Iceland road trip day 13 - Reykjavik bound

[sam_b]

We got up early and headed into the breakfast area - which was rammed with people! After a quick breakfast, we packed up and left - we agreed that this was the worst hotel - but it was still ok. 😀
We headed out to Skogafoss as we were passing and we wanted to get there before the coach parties. It was freezing cold, but bright and the moon was still up.

After Si had done his thing we carried on towards Reykjavik. The plan was to have half a day there so that we could do Golden Circle tomorrow. There really isn’t anything past Selandjafoss before Reykjavik so we just enjoyed the drive.
We went to a parking spot that Si had identified. Because we had our bags in the boot (and no boot cover) we wanted to park close to a wall.., sadly the wall was sloped and we shattered the rear windscreen! It went with a heck of a bang and crunch 🙁
We phoned the car hire company and they had a local office 10 mins away with a replacement car. En route, Si filled up and left his credit card in the machine at the pump! One illegal u turn later and a very stressed Si, we got the card back as a lady had handed it in. At the hire car office we picked up a Mazda cx3 - the car we had originally booked. It was automatic and petrol and we quickly realised how much better the eco sport was! For a start, there was no integrated apple car play. In fairness, the whole episode cost us about 1 hour of time from start to finish.
We went back to the same parking lot and left the car (intact) and headed to the sun voyager.

After that, we went in search of lunch and headed to a food hall that we had read about. Si had a buffalo chicken sandwich and I had a flatbread with cheese and pimento. It was pretty cheap.
Next stop was Hallgrimskirkja which I was really looking forward to. Sadly, it was closed to the public all day for funerals 🙁.

Unsure what else to do, we walked to ‘the pond’ and watched the ducks and enjoyed the view.

We walked back down to the harbour and found the Harpa concert hall which was very impressive looking.

We had a look at the shops inside and saw a picture that we liked by Haraldur Bilson called Winter a Solstice. It was too big to get home though (and expensive!) - so we had to let that idea go.
A quick stop at the sun voyager again and then we drove over to Perlan. The exhibitions and ice cave here are really expensive but we went to the cafe in the roof for a drink - Pepsi for Si and hot chocolate for me. We also shared a lemon marzipan bite and a small donut like thing.

We had a look in the gift shop where we saw lava lumps (like the thousands we had walked over and past) with tea lights in them for £20... souvenirs are hugely expensive here!
A quick walk around the outside and we decided to head to the hotel which is about 15 mins outside of the city.
It’s an odd place - like an industrial unit on a small retail park. The room is fine though - no kettle, but no issue for us!
Within walking distance is a Bonus supermarket and a cafe called Skalli.
We walked to the cafe for tea - we shared a pizza and then had an ice cream. The pizza was great and the ice cream tasted great but was actually too rich and creamy - I think that we both regretted it after as we felt a bit queasy.