We're Here

First day in Iceland is a very long day.  We left Boston at 9:05 PM and arrived in Iceland at about 6AM local time.  You cannot check into your hotel room at 6AM!  We ate breakfast and went out and toured on foot.  Then, the very nice front desk clerk at the Apotek Hotel let us into our rooms at 9:30 AM.  And we promptly napped.

Post nap I am ready to blog.

This is one of the more famous landmarks in Reykjavik.  It's the Hallgrimskirkja church.  I looked up the spelling to be certain.  It appears that all churches end in kirkja or kirkjan.  The architecture either reminds you of a Viking Ship or a volcano depending on your artistic inclinations.

And when you are walking around a city what's finding your daughter-in-law's name on a store worth if you don't get it in a picture.

Later that same day...  We ventured out to visit a beautiful performance venue.  It's called the Harpa Concert Hall. 

Home to the Reykjavik Symphony Orchestra it barely made it through the construction process.  The 2008 world recession hit Iceland very hard.  City fathers couldn't justify the expense needed to complete the building.  At 40% completed their choices included tearing what they made down or re-purposing.  One of the ideas: a prison.  Fortunately, none of that happened.  It is not only an architectural gem it is also an acoustic marvel.

Once of the smaller performance venues inside creates a "northern light show" on command.  During the darker months the outside of the building does the same thing.

The big venue is surrounded by resonating chambers.  The walls on all four sides of the theater move to permit sound into large chambers.  Depending on the size of the opening the house managers can alter sound decay to create no echo or lots of echo or somewhere in between.