Iceland Visit Part 1.

I arrived in Reykjavik Iceland at 6:30 in the morning on December 27th to a very rainy morning.  The sun does not rise till 11 or so in the morning and by 4 pm it is totally dark.  It is not that much different than living in Alaska.  

The last time I traveled to Iceland, they were working on the airport and it was a lot messier.  This is a picture of it as I'm heading towards customs and baggage claim.  If you wonder why I chose Iceland, its because my traveling companion wanted to see it in the winter after visiting in the summer.  I was expecting snow but found rain instead, lots of rain.

This is one of the big attractions in downtown Iceland.  It's about two blocks from the guesthouse I chose to stay in for this visit.  The statue in front celebrates Leif Erikson who discovered both Iceland and America.  In the back is the Hallgrímskirkja Luthern Church.  It is one of the largest and tallest structures in the country.  The Hallgrimskirja church is 74.5 meters tall and it was named after a famous Icelandic poet and clergyman.  You can hop an elevator up into the tower but I chose not to go there.

This is a picture of the inside of the church.  It is open most days and it has a set of bells that ring every hour during the day.  It is big and quite beautiful.  There are signs all over reminding people that this is a working church so you need to be respectful.  

This is the backside of the statue celebrating Leif Erikson and his discovering several places in the new world.  All the writing is on the backside facing the church.  Over the right side, you see the top of a building.  That building is the Leif Erikson  hotel where you can choose to stay if you desire.  I chose a guesthouse because it was smaller and included a continental breakfast.  

I saw this decorated Christmas tree outside the Leif Erikson hotel.  I couldn't resist taking a photo of it.  We'd just finished visiting the church when we decided to wander around downtown in rain, rain, and more rain.  We were supposed to go watch the northern lights but the tour got canceled due to rain and cloudy nights so we rebooked.

This is one of the bells I saw hanging over one of the main streets in downtown.  There is a prohibition against most busses coming into downtown.  If you book a tour, you are told you have to go to a bus stop to be picked up.  The streets are quite narrow and I don't think there is space for busses and large vehicles to come down.  

I love strolling through new places.  After the church, I continued strolling down the street to a store on the same side as the hotel and found these cuties.  They are based on a land created back in 2010 and the characters are quite popular over here. 

The first character sat outside the store while this one is in the window.  He's almost cute enough to want to take home.

Finally, to end this set of photos. I have more to share over the next week.  I'm due to go out on a tour of the Southern part of the island with geysers, and all sorts of other things.  I'm hoping I see a bit of snow while I'm here.  I'm also hoping to be able to take the Northern Lights Tour but the prediction is for more rain so we'll see.  

I hope you enjoyed these guys.  I've got some cool buildings and graffiti to share with everyone.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.