ICELAND 2018 - AJC GSO

Likely because of their settlement by and proximity to Nordic countries, Iceland exhibits a marked inclination for Scandinavian and Mid-Century design aesthetics, making me feel very much at home. Street art is everywhere , from formal sculpture gardens through corner installations to large murals on both public and private buildings. A selection follows ...                                

Thank Thor for that. The blog does not adequately describe the schedule we've kept on this tour. Our flight landed at 5:55am Iceland time (1:55am US/body time) on our first day and we started touring by 8:30am with breakfast in Reykjavik through a late afternoon hotel check-in. We were on the road by 8am each morning, returning near 6pm each day. Mercifully, our last full day was unscheduled, allowing us to wander Reykjavik at our own pace. Since we weren't fortunate to catch an aurora since arriving, we first walked over to the harbor to visit Aurora Reykjavik - Northern Lights Center. They had both static and multi-media exhibits explaining and displaying auroras (and of course, the requisite gift shop). Vimeo intro    Hmmm, no wonder we never caught one live ... We then moved on to Listasafn , the National Gallery of Iceland which displayed both works of art spanning hundreds of  years and an outstanding display of the  original saga manusc...

On Wednesday, we returned from Selfoss to Reykjavik, eventually checking into our last hotel, the Centrum. On the way, we stopped by one of Reykjavik's latest museums - Perlan . The building itself was an architectural wonder. Six cylindrical, multi-story galleries surrounding a central core with open, soaring spaces and an enormous hemispherical skylight, itself ringed with a outdoor walking balcony affording 360 degree views of Reykjavik. There were several notable exhibits, including Iceland's volcanic history, an actual (freezing cold!) ice cave to wander through and the retreat of glaciers around the world.

A previous post mentioned the 19th century change from Catholicism to Lutheranism in Iceland's official state religion.  We visited the more recognized Lutheran church in Reykjavik shortly after landing last week - the Hallgrímskirkja (an early post has more photos). There's also a famous Catholic church in Reykjavik,  Landakotskirkja or Christ The King Cathedral. Both were designed by the State Architect  Guðjón Samúelsson. We visited it early on our free day Thursday. I couldn't resist including my namesake saint (and dropping a few kroner into the box).