Days 13 & 14 Tuesday & Wednesday, May 23rd & 24th, 2023 Reykjavik

 Two days in one as we didn't achieve much on the Tuesday! The previous evening we had a text with a weather warning that our flight may not go. We awoke to a cold, grey wet day.  We breakfasted and packed to leave the room as required, checked out and as the weather was so miserable we decided to stay in the comfortable reception area until the weather improved or the time of our transfer pick-up (1300).   I had an unwelcome text on my phone to say that our flight to London later that day had been cancelled due to excessive high winds.  Icelandair would contact us when they had some news as to how and when we could get home - it wouldn't be today.

We went to the hotel lobby to see  if they had further news and if it was possible to stay an extra night.  Negative on both counts as the hotel was fully booked tonight.  We knew there was a sister hotel nearby and that we could walk there.  i booked in online.  The weather improved and we walked to the new hotel and checked in - not as grand as where we were.  We had eaten a good lunch and went to a local supermarket for a snack type tea.  A text came through that we had been booked on a flight to Gatwick via Amsterdam tomorrow, we just had to go with the flow.

Wednesday  Overnight we had another text telling us we would be on the same time flight as our original to Heathrow but a day late.  This pleased us, today was much brighter and as we had a free morning we decided to explore Reykjavik.  

Hallgrimskirkja

We were within walking distance 

view across Reykjavik

of the city and we first set out to visit Hallgrimskirkja the modern church that dominates the city.  There was a service in progress and so we decided to take the lift up the tower.

view across Reykjavik

view across Reykjavik

the church bells

view across Reykjavik

We spent sometime absorbing the different views, trying to locate where we had walked before.  The bells were also very impressive.  We took the lift back down and now that the service had finished we were allowed into the main body of the 

the organ

church.  It looked rather austere with the pillars reaching to the high ceiling but it certainly had a good feeling within it.  It had a modern organ with stainless steel pipes.  The pulpit, font and communion table were very modern but effective in conveying the atmosphere of a place of worship.

the communion table

the main nave

We left the church, again admiring the facade  which seemed to take the peak of the tower to the heavens.  We walked down the original shopping street avoiding 

downtown Reykjavik

the malls with designer shops.  We stopped at a bookshop/coffee house for a coffee and enjoyed the relaxed ambience of the place. We couldn't read a single word of the books!  We slowly made our way back to the hotel for the taxi pickup to take us to the airport.

We left the hotel, arrived well on time at the airport, checked in, went through security and were soon boarding our flight.  It took off approximately to time and we had an uneventful trip to Heathrow.  It was noticeably warmer when we landed 20C as opposed to 5C in Reykjavik.  We took the usual time to go through everything and collect our luggage but no hiccups. We caught the Heathrow Express, and at Paddington we were soon boarding the sleeper train.  We had been unable to book sleeper berths but a kind train manager did find us a double berth using tickets for the previous night.  That was a bonus at the end of a long day.