After a busy day yesterday, Mike and I decided to take it somewhat easy today. Mike had also developed a flare-up of gout in his foot, making it painful to walk. We both got our computers out and got caught up while Mike put an ice pack on his foot. Later on Mike said he was ready to go and we decided to pay a visit to The Pearl (Perlan), a building visible on one of the highest hills in Reykjavik. The Pearl contains 6 water tanks that supply the naturally hot water for the city and is topped by a dome that contains among other things, a revolving restaurant. We caught a bus across the street from the hotel and took it to the central bus station where we changed buses and caught one that went by The Pearl.
Before leaving the hotel I thought I would take a picture of some of the Icelandic money.
Their money is the Krona (ISK) and 1 Krona is equal to plus or minus .0916 USD.
When I was there I used an ATM to draw out 20,000 Krona (ISK) and it converted to $175.20 (USD)
being deducted from my account. Of course this doesn't count the cost to use the cash machine
in Iceland and the $10.00 ATM fee added by my credit card and a $4.95 Foreign Transaction Fee.
These are some of the coins. A different type of fish is featured on each denomination of coin.
This was a view out of the window on the sixth floor of the hotel near the elevators.
The mountains were all identified on the clear plaque inside the window.
The view out the South window going from left to right (West to East).
Going right.
To the far right (see reference to these buildings in a picture
taken from the deck of The Pearl later in this post).
A stainless steel building housing a steam vent...part of the geo-thermal heating.
And as is evident, graffiti is pretty much a part of every society.
A lot of the buildings had these type of tiles. I suppose it would be easy to change
out a damaged one, or all of them if you wanted to change the color.
How the above tiles are attached on the building above.
Most of the cars were the same as the cars in the U.S. with the exception of the
Czech Republic's Skoda, however their license plates were longer and narrower
requiring the plate holder indentations to be different than those of the U.S.
Another thing about the cars was the rhythmic beat they made with their
studded tires. Living in Seattle you do not hear that noise very often, but
in Reykjavik, studded tires are necessary.
I liked the shadow formed by this fire escape.
The bus sign was all in Icelandic...luckily the drivers spoke English
and all they had to tell you was which numbered bus to take.
The Pearl (Perlan) with six water tanks holding the hot water supply for the city of
Reykjavik, topped with a dome containing the revolving restaurant.
Looking down the ice covered walk leading to The Pearl.
Outside, these glass domes allow light to enter the rooms in the basement.
Sculpture outside The Pearl entitled Dance by Torbjorg Palsdottir
Staircase inside the building.
A unique fountain. To me it looked like it could be a water fountain for people
to get a drink, but I never saw anyone attempt it.
An indoor geyser.
Stained glass over a doorway.
Looking Northeast off the viewing deck that surrounds The Pearl.
Looking East off the viewing deck. Notice the people in the foreground
walking down the ice covered path that lead to The Pearl.
View from the deck. The taller buildings on the right are the taller buildings
seen in the pictures taken from the hotel earlier in this post.
On every corner of the viewing deck, one of these dials
could be found identifying those objects off in the distance.
The mountain range seen from across the hotel as seen off the viewing deck.
Looking towards downtown with the Hallgrims Church on the left.
Looking towards downtown again, a little to the East of the last picture.
This is a shaky video taken on the South side of the deck of The Pearl. It was very windy
and cold. The noise you hear on the video is the wind.
Telephoto of some of the mountains around the city.
Looking East,
The dome at The Pearl. On this level was the viewing deck,
a year-round Christmas shop, and a cafeteria.
One floor above was the rotating restaurant - open only for dinner.
Outside The Pearl, these geese were feeding. They are about the same size as
the Canada geese we see all around the Seattle area.
The ice covered pathway leading to The Pearl.
There was not much snow in the city, but many of the walkways,
parking lots, and open areas were covered with ice.
We had seen this church from the deck of The Pearl and decided to walk over to check it
out. Since Mike suggested it, I figured his gout must be feeling a little better and
off we went. As we arrived, the sun was in the perfect position to light the church.
The lighting was really dramatic.
The chapel inside.
A piece of the artwork.
Close-up of the above photo.
All of the columns were tiled in gold colored tiles.
The windows had patterns in the glass, but there were no stained glass windows.
Being a non-religious person, I have no idea what these movable
numbers represented.
Above the chapel was this tile cross.
This poster of the church shows the color out of the sunlight.
The moon came out early.
This shows a parking lot covered in ice. It was late in the afternoon, so there
were no cars parked here, but we did see parking lots with ice filled with cars elsewhere.
The church we had walked to was farther than we thought. Luckily, Mike's foot was not bothering him too much and we decided to continue walking back to the hotel. Along the way we stopped at Galleri List, one of Iceland's oldest galleries displaying contemporary works in a multitude of mediums by Icelandic artists.
It was going to be an early night as Mike had to catch his bus to the airport at 4:30 a.m. We had had quite a big lunch at The Pearl including a very large piece of apple and raisin strudel with ice cream...very yummy. Neither of us were very hungry for dinner. Mike was again icing his foot so I thought I would see if there was a grocery store nearby where I could just get us some snacks. When I talked to the front desk, they told me there was one in the building behind the hotel. It was a 10-11 store...similar to our 7-11 stores. I was hoping to buy some cheese, salami, and a baguette, but ended up having to settle for Ritz crackers for the cheese and salami instead. Oh yeah, and some Gull beer. I also picked up a couple of post cards. We found Iceland to be rather expensive and the post cards are a good example. Each one cost 100 ISK or about $.90 each.
When I got back to the hotel, I stopped by the customer service desk and asked if they had any postage stamps to mail a postcard to the U.S. Indeed they did...500 ISK or about $4.60 for two stamps. So, it ended up costing about $3.20 for each postcard. Needless to say, I did not send a lot.
Like I said it was going to be an early evening, so we had our cheese, salami, crackers and beer and called it a night.
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