EuropeIceland

Iceland Day 1 – The adventure begins!!!!!

By August 14, 2016 No Comments

My two month long “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles World Tour” begins today with my first day in Iceland, which is halfway between North America and Europe and just barely south of the Arctic Circle. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I will.

On my way to the airport to head over to Iceland I found out my friend’s flight was going to be delayed for 24 hours. Well I figured we would change up the itinerary and I spent my first day in the capital city, Reykjavik. This is where a majority of the 350,000 people live and it has some cool things to do.

Proud and Centered is Hallgrimskirkja with Leif Ericsson standing guard. This church was only built in the 1950’s, but the top of the bell tower is a great place to get a layout of the city.

Iceland - 1 Reykjavik - Hallgrimskirkja With Leif Ericsson

This is the main church in Iceland and the statue giving to the country by the USA.

Over at the Volcano House I watched a movie on a couple eruptions in recent Iceland history and then got to feel different volcano rocks in their small museum. During the movie I dozed off once or twice, due to not sleeping on the flight.

I continued walking to the Whale Museum where they have life size models of every type of whale seen in Iceland waters. From the humongous blue whale all the way to colorfully striped dolphins.

One of my favorite things to see was the National Museum, because it shows the history of the island from the first settlement in the 800’s through the conversion to Christianity on to the rule of Denmark and finally into Independence and the present.

Another place you might not read about visiting, but are worth your time is the 3D model of the island in the basement of City Hall and just chilling around the lake in the middle of town.

By this time, I was really dragging due to not sleeping on my flight that left Denver at 5pm and landed in Iceland at 6am. I headed to my hotel to relax around 6pm and by the time I went to sleep I had been up for 30+ hours.

A couple things in town I did not get to were the Settlement Exhibition and Culture House, but I think we will have time at the end of our 9 days here to pick them up at the end.

Iceland - 1 Reykjavik - View From Lake

View from the city’s central lake.

Iceland - 1 Reykjavik - Whale Museum

How many whales are in Iceland’s waters? Find out at the Whale Museum

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