Jaunted

Jaunted Field Trips

Reykjavik: A Photo Essay

August 31, 2006 at 1:24 PM | 0 Comments

Reykjavik is the most populous city (and overall area) in Iceland at 114,800 residents, which is over a third the national population, and probably the easiest place for visitors to relate to.  It's also been a magnet for the young as the rural farm life has waned post WWII, and a magnet for national development.  Though there are McDonalds' and a major shopping mall (which we avoided like the plague), US brands are not quite as pervasive here as in other countries; a walk down Lagurvedur (the main shopping street) to the city center shows more local shops than international franchises.  Reykjavik is definitely a coffee culture, but so far as we saw, the only chains are local, making latte and a kleina a somewhat authentic cultural experience and mercifully affording the opportunity to go several days without seeing a Starbucks (though bizarrely there are a couple of KFCs).

It's easiest for first-time visitors to focus on the city center as downtown Reykjavik is totally walkable. Places you'll want to check out are the Lagurvedur to Austurstraeti stretch (running roughly east-west), Austurvollur Square and Tjornin and its' surrounding area.

Here and here are some views over the Pond at City Hall.  Here we see the native pink-footed goose in a bread-related feeding frenzy, and the Icelandic cat, the pink-footed goose's natural predator.  Now I wonder whose cat we are making meta-famous.

These are some views of Laekjarkgata, running roughly north to south to the northeast of the Pond.  Other sights of note include the Höfði "summit house" and the Viking ship sculpture (off Klapparstigur) both facing the bay on the northern edge of downtown.