August 15, 2023 - Reykjavik, Iceland

 August 15, 2023 - Tuesday - Reykjavik, Iceland

A Signature Landmark

This is our second visit to Reykjavik. In 2015 it was rainy and the wind was howling. We tendered in from Prinsendam and walked as much as we could. Today we are docked very close to the concert hall. It is a convenient walk to the city center and the church. We made our way through a commercial area to a small park. We exited the park and walked on through what could best be described as a high rent district.This was a nice walk under partly cloudy skies with moderate wind.

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Views from the ship

From the park

Danish Consulate

Neighborhood Walk

Soon we were at the church with a little help from Google Maps. That was a good assist. Inside the church we had access to the entire ground floor. The last time we visited they were rehearsing a concert on the ground floor and we were allowed to visit only the first balcony. Today we were able to view the magnificent organ. It is quite a show piece. Unfortunately we could not hear it. After exhausting our interest in the ground floor we exited and passed the statue of Lief Erickson in front of the church. There was a constant flow of people entering the church and promptly leaving. It was take a picture and get out. We made the rounds visiting the nooks and crannies and quiet worship spaces.

We decided to return to Pursuit via another route. This would take us directly to the concert hall. We knew there were WC’s there. We shopped a very little on the way. We stopped at one point to check our map. While we were doing that one of the servers from the ship approached holding up his phone and narrating what he was seeing. We made it into his archive. When he goes”outside” in a port he makes a video that he can later share with his family. How nice is that?

We passed over the Rainbow Street and did some more window shopping as we proceeded downhill to the concert hall. We found the WC. It had a gate and a credit card device that charged 200 Krona for admission. That is $1.51 to use the John. Capital One adviseed me of that instantly as the international charge was posted to our account.

We walked through the lobby and then stopped outside to take pictures of the other cruise ships in port. There were three of them. One was a new larger Holland America ship at anchor. The other two were at docks. As we had been walking we were frequently overtaken by other cruisers. The four vessels in port had to add 5,000 to 7,000 to the population. This led to crowded streets and shops and a very large number of tourists at the church. Those vessels sent shuttles to the concert hall for drop offs and pick ups. We now walked just a block to board Pursuit.

Azamara  presents program called Amazing Evening on all of its cruises. This is usually off the ship at a cultural venue in port. The objective is to get us to learn a bit about the local culture and experience local talent. For this voyage the program was performed onboard Pursuit. We were entertained by a local vocalist / violinist who performed local pop and folk music. She was energetic and very talented.

This was nice return visit and a very good day.