My
Big Adventure, Part II: Sunday
I
walked from the hotel down to Öskjuhlíð,
one
of the hills in the city. At the top of the hill is
Perlan (The Pearl), made up of storage tanks for hot water for
Reykjavík, with a viewpoint and revolving restaurant at the
top:
It was a bright sunny morning, so there were some great views over the
city and the bay:
Inside Perlan (actually in one of the tanks) is the Saga Museum. This
is an exhibition which displays figures from various sagas - along the
same lines as the Jorvik Centre in York. Each display has a brief
description in front of it, but you also get a CD player with more
detailed information about the events that make up early Icelandic
history, including the first settlers, setting up the parliament (the
Alþing), Christianity in the country, and other things. I
thought
the exhibition was laid out really well, and I enjoyed the museum a
lot. There is a shop as well, so I did some of my present shopping
while I was there!
There was also a photographic
exhibition inside Perlan, so I had a look at that too.
Outside Perlan, there is
also an artificial geyser, which goes off every so often:
Once I’d finished at Perlan, I
walked down the hill towards the city centre, going past
Reykjavík
airport (the domestic airport) which is right in the city - this is
because it was built during the war, when Reykjavík was much
smaller,
so at the time it was on the outskirts.
I went and did some shopping,
browsing round various shops in the harbour area and along the main
shopping street. I also went to have a look at the flea market, called
Kolaportið. The market is only open at weekends, and has all
sorts
of things for sale. There is also a fish market in the building.
I found a very nice Italian
restaurant, called Galileo. The tomato soup was some of the best
I’ve
ever had, and the spaghetti marinara was really nice. And it
didn’t
cost too much (some of the restaurants can be REALLY expensive!).
I spent the rest of the
afternoon wandering around, finding out where things were, and just
having a look round the city. There are statues and sculptures all over
the place, especially in the centre, so I had a look at some of them
while I was going around.
