Our honeymoon in Iceland – Exploring Reykjavik
Last days in Reykjavik
Day 5
Our honeymoon up until this point had been a constant go, go, go. We were excited to spend time exploring Reykjavik. The day would start with a walk from our Airbnb (near the marina), and through town to grab breakfast. We went to the Laundromat Cafe multiple times, and we highly recommend it. Get the Icelandic yogurt! It does not disappoint!
Zach and I went shopping at the Kolaportid flea market to buy souvenirs for ourselves and our family. Excited to be shopping, we purchased so many amazing goodies: Icelandic wool sweaters, pieces of lava rock & scrub, and a painting. All the vendors we spoke with were the nicest people! My husband and I spent quite some time just chatting with them about our trip and the unique goods they had for sale.
My husband insisted on taking photos with all of them 🙂 After shopping, we worked up quite the appetite and decided we had to get the famous Icelandic hot dog. I recommend trying this hot dog, it will be the best one you ever have! Not going to lie, we got it a couple times on our trip.
After the first shopping excursion, we took our recently purchased goods and brought them back to our airbnb, then set out for more exploring of the beautiful city. On our path to the well known shopping street of Laugavegur, we stopped by the Harpa music hall.
Harpa Music Hall is an all glass building which is so colorful, unique and I was obsessed with the beauty of the architecture. We walked around inside for a little bit and outside along the water there were many little stacked rock sculptures. We just had to make one ourselves to leave a piece of ourselves in Iceland.
The next stop on our trek around Reykjavik was seeing the famous Sun Voyager sculpture, as seen in the first photo of this post. This sculpture invokes the sense of adventure, and travelling into the unknown. This is a great viewpoint of the waterfront and the mountains beyond.
After seeing the Sun Voyager, we made our way to Laugavegur street for more browsing around shops and to see the Hallgrímskirkja church. The rainbow covered street that leads up to the church is so colorful and a beautiful addition to the already colorful road. One of my favorite things about Iceland is to see all the street art around Reykjavik.
Some of our favorite stops around Laugavegur street area were The Big Lebowski bar, the Magic Ice Reykjavik Ice Bar. and Mal og Menning bookstore. The Magic Ice bar has amazing ice sculptures and of course you need to sit upon the ice throne. They provide ponchos to help keep warm being surrounded by ice, which is definitely needed!
Day 6
Our Final Full Day
On our last full day in Iceland, we were sad our honeymoon was coming to an end, but definitely wanted to make the best of it! We had a whale watching tour scheduled out of the marina near our Airbnb. Before the tour we had a delicious lunch of fish and chips (best I’ve ever had honestly). The restaurant near our Airbnb called, Reykjavik Fish, is located conveniently across from the Marina area. Once we ate. we went go on the whale tour boat.
Whale watching in Iceland is better during the summer months, but fall it is still possible to get whale sightings. We were feeling lucky and were ready to set out for some whale watching! The whale tour we went on was through Arctic Adventures again, which is recommended.
As soon as everyone gets onto the boat, they give a quick safety briefing while heading out into harbor. They provide full body waterproof suits to keep you warm and dry. After getting further out into the water, we got suited up and went out to the top deck to start looking out for whales.
Some time went by without seeing anything, but next thing you know you hear someone excitedly yell that they see a whale! We were lucky to catch a few glimpses of Minke Whales. We could see them blow water out in the distance. In a few different spots we got to see the Minke whales emerge at the top of the water. It was a fun experience that I would suggest to anyone!
On our final night in Iceland, we decided to go out for a nice dinner and enjoy the last night in town. For our last night we went to a nice seafood buffet that came highly recommended. After dinner we wound our way in and out around the city that has become so familiar. Zach and I agreed we would both miss Iceland very much.
Day 7
Last hours
Our flight back home to Florida left that afternoon. The last thing left on our list was to go to the viewing platform of the Hallgrímskirkja church. We went after breakfast, on a mission to get some beautiful photos of the city below. You take a quick elevator ride up and quick flight of stairs onto the platform. From the platform you will see all the colorful roofs of Reykjavik below.
After the final walk of the city, we caught our scheduled bus back to the airport. We went and declared all the goods we bought and went through security. The last bit of Iceland we were taking with us was our water bottles with fresh Icelandic water. Our honeymoon will always be a memorable trip for us that we still talk about.
Wander On,
Christina
