ICELAND: REYKJAVIK STREET ART

June 10-13, 2019

We didn't have to walk very far in Reykjavik the day we got there to discover a vibrant street art scene. I love murals and other forms of outdoor art and am always on the lookout for them when we travel. There was street art aplenty in Reykjavik.

Reykjavik has benefited from a collaboration between Iceland Airwaves (an annual Reykjavik music festival) and Berlin's Urban Nation (a contemporary art museum). The two groups created the Wall Poetry Project to "encourage artistic and creative exchange far beyond the inside of a gallery or the recording studio."  Some of the art in this post is a result of that encouragement.

The first mural I noticed was a few blocks from the Hillgrimmskirkja (the massive cathedral). It is signed "Ugly," which I assume is not a commentary on the work itself but a signature of the Ugly Brothers, Icelandic artists. Other than that, I know nothing about this black-and-white shocker. It is a little bizarre, with a horse either trampling a man or eating his arm, but then most street art is on the strange side:

Speaking of bizarre, as we were looking for our hotel, I noticed this lovely view of a devilish vampire with his fangs about to sink into the throat of a lovely young lass. When I realized that was OUR hotel it was painted on, the Alda Hotel, I wasn't sure if it was safe to sleep there:

Roy Lichtenstein + Stephenie Meyer's Twilight, right? The image was painted by a leading British street artist named "D*Face" in 2016. A caption below the image, written in Icelandic, translates as "I was worst to the one I loved the most." Creepy and hilarious at the same time.

ICELAND, THE GOLDEN CIRCLE PART III: WATERFALLS AND POOLS

June 12, 2019

One of the things Iceland is known for is its waterfalls, and the granddaddy of them all is Gullfoss (Gull = golden and foss = waterfall), located on the Golden Circle drive. It comprises two massive drops, the second turned at a right angle to the first.

The first drop is 36 feet:

ICELAND, THE GOLDEN CIRCLE PART II: HAUKADALUR GEOTHERMAL FIELD

June 12, 2019

One of the main attractions on the Golden Circle drive is an area of geothermal activity known as the Haukadalur Geothermal Field. (Think Yellowstone.) 

Just outside the visitor's center is this statue of two men engaged in Iceland's national sport, "Glima," which is a form of wrestling. It almost looks like the goal might be to pull the shorts off your opponent:

Warning signs are always fun. My favorite check mark is the final one: "The nearest hospital is 62 km away." 

In Fahrenheit, this is 176° - 212°. That's hot.

ICELAND, THE GOLDEN CIRCLE PART I: Craters,Thingvallavatn Lake, and Thingvellir National Park

June 12, 2019 (I've decided to start putting the date of the trip on each post. Sometimes it takes me months to get around to posting about a trip, and so when I come back to the post, it's hard to remember what season of the year, or even what year, we were somewhere.)

On our third day in Iceland, the ten of us went on a tour to what is called "The Golden Circle," a 186-mile scenic loop on the southwest side of the island. Here is what it looks like for most tourists:

Our savvy guide took us on a slightly different route, which meant we missed most of the crowds in the beginning AND had a better view of a volcanic basin and a lake. We began in Reykjavik and went clockwise:

And here is a map of Iceland for reference:

The initial part of the drive was pristine in its beauty and completely devoid of other tourists, although the Golden Circle is the most popular tourist drive in the country. We did see lots of tourists later in the day.

The road leaving Reykjavik was lined with lupine and yellow flowers:

After some time, we passed through three consecutive craters created by volcanoes--rugged lava rock splattered with lichen:

ICELAND, REYKJAVIK: PUFFIN AND WHALE-WATCHING TOURS

June 10, 2019

We planned two boat tours out of the Reykjavik Harbor, one to look for puffins and one to look for whales. On previous trips, we had good success seeing puffins and whales in Alaska and whales in the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick. We were sure Iceland would provide an even better viewing experience.

Wrong.

Let's start with the puffin cruise. We went with one other couple from our group, and the best part (just a bit of foreshadowing here) was that we got to put on these cherry-red moon-landing suits:

Riding in the rubber boat was like riding a horse; we straddled a padded seat and hung on to the bars in front of us. The boat was completely open, and yes, the suits did indeed keep us warm out on the water, as promised:

Our friendly guide pointed out landmarks along the way, such as the beautiful and very distinct Harpa Concert Hall:

When we asked our guide what this big green half-orb is, she shrugged and said, "Some kind of art."  I've learned that the 26-foot-tall mound of earth and grass is indeed meant to be art. It was created in 2014 by a local woman named Ólöf Nordal (who has an MFA in sculpture from Yale), who says it is "a place for inner peace and meditation." On top of the hill, which supposedly offers great views of the city, is a fish-drying shed. I have no idea if it gets used. Interesting.

ICELAND: FOOD

On our first day in Reykjavik, it was lunchtime and we were hungry. While we were admiring the Leif Erikson statue in front of the Hallgrimskirkja, we noticed Café Loki across the street. It promised "Icelandic traditional food," and although we knew we were risking a tourist trap, we were hungry, parking was challenging and so we didn't want to move our car, and the restaurant was nearby:

Holy cow, for our first meal in Iceland, we hit the jackpot.

We began with a shared plate of mashed turnips, lamb headcheese, and creamed vegetable salad:

My main dish was mashed cod and potatoes topped with Gruyere cheese (A+) and served with rye bread and salad:

ICELAND, REYKJAVIK

When we arrived at the Keflavik Airport, three couples headed for Iceland's famous Blue Lagoon, but Bob and I had decided just a week before not to join them. Instead, we wanted to do some exploration of Iceland's capital city, Reykjavik. 

Reykjavik is the world's northernmost capital of a sovereign nation. With a population of about 130,000, it's not exactly a metropolis, but having been founded around 874 AD, it's pretty darn old.

One of our goals was to see a few of the churches we might not otherwise get to see. Unfortunately, our plans were foiled when we discovered that the churches were locked. Although the country has been predominantly Christian since about 1000 AD, there seems to be strong religious apathy in Iceland, perhaps even more than in Western Europe.

However, we did enjoy the architecture of Hateigskirkja, with its four spires that remind me of upside-down ice cream cones. This Lutheran church was built in 1965 and has a traditional Icelandic design, which to me means it looks generally Scandinavian.

There was a little hill with a trail to the top behind the church, so we walked up to get a view of the city. In the distance is the most famous Reykjavik landmark, the Hallgrimskirkja church (which is redundant as "kirkja" means church), and beyond that is the ocean:

There is an abundance of wildflowers in Iceland. When we landed, I noticed purple lupine growing between runways at the airport, and we saw them everywhere we went during our time in Iceland. There are also buttercups, Queen Anne's lace, and pink poppies:

ICELAND AND GREENLAND, AN OVERVIEW AND A JOURNEY

Every five years my husband, his four law partners, and their spouses take a trip together.  This all started in 2009 when they were celebrating 15 years as a law firm. That year we went to Peru. We had so much fun that we decided to do it again. In 2014, we all traveled to Kenya and Tanzania. That was also a great trip, so we decided to do it one last time.

The five men had a hard time coming up with a destination for their 25th anniversary this year. Most of the couples travel quite a bit, so finding a place no one had been was the first challenge, finding somewhere that everyone wanted to visit was another, and finding a date that would work for everyone was yet another.

The stars all aligned for a trip to Iceland and Greenland, June 9 to 19. I must confess, this wasn't my first choice of a destination. Neither country had ever really been on my bucket list, but Bob was pretty excited about it.

It turned out out to be a really fun trip, partly because I love the people we traveled with, and partly because--okay, I'll admit it--I grew to love the destinations.

Although it seems like the two countries would be very much alike, they definitely are not.

CRITERIA	ICELAND	GREENLAND
SIZE	39,682 square miles (About the size of Kentucky)	836,300 square miles (21 times bigger than Iceland)
POPULATION IN 2019	358,000+	56,672
POPULATION DENSITY	3 people per square kilometer, or 8 people per square mile, making it the least densely populated European country (Compare to Alaska, with 1.3 per square mile, or Wyoming, with 6 per square mile)	.026 people per square kilometer, making it the least densely populated country in the world
LARGEST CITY	Reykjavik (Capital): 128,793	Nuuk (Capital): 17,984
LANGUAGE	Icelandic (North Germanic language descended from Old Norse)	Greenlandic (Eskimo-Aleut language) and Danish (Most citizens are bilingual.)
GOVERNMENT	Semi-colony of Denmark until they achieved Independence in 1918.	Became Danish in 1814 and was fully integrated into Denmark in 1953. Denmark granted Greenland home rule in 1979.
CURRENCY	Icelandic Krona	Danish Krone
GDP	$54,753 per capita	$37,000 per capita
RELIGION	Lutheran	Lutheran
TOURISM	2.2 million tourists in 2017	32,767 tourists in 2016 (and fewer than 3,000 were from the US)
UNESCO WORLD HERITAGE SITES	2	3

In addition, both countries are pretty far north (requiring winter clothing, even in June, and having 24 hours of continuous daylight while we were there), but most of Greenland is inside the Arctic Circle.