City of Reykjavík

We had 4 hours in Reykjavík before we needed to get to the airport to head back to Berlin. The sky was grey, and the rain fell a little bit, but I think the grey skies made our photos look great! :)

Our first stop was the Hallgrímskirkju . The Lutheran church is 74.5 metres tall, and is the largest church in Iceland. The church is named after the Icelandic poet and minister Hallgrímur Pétursson, (1614-1674). It's an impressive structure that towers over every other building in Reykjavík.


The organ is spectacular. It was built by Johannes Klais, a German organ builder. The organ consists of 5275 pipes, is 15 metres tall. It took 6 months to put together. We were really fortunate and as we went into the church, the organist was practising. We sat in the pews and listened to the organs.

Then Alexander and Cameron went to watch the organist play. Once he had finished, he took 10 minutes to talk to the kids about the organ. He played them the highest note, the lowest note, the softest note and the loudest note (which scared some other people who had entered the church!), and some of the different sounds that could be made. He was a lovely guy, and the kids asked some great questions about the organ.


There is an observation tower where we could overlook all of Reykjavík. We caught the lift up 8 floors to the observation tower. The colours of the buildings were great, even in the grey cloudy weather.


At the front of the church is a statue of Leif Ericson (c. 970 – c. 1020). He was an explorer who is regarded as the first European to land in North America. This statue was donated by America on the 1000th anniversary of Iceland's parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.
We toured around the city, and had a great walk near the harbour. We found this great sculpture called "Sun-Craft". It was built by an Icelandic artist, Jón Gunnar Árnason.

The kids enjoyed climbing all over it!

After a coffee stop, we sadly made our way to the airport, and headed back to Berlin. We had a fantastic holiday, and Iceland is rated as one of our favourite holidays so far!