Downtown Reykjavik
As it was the annual Seafarers Day festival we chose to spend Sunday enjoying Reykjavik.
The harbour was full as most boats stayed at home on Seafarers Day
Seafarers Day
After we’d booked the flights to Iceland I discovered that the the first Sunday every June is Sjómannadagur, or Seafarers Day. They celebrate this by not seafaring at all – instead the boats stay in the harbour and there are lots of family activities to celebrate staying safe for another year.
We looked but didn’t really find too much going on apart from a few decorated boats. The only boats going out were those carrying tourists to the whale watching areas.
Whale watching – this is a very zoomed in view of the only whale we saw all morning
Whale Watching
As is typical of every whale watching trip I’ve been on we saw a lot of dolphins and only the barest hint of a whale in the distance. I know other people might have amazing success with these, but after three failed attempts, for me it’s getting to be an expensive series of boat rides.
Puffin Island – the view in real life wasn’t much better
One of the larger, more cumbersome whale watching boats – our little inflatable was much more zippy (if a little painful!)
Despite our lack of success, I’m glad we chose whalesafari.is as they have small, manoeuvrable boats with only 12 passengers, unlike the lumbering 200 person ships used by many other companies.
http://www.whalesafari.is/whalespuffinsandreykjaviktour/
The famous Hot Dog stand
Hot Dogs
Coming off the whale watching boat we needed a quick snack. Icelanders love hotdogs and near the harbour entrance is the most famous hot dog stand in Reykjavik.
There are often queue around the block here, but at 11am there were only a few people, so within 10 minutes we were trying one of the famous snacks. To be honest, it was quite a simple hot dog – the only distinguishing feature was that the sausage was partially lamb meat, and was smothered in remoulade. It made a change, but I wasn’t blown away by the taste. We had a far better hot dog from a petrol station outside Reykjavik, where the sausage was wrapped in thin bacon, and they limited the toppings to mustard, ketchup and dried onion.
The Sun Voyager
Sun Voyager
One of Reykjavik’s most well-known sculptures is the dreamboat known as Sun Voyager, or Sólfar in Icelandic. It was added to the seafront to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the city. It’s a bit of a walk away from the town centre, past the shiny new Harpa Concert Hall.
Hallgrímskirkja
Hallgrímskirkja
The most iconic location in Reykjavik is surely Hallgrímskirkja, the 73m high church overlooking the town. Visible throughout the city it’s a helpful landmark when wandering around the area.
For a small fee it’s possible to go up the tower and get a view across the region.
Inside Hallgrímskirkja
After a series of busy days driving and diving I wanted a goods nights sleep, but the midnight sun in Iceland doesn’t really help matters!
Midnight Sun – this was about 1am
