reykjavik

Here's the view from the fourth floor of the Hilton Nordica, where we stayed. Click on the image for a larger view. According to rumor, someone spotted Yoko Ono at the hotel while we were there (we did not). She was (allegedly) in town for the lighting of the John Lennon Peace Tower, either for the spring solstice or their anniversary or both. The Peace Tower uses geothermal energy to project a shaft of light skyward, an addition to the Reykjavik skyline that the Icelanders we met described without affection.

Below, an image of a shopping street in Reykjavik, Laugavegur:









Hallgrimskirja, the largest church in the country. The inscription on the statue reads: "Leifr Eiricsson, son of Iceland, discoverer of Vinland, the United States of America, to the people of Iceland on the 1000 anniversary of the Althing, ad 1930." The Alþingi is the first convening of the Viking parliament and the beginning of the Icelandic Commonwealth. They sent a member back to Sweden to research Swedish law and then adapt it to the Icelandic situation before setting down the laws of the country--in 930.











A view down Skolavordustigur, from the top of the church:








And the harbor. We learned that Reykjavik means "smokey bay" (vik is bay), what Ingólfur Arnarson made of the geothermal steam rising up off the coast before establishing a settlement there around 870. About 1/3 of Iceland's 320,000 people live in the city, another third in the greater Reykjavik area and the rest along the coast of the island in smaller cities and villages. The interior is uninhabitable.