The plan for our long weekend in Iceland in December 2018 was to take a tour of the southern coast of the country on the Sunday before flying back home on the Monday. On the Friday evening in Reykjavík we’d had a night trip booked out onto the water to go aurora-spotting but the overcast conditions had meant that trip had been cancelled. The nature of trying to rely on nature, sadly. However, we’d been told that if the skies were clear then we’d be able to turn up on the Saturday evening and try again. This left us with a little bit of a quandary as we’d originally toyed with the idea of seeing if we could explore a little farther afield on the Saturday but now didn’t want to leave the Reykjavík area. Still, there was plenty we’d not seen in the Icelandic capital so we skipped any tour options for the day and went exploring on foot to see what we could find to occupy us.
We decided to head towards the northern point of Reykjavík, Effersey, as a look at the map indicated that it would take us past a grouping of museums and we’re fond of a museum or two when we’re out and about travelling. Even though it was mid-morning the sky was dark with the sun barely creeping above the horizon. It was also windy and, of course, this was Iceland in December so it was extremely cold. The walk took us through some fairly industrial landscape but you’ll never find a terribly pleasing architectural style in this part of the world as practicality has to come first. Nevertheless, the views of the harbour area of the city and across the water to the snow-peaked mountains north were gorgeous.
One thing you will see a lot of in Iceland’s capital is street art. We’d had a good look at the street art in Reykjavík on our previous trip to the country and were pleased to see that even in the less tourist-inhabited areas of the city there was still plenty of really good quality work to see.
Reykjavík Maritime Museum
As we headed back from Effersey into the main area of Reykjavík we stopped in at the first of the museums we would visit during the day, the Maritime Museum. The museum has a coast guard vessel moored alongside it which can be visited at set times on guided tours during the day but we wouldn’t be around for those so just explored the museum on our own. The main features of the maritime museum were focused on the local fishing industry; indeed, the building in which the museum was located was formerly a fish factory. Following the main exhibition through the museum from room to room took us through artefacts from Iceland’s fishing history with explorations of the ocean, fishing vessels, and the fishing communities. There were a number of interactive elements too – we quite liked putting our hands in boxes to try to guess what was in them and taking broken plates and reconstructing them jigsaw-like – and the museum was a nice enough diversion (plus it was warm and dry) although it might not be that interesting if fishing isn’t something that particularly excites you.
Aurora Reykjavík
A very short walk from the maritime museum brought us to Aurora Reykjavík, an exhibition centre dedicated to the Northern Lights as you’ve probably been able to guess. It’s not the hugest exhibition in the world and you could probably walk through it all in five minutes but there are plenty of pretty photos of aurorae and there are some really interesting facts relating to the colours and patterns of aurora that you might be able to see in Iceland. With us having a nighttime boat trip out to see these for ourselves we found this very interesting indeed and we learnt a few things we hadn’t realised before. For example, we did know that when there’s suitably highly energtic particles flowing from the sun then aurorae happen all the time, day and night but, obviously, you can only see them at night because it’s dark. What we hadn’t realised was that the ones you see at night are from particle streams that have flowed past the Earth, curved around the magnetic fields, rebounded, then flowed back down the magnetic lines into the higher latitudes. That was fascinating to realise.
If you’re unsure how to take photos of aurorae then there are guides to how to do this and there’s even a dark booth where you can test your camera settings to see if you can take a picture of what’s inside. Finally, the centre also has a high definition cinema screen at the end of the exhibition which shows video of the Aurora Borealis from different locations around Iceland on a loop. This was a very enjoyable, very attractive, incredibly relaxing thing to sit and watch for about ten minutes.
Bryggjan Brugghús
We’d had another reason for picking the part of Reykjavík we’d wanted to start our Saturday’s wandering in and that was because we’d seen that the Bryggjan Brugghús was there, the first independent microbrewery and bistro in the country. We weren’t quite ready for any food at this point, having had a suitably large breakfast in the hotel that morning, but we couldn’t pass up the chance to try some very locally-produced ales. It’s what we do when we travel. The drinks were wonderful and the brewhouse was a very nice venue too. We didn’t do the beer tour because we wanted to make the most of our time in the city but that’s something we’d definitely consider when we return, as we surely will.
Reykjavík
The next two places we wanted to visit were across the eastern side of Reykjavík. We weren’t in any rush and Iceland’s capital isn’t very large, though, so walking was an easy choice for us. We headed back into the city and walked along the main drag, Laugavegur, towards the first of the two destinations we intended to visit.
The Icelandic Phallological Museum
One of Reykjavík’s most famous museums must surely be the Icelandic Phallological Museum, or as it’s more commonly described, the Penis Museum. In fact, we’d wanted to visit this museum when we’d come to Iceland before but had ended up missing it for some reason. This time we’d checked the map beforehand and realised how easy it was to find.
The museum houses penile specimens from nearly all of Iceland’s sea and land mammals plus examples from other mammals around the world and, bizarrely, some ones from the realms of fantasy too. It’s a place that’s worth visiting to say you’ve been there but it would be fair to say that all the exhibits are a little samey after a while and you get a look that spells danger from your wife after five minutes of saying “Mine’s bigger. Mine’s bigger. Mine’s bigger. That’s just wrong. Mine’s bigger.”
Reykjavík Art Museum
We’re generally appreciative of art so our final cultural destination for our day in Reykjavík was the modern art museum only about fifteen minutes away on foot south of where we were. We ended up walking past the road we’d intended to take to the museum’s entrance so approached the building from its south once we’d realised this but this meant we got to walk through Klambratún, a large park with some interesting art sculptures and play equipment. With the sun sinking in the western sky by this time there was some lovely light coming across the park area casting long shadows and reflecting golden warmth in the windows of the art museum.
The art museum was perhaps a little disappointing in what it contained but probably mostly because of the exhibits at the time we visited which just weren’t to our taste. That’s just a chance you take when you visit any art gallery. From an architectural perspective, though, we loved the brutalist design of the building itself and the cakes on offer in the building’s café looked very tempting indeed.
Food And Drink
By this time we were starting to get hungry and thirsty again so we decided to make our way back towards our hotel as it was very close to a number of dining establishments and some good places to get drinks too. We walked back through the centre of Reykjavík, detouring slightly so that we could pass by Hallgrímskirkja. We’d visited it before so didn’t go in this time and satisfied ourselves with a couple of shots as we headed back but you can read about our visit to Hallgrímskirkja in 2015 if you’d like to see inside it and the views from the top of the impressive landmark.
We dined just around the corner from our hotel then took a short stroll to the Skúli craft ale bar nearby that we’d enjoyed visiting on the night before. We didn’t want to eat or drink too much as we had one final activity planned for the night.
Reykjavík Northern Lights Boat Cruise
Part of the deal that saw us travel to Iceland included tickets for an Elding Northern Lights Cruise from Reykjavík Harbour. It had originally been scheduled for the day before but the weather had put a stop to that so we’d rescheduled the trip for the Saturday instead. With eating and drinking out of the way we stopped in our hotel room to start layering up then made our way down to the Elding office on Ægisgarður in the Old Harbour area. Tickets were shown and exchanged for admission slips then we were sent down the dockside to board the boat.
On board we were shown the red overalls we were invited to put on should we wish to. We decided not to bother but plenty of people did. After everyone was aboard and we’d been given a little bit of information from one of the guides the boat set out into the harbour. We elected to stay inside at the start as there didn’t seem to be much point heading outside into the cold when there was nothing to see but it wasn’t very long before we were told that there was an auroral band forming in the western sky. We headed topside and for the second visit to Iceland in a row we got to see the Northern Lights. We know plenty of people who’ve been multiple times and not seen them at all so consider ourselves very lucky. Of course, trying to take a photo on the phone on a boat that’s rocking on the water and in strong winds is not the easiest thing to do and doesn’t produce the best results but here’s what was captured anyway.
The aurora faded pretty quickly and there were only hints of more forming during our time out on the water. To the east of the city on the island of Videy the Imagine Peace Tower was throwing its beam of light into the night and provided the only other point of interest in the sky.
It was incredibly cold on the boat. I know, I know. It was December, it was night, it was Iceland, it’s what we were expecting. I was wearing two pairs of socks, long thermal leggings, jeans, a long-sleeved top, a hoodie, a double-layered coat, gloves, a woollen hat, and had the hood up on both the hoodie and the coat. It was absolutely bitter out there on the water and the main problems were with the toes and fingers and the hoods getting whipped off by the wind that was cutting across the harbour and battering the boat. For those parts that were coldest we don’t think that the overalls would have helped so my recommendation if you think about doing this cruise is invest in thermal socks and gloves.
We really enjoyed the experience on the boat and can now say that we’ve seen the Northern Lights from the land and the sea but if you’re mostly interested in photographing the aurora rather than simply seeing them then this isn’t the best way to go about it.
We’d originally planned to visit a bar after our boat tour but were so chilled to the bone by the end of it that we elected for a cup of tea in our hotel room instead. How dreadfully sensible of us. The next day, Sunday, would see us up early in order to take a tour of the southern coast of Iceland.