Hallgrímskirkja - Leif Ericsson

Sort of like the Explorers in Lisbon, Leif Ericsson shows up all over Reykjavik. Standing just in front of Hallgrímskirkja is a statue of the Viking explorer that was given to Iceland in 1930, the thousandth-year anniversary of the Althing:

From the church door

The inscription

Hallgrimskirjka Clock Tower

This felt just a little bit like a book end. My second day in Orvieto, I did this:

And my third-to-last day in Reykjavik, I did this:

Two places I would definitely go back to in a heartbeat if I could.

Hallgrímskirkja

"Kirk" comes from the same place as the word "church;" Hallgrímskirkja is Hallgrím's Church. It's technically a Lutheran church and you can see the tower from just about anywhere in Reykjavik. The architect, designed it to look like an Icelandic glacier. The acoustics are beautiful, and from the clock tower you can pretty much see all of Reykjavik.

I'm uploading some of these pictures as X-Large, just because I don't think the medium size can really capture what the church felt like.

A lot of Iceland was filled with light that my camera just couldn't capture. Remember how earlier I said the mountains gleamed like Minas Tirith? Standing in this church felt like I was standing in the center of that gleam. My camera just couldn't catch it.

The Baptismal Font

I don't know who this is

Story of the Sweater...

Remember how I mentioned that winter in Italy and Ireland didn't really prepare me for May (freaking May) in Iceland?

(Holy cow, was I really in Italy eleven months ago as of last Friday? I can still remember clear as crystal when I landed in Rome and when we drove out to Orvieto.)

Anyway, before I landed in Reykjavik, my parents told me to get myself a wool sweater while I was there. I thought about it, but those things are expensive! So I told myself I would wait a few days to see if I really needed it before the grand finale experience (which I will get to soon.)

Like I said, the first day with the whale watching and the Golden Circle, I was cold. But it wasn't something I couldn't handle, and I also wasn't wearing my warmest clothes. I'd left my scarf behind (that was dumb) and wasn't wearing my warmest shirt. So I decided I'd see about the volcano.

Well, on the hike out to Thrihnukagigur (still copy-and-pasting) I wore more warm clothes and I was fine. I thought, Okay, I don't need a sweater. Then we got down into the volcano, and... yeah, I decided I needed a sweater. I mean, I was okay inside the volcano, but in an event where I was not moving at all and exposed to wind chill... yeah, I needed a sweater.

So on my day in Reykjavik, I bought a beautiful sweater. Here are some of the ones I looked at:

Love the buttons on this one

Cheap... but not very warm

Snowflakes!

Puffins!!! And a hood! But I didn't really trust the zipper.

They were all very pretty... But here's the one I went with:

That is one of my favorite shades of blue, and it's very warm. I've actually worn it a few times here in Milwaukee because it's getting cold enough now. I wonder if I should wear it to my thesis defense...

Downtown Reykjavik

Title says it all.

That fountain is actually a mineral spring.

The Saga Museum

Sagas are the stories that hold early Icelandic history, including the stories of Eric the Red and Lief Ericson (and, incidentally, his sister Freydis.) The Saga Museum has wax figures of all the stories in the sagas. They don't let you take pictures of the wax figures themselves... but at the very end of the museum, they have a place for dressing up as an Icelandic Viking.

Of course I did!

That chain mail was really heavy!

This is my attempt at a serious face... didn't go very well.

I'm growling, not laughing

Ah, Reykjavik... I miss it.