After a great night's sleep I woke up refreshed and ready to explore Reykjavik again. Breakfast was a lovely hot cheese and mushroom sandwich at a restaurant called C is for Cookie, right across the street.
M. met me while I was finishing up then we headed over to the National Art Gallery. We bought a Reykjavík Welcome Card which gave us free admission to all the museums we visited today. The National Art Gallery didn't take very long to go through. It was a beautiful building but the art was quite unremarkable.
We then headed over to a museum called the Settlement Exhibition. We joined a tour guide who told us about the history of Reykjavík's first settlers. While excavating for construction, a longhouse was discovered dating back to 871. The ruins have been preserved and are on display at the actual site. Construction of the hotel above the rooms went ahead.
Next we returned to the National Museum of Iceland once again. It is very impressive and extensive display of Icelandic history and artifacts throughout the ages. I especially enjoyed the black-and-white photography exhibit.
We caught a bus partway and hiked the rest of the way up to the Perlan. The Perlan Is another one of Reykjavík's very distinctive buildings. It consists of four huge circular hot water tanks, a viewing platform with restaurants, and a museum built on top of it. The views were quite spectacular once again. We didn't go into the museum but instead, headed upstairs for a delicious bowl of Icelandic soup.
Nearby we were surprised to see a geyser erupting which we later found was not real. Oh well, it was pretty exciting and a taste of what we are to see in the days ahead!
Our last adventure of the day was a walk down to the beach and the thermal hot pools. We had brought our bathing suits and towels and enjoyed a soak in the pools with mostly local people. Just like hot springs back home, it got pretty warm so we decided to go cool off in the ocean. Wow! 10°C! Needless to say we didn't last very long. Yet there were other people swimming in the water and some kids diving off of small cliffs into the frigid water below. Icelanders are sure a hardy people!
We headed back to our hotel, mostly on foot, as we had just seen our bus disappear before we could get to the stop. We met up with our G Adventures tour guide and the rest of the group.
After some basic information and introductions were made, we headed to a restaurant called the Fish Market.
We were treated to a nine course meal with an amazing variety of unique and beautifully prepared dishes. We had sushi, salmon, lamb and even Minke whale meat, which tasted like beef much to our surprise.
We are a group of 12 travelers plus our guide. Canadians, Americans, Australians and an Irish girl. It looks like it's going to be a fun group!
