Day 4 – Reykjavik

Eric our Tour Guide
Today we set aside for a tour of Reykjavik, starting with a free 2-hour walking tour of the downtown area. It’s only “free” in the sense that they ask for a contribution at the end, but we have found these to be good as the tour guides work very hard to be entertaining as well as informative and this one didn’t disappoint.  Here are some of the random things we heard on the walk:

1) Reykjavik and its surrounding suburbs (like Hafnarfjörður where we are staying) only have a population of about 220,000, but it is two-thirds of the total population of Iceland.

Colorful House with Christmas Lights
2) They never have to shovel snow from the streets or sidewalks downtown because they pump water from the hot springs underneath the streets to keep them warm.

3) Because there are so many hours of darkness during the winter, residents leave their Christmas lights up much longer and paint there house in bright colors to cheer themselves up.

Iceland White House


4) Many locals go to the numerous hot spring pools in town every day just to socialize, like people go to pubs in other countries.

5) Iceland only became an independent republic in 1944 when the Nazis occupied Denmark.

6) There is virtually no crime and their prison, until recently, could only hold 12 people.

Harpa Concert Hall
7) The Icelandic language is actually an old form of Norse that is no longer spoken there but stayed in existence in Iceland because of their isolation.

8) Their Presidential Palace, equivalent to our White House, is unguarded.

9) Even today there are no family names in Iceland. To form your last name, you add -son or -dóttir (daughter) to your father’s name. Example: Leif Ericson is the son of Eric and his sister’s last name would be Ericdóttir.

10) Icelanders love music and have a brand new concert hall called the Harpa.

Reykjavik from the Church
After the tour we drove back to the Hallgrímskirkja to get a view from the top. We couldn’t do that on Sunday when we were at mass because they close the tower to tourists during mass. Beautiful view from on top and you can see that the city is almost devoid of any high-rise buildings. Statue in front of the church, by the way, is of Leif Ericson.

Dinner at Cafe Loki
Final picture is our dinner meal at Café Loki because it is a good example of typical Iceland food. Main courses are Meat Soup (lamb) for Jeanne and Gratinated Fish (basically Fish au gratin) for me. Two of the best items are actually the rye bread which is baked for 18-hours in a geothermal oven and the tap water. In addition, the salad is sourced locally and grown in greenhouses on the island. The greenhouses are heated by geothermal heat and lite by hydroelectric power, so very energy efficient. Final item is the fermented shark which is a local delicacy. It is in the small cup with the Iceland flag. It has a very strong aftertaste of ammonia that hits you in your nose. Cost of this meal was $55.58, which is pricey for most of the US but comparable to New York City prices.

One final word about the water. There is no need for hot water heaters in Iceland. There are two lines that come into the house. One is the normal cold and the other is a geothermal line for the hot. It smells completely of sulfur and you cannot drink the hot. Once again, very energy efficient.

Once again it is snowing at night and no chance to see the Northern Lights.

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