The next stop in our travels was Reykjavik, Iceland. Reykjavik at Christmas is a magical place. There is snow and fairy lights abound and the above and below drone shots show the prettiness of the city in winter.
Tom and Archie are those two little figures in the foreground, and they are standing on a frozen lake, which was foolhardy in my opinion!
Downtown Reykjavik
There is a Lutheran church (Hallgrímskirkja) that is located at a high point in Reykjavik, and it is worth a visit. The tower is accessible and apparently the views are amazing. Unfortunately it was closed when we visited. The church was designed in the 1930s and is very much in the art deco style.
The organ has over 5,000 pipes and we were lucky enough to hear it being played – stupendous.
The inside of the church is breathtaking in its simplicity.
We visited on Christmas Eve and heard the bells being rung. They are transmitted on the radio and apparently most of the population listen to them, and the church service, at home, even if they are not religious or are of a different faith.
We stayed at the Fosshotel in Reykjavik, and I can really recommend it. They had a pretty impressive gingerbread model of the hotel for Christmas.
There are a couple of wool shops in Reykjavik, and I didn’t find any fabric shops, although my research indicated that there was one. I did fall over this shop, which happened to be above a supermarket that Mark was visiting.
The inside was delicious. I did buy a book to help with my One Year One Outfit endeavours in 2016.
There was a gorgeous looking wool cooperative run by the women of Reykjavik, who hand knitted garments for sale. Apparently there are 450 women supplying goods to this store. I was keen to visit, but they closed down for Christmas. Probably just as well as our baggage allowance wasn’t huge on this leg of the trip.
Vintage clothing stores abound in Reykjavik, and here is a photo of a happy Tom who managed to find a store cat snuggled up in a very cool chair.
A couple of last words about Reykjavik: the level of recycling and sustainable practice is really impressive. All the heating is supplied from geothermal sources and there are recycling bins everywhere, including in our hotel room. The city is quite quirky, arty, hidden places and sanctioned graffiti everywhere, and someone has gone round glueing superhero characters on to street signs and other parts of the city. A walking tour is recommended. We also signed up for a whale and puffin watching tour but it got cancelled, which grieved me slightly.
Another post is coming on our adventures out on the snowfields, so stay tuned.