Our final full day! Since our glacier hike was canceled on Monday we decided to rebook and do the lava caves that I talked about in an earlier post, but we were staying in contact with Pink Iceland in case the option to go out Wednesday presented itself. Unfortunately, we got the call letting us know that due to the storm coming into the region all the trips out were canceled again. We were incredibly grateful we took them up on their offer Monday instead of just rescheduling and hoping for the best.
So, with a full day in the city ahead of us, we decided Wednesday would be our wrap-up day – we planned to do a few things we hadn’t gotten to yet, and a few things that we had enjoyed again!
The list included:
The Reykjavik Art Museum Hafnarhúsið
A contemporary art museum housed in Reykjavik’s old custom’s house – the great part about their museums is that several of them are part of the same system, so when you purchase a ticket you receive admission to all of them for 24 hours.
Bren taking in the Fact of the Matter exhibit
Ida Zimsen – our LGBT coffee house from the Pink Tour
Because who doesn’t need more coffee in their life when you’re still adjusting to the time zone a little bit – or using the timezone as an excuse to drink excessive amounts of Americano.
The Harpa – again!
I wanted to go back and photograph more of the Harpa without being on tour. They also have a pretty amazing collection of gift shops and restaurants – we managed to find a few items to take home with us and they were actually pretty reasonable given what we purchased.
Harpa by night – photographer’s delight
The Sun Voyager
With a view of Mount Esja in the distance, the Sun Voyager sculpture is pretty phenomenal to see in person.
Tip of the Sun Voyager and Most. Esja in the distance
The beer and the bartender were both awesome last time, so as we enjoyed the last of our Icelandic beer we wanted to do it in a place we didn’t mind giving our money to.
Purely for a couple of quick photos. The history is also interesting. During WWII England occupied the unfinished building as part of their military operations – focusing on preventing Germany from invading Iceland and using it as an outpost.
A dusky National Theatre
The Canopy Hotel
This was more of a quick bit of research for future stays – it’s beautiful inside and is right in the center of the city. I think we’ll have to come back with folks and give it a test drive.
Inside the amazing Canopy Hotel
Dinner at Krost
Krost was kind enough to like one of my Instagram photos earlier in the week, which sparked my interest. After a little research, we decided to give them a try – they’re basically a nice restaurant located in the Hlemmur Food Hall, not far from our AirBnB. If we only had known this place existed! It was a small collection of coffee shops and restaurants under one roof – like a food court…but classier.
Drinks at Kiki Queer Bar
Because how else do you close out your vacation than we a few final drinks at the local gay bar? Kiki was great – the evening started off with “quiz night” and wrapped up by turning into a full-on dance party.
Fun Fact – Kiki Queer Bar is pretty much the only “exclusively” LGBT bar in the city (Bravo is also known for being queer-friendly, but isn’t strictly a gay bar) and just celebrated its 5th birthday.
Inside Kiki Queer Bar – love these guys no the way to the WC
And that was our day! We managed to hit up all of our favorites and do a few new things before we ultimately went back and packed up for our flight out on Thursday afternoon. We did squeeze in one more touristy thing on Thursday morning, so more on that soon.