Iceland Part 2

I had originally planned to visit the Blue Lagoon on my second day in Iceland, but since it was dreary in the morning and the lagoon is outdoors, I opted to head into town first and hop a bus to the lagoon in the afternoon.  My first stop was the tallest building in Iceland - this church.  For $2 you can take an elevator to the top and peer out the slits in the steeple.

 A statue of Leifer Eiriksson stands in front. He discovered America roughly 600 years before Columbus. The U.S. gave them this statue in 1930 as a thank you.

Views of Reykjavik and the harbor beyond:

I did some shopping around town.  I noticed two items local shop owners were particularly proud of: silver jewelry made with lava rocks from the volcanos and leather made from fish skin.  I really, really wanted a fish leather purse, but the technology is fairly new and the items were out of my price range.

I walked around town quite a bit and really enjoyed the Nordic design aesthetic, both in the buildings and in the items for sale. Unfortunately I somehow lost the pictures of the flea market I ran into.  Also much to my chagrin, I missed the last bus to the Blue Lagoon.  Apparently I haven't really been to Iceland because I haven't been to the lagoon.  I'll make sure to get there on my next layover.

 View from the plane as we left Iceland.  You can see a glacier in the bottom right-hand corner and the black sand beaches along the top:

Reykjavik was funky and amazing and I would definitely go back for a visit.