REYKJANES: 1st STOP, THE BRIDGE BETWEEN THE CONTINENTS I remember looking down at the lava-covered ground as the plane came in to land the first time I visited Iceland. I saw little lakes and puffs of steam here and there, and understood how the land’s first settlers could have mistaken this for smoke, thus naming [...]
You may have noticed that ‘warm’ in Iceland is a relative term—it never fails to charm me when, every year on the first really sunny day of late Spring, hundreds of t-shirted Icelanders bask in the sunlight downtown, with cafes quick to maximize their outdoor seating. It’s usually a balmy 7°C at that point. I [...]
As Icelandic As It Gets The Reykjavík Pool Experience First, a note on the Blue Lagoon Given you’re reading this blog, I’m willing to bet you’ve heard about the Blue Lagoon. But still, before I move on to the public pool experience, I just can’t stop myself from adding to the plethora of Blue Lagoon [...]
Harpa concert hall My ears won’t be testing the acoustics of Reykjavík’s new concert hall Harpa until next month, but my eyes have already had a feast. Here are a few perspectives to give you a taste. Looking up… …towards the stairs… …colourful shadows… …the beehive glass… …harbour view… …the shadow-patterned floor… …and finally one [...]
Reykjavík’s Laugavegur becomes a pedestrian street A large section of Reykjavík’s main street, Laugavegur, is closed to traffic for the whole of July this year. On July 1 the “summer street” was officially opened by Mayor Jón Gnarr. Laugavegur is one of the city’s busiest commercial strips and is also where you often come across [...]
Like many, I have had a long love affair with Iceland’s siren in a swan dress, and last night I was lucky enough to see her new show Biophilia at the Manchester International Festival. As if that weren’t momentous enough, as I left the show wanting more, I found out she’d just announced six shows [...]
In a land of 10,000 waterfalls, you would think the highest of them all would have a huge ego bolstered by decades of hundreds and thousands of tourists’ admiring glances. But in the case of Glymur, this couldn’t be further from the truth. This delicate waterfall is an introvert and truly one of Iceland’s hidden [...]
Once you’re on the moon, Venus isn’t so far away Iceland’s landscape is often compared to the moon. So much so that moon-bound astronauts have trained here, and David Attenborough has filmed places here to show audiences the landscape of prehistoric earth. But a few weeks ago I left the Icelandic moonscape and headed for [...]
