Reykjavik, 7 Aug 2026
For our first full day in Reykjavik, we completed the last few stops on our walking tour, went to a midday concert at Harpa (the concert hall), and walked around the harbor area.
One thing we had noticed in our room is that the hot water would have a sulphur smell. We figured they were heating the water with water from the ground springs, but were now wondering if they were just using that water as hot water. The cold water seemed normal, however.
When we originally booked our room in Reykjavik, it didn’t include the breakfast buffet. We decided to give it a try, and it was simple but quite nice. We had shown up pretty close to when they opened, and there were already a few people there. By the time we were done, almost a dozen new groups had shown up, so we were happy that we timed that well.
Hallgrímskirkja
Our first stop of the day was Hallgrímskirkja, the huge Lutheran church that you can’t miss if you’re within several blocks. It has a huge bell tower, and the whole structure looks like columnar rock.
The elevator to go up the bell tower was right by the opening, so we went around the corner, bought tickets, then rode up. Once you get off the elevator, there are a few flights of stairs which take you to the observation deck, and the bells are above your head in the middle of the tower. There is a sign warning you that the bells chime every fifteen minutes, so we made sure to get a good look before the next ringing. It ended up being plenty of time, giving us good views of Reykjavik in all directions.
We went back down the stairs and looked at the exhibits on that level, and the bells went off exactly at fifteen minutes after the hour. It was plenty loud at that level, so it must have been quite noisy on the upper level.
We rode the elevator down and started taking a look inside. The church is very austere, with a simple altar at the front and a set of organ pipes at the back. We noticed a second organ near the altar with its own pipes in the organ and a box next to it. We did see the console for the main organ near the back of the church. The pews had a back that could swing to let you either look towards the altar or towards the organ.
As we were leaving, there must have been twenty or so people in line to go onto the elevator (which takes up to eight people), so once again we had good timing.
When we went by the Leifur Eiríksson statue in front of the church, there was a gull looking pretty happy on its head. Must have been a good view, too.
After leaving the church, we went across the street to the Einar Jónsson Sculpture Garden. Jónsson was an Icelandic sculptor who struck a deal with the parliament that he would move back to Reykjavik and bequeath all of his work to the city if they built him a mansion and studio. He modeled the faces of the women after his wife, Anna.
Harpa
After leaving the sculpture garden, we headed straight for the water and the sculpture, Sólfar (Sun Voyager), by Jón Gunnar Árnason. While it looks like a Viking longship, it is actually meant to be a “dream boat” and an ode to the sun. Árnason won a competition for an outdoor sculpture to be commissioned to commemorate Reykjavik’s 200th anniversary.
We continued along the water, arriving at Harpa. The building is a concert hall and conference center which was opened in 2011. The glass façade resembles basalt landscapes. It is a very striking building and gives you different looks from different sides.
We walked inside and started looking around. Only the main lobby and part of the mezzanine were open to the public that day, but it still gave us a good look at the façade from the inside.
In the lobby, we saw a small piano, but a small sign on it indicated it was not a public piano. While we were upstairs waiting for the concert hall doors to open (we had tickets to a Midday Music performance), we heard someone playing the piano and another person singing. We had seen the two people walk downstairs a few minutes before and jokingly were wondering if that was the Midday Music show.
The concert hall doors opened, and we went inside. The seating area was dark, and we were meant to sit in chairs set up on the stage. That gave us a look at what performers look out at (except with empty seats). When the time came, the performers who came out were the same people who were at the piano downstairs. They performed various songs, mostly Icelandic, some composed by the pianist.
When the performance was over, we noticed there were a few people in the audience. It looked like a tour which sat in for the last part of the performance.
Harbor area
Once the concert was over, we walked to a seafood restaurant and had plokkari, which was described as a fish stew with potatoes. When it arrived, it didn’t look like what we would consider a stew. It looked more like a potato pancake, but did have fish in it, as if mashed potatoes and fish were stirred then put into a small skillet to cook. Not what we expected, but still good.
Once we were done, we continued walking around the harbor until we got to a different grocery store than we visited the previous day. This was a pretty big store, and we were able to pick up things for dinner, some snacks, and Melody found some chocolate-covered licorice that she wanted to try.
Kind of on our way back from the store was an ice cream shop, so of course we stopped by to have a taste. There was a single bench with one woman on it, but there was plenty of room for us to sit down, too. While we were eating, we saw a few other people come in who seemed to know each other. More people came in, then even more; before long, there was what seemed to be a tour group of a couple of dozen people all ordering ice cream. Yet again, we lucked out with our timing.
After we finished our ice cream and worked our way through the crowd, we went back to the room to drop off our food and figure out what we wanted to do for the rest of the day. We hadn’t completely dried off (it rained lightly but steadily all day long) but decided to go back out to a café to get hot chocolates and have a better place where we can sit and type. We sat upstairs because they ask that people not use computers on the first floor. The place was hopping, both upstairs and downstairs.
After that, we ate our dinner and had a quiet rest of the evening.
