Northern Europe 2019, day 2: Reykjavík (evening)

It was fine but I’m not a beer aficionado. I had a Swedish beer tonight that I liked much better.

allison: What do you think of the beer?

Cheryl: On Monday, after my walking tour was over, Casey and Anna joined me for lunch. We went to a seafood place recommended by my tour guide called Messinn. It was here that I had the chance to sample the Icelandic beer!

They had several skillet dishes on the menu; I had the Icelandic plokkfiskur, which was sort of like mashed potatoes mixed with fish. It was served with brown bread, boiled potatoes, and some greens. It was good but too much mashed for my taste.

Anne: What no lutefisk! You are very adventurous. It looks healthy - not especially appetizing!

Anna was extremely happy to get lunch dessert!

Anne: Yeah! Lunch dessert. She is happy!

Elsine: Oh My Anna,,,you have a wonderful sparkle in your eye! too delicious…

After lunch we headed to the Icelandic Punk Museum. It is very, very tiny since it’s housed in a former public restroom (“wc”). There was an old time punk rocker at the door who cheerfully charged us 1,000 krona ($1.00) each to get in and pointed us in the right direction (“you have to start that way”). It all felt very home made but at the same time it was almost an anti-museum…it was soo cheap and small. So I guess it was quintessentially punk!

The fixtures are still there from when it was a restroom. I told Anna this is the one time you do not need to follow the signs!

Hide your children!

allison: OMG this picture is everything.

Elsine: ANNA! Look behind you!!!

There were instruments to try…this guitar was fully loaded. I’m glad there was no level 11!

Maybe this will be next, after Anna gets tired of piano?!!

allison: I told Celeste about your trip today and she burst into tears and started crying “I miss my cousin Anna!”

Anne: I’d stick with piano!

Elsine: Anna has the punk look going on…those eyes…

Elsine: Yikes! sign behind Anna…“eat the rich & spit them out”

An after-lunch walk to see the famous and imposing Hallgrimskirkja Lutheran church.

Lots of brightly-painted buildings on this street.

Hallgrimskirkja from the front and below…we soon headed up to the top!

allison: Wow! That’s an amazing picture! Consider blowing this up and framing when you get back.

Anne: That structure is amazing!

Fortunately, an elevator goes most of the way to the top of the church. You can see how windy it was by the way Anna’s hair is blowing!

Anne: Fun picture of Anna!

Honestly, I was grateful for the bars on the windows. I had images of that old Hitchcock film, Vertigo…or maybe I was having vertigo?

An unobstructed view from the tower.

Finally back to the garden flat! We were still jet lagged so we took a little nap once we returned.

Here is the view out our windows at 10:00 pm. I am surprised that there isn’t a cat somewhere in the picture. This neighborhood has tons of felines hunting and lazing about, and I frequently see a tail in the grass when to look out the window.

Another picture at the same time of night!

Elsine: Thank you for the wonderful pictures and information of Iceland…Now off to Sweden…