Fenlason - Pineda: Iceland

In perfect Los Angeles style . . . All gates, any direction.

Have you ever seen a happier "I'm going to Reykjavik" face?

Map on the plane. Looks cold.

Just in case. Why not make fun of vomit?

Pinch me . . .

Not so impressed with the "approach," but it gets better, I promise.

I'm not in this photo because EVERYONE getting off the plane wanted a photo at this one spot and, surprise, I got frustrated waiting.

Nope, it's not upside down. It's a puffin crashed through the ceiling at the baggage carrel. They LOVE their puffins . . .

Naked blue men. And one clothed.

Our fancy car for the week. It got us everywhere we wanted to go and was great on gas.

Leaving the Keflavik airport. By the way, while in Iceland, among other things, I learned that "vik" means "city." So, Reykjavik is "smoking city." The history is that upon first seeing the city, the settlers saw the steam coming from all of the thermal beds and thought that it was smoke.

Sculptures outside the airport.

Great art on a garden wall in Reykjavik center, near the Hlemmer neighborhood.

Hallgrímskirkja (or church of Hallgrímur) is a Lutheran (Church of Iceland) parish church in Reykjavík. It's 244 feet tall and is the largest church in Iceland and among the tallest structures in the country. It is named for the Icelandic poet and clergyman Hallgrímur Pétursson (1614–1674), author of the Passion Hymns.

Directly across the street is Café Loki. We had to have a snack there!

Rafa had a pancake with skyr (an Icelandic yogurt) and caramel sauce.

I had "healthy cake" with cream. Like an unleavened, unsweetened brownie. Or maybe chocolate cake from an MRE.

State Architect Guðjón Samúelsson's design of the church was commissioned in 1937. He is said to have designed it to resemble the trap rocks, mountains and glaciers of Iceland's landscape. The design is similar in style to the expressionist architecture of Grundtvig's Church of Copenhagen, Denmark, completed in 1940.

It took 41 years to build the church: construction started in 1945 and ended in 1986, but the landmark tower was completed long before the whole church was completed.

All that said, I still think it looks like a space shuttle.

The statue of explorer Leif Erikson (c.970 – c.1020) by Alexander Stirling Calder in front of the church predates the church. It was a gift from the United States in honor of the 1930 Althing Millennial Festival, commemorating the 1000th anniversary of Iceland's parliament at Þingvellir in 930 AD.

Space shuttle, right?

Interior of the apse.

The church houses a large pipe organ by the German organ builder Johannes Klais of Bonn. It has electronic action; the pipes are remote from the four manuals and pedal console. There are 102 ranks, 72 stops and 5275 pipes.

Píslarvottur - Martyr by Sigurjón Ólafsson (1908 - 1982).

There seems to be a healthy obsession with art, murals and graffiti in Iceland.

Basket giraffe.

Dreams are better than reality. Hmm. Not when you're actually IN your dream.

Um, "kaka" means COOKIE. No points for sounding appetizing.

Cram is all in there!

Sing with me! Ha!

See the tiny mule on the left checking the under-carriage?

It's actually a packhorse. The sculpture is by Sigurjón Ólafsson

On the occasion of his fiftieth birthday in 1958, the City of Reykjavík commissioned Sigurjón to create a bronze statue of a packhorse. For many years, the horse was the Icelanders' only means of overland transport and is therefore a powerful symbol of Iceland's past.

The piece was to be placed at Hlemmur, formerly a stopping place for trains of pack horses to and from Reykjavík which in later years it became a center of public transport. The piece depicts a heavily laden mare with her foal close behind. Sigurjón included the foal to emphasize the conditions of impoverished farmers; some were so poor that even a mare with a foal had to be used as a beast of burden. During his childhood in Eyrarbakki - Sigurjón had seen farmers traveling to and from the village with their loaded horses. They would make the journey in spring and autumn, bringing their woolen goods, dried fish and meat to exchange for imported commodities such as tobacco, coffee, grain and sugar. A photograph of farmers with their loaded horses, taken around 1890, is believed to have been the model for the sculpture. He developed the idea in 1959-63, and in 1965 it was cast in bronze at the Lauritz Rasmussen foundry in Copenhagen. The foal was not cast until 1984, because funds were not available.