Posts by Jane
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
There are a few advantages of having an office job, but I reckon the best thing about working from a laptop is that your office is everywhere. Which may be why I know a few cafes in Reykjavík. Of course I have my favourite, but if I always went there they might start demanding rent, so I try to café-hop and not to linger too much when it’s full.
My parents are visiting for most of summer this year (escaping winter in the southern hemisphere) which means I get to play tourist a lot. To be honest, even after seven years or so, I haven’t quite shaken the tourist identity myself. Last weekend we decided to quit the city for a day and visit [...]
