#3.3 - Reykjavik

The most northern capital city is also one of the most beautiful, less "urbanized" cities I've seen. A very nice scenery all around makes it a place worth to visit regardless how much time you have. Be it for a few hours for a stop-over to the US or as starting point for a trip around the whole of Iceland. Reykjavik was a very pleasant surprise to start our 16 days of Iceland holidays.

- a church , an opera-house and a very enjovable city center -

After starting from one of the ugliest and customer unfriendliest airports all over Germany (Berlin - Schoenefeld) an we had a fairly boring flight to Keflavik airport placed around a 1 hour drive from the city of Reykjavik.

Still within the departure area we came across the infamous duty free shop. Which is, according to several sources, the place to go after arriving in Iceland. Due to reduced or no taxes especially beverages are cheaper then in the stores around the country. To be honest it isn't very much but a noticeable difference.

Depending on your rental car service you'll find a number of bigger brands directly in the departure area. Otherwise have the mobile phone number of your company saved to call them if you can't find a person waiting for you. As the parking lots for rental cars are quite big it might even require a short drive to get your car from the provider.

View from Hallgrimskirkja tower
(you can see the town hall by the lake)

Off you go heading for Reykjavik which really isn't hard to find as there is only one pretty straight road from the airport to the city. But having satellite navigation for streets within the city makes it a lot easier to find the way to your hotel. As I've planned the route myself I thought of a solution to that without having to having to pay for a more expensive rental car.

I've downloaded an App* providing downloadable maps and navigation services without the need for standing internet connection to 2 smartphones just to be save. Having saved all accommodations and hot spots on a custom map made navigation really easy and flexible in case of any change along the route. (* MAPS.ME is really head to head with Google Maps when it comes to map quality and navigation) 

- a summer evening to calm down from everyday life - 

We arrived at out hotel for the night (* see the earlier post for details), checked-in put our bags in the room and went straight off to the city center. Heading for the big church of Hallgrimsskirkja gave us great point to start our short stroll. We choose to pay the little fee to go up the tower to have the best view all over Reykjavik which really was worth it.

Seeing small houses all around gives you the feeling of being in a small, relaxed town which is quite a contrast to other cities were you feel the stress and pressure as soon as standing between the skyscrapers.

We ended the evening by walking to the habour and the opera-house called "Harpa" where we sat down and enjoyed the never ending sun set of the summer days being that close to the Arctic circle. The big church on the top of a hill and the opera house at the habour are basically connected by pedestrian zone which is packed with cafes, restaurants and shops.

The habour of Reykjavik from Harpa opera house

As the first stage of our round trip would start just the other day we kept it easy and just enjoyed the scenery, but came to the conclusion of having to come back for a proper tour around the city.

As mentioned in the beginning Reykjavik is really worth a visit. Having seen it in the summer with the midnight sun really ensured my desire to come back and see it again in winter.