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Iceland – Pt. 1

Reykjavík

By Bob Ransom

March 31^st, 2018

Reykjavík

After a short 2.5 hour flight from Glasgow (I had no idea Iceland was that close to the U.K.), we grabbed our luggage, picked up the rental car, and drove into the city center to check into our Airbnb. With everything stashed away into our little apartment, we set out on foot in search of food.

HALLGRÍMSKIRKJA

Though we hadn't known it when we booked our Airbnb, we were right around the corner from the Hallgrímskirkja Cathedral tower. In fact, it sat between us and downtown (and dinner).

In simple terms, besides being a focal point for the entire city of Reykjavik, Hallgrímskirkja is a Lutheran Church — services on Sundays, bible studies, book clubs, all the usual Protestant church functions. It's also home to one truly enormous pipe organ.

As we approached the building from the rear, we could hear someone playing that pipe organ — and playing it really well. We continued down the side of the building and around to the front, and found the church doors wide open with people coming and going. After confirming that it was okay to go in, we wandered into the sanctuary and sat to watch this young guy just tearing it up on the organ.

We later found out that we'd stumbled in to a rehearsal by French concert organist David Casson for a performance the next day, part of a summer-long organ concert series. This organ, besides sounding absolutely beautiful, is a beast. It's incredibly complex and requires both hands and both feet to play. Watching David push it, test it, and tweak it, was amazing.

About the organ, the Visit Iceland website says: "Standing tall at an impressive 15m and weighing a remarkable 25 tons, this mechanical action organ is driven by four manuals and a pedal, 102 ranks, 72 stops and 5275 pipes, all designed to reproduce powerful notes capable of filling the huge and holy space with a range of tones - from the dulcet to the dramatic."

Yeah, this was a very cool way to start our Icelandic adventure.

After tearing ourselves away from the organ rehearsal, we wandered downtown until we found a suitable restaurant that A) wasn't fast food, and B) could actually seat us in a reasonable amount of time. I neglected to write down the name of the place, nor did I shoot any photos. It was really good, though!

We spent the morning of our second day in Iceland wandering downtown Reykjavik with no particular goal or itinerary in mind besides the usual: food, coffee, sightsee, more coffee.

Around mid-day, we checked out of our Airbnb, loaded the car, and began the drive out of the city to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. More on that in the next post.