A PHOTO OF THE SKY ABOVE DOWNTOWN REYKJAVIK HALF AN HOUR AGO. I’ve often heard people say that the big disadvantage of living in downtown Reykjavík is that you never get a good dose of Northern Lights. I guess you shouldn’t believe everything you hear.
JEFFERSON HAMER AND EAMON O’LEARY DELIVER A SUPERB PERFORMANCE AT REYKJAVIK’S CAFÉ ROSENBERG. I last blogged about a couple of big names coming to Iceland next month, but it’s good to know that no matter when you visit, there are local and international live acts to choose from almost any day of the week. Last [...]
Music from the British Isles: Sinéad O’Connor and Paul Young to perform in Reykjavík this October. Iceland’s annual mega music event, Iceland Airwaves (October 12-16), this year includes Sinéad O’Connor in its line-up. O’Connor’s debut album came out in 1987, three years before the singer/songwriter shot to world fame with her 1990 hit ‘Nothing Compares [...]
Icelandic sheep are free to roam their region’s mountains and valleys for the whole of summer. With all that fresh air and varied diet, it’s no wonder Icelandic lamb meat is so tasty. This past weekend saw the first sheep being rounded up and driven into sorting pens, or réttir, and there will be round-ups [...]
The Pearl, Reykjavik. You might need longer than a week or two to explore Iceland from coast to coast, but if Reykjavík is your oyster for just a day, I think The Pearl is one of the best places to sample as much as possible. LOCATION: Overlooking central Reykjavík on one side and out to [...]
CULTURE NIGHT IN REYKJAVIK, AUGUST 20 As mentioned in my August Weekends blog, this past weekend saw Reykjavík celebrate all things cultural at its annual Menningarnótt, or Culture Night. Not surprisingly for Iceland, music took centre stage—or more accurately, it took centre, left and right stages, as well as singing out from dozens of street [...]
REYKJANES: 2nd STOP, GUNNUHVER GEOTHERMAL FIELD You need to tread carefully when wandering around the striking mud pools and fumaroles of Gunnuhver, close to the Reykjanes town of Grindavík. And if you have a child with you, don’t let go of their hand! Mine stopped complaining after watching in awe as the first wave of steam [...]
August weekends in Reykjavík—mostly! Is it just me, or are there more weekend festivities in Reykjavík’s August than other months? The following is a quick guide to some of the things happening in Iceland’s capital this August (well mostly the capital, but I was up north for the first weekend). Not an exhaustive list, but [...]
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 [...]
