We had landed in Keflavík at 23:30 the night before but it was gone midnight by the time we had collected the luggage and cleared customs. A bus took us on a 40 minute journey from the airport to the hotel in Reykjavík. It was still slightly light so you could see some of the volcanic scenery on the way. Having got to our room at the hotel I went to sleep almost immediately.
The hotel didn't have a breakfast room but reception gave us a voucher to use at a restaurant just around the corner. After a filling continental buffet style breakfast we walked about to see what sort of area the hotel was in. It turned out to be a mixed residential and light commercial area. A light drizzle sent us back to the hotel to collect our raincoats.
The Hotel Oak, Brautarholt
We were supposed to be collected from the hotel at lunchtime for a city sight-seeing tour but the bus never showed up. We eventually discovered that when we had changed the time of the tour with our travel agent they had failed to change the time with the Icelandic company who does the tour. We did take the tour later in our holiday.
Having given up on the bus tour we decided to make our own walking tour of the city. The weather was much improved; it was mostly sunny and warm; we were walking in our shirtsleeves and we didn't need our coats. The most obvious thing on the on the Reykjavik skyline is the Hallgrímsskirkja cathedral. It simply towers over the other buildings.
Thousands of tons of gleaming concrete
The altar end. Shame it looks like a building site
Pointy
5,000 pipes - one hell of a racket
Very light inside
Outside the cathedral is a statue of Leifur Eiríksson, the finder of "Vinland", thought to be the United States.
Front
Back
We walked on to a square in the middle of the city. The natives don't normally dress like that - there was a folk festival on! Note the steam rising from the pipe
Finally a bit of refreshment was required. Which fast food chain is this?
Does that help? Reykjavík McDonalds - possibly the nicest in the world
Having refreshed ourselves we wandered back to the hotel for a short rest. In the evening we set off from the hotel again; this time to look for somewhere to have dinner. The restaurant where we had breakfast was unbelievably expensive as was most other places. We did find a bar called "Kaffi Vin" at 73 Laugavegur. The two teenagers playing chess on a table near a door looked a good sign and I enjoyed a very nice hamburger and beer. I'd highly recommend the place.