ꯐꯣꯉꯈ꯭ꯔꯦ꯫: 31.07.2022
We arrived in Reykjavik at 8 pm in the evening.
We decided to explore the city because we wouldn't have time the next day due to an excursion.
At first, we hoped that there would be taxis at the cruise terminal. Either they were all gone before we finally got ashore or there were no business-savvy drivers who wanted to take the cruise tourists to the city center in the evening.
Since it was already quite late and we wanted to have some daylight for exploring, we walked to the nearest bus stop. I had previously downloaded an app for public transportation in Iceland that allowed you to purchase a ticket. (Alternatively, we would have had to pay with Icelandic krona, which we didn't have.) But everything worked smoothly with the app, and so we also took a second couple from the ship and quickly and affordably reached the city center.
We first went to Hallgrimskirkja, construction of which only began in 1945.
Unfortunately, it was already closed, but we admired it from the outside from all sides.
Then we strolled through the shopping street Skolavördustigur. Most stores were closed, but some souvenir shops were still open.
We then walked through smaller streets with some pretty houses to the Tjörnin lake.
On its shore stands the city's town hall, completed in 1992.
We passed the National Gallery and walked to the center of the modern city.
There were still some visitors and locals in the pedestrian zone.
Music could be heard from many bars. Often, it was Latin rhythms, and one place even offered a bachata course that evening.
The outdoor dining options really brought a Mediterranean vibe - even though the temperatures, while not cold to us, made us feel more appropriate in our winter jackets than the locals who preferred shorts.
We continued our stroll to the water and saw a sculpture shaped like a ship (Solfar).
There was a well-developed promenade along the water that we used for our return to the cruise terminal.