Forty-eight hours in an unfamiliar destination is usually enough to check out the highlights, form a limited impression – basically, scratch the surface at best. My stay in Iceland was exactly that long, and it gave me roughly one cumulative day to explore the capital of Reykjavik. Which, for a city of a relatively small size that is not exactly known as a sightseeing magnet, appears sufficient. I got a reasonable feel of it, managed to stop by most of its main landmarks, and found time for several museum visits.
Here are a couple of views over Reykjavik from the terrace on the upper level of Perlan Museum.
The standout landmark in the shot above is Hallgrímskirkja. The church is only 40 years old this year (completed in 1986) and dominates the city’s skyline to a degree that it is visible practically from anywhere in Reykjavik. It is the most recognizable architectural landmark of the entire country and must also be the most photographed one, to which I couldn’t help but contribute plentifully.
The sculpture in front of the church is of Leif Eriksson, the first European to set foot in North America.
The interior of the great church is decidedly spartan, with just a handful of embellishments, as befits a Lutheran place of worship.
I ended up in front of Hallgrímskirkja after the fall of darkness as well, so here are a couple of nighttime shots repeating the daytime angles.
Among other notable landmarks in town is Höfði House, which hosted a consequential summit between Gorbachev and Reagan in 1986…
… the modern city hall with its 3D topographical map of Iceland…
… and the unpretentious 19th-century Icelandic Parliament building, next to the similarly unostentatious late-18th-century cathedral.
Possibly the second most-photographed sight in Reykjavik is this sculpture called the Sun Voyager.
The sculpture was installed in 1986, a year that appears to be singularly momentous in Reykjavik’s recent history. I am already mentioning it for the third time in this post. There may be undertones of Viking seafaring exploits in the composition, but the intended symbolism is broader, representing a journey towards the new horizons.
The sailors in the boat are greeting the rising sun, and curiously, there is another sun-themed sculpture found in a different part of town – this one is called The Face of the Sun.
A piece of the Berlin Wall was donated to Reykjavik and installed in the vicinity of the Höfði House in 2015.
There are various monuments to notable Icelanders found throughout the city. We already noted Leif Eriksson. The poet and public figure Einar Benediktsson, whose works contributed to the push for Iceland’s independence, is commemorated near the Höfði House, which incidentally was his residence in the first half of the 20th century.
This is the monument to Ingibjörg H. Bjarnason, who became the first female member of the Parliament in 1922.
It stands close to the Parliament building in the heart of the historic center, but the buildings around the courtyard are all modern. That is one illustration of the fact that in Iceland, traditional-looking buildings and modern-looking ones frequently exist side by side. Here are a couple of other perspectives making the same point.
Overall, the Old Town Center has quite a few colorful pockets.
Lake Tjörnin, around the corner, is a major haunt of swans and other waterfowl.
As you have probably guessed, I removed a bunch of stray passersby from these pictures – but not as many as you might think. Most of these photographs were taken in the morning hours, and the city remains relatively deserted until late morning. At least when it comes to the consecutive Sunday and Monday mornings in mid-March.
Let’s include one more angle with Hallgrímskirkja, from across the lake.
Reykjavik’s “downtown” area, separate from the historic center, is a triangle formed by the streets of Laugavegur and Skólavörðustígur. Its edges are residential, while its core is certainly quite touristy and commercial, and colorful eye-catching buildings are found on many corners.
At the bottom of Skólavörðustígur, the block known as “the Rainbow Street” is another oft-photographed location.
Likely not among the most prominent Icelanders, this sculptural group is called simply Dance; it feels more like a “band” to me.
It stands next to the Perlan Museum, an incredible collection of displays and interactive features focused on the natural wonders of Iceland.
The interactive exhibitions do not lend themselves to photography all that well (or are expressly prohibited, as is the case for the aurora borealis show), so here are just a couple of snapshots: the inside of a volcano about to erupt and an ice cave.
The weather was not too bad during my two days in Iceland, but one unfortunate aspect was the strong cold winds sweeping every nook and cranny. They forced me to reduce the amount of time I was out on the streets and instead seek refuge inside museums.
Ah, who am I kidding!? If you know me well enough, you’d fully expect me to prioritize one or two museums in my sightseeing itinerary.
One of those was the Settlement Exhibition, a tremendous journey through time from the point when the “Smoky Bay” was founded as the first permanent settlement in Iceland by Norseman Ingólfur Arnarson in 874 CE. Its centerpiece display is built around the excavated remains of a 10th-century Viking longhouse.
All aspects of the discovery of Iceland and the early life of Norse settlers are covered at the Settlement Age hall.
Additional spaces chart the subsequent history of Reykjavik, through its becoming a prominent farmstead and eventually growing into a city where the vast majority of Icelanders reside nowadays.
There is also a set of reconstructed commercial and private interiors from the early 20th century.
One other museum that I visited was the Saga Museum, a curious collection of wax-sculpture compositions that chart the course of Iceland’s Viking Age history through depiction of some of the leading figures immortalized in sagas of the time. Among them are: the aforementioned Ingólfur Arnarson, the first Icelander, with his wife Hallveig Fróðadóttir; a celebrated 9th/10th-century blacksmith Skalla-Grímr; the 13th-century writer and politician Snorri Sturluson, whose works on Viking history are cited by historians to this day; or his older brother Sighvatr Sturluson, a chieftain killed in the Battle of Örlygsstaðir in 1238.
A bit campy but surprisingly engrossing.
I at first tentatively planned to see a fine arts museum as well, but this trip was originally about whisky, and when I came across a notion of a young Icelandic distillery, I decided instead to stop by for a tasting.
I doubt many people will feel that they need more than a day to see Reykjavik, but with more time (and less wind), I could have additionally explored the harbor area, which is a major leisure and entertainment cluster, or stopped by other museum exhibitions or enjoyable public spaces. I suppose there will be future opportunities for that.
This article is also featured on GPSmyCity. To download this article for offline reading or create a self-guided walking tour to visit the attractions highlighted in this article, go to Walking Tours and Articles in Reykjavik.