For several years Jay has been wanting to go to Iceland to see the midnight sun on his birthday—the longest day of the year—June 21st. We finally booked a trip this year. We're here in Iceland for four days to see the Midnight Sun, a couple of stops on the Golden Circle, the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, and as much of Reykjavík as we can. Hopefully we're able to fit all of those into our schedule.
Arriving in Reykjavík we stopped at our Airbnb for a quick nap and then headed out to explore the city since we don't have much time here. Here are a couple of pictures from our first day in Reykjavík!
Our first stop is Laugavegur, the main shopping street. It wasn't very busy early in the day but later it was packed.
Of course it included a bunch of cheesy tourist photo ops.
In one of the squares we discovered a massive tree. We learned it's the Silfurreynir Tree, the oldest tree in Reykjavík, according to the sign. It's a Swedish Whitebeam planted in 1884 by Georg Hans Schierbeck who was the Director General of Public Health at the time.
As we were walking we soon noticed many of the buildings are covered in corrugated steel. The ones that are well maintained are stunning and add a unique look to the area.
It didn't take long for us to start getting tired. We didn't get any sleep on the overnight flight from Newark. When we were ready to leave the city center we decided to take a quick detour before we headed back to our rental for the evening. There's a scenic trail along the bay that follows Ægisíða street. It has several old buildings that were once used for fishing equipment. The trail is a very pleasant (and windy!) walk.
On the way back we discovered our rental is two blocks from Hólavallagarður, a historic cemetery and green space with the earliest burial being in 1838. We spent a while wandering around and enjoying the variety of trees and flowers planted in each space. I believe we even saw several heads of lettuce (!) planted on top of one grave.
Although it looks like broad daylight, this was actually late in the evening and we needed to get some rest before Birthday Boy's big day tomorrow. :)
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