Reykjavik Wednesday June 01 2016

It was difficult to sleep that first night because
 A) we were overtired
2. it was dusk all night long and the light peeked through the curtains inviting me to get up
C) we were still 7 hours behind Reykjavik time

We declined another expensive breakfast and headed out to explore.
The wind & rain were not as severe, however we chose to do a drive by for our first photo op the striking Sun Voyager - a massive steel sculpture by Jon Gunnar Arnason which may resemble a Viking ship, but is in fact a dream boat and ode to the sun.

our first stop was The Harpa Concert Hall, where we enjoyed a pastry & strong cup of coffee, which was quite the feat considering the building had no water due to a repair.

we enjoyed a slide show of scenes around Iceland 

from here we took the bus to & drove by a university building with the name Gimli. There is an Icelandic town north of Winnipeg with this name too! 

we got off the bus at the church & explored the old town a bit more, enjoying lunch at a bohemian style restaurant that specializes in crepes 

Our sister's Icelandic mother-in-law made the most delicious bread. our mom used this recipe which made about 6 loaves of heavy, molasses & 

whole wheat food of the Viking gods. We were hoping to find some to enjoy.

this window in the cafe has a map with dots representing where diners live.

the main street has large easles with art displayed. The day prior it was children's art & this day it was photos of an Icelandic surfer & his adventures.  can you say 'brrrr'?

Bill emailed this photo back home with the commentary that the car was parked in front of our hotel, which is almost believable considering that the high was 7 celcius!

from here we bussed to the harbour where we attended a whale museum & afterwards checked out a grocery store. I was disappointed to learn that no one uses the muslin sock to make their drip coffee. We used it when I was growing up and it makes the best coffee. 

this is an excerpt from The Winnipeg newspaper The Free Press

- Coffee, or "kaffi," thy name is Icelander. These folks love their coffee so much that they'll strain it through a sock. And they like it so strong that it smells like it was strained through an old sock. One woman in Gimli said if there is an Icelandic-Canadian out there who doesn't like coffee, someone should put their portrait on a poster.

It's called a "kaffi poki," a kitchen implement that literally means "coffee bag." It's a bag used to filter coffee grounds. The sock part is made from a pure cotton muslin cloth sewn onto a round brim with handle, so that it looks like a miniature butterfly net. You put the coffee grounds inside and pour.
Icelanders brought the technology with them to Canada.

We made one more stop at The Perlan so Bill could photograph this jazz band. We rode the elevator to the 5th floor where the other 'tourists' got off. We were promptly kicked out of the restaurant. Not because we weren't dressed formally, as were the other visitors but apparently we tried to crash a funeral!  oops, wrong floor! 

We made our way back to the hotel for dinner where we had made reservations having learned from the night prior. another early night!