Reykjavik Sunset

We got to bed about 1am after we did the Northern Lights tour with the 'geysers' we should have gone with originally. It was a waste of time as it was far too cloudy and drizzly all evening. Good job we had the luck of the Irish on Sunday then!

We hired a car for the day and drove around the outskirts of Reykjavik and revisted the National Park. It was cheaper than booking another tour and nice to be away from the crowds. We dropped the car back at the hire office in the Reykjavik city centre which is only five minutes from our hotel.

The blip photo shows the sunset over Reykjavik and the Hallgrímskirkja Church presiding masterfully over the capital area. Its iconic tower rises symmetrically and incrementally to a magnificent 74.5m peak and stands powerfully erect atop the rising heights of Skólavörðustígur Hight Street. Construction of the church began in 1945 and it was finally completed and consecrated in 1986. It was christened Hallgrímskirkja after the famous poet and minister Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614 – 1674).

Standing guard and gracing the grounds in front of the church, which it predated by 15 years, is a grand statue of Leifur Eiriksson (c. 970 – c. 1020), the first European to discover America. Leifur is said to have landed on the shores of America in the year 1,000 A.D., 500 years before Christopher Columbus pronounce his discovery. Designed by Alexander Stirling Calder, the statue was a gift from the US in 1930, to commemorate the 1,000th anniversary of Iceland’s first parliament in 930 AD.
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