{"id":397,"date":"2026-03-30T05:16:48","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/?p=397"},"modified":"2026-03-30T05:39:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T05:39:30","slug":"reykjavik-iceland-may-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/?p=397","title":{"rendered":"Reykjavik, Iceland, May 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

We flew down to Iceland for a one week trip and our first stop was Reykjavik. After picking up our car from the airport and picking up a quick snack from a bakery on the way to the city, we checked into our hotel and started exploring

Founded in 874 AD<\/strong> by Ing\u00f3lfur Arnarson, Reykjav\u00edk began as the first permanent Norse settlement in Iceland and remained a small farming village for centuries before evolving into a modern capital through the influence of Danish trade and 18th-century industrialization. The city’s architectural identity is a striking blend of survivalist utility and Nordic modernism, most famously characterized by corrugated iron-clad houses<\/strong>\u2014a late 19th-century solution to Iceland’s lack of native timber and the harsh Atlantic weather\u2014which were often painted in vibrant, contrasting colors. This traditional aesthetic now sits alongside iconic 20th-century landmarks like the Hallgr\u00edmskirkja<\/strong>, whose stepped-concrete facade was designed by Gu\u00f0j\u00f3n Sam\u00faelsson to mimic the basalt lava flows of the Icelandic landscape, creating a cityscape that feels both deeply connected to its volcanic geology and distinctively avant-garde.
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We also visited the Hallgrimskirkja , a massive Lutheran parish church that dominates the city skyline.Commissioned in 1937 and designed by State Architect Gu\u00f0j\u00f3n Sam\u00faelsson, the church is a masterpiece of Expressionist architecture<\/strong>, explicitly crafted to evoke Iceland’s rugged natural landscape, including its mountains, glaciers, and iconic hexagonal basalt columns like those at the Svartifoss waterfall. While construction was a monumental 41-year undertaking\u2014beginning in 1945 and finally concluding in 1986\u2014the result is a soaring, 74.5-meter concrete structure that houses a massive 5,275-pipe organ and serves as a national sanctuary, blending minimalist Nordic design with a powerful geological aesthetic.

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Post that we also visited the famous “Rainbow Street” which is a vibrant pedestrian stretch of Sk\u00f3lav\u00f6r\u00f0ust\u00edgur<\/strong>, one of the most famous and historic streets in downtown Reykjav\u00edk. Originally a temporary installation for the 1999 Pride festival, the rainbow was made a permanent fixture in 2015 as a powerful symbol of Iceland\u2019s commitment to inclusivity, diversity, and LGBTQ+ rights. Architecturally, the street acts as a grand visual corridor, leading the eye from the bustling Laugavegur shopping district directly up the hill to the towering Hallgrimskirkja .<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

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Shortly after that we returned to the hotel to catch up with some much needed sleep and get ready for our trip the next day to the Snaefellsnes peninsula<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We flew down to Iceland for a one week trip and our first stop was Reykjavik. After picking up our car from the airport and picking up a quick snack from a bakery on the way to the city, we checked into our hotel and started exploring Founded in 874 AD by Ing\u00f3lfur Arnarson, Reykjav\u00edk […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[33],"class_list":["post-397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iceland","tag-iceland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",960,720,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n-768x576.jpg",640,480,true],"large":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",640,480,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",960,720,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",960,720,false],"blogarise-slider-full":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",960,720,false],"blogarise-featured":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n.jpg",960,720,false],"blogarise-medium":["https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/514073288_10160919946711603_8875471614226621466_n-720x380.jpg",720,380,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Mervin","author_link":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/?author=1"},"uagb_comment_info":9,"uagb_excerpt":"We flew down to Iceland for a one week trip and our first stop was Reykjavik. After picking up our car from the airport and picking up a quick snack from a bakery on the way to the city, we checked into our hotel and started exploring Founded in 874 AD by Ing\u00f3lfur Arnarson, Reykjav\u00edk…","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wander-with-me.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}