from Birmingham which was much more convenient for me rather than have to travel all the way down to Heathrow. I'm staying at the Kex hostel in the centre of the city and right on the waterfront. The hostel is a lively place with a large bar area which appears to be used by locals as a pub as well as by the hostel's own residents. There are also often live bands playing in the bar area. The bar also serves meals and I ate there twice during my time in Iceland.

There is very little to see in the arrivals area at Keflavik, which is Reykjavik's international airport, basically just a few car hire booths. The airport is about 40 miles from the centre of Reykjavik. You can book a coach transfer whilst you are on the plane but I had researched a bit in advance and their website had said that there was a bus stop for the local city bus company, and buses ran every hour during the day. There were no signs at all indicating where the bus stop might be; I asked a few people who looked as though they worked there where the bus stop was, but none of them was aware that there was one! After wandering around outside for 10 minutes or so I eventually found the bus stop (with a timetable fastened to it) and the next bus arrived on time. There were just a few other stops on the way into the city but the bus was nearly empty the whole way. However the bus was modern, large and had excellent visibility all round, and I quickly began to appreciate the volcanic nature of Iceland on the hour-long journey to the city centre. Until we started to get near the city, the landscape consisted mainly of lava fields stretching as far as I could see. The colour was mostly grey with smaller patches of dark green where moss had managed to grow in the cracks in the lava. In the distance you can see smaller volcanoes with their characteristic triangular shape.

Throughout Iceland I was to find plenty of free WiFi hotspots, and that includes all the city buses (well, certainly all the ones I travelled on anyway). During my journey into the city centre I was able to download the full street map of the whole of Iceland onto my phone, and when I got off in the city centre it was then fairly easy to use my phone's mapping software to find my way to the Kex Hostel.

Today my plan was just to get to know Reykjavik city centre. In the event this didn't take too long as it is a very small capital city. After a leisurely breakfast in the hostel bar area I went out about 10 am and by 4pm I had walked round the whole city centre! I hadn't intended to go into any museums etc., though I did have a wander around inside the Harpa Concert Hall, a large striking modern building on the sea front seemingly built almost entirely from glass.

The most noticeable thing about the city centre is the almost complete absence of any particularly old buildings. The parish church of Reykjavik is the Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland, which is on the top of a prominent hill. The top of the church tower is supposedly the highest point in the city though there are some very tall tower blocks going up near the seafront so if it still is the highest point, I suspect it won't be for very long. However construction of this church only started in 1945. The Icelandic parliament building, the Althingishusio, was built in 1880, and I couldn't see anything else that looked older than this.

However, the city is very pleasant to wander around as there are few very tall buildings in the main central area and there is a large lake surrounded by green parkland with cycle paths. The main harbour is very central and this is where you would go for whale watching tours. Large cruise liners dock a bit further around the seafront, but still within fairly short walking distance. There was also a private yacht moored in the Reykjavik lagoon which we understand to belong to Microsoft CEO Paul Allen - this was there for almost the whole of the time I was in the country.

While I was standing looking at the parliament building I noticed a small camera crew walking towards me. One of the crew was in the process of interviewing a man in a suit. They stopped right in front of me for a few minutes and I asked one of the crew what was going on. There were from CNN and were filming a documentary; the man they were interviewing was Olafur Grimsson, the current Icelandic president. This was happening in a very public place with no sign of any security personnel and no big crowds, a sign of the relaxed attitude of the Icelanders towards the political leadership, but probably also something to do with the fact the total population of Iceland is only about 320,000. Apparently it is not uncommon to see Olafur around and our Icelandic tour leader, who I was to meet the next day, had recently met the president walking his dog on Mount Esja, the prominent peak on the opposite side of the lagoon where many inhabitants of Reykjavik go to walk.

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Photos

Hallgrimskirkja
Reykjavik's parish church and the highest point in the capital

Althingishusio
Iceland's Parliament building

The president
Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Icelandic president, being interviewed in the city centre

Harpa
Reykjavik's concert hall

Reykjavik city centre
Vents releasing steam from underground geothermal activity

Octopus
Microsoft CEO Paul Allen's yacht moored in Reykjavik