Category / culture / Iceland / Reykjavik / things to do
-
Things to do in Iceland: Winter Lights Festival
The Winter Lights festival, or Vetrarhátíð, brightens up a dreary and cold February in Iceland. Celebrating the lengthening days, the festival is a combination of cultural events, light installations and many museums are free which is a great bonus. Many museums put on special guided tours or events, there’s art everywhere, language classes, storytelling, there was…
-
Christmas and New Year’s Eve in Iceland
Despite appearances, I do like Christmas. Just not when the hype starts in September. But now that’s it’s December I can get into the Christmas spirit and there’s a few differences with Christmas in Iceland that I’m enjoying learning about. Here Christmas is called Jól, which we know as Yule, an ancient pre-Christian feast. Icelanders…
-
The Pearl of Reykjavík: Perlan
If you visit Reykjavík you’ll probably notice a large glass dome building perched up on top of a hill Öskjuhlíð. Well that’s Perlan, Reykjavík, a former water reservoir and now cafe, natural sciences museum and viewpoint, and it’s well worth a stop. Built in 1988 and designed by Ingimundur Sveinsson, Perlan was originally just a hot water reservoir,…
-
The Lava Tube: Inside an Icelandic lava tunnel
Can you imagine walking through a cave, covered in crystals, the walls dripping like with blood that was formed by molten hot lava created more than a thousand years before the pyramids were built? Well, honestly I couldn’t either but I really wanted to check out an Icelandic lava tunnel which is why the other week…
-
Music in Iceland: The Punk Museum Reykjavík
Iceland has it’s share of quirky museums but one of my favourites is the tiny but jam-packed Pönksafn Íslands or Icelandic Punk Museum in downtown Reykjavík, perfectly located in a disused public toilet at the bottom of Laugavegur. So when I was ambling around Reykjavík one day I thought I’d check out The Punk Museum Reykjavík. The museum…
-
Things to do in Iceland in bad weather
Winter is here in Iceland and it seems every week there is another storm or at least where I am it’s perpetually raining. My knitting is going well but is more an evening thing – so what are the things to do in Iceland when the weather is bad, where there are no northern lights, you need a…
-
Iceland: 5 Museums and places to visit in Reykjavik
It’s my last day in Reykjavik and being an overcast day and somewhat raining day it’s a good idea to head indoors after being outside so much. So what are the best museums in Reykjavik? Saga Museum I thought I remembered this museum in Reykjavik as being better. It’s quite expensive and not very large. I…
-
A sunny afternoon in Reykjavík
Iceland is called Iceland for a reason right? It’s not supposed to be hot! Iceland was so named after the first Norseman to spend a winter here lost all his cattle to the harsh weather before packing up never to return. But it was a sunny 12°C when I landed in Keflavik the international airport…