24 hours in Reykjavik
For this reason, it is best to start the day by getting away from the center and enjoying the **considered the best brunch in the city, the VOX restaurant at the Hilton Hotel**. During the week it is replaced by an equally copious and not very expensive lunch menu. Between 3,300 and 3,500 crowns (less than 20 euros). For those not staying there, just take bus 15 from Hlemmur station heading east and three stops later get off at Nordica. By car it is a five-minute drive.
Once the batteries are charged, you can start the day by visiting Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church , one of the largest buildings in the country . Its original architecture is inspired by the usual lava flows in the country's nature. Before climbing the tower from where you can enjoy a bird's-eye view of Reykjavík, you can admire the interior of the church, which has little to do with the Spanish/Christian ones except for its structure. Rarely is minimalism as spectacular as in this building, with very few religious images , which allows the organ at the back to dominate the room.
Hallgrímskirkja Lutheran Church
From there, walking west you can take Skólavörđustígur street, an interesting shopping street that offers the opportunity to visit the first designer shops, the Geysir local clothing -one of the most hipster of the place- or the informal but efficient and cheap restaurant Noodle Station (if they are open). From there you can get to Austurvöllur , a square full of restaurants and cafes and a corner where you can enjoy (relatively) the sun's rays and the hottest hours of the day.
A little before sunset, it is convenient to finish in the nearby Harp , the spectacular convention and concert center that represents the inappropriate architectural variety of such a small city (barely 120,000 inhabitants). Located on the edge of the port, this majestic and avant-garde work has just received, and rightly so, the prestigious Mies van der Rohe award. Its facade, made of a framework and glass hexagons, is an architectural transcript of Icelandic natural landscapes and interacts with natural light during the twilight of the day . If you need to make time, you can inside the building, which has been the venue for the Sónar Festival held this summer. Lovers of photography can spend hours inside Harpa if they accept the challenge of shapes and light that the building poses, where everything is about aesthetics, including the food offered by its two restaurants.
Harpa, the spectacular convention center
Sunset is also a good time to admire the Sun Voyager, steel sculpture looking out over the Atlantic and that it is a five-minute walk from the Icelandic Cultural Center. The work is a clear example of the traps that contemporary artists tend to common mortals: although its appearance has the obvious shape of a Viking ship -even more so considering where it is located-, its author Jón Gunnar Árnasson has declared that has nothing to do with it and that the work is simply an ode to the sun , disappointing all those who thought they had understood for once the meaning of a work of abstract art.
Sun Voyager, the sculpture that looks out to sea
Taking the avenue south Frakkastígur you get to Reykjavik's real shopping street, Laugavegur . At any time of the day you can go to Tíu Dropar , a place whose decoration would enchant your grandmother or Chanquete, from Verano Azul. The versatility of its menu allows you to have a powerful breakfast in the morning, coffee, soups, waffles and sandwiches throughout the day and fine wine and cheese tasting at night . You can also buy some of Jositajosi's products, by designer Begoña Estíbaliz Sánchez, a Basque based in the city. Her very particular notebooks are inspired by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano , that she left us a few years ago without flights in northern Europe, coinciding with her arrival in the country.
Tíu Dropar, a refuge for any time of the day
Other reasons that will leave you hooked on the street for a long time are the good handful of Scandinavian design shops in which you can browse or the restaurant inspired by the movie The Big Lebowski by the Coen brothers. Also in the cold months you can have soup in bread at Svarta Kaffi or take the opportunity to buy woolen clothes in a country where they know about it: there are more sheep than people (450,000 animals vs. 360,000 people).
Lebowski Bar: The Dude in Iceland
End the day in the old (and renovated) port, where you can find a good range of restaurants, cafes and museums. Two other Spanish nods: Tapas Húsiđ , the house of tapas, offers Icelandic gastronomy combined with Spanish products and conception . The Steik Húsiđ offers good steaks made in a Spanish charcoal oven, in full view of diners and to the pride of their owners. Fish restaurants can also be found . The Icelandic Fish & Chips is the earliest riser and the one that offers the best value for money (and, despite its name, it is not a fast food restaurant).
Icelandic Fish & Chips: Icelandic fish in the harbor
The cocktail bars are open until late at night and, starting today, Wednesday, at night you will be able to see again the gigantic beam of light that makes up the Imagine Peace Tower, one of Yoko Ono's occurrences to remember John Lennon and promote her charity. In the port area there are also many information centers to hire excursions in the natural environment of the city, with which you can (or should) go to the Blue Lagoon, get closer to the nearby mountains and volcanoes or watch whales or some of the the ten million puffins that occupy the country. Because we must not forget that the best of Iceland is not found in its cities.
Imagine Peace Tower, Yoko Ono's project
NOTICE TO NAVIGATORS:
Before starting the 24-hour tour in the capital of Iceland, that very Martian country, it is worth remembering several details. To quickly calculate the Icelandic krona that we are spending, it is best to go back in time, because the current change to the euro is very similar to the one made with the pesetas . Thus, a thousand crowns are more or less a thousand pesetas, that is, 6 euros. If you are going to dedicate yourself to shopping, it is important to know that you can recover fifteen percent of what you paid as taxes in those stores that indicate it with a little flag outside. You just need to collect the tickets and deliver them at the airport, after checking-in.
Tapas Húsi?: Spanish gastronomy with Icelandic touches