Iceland Day 12: Gullfoss to Reykjavik

We return to Þingvellir in the morning to rephotograph the Drowning Pool on the "real" camera. The sun was in an awkward position (not a new story there) and the best photographs are, unfortunately on my iPhone. More on that eventually.

We arrived in Reykjavik in the early afternoon with plenty of time to walk around the city. We found all the Americans! After visiting one of the oldest swimming pools (we were unable to photograph it because we were not paying customers), we traveled to Hallgrímskirkja. Here is the view from the national monument/Lutheran Church.

Many people agreed that this was one of the best views in town as witnessed by the shoe marks (little ghosts) worn into the viewing stands.

The Harpa concert hall and cultural center opened in 2011 and it was high on my list of recent architectural structures to see. It was designed by Henning Larsen Architects and the artist Olafur Eliasson, whose work I have long admired. Aspects of the exterior reminded me of a kaleidoscope but it was the interior that stole the show.

The colored window panes were reminiscent of a toy I had as a child (and were perhaps the same hue).

We could have looked at the harbor this way for hours but we were hungry and there was still more to see before it turned "dark."

During our brief stints in the hotel room, I documented the solstice through the window with a view of the courtyard. I have a love/hate relationship with this day as summer is the month I long for and cannot wait for it to arrive. Since moving to the Midwest, I grow despondent because all days grow shorter from then onward. It was the first year this did not matter and I secretly hoped to spend all summer solstices near the Arctic Circle. The last photograph was the darkest the sky turned before we fell asleep well past 1 AM.