The Sun!!

Mickey arrived this morning. Her flights were uneventful until they landed at KEF. The flight was early because it takes less time than Delta schedules (about 4 1/2 hours from NY). Because it was early, there was no gate for the plane to pull into because planes that were leaving all had to be de-iced. They waited 45 minutes on the tarmac and then had to walk down a ladder since they weren't going to get a gate anytime soon. That airport has become crowded since Iceland has become a tourist destination and all the Iceland airlines have cheap connections to cities in Europe. 

Outside of the early morning sleet, it was sunny most of the day. We walked along the harbor and got on a Hop On bus and did the whole tour which took an hour. We wanted to get out at the main attraction of Reykjavik which is the Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church but the bus didn't stop there. The recording just played Stop 8 twice and skipped the church altogether. When we got off we asked the driver about it and he said the road is under construction.  I guess he didn't feel the need to tell us. After lunch, we walked to the church which is a half mile uphill. It really is pretty but the highlight is paying to take the elevator to the top of the tower. Great views of the mountains, the city, and the harbor.

Hallgrimskirkja

The organ in the church; an organist was playing horrible discordant music just to annoy everyone

Inside the church; simplistic Lutheran design

A view from the tower

We still haven't eaten fermented shark. For lunch, we stopped at a restaurant close to Icelandic Street Food. Not great but ok. Joyce had a chicken tartlette which was the best choice; Mickey had a salty smoked lamb tartlette and I had cold shrimp with egg. Mediocre. We couldn't do research for a better restaurant because it was late so we chose the one that was not the Hard Rock Cafe.

 For dinner, we went to a well-reviewed restaurant, Iceland Fish and Chips where we had...fish (cod) and not chips because they serve delicious roasted potatoes instead. Some bad reviews from the Brits who are particular about their chips. They had 9 different sauces to choose from so we chose 3. The tartar which had gotten good reviews was not good. The base is skyr which seems to be their base for everything. You can get Skyr yoghurt in the US now; it's thick and actually classified as cheese. We tried their Skyr yoghurt for breakfast which is better than that in the US but you have to like thick yoghurt to eat it. They also serve skyr as dessert. The menu said skyr with cream is an original Icelandic dessert. I guess that means milk cheese with cream. We tried their daily chocolate with coconut & apricots and one with almonds and dates. Tasty. We also tried their Icelandic biscotti which was once-baked and therefore, cake. It did taste good, though.

One of the most beautiful buildings at the harbor is the Harpa Concert Hall. We shopped in there waiting for the Hop On Bus. Outside the building, there are lots of cairns in the rocks outside. It seems cairns are an old Viking tradition of marking trails and have become popular with tourists. Icelanders know cairns in the country are protected and not to be touched. Tourists don't know that and I'm surprised there aren't signs that ask tourists not to build their own. We saw someone building her own.

Harpa Concert Hall

Ugly Cairns sitting there for no reason

Tomorrow we pick up the rental car and we're going to the Blue Lagoon in the evening. You now have to book a time to go and we heard it's less crowded at night. There's 100% chance of rain tomorrow. We can only hope that occurs during the day and clears up for the Blue Lagoon adventure. I would hate to get wet while in the lagoon.