A street-level view of Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland.

In the summer of 2024, Mr. BooksandTea and I took a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland, to celebrate my then-upcoming 40th birthday. We had a lovely time, and posted lots of photos and detailed status updates to Facebook.

I’m debating leaving Facebook, but I don’t want to lose those posts, so I’m sharing them here for posterity. The post below was from July 27th.


Hello from Reykjavik!!!

I don’t have a lot of pictures to post today, but we arrived okay and are currently ensconced in our hotel. What follows next will be a giant mishmash of thoughts.

Our plane left Pearson after 11 PM last night, and we arrived in Iceland around 8:30 AM local time. So, roughly 6 hours in flight with all the time zone changes.

Let me tell you, it is WEIRD to be on a plane when your body expects it to be around 2:30 AM, only to look out the window and see the first red glimmers of sunrise. We had just cleared airspace over Labrador at that point.

Customs at Keflavik airport took a while to clear, but it wasn’t arduous – just slow. We also made the excellent decision of booking a shuttle bus from Keflavik to Reykjavik ahead of time. They really have turned the whole transit situation into a well-oiled machine; they even let us board a shuttle that was an hour earlier than our original booking. However, they also seem to run by the honour system, because nobody asked to look at my tickets, even when I offered.

We’re at an apartment-style hotel in the downtown core. Our little unit has a small central kitchen/living area in the front, and the hotel even offered a bag of local groceries to us as an add-on to our booking. The groceries weren’t there when we checked in, but the concierge offered to waive the early check-in fee as compensation. No problem.

After we checked in, we went back out to look around, and walked along the Rainbow Road, one of the main pedestrian drags in the city. It is FULL of tourists like us. Our first meal was at a famous hot dog kiosk, and the lineup was notable.

After walking a bit and checking out some kitschy tourist shops, we went back to our hotel, where I crashed for a good 3 hours. It took me 30 minutes at least for my brain to fully reboot after waking up. Jet lag is TOUGH.

More walking after my brain finished rebooting. We returned to the Rainbow Road and found a local place that did lots of seafood, so Rob had fish and chips while I had a bowl of very brothy seafood soup.

We then walked some more in the rain and checked out a few more shops. We ended up getting some fancy chocolate and varieties of salt. At this point it was near 7 PM, when a lot of the shops start closing, so we decided to go back to the hotel.

The weather has been grey, foggy and rainy today. Pretty equivalent in temperament and vibe to a cozy cold day in March or October when all you want is a cup of tea. We’re hoping to have at least a few days with some sun.

A lineup of people waiting to buy hot dogs from Baearins Beztu Pylsur
This picture doesn’t capture the true extent of the waiting line for these hotdogs from Baejarins Beztu Pylsur. There were easily a few dozen people in front of us when we first joined.
A street-level view of Hallgrimskirkja, the largest church in Iceland.
Hallgrimskirkja up close. We attended an organ concert there the following evening.
The entrance to the Icelandic Punk Museum - a street-level stairwell descending downwards into an underground series of rooms.
The entrance to the Icelandic Punk Museum. It was converted from an old public restroom.
A closer look at the interior of the stairwell leading down to the Icelandic Punk Museum. It is covered in large, black-and-white photos of Icelandic performers from that period, including the Sugar Cubes with Bjork.
A closer look at the museum entrance. That’s a picture of the Sugar Cubes on the right wall, and yes, Bjork is in it. I think her face is partially obstructed by the railing here.
A close-up shot of a bowl of pale yellow seafood soup on a table.
Seafood soup and buns. It was mostly broth, but the seafood they did use was very fresh.
A photo of Rainbow Road in Reyjkavik, with the spire of Hallgrimskirkja in the distance.
The Rainbow Road, with the Hallgrimskirkja church spire in the distance.
The exterior of Brauð & Co bakery, covered in very colourful street art.
The exterior of Brauð & Co bakery, considered one of the best bakery shops in Iceland.
A rainy street in Reykjavik.
A rainy street in Reykjavik.

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