January 23, 2017 by Kevin

Reykjavik

Once upon a time when people came back from vacations, they’d invite friends and neighbors over to view a slide show of their travels. This could be interesting, but also very tedious – particularly if there was a large quantity of slides.

On the other hand, it could be fun to see some slides. The hard part is deciding how many slides is too many, and how quickly and much detail to provide for the narratives.

The web has provided a tool to deal with this. With a web-based slideshow, friends and neighbors can go through slides at their own pace, and skip through them if the quantity of slides exceeds their interest level. The social element of the slide-viewing party is missing, but the slides themselves are easily sharable.

So I’ve been on a trip to Reykjavik and took some pictures:

View from my hotel room at the Icelandair Hotel Reykjavik Marina – 9 am on Day 1.
More of the Blue Lagoon. Though the air was very chilly the water was nice and warm. A great way to start the trip and get over jet lag.
The Blue Lagoon. The lagoon is a geothermally warmed open air swimming pool created in conjunction with the production of geothermal energy. Super-heated water from far beneath the earth’s surface passes through a heat-exchange process, and the runoff has been captured to create the lagoon. Rich in salt and other minerals, the waters of the lagoon are said to be beneficial for skin conditions.
In hunting for the Northern Lights, all of the various tour buses ended up converging on this historic church. Apparently the site is known to be a good one for viewing the lights.
The hotel we stayed in had a bunch of these art pieces around the lobby, including this guy sitting next to the fire pit.
View of a ship in the harbor from our hotel.
View of the harbor from our hotel.
Bike racks and bikes in the snow, Reykjavik.
In the middle of Reykjavik is a punk rock museum, underground in what was formerly public toilets.
Punk rock museum.
A prevalent architectural style is comprised of vertical metal siding, wood windows and a pitched roof. Here’s it’s starting to snow on Day 2.
The displays had a history of punk rock in Iceland, with text in both English and Icelandic.
No longer public toilets – it’s now the punk rock museum.
Mural.
Birds at Tjornin.
Feeding the birds at Tjornin.
Feeding the birds at Tjornin.
Feeding the birds at Tjornin.
Frozen Tjornin lake.
Sculpture next the Tjornin.
Historical marker in Reykjavik.
Parking garage with a building on top, in central Reykjavik.
A stone building – relatively unusual to see.
Another of the prevalent architectural type. Many of the buildings are painted in bright colors.
Street sign.
View of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja church.
View of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja church.
View of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja church.
View of Reykjavik from the top of Hallgrimskirkja church.
Square in central Reykjavik. Empty now, but apparently it gets very busy here on weekends and in better weather.
A couple of buildings next to our hotel facing the marina.
View from the bus heading back to the airport.
Camera filters make the Northern Lights show up better in photos than what can be seen by the naked eye. This photo was taken by one of the other tourists on the bus using a filter calibrated to show the Northern Lights most optimally.
The Northern Lights can be elusive, I should have known when the tour guide said we’d be “hunting for the Northern Lights.” However we saw a glimpse of them, and this photo was taken from one of the other tourists on the bus.
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