Wind, Rain, and Sheer Beauty of Iceland

We did a walking tour of Reykjavik yesterday. We met our lively cheerful guide, Asta, at the Hallgrimskirkja Church next to the Leifur Eiriksson statue.  We walked all over the city.  Of note are the many colorful murals and the outdoor Sculpture Museum where one can see the works Einars Jonssonar.  How I love sculpture gardens!  Asta has a great way of telling animated stories of past and present Reykjavik.  She kept our interest as we walked about in the rain and wind.

After the city tour, we stopped in one of the city’s many coffee shops and sat in a big circle (there are 14 of us, plus our guide) and enjoyed coffee and other warm drinks.  Reykjavik has a big coffee culture like Seattle.  Really, there is nothing more soothing than stepping out of the wind and rain and into a warm and cozy coffee shop where the smells of roasted coffee beans and brewing espresso permeate the air and warm your heart.

Back at Hotel Holt, we met up with our bus driver, Oscar, and his daughter Lisa, his interpreter.  Oscar is the first person I have met here in Iceland who speaks very little English. Most people here are very fluent in English and have virtually no accent when they speak. This is amazing to me because Icelandic is so different from English.  It is so beautiful to listen to with its rolled rrrrs.  I am good with languages and imitating sounds and words, and yet, the pronunciation of place names and people names are hard for me to reproduce.

Oscar drove us to the chocolate shop of Hafliði Ragnarsson outside of the city..  Haflidi is a world renown chocolate making master.  His chocolate shop and bakery is called Mosfellsbakari.  Haflidi’s son, Siggi, future master-chocolatier , welcomed us to his father’s shop and he offered us samples.  The chocolate lovers in my group were extremely happy with this visit!  There is also a Mosfellsbakari in downtown Reykjavik.

We then went on a long drive to the Reykjanes Peninsula en route to Minniborgir Cottages, where we will stay for the next five days.  The wind and rain really picked up, so our stops with intended hikes were brief jaunts out and back to see incredible sites, such as cliffs and black lava beaches, wild waves, otherworldly landscapes, bubbling cauldrons of sulfuric geothermal activity.

 

 

We ended the day with evening yoga and dinner.  I was too tired for a late evening hot soak, but hopefully I will soak this evening.  I love our group.  I am feeling very connected and present.