First, I visited the National Museum of Iceland (web site). It's a really well done chronology of the history of Iceland that takes up two stories and could consume several hours of time.. the 2 hours I spent there wasn't quite enough. Especially cool were the Viking artifacts and the church items from the time of the Reformation (Iceland is 90 some percent Lutheran). I rather enjoyed it.
After the museum, I ran to get to the Einar Jonsson Museum (web site) before it closed. Jonsson is one of Iceland's most prominent sculptors. In 1909 he offered all of his works as a gift to the people of Iceland provided they build a museum to house them. In 1914 the country accepted, and his museum is free, but only open 3 hours a day. :P. I didn't make it *inside* but I was completely mesmerized by the works in the sculpture garden behind the museum earlier in the week, and had been hoping for a drier day to go back and take pictures. With no such luck, I made it back just in time to go through and get all the shots I could want before they closed the gates.
Across the street from the sculpture museum is the Hallgrimskirkja (literally Hallgrimur's church... he wrote the most popular Icelandic hymnal once upon a time) (web site or Wikipedia entry). It's a huge Lutheran church that rises high above the Reykjavik skyline and is on top of a hill in the center of town. You can pay about $5 to take a ride to the top of the steeple and get aeriel views of the city. Inside the church is the biggest organ in Iceland. While I was in there, a famous organist from Germany was practicing for a concert for the next day. Most of the church is pretty bare and focuses on being an open space with lots of light, but the side walls are lined with some cool paintings too. Outside the church is a large statue of Leif Ericson given to Iceland from America in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the Alpingi.
After the church, I grabbed dinner and was in for a lazy night of drying out in my hotel room.
| Background/Intro | Sunday, June 11 | Monday, June 12 | Tuesday, June 13 |
| Wednesday, June 14 | Thursday, June 15 | Friday, June 16 | Saturday, June 17 |
the national museum (couldn't take pictures inside... check out the website above to get a better idea)
flags outside
welcome to the museum
"earth"
...
"spring"
...
"...with age"
perspective
...am i weird that this one makes me think of RENT?
"light and shade"
"sleep"
..this one is actually named after the big church in the next set of photos...
looking out the back
towards the university and the perlan
looking out the front
further into town
the sculpture museum from above
looking up
baptismal font
pulpit, take 1
pulpit, take 2
main altar area
altar area artwork
the organ
organ, take 2
onward christian soldier?
...
he's got the whole world in his hands...
back of the church on a sunnier day
leif ericson, in profile
inscription
throw your hands up?