Our Trip to the Bell Tower and Back
We plan to move to the suburbs on July 1, so on Monday, June 30, we walked around downtown Reykjavík. On our food tour, by the time we got to Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, the supposedly “best hot dog in Iceland”, the line was, quite literally, around the block. So we skipped that stop and were given a voucher instead. We redeemed it this day. (Note: staged photo below; I had already eaten my hotdog. The one in the photo is Gail’s. ) The hotdog was good, but not great.
We saw this tile mosaic walking along
Back to the Rainbow Road (before trying to take my picture)
Actually taking my picture. (Where did all the people come from?)
We decided to go up Hallgrimskirkja’s tower today
From the top of the bell tower
Note: This is a bell tower. So every 15 minutes, the bells ring, right above your head
Otherwise, you’ll get views like this:
And this …
And this…
And this…
And this…
Afterwards, outside the church we saw this
On our way home, I made friends with
And saw a scary viking
And a number of cool stores like
We wandered through the streets back to our Airbnb. This was our last day in downtown Reykjavík. Tuesday, we headed out to the burbs, where we will be joined by our friends Ken and Cathy!!! No photos yet (as of July 2), just a thought:
One of our guides told us that locals don’t go to spas or hot springs. Tourists do that. Locals go to swimming pools. These geothermal pools are alternatives to bars, where people go to hang out.
Likewise, I would say that tourists rule the downtown. You’ll find real Icelanders in the suburbs. More on this next post.
Enjoying your pictures of Iceland. Your comment about the spas reminded me that we actually went to a local swimming pool while in Reykjavik. It was the hottest day yet of the summer, 58 🙂 The water was chilly for us, but apparently warm for the Icelanders… so many people. We spent most of our time crammed into the jacuzzi part of the pool.
We can identify with the hottest day of the summer being 58. I think it hit 60, one day before we left. Now we’re in Oslo, where the coolest it’s gotten has been 60, and mostly at night when we’re sleeping.