Day 6 - Reykjavik - 20 August 2011

I hadn’t made any plans for Saturday, I thought I’d just see what I could see in Reykjavik. The first thing I saw was the Reykjavik Marathon, which took over the centre of town that morning. It gave me the chance to try out the multi-shot function of my camera, something else I had never tried, but which also came out pretty well.
Near the centre of town, in the basement of a building, is the AD871+-2 Museum. The earliest remains of human habitation of Iceland, a longhouse and associated artefacts, were discovered here while excavating for a parking garage, and preserved and turned into a museum. The longhouse is just a large ring of stones in an oval, but there are displays of recovered items like keys, fish hooks, grinding stones, and other household objects. There are also a couple of good movies that illustrate how things might actually have looked.
While travelling around Iceland, there are two animals you see all the time - sheep, and horses. Icelandic horses are smaller and sturdier than most horses, and they have a unique gait, called tölt. I had a coupon for a trail ride at a farm near Reykjavik, so, why not? They picked me up at the Leif Ericsson Hotel, and took me to the Laxnes Farm. I was introduced to the horse I would ride - unfortunately I don’t recall his name. The horse was saddled, and our group of about ten headed down the trail. We didn’t set any speed records starting off, which was good, because I hadn’t ridden a horse in about twenty years. As we went on, we picked up a bit of speed, and the ride became a bit more uncomfortable, and required a bit of adjustment to try to minimise the vibration. After a mile or so, we came to a road bridge, which we went under, and stopped at a creek to allow the horses a drink. My horse, who was reasonably agreeable during the ride, became very determined to roam during the stop, and I soon found out who he thought was the boss. After twenty minutes or so, we mounted up, and headed back to the farm. Of course, as we neared the farm, I was kind of getting the hang of riding again, and then it was over.

Back in the city, I was surprised to find out that today was Iceland’s national day. There was a large party going on in the city centre, right near the hotel, and a lot of places were open late. A few doors down was a museum called the Culture House, which contains manuscripts from the early days in Iceland, as well as an art gallery. I stopped in there for a while, had a bite in the canteen, and then headed past the party to have a look around the harbour. I was playing with the idea of going on a puffin viewing boat tour, but I missed the last trip of the day, and the 20th was the last day trips were held. I assume from that that there wouldn’t have been many puffins to see.

Overlooking the harbour, Reykjavik has built a brand new concert hall, called Harpa. It’s quite an amazing bit of architecture. The exterior walls are mostly multi-faceted glass panels, quite striking in the sunset. (There’s a video of its design and construction here.) I wandered around the outside a bit, and then, since it looked like people were coming and going without any obvious pattern, I thought I would check out the inside. I found that there were several free concerts going on, so I stopped to watch a jazz band. I don’t usually care for jazz, but I really liked the song they were playing. I still don’t know the name of it, but the band is the Samuel Jon Samuelsson Big Band. I found a video of the song on YouTube, here (although I didn’t see the weird fish head thing). I walked around the inside, taking photos. The concert hall is really quite beautiful, excellent architecture, just what a signature building should be.

After a short stop for tea and dessert, I called it a day.
I haven't posted photos yet, for some reason, but I will.