Iceland Winter Adventure 2017 – Day 10 (Reykjavik)

Day 10 – Reykjavik

We only had 2 specific things that we wanted to do today,, (1) visit Hallgrímskirkja, the Lutheran parish church of Reykjavik, and (2) buy a hotdog from the hotdog stand made famous by Bill Clinton when he visited Reykjavik.

We had a leisurely breakfast before setting off that morning.  It was a grey and extremely windy morning.  It was a 20mins walk from our hotel to Hallgrímskirkja.  Hallgrímskirkja is Reykjavik’s main landmark and can be seen from almost everywhere in the city.  It’s design was inspired by the cooled lava rocks and Basalt Columns which can be found in many places in Iceland.

Outside the church is a statue of Leifur Eiriksson (c. 970 – c. 1020) – the first European to discover America.  The statue, which was designed by Alexander Stirling Calder was a gift from the United States in honour of the 1930 Alþingi Millennial Festival, commemorating the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of Iceland’s parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.

Inside the church is a gargantuan pipe organ which dominates the simple interior.  There is no charge for entering the church.  But to go to the viewing deck at the top of the tower, there is a ISK900 fee per person.  Yes, it is very expensive.

There is a lift to take one up the tower, but is it extremely small and can take only about 6 person each time.  So there is somewhat a long queue to go up.  The view at the top is fantastic.  One can get an excellent 360degree view of the city from all 4 sides.   It was extremely cold up there due to strong winds that day, despite it being indoors.  I was glad we were not visiting Westman Islands that day.

After this, we strolled along the street, did some shopping for souvenirs as we went along.  We ended up at the Islenski Barinn or the Icelandic Bar for lunch.

The interior of the bar was  casual and welcoming. DSis and I decided to have the fish and chips (ISK2950).  It was good, but still not as good as the one we had in Hofn. DBIL had the fish of the day.  As the day’s special it cost only ISK1890 which was great value for money.  DBIL said that it was good. DH had the burger which came with the pancake which is a local speciality.  He says that the burger is pretty good.  Flavourful.  The Viking beer here cost ISK1000 and coke was ISK400.  Overall a good meal.

After lunch, we headed to the Hard Rock Cafe nearby to get some Tshirts. My boys like the Hard Rock Cafe Tshirts so it has become a habit of mine to try to get it for them from the various cities that I visit.  The Tshirts here are quite expensive.  Round neck men’s Tshirts cost ISK4990 each!

It was more souvenir shopping  along the way a we headed towards the world famous hotdog stand.  Popularly known is “Clinton Hot Dog”, Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur, is near the Radisson Hotel.   Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur – which translates from Icelandic into English as “the best hotdog in town” – reached global fame in 2004, after former United States President Bill Clinton who was is Reykjavik for a UNICEF conference, stopped here for a hotdog.

There is perpetually a queue at this hot dog stand.  We waited 20mins in the cold to get ours. Each hotdog cost ISK450 and thus is a cheap meal option in expensive Iceland.  The sausage was a mix of beef and lamb and the toppings options were fried shallots, raw onions, ketchup, mustard and remoulade (a mayo-like sauce).  We decided to have everything in.  It was definitely a good choice.  The hotdog was flavourful and the crispy fried shallots gives every bite an extra crunch.  It was so good that I had one all to myself even though we just had lunch not long ago.  Yummy!!??

After our hotdog snack, we strolled back to our hotel.  I was feeling a little under the weather and wanted to get a little rest.

That evening, DSis and DBIL went out take photos at Harpa, the concert hall in Reykjavik as they wanted to go to a seafood restaurant there for dinner.  But I was feeling too well and was not up t the long walk in the cold and windy night.  I just wanted something hot and soupy.  We had walk past a noodle house not too far from our hotel a few times and it was always crowded.  DH and I decided to have a quick dinner there that evening.

The Noodle Station serves Thai style beef or chicken noodles.  You have choice of spicy or non-spicy and can have an upsize of the noodles or beef/chicken.  We decided on 2 bowls of spicy beef noodles, a regular size (ISK1540) for me and an upsize (ISK1820) for DH.  The noodles which were topped with peanuts and spring onions were delicious!  Soup was flavourful and beef was tender.  It was really really spicy!  I can take quite spicy food and was surprise to find such potent spicy noodles in Iceland.  Wow!  Up to today, back home in Singapore, DH and I are still thinking of the beef noodles at Noodle Station.  They are so so good!  This is really a quick way and go place and you clean up your tray after your meal.  Like all eating places in Iceland, water was free here too.

After dinner, we took a leisurely stroll back to our hotel and had an early night.  We had an early 7.30am flight to catch the next day.  Heimir had arranged to pick us up at 4.45am!  We were flying to Helsinki to catch our onward flight home after our 10 beautiful days in Iceland.

This ends my 10-day recap of our Iceland Winter Adventure.  We had 2 long stopovers in Helsinki on this trip and I’ll share our Helsinki interlude in my next 2 posts.  Stay tuned!