The local Reykjavik sights were the final piece of our first visit to Iceland. We circled the downtown and got a brief overview of the harbor too. Adding to our knowledge of Iceland information, we learned how the four areas of the country are represented on the seal of Iceland with their separate protectors: the bird, the dragon, the bull and the giant. On a similar note, the national flag is a blue field for the sea and sky, the white represents the snow, and the red for the molten lava.
We stopped at Hallgrímskirkja. This is the Lutheran church which stands guard over Reykjavík. The church is both a parish church and a national sanctuary in Iceland. The modernist architectural style represents the balsalt lava formations we have seen over the past few days. There is a statue of Leif Erickson outside the church which was a gift from the US in 1930 to commemorate the 1000 year anniversary of the parliament. The church is conveniently located near shopping, and we briefly visited a few galleries and the knitting guild of Reykjavik.
It is always a joy to turn a corner and find a mural. Here are a few that crossed our path.
Along the harbor, we stopped at a shark drying shed, a small hot spring and the Grotta light house which becomes an island during high tide.
The Hofdi house is where the Cold War peace deal was brokered between Reagan and Gorbachev in 1986. Many years later, Angela Merkel gifted a piece of the Berlin Wall to sit on the lawn to commemorate the anniversary.
Close by, and still along the waterside path is the Solfar sculpture of a Viking ship skeleton. It translates to the Sun Voyager. It is described as a dreamboat, or an ode to the Sun. The artist intended it to convey the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom. It is a walking distance to the Harpa performance center. This is home to the symphony and the opera, plus several restaurants. It is a beautiful space on the water and once again the modern glass style pays homage to the hexagonal basalt columns of lava that define Iceland.
Leaving the city we had a few more sites to explore before the airport. We walked along a heart marked path to the bridge that crosses the tectonic plates of North America and Europe. The plates are shifting at a rate of an inch per year.
The large Auk was a flightless bird that had a colony on Geirduglasker rock off the coast of Iceland. It was easily hunted to extinction in the mid 1830’s. Today there is a sculpture of the large Auk peering out to the volcanic islet where the last colony once lived.
Along the road to the airport, there were several easy to miss sculptures of planets. Our guide explained that the hydrogen electric plant commissioned the art installation of a to scale solar system which leads to the sun at the hydro electric plant.
Our final stop was a geyser/hot spring with a story of a witch and the making of flowerpots from the clay in the area. Enough said!
Our whirlwind trip was just a small sample of this amazing country. The mesmerizing landscapes and the delicious food will stay with us always.
Where is Wendy 
Such a cool place! Thanks for sharing your adventure!
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