Our last day in Iceland, we went to Hallgrimskirkja. This church can be seen from about everywhere in Reykjavik and was inspired by the forms made when lava cools into basalt rock. This is such an unique building and totally fits in with what we saw along the coast.
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| This statue of Leifr Eiricsson was a gift from the United States in honor of the 1,000th anniversary of the establishment of Iceland's parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD. |
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| You can imagine Thor living here. |
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| I loved the elegance and simplicity of the interior. |
For a small fee, you can go to the top of the tower and see the city views. While we were there, the bells rang--quite loudly!
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| I asked at the hotel about the graffiti in the neighborhood. The hotel clerk said it was nothing to worry about and that the graffiti was made by gangs. She quickly added that they were graffiti gangs and not violent gangs. She said she personally knew some of the people in the graffiti gangs and they weren't violent at all. So graffiti in Iceland doesn't mean the neighborhood is sketchy. At least that was what we were told, and we never saw any evidence that it was otherwise. |
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| This restaurant serves traditional Icelandic food--salted fish and fermented shark. I heard that the shark was just as bad as it sounds, so we didn't feel the need to spend good money to find out. This is an aptly named restaurant since the Hallgrimskirkja across the street looked like it could be Thor's home. |
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| Waffle wagon--food truck Icelandic style. |
We made a quick stop at the National Museum of Iceland which was full of fascinating things from ancient and modern Iceland.
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| Replica of armor. |
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| Icelandic readers. |
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| You know you're old when your childhood shows up in a museum! This display was about life in the 1980's. |
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| Good-bye Iceland! |
Our flight home took us over Greenland where not a speck of green was to be seen.
So, remember the black sand we collected from the beach? Curt stuck it in his bag (we only travel with carry-on luggage) and not a mention was made when we went through Icelandic airport security. Maybe they are used to people filling up a water bottle of black sand to take home? Anyway, we landed in Denver and had to go through American airport security to get our flight to Salt Lake. First of all, we were both had our full bottles of Icelandic water given to us on the plane by Icelandair because Rachel jokingly said she wanted us to bring home some Icelandic water. Oops! Those were found right away, and we had to dump them out.
Then the security personnel took Curt's backpack and began to go through it, because something suspicious showed up on the monitor. Out came the bottle of sand. They looked at us funny, consulted with each other, and said they had to test it. I told them it was black sand from the beach. They told Curt to stay by them and to not go anywhere.
I finally thought to ask what they were testing it for as they dripped a chemical onto some of the sand. "Explosives," they said. Oh! I hadn't thought of that, but it does look like gunpowder. That's why they wanted Curt to stay. They were judging his reaction as they put the chemical on the sand.
Once it was determined that we weren't dangerous or carrying a dangerous item, we were free to go. I'm grateful for their suspicion because it keeps everyone safe--from real dangers or just dumb tourists!
