We had left our second day in Iceland to be able to explore the capital city of Reykjavik. It’s a small city, perhaps the size of Warrnambool
Iceland has a population of about 320,000, of which nearly 200,000 live in the Reykjavik In fact, the southwestern region of the country is home to two-thirds of the national population. Iceland is volcanically and geologically active so much of the interior consists of a plateau characterised by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream and has a temperate climate despite a high latitude just outside the Arctic Circle.
We began our day by walking up the hill to the Lutheran Cathedral which overlooks the city. It is a striking design and I was pleased to see that it’s facade was no longer covered in scaffolding as it was on my last visit. The columnar appearance of the pillars is designed to represent the hexagonal basalt columns seen in so many places where lava as flowed around the country.
There were quite a number of small boutique stores in the main street that showed a high level of fashion consciousness and which were quite trendy. There are also a lot of book shops which suggests that Icelanders have a lot of time available to read, probably during the long dark winter days.
We discovered quite a number of cute little cottages in the local streets.
During the afternoon, we continued our walk around the harbor, past the national museum and around the little streets of the old town.
