our last day...reykjavik

Sunday morning and after a leisurely start, we went off to breakfast. We had picked a place the night before and it turned out it was not great.  Mom and Dad's food was cold and Gill and 

I didn't get our omelettes until they were nearly done and they were very dry and mine had eggshells - yuck!

It was sunny, but much colder than the other days and the wind was gusting.  While we ate breakfast, we even saw a few snowflakes come down.  After breakfast, we went to Hallgrimskirkja which is the largest church in Iceland at 240 feet.  The book says it is built to resemble a volcano; however, I thought it looked like an organ, which it is also famous for.  There is a statue outside to honor Leif Erikkson.

We went in and took the lift to the top.  It was about 20 minutes before service, and the bells were ringing.  I decided this was too loud for me and I loitered at the bottom of the stairs, which is the area of the clock faces and each face is done with filmed glass, and it seems to represent humanity.

Upstairs, you can look out on all four sides, and it was incredibly windy, but on the north side, it was so windy that my eyelids were flapping, and it made me cry, but I made sure to get my shots.

Down the elevator we went and we stopped for just a moment to listen to the organ and the choir coming through then back out into the cold and the wind.  We headed down to the harbour and walked down to the flee market.  It was so windy, you had to put your head down to cut the wind.  

The flee market was a jumble of mostly junk and things you would find at a garage sale with lots of old clothes and glassware.  There were a couple of booths with homemade crafts and we purchased glass panels and a knit hat for Gill at these places.  

Afterward, we went into the food market.  We stopped first at the coffee shop, which had a bunch of savoury cake like structures where they had used mayonnaise as icing.  The whole display made me feel sick, and we had to move on.

On to the fish and meat section, we got Dad to try some dried fish, and the book said the Icelanders eat these like potato chips; he said it was okay, but stayed with him for a while.  We also tried to get him to go for the rotten shark, but had scared him too much over the last 4 days and he passed this one up.

After the market, we headed toward the old harbour and stopped at the Volcanic cafe, where the food was healthy and volcanic.  We had coffee and then headed across the street and watched a movie on Iceland that gave new meaning to surround sound as it was displayed on all four walls and the ceiling, each view was the same scene in the appropriate perspective.  Me, dad and Gill laid on the floor and took it all in.

We headed back toward to the apartment with the intent to do some shopping, but the majority of the shops were closed.  Those that were open had people in them, including us.  We made a few small purchases and in general, had a nice afternoon.  

Once at the top of the hill, we stopped and had soup at Svarta Kaffi, they said they served the best soup in Iceland - at least this is what the sign said.  They served us soup in giant bread bowls. Mom and dad had mushroom and Gill and I had Mexican meat soup, which I would call left over meat gravy soup.  It was good, but a bit strange.  We all licked it up.

Back at the apartment, we all chilled out and had some internet time, then we taught Gill how to play Oh Hell and we played two rounds.

Gill and I braved the fierce wind and went and picked up Thai food at the end of the harbour and then stopped at the grocery to get dad a Gull.  We mowed through that Thai food like eating was an Olympic sport.

It was at this point that we had to do the packing.  Gill and I had to switch suitcases so I could fit in all of the dog treats mom and dad brought Maggie and Thatcher - they are the luckiest dogs.