Today’s tours took us back to places we’d visited when we were in Iceland three years ago, beginning with Perlan (“The Pearl”), a great science center that concentrates on Iceland’s wonders.
Three years ago, I raced through the exhibits, trying to read everything I could in the limited time we were at the museum. This year, we decided to enjoy the activities that Perlan offered, starting with the aurora film. They showed a few pictures of auroras before the film started and invited us to take photos of them because the film was, of course, a no-photo experience – I was a little slow.
The film explained the science behind auroras and linked them to Icelandic legends and Norse mythology; it was visually stunning but there was a LOT of CGI and animation involved, making me wonder if the sections with auroras over Iceland were real or not.
Our next stop was the ice cave, made with hundreds of tons of Icelandic snow. It was cold. And fun.
After ice, it was time for fire – a film on the Geldingadalir eruption of 2021, which was so gentle that tourists could go right up to the lava (we almost got to see the eruption while we were here then, but the timing wasn’t quite right for us to visit) – the later eruptions in the series were less predictable, and the most recent one did heavy damage to the town of Grindavik (and to the road leading to the Blue Lagoon). Diane and I were the only ones in the theatre, so the staffer running the film told us it was OK to take photos of the film since we wouldn’t disturb any other patrons. How could I refuse?
We still had some time to wander around Perlan; the weather wasn’t conducive to going out on the Observation Deck, so we went to the cafe on the top floor and relaxed there.
On our way back to the bus, we visited the dancers we’d seen three years ago. They were still dancing away.
Our next stop was the National Museum of Iceland. The permanent exhibit on Icelandic history from settlement to the 21st Century was still there; we spent our time looking at the current round of temporary exhibits, beginning with one telling the story of Iceland’s becoming independent from Denmark in 1944. The process started with a referendum, and this story really hit home considering what might happen next week in OUR election if people don’t vote.
There were videos showing the vote and some of the celebrations when the republic was actually declared; I also liked the drawing of the country’s coat-of-arms.
There was another special exhibition called “Future Fragments“; it was different.
And there was a photography exhibit of photos related to previous special exhibitions at the museum; some were quite interesting.
We left the museum for a drive past some of Reykjavik’s sights, beginning with the US Embassy (it’s under the US flag in this photo).
Our next point of interest was the house where Reagan and Gorbachev held their summit; it’s currently being used to shoot a movie about the summit.
We drove along the coast to Sun Voyager, where we got out of the bus to take photos.
We continued along the harbor and back to the hotel, catching a glimpse of the lighthouse which marks the end of Reykjavik.
Diane and I had lunch at Hresso, very near the hotel. We both had the lamb soup and a glass of Snorri nr 10 ale – delicious!
We hadn’t visited the Harpa concert hall on our previous trip to Reykjavik, so we went there next. It has a very geometric aspect; I’d like to have had a chance to hear something there instead of just wandering the public areas.
When we were here in 2021, it was very difficult to walk from Harpa to our hotel because there was a lot of construction in progress. Today, we saw the results of the construction – a building with NO signage that I could find. After a bit of digging, I finally was able to discover that it is the headquarters of Iceland’s largest bank, Landsbankinn (one of the banks that the state had to bail out during the financial crisis).
This evening, we had a talk from Elín Björk Jónasdóttir about weather and climate in Iceland (including volcanoes, snow, earthquakes, landslides, aurora forecasting, and the possible loss of the Gulf Stream). It was very interesting, if a little scary at times.
Diane and I had a not-as-light-as-we-expected dinner at Caruso Restaurant (one of our favorites last visit, and still good), so we followed it with a walk through the shopping streets which somehow led to Valdis Ice Cream again…but this time, we didn’t try to see aurora since the sky was completely covered by clouds.
Tomorrow, we’re off to the Golden Circle.