Wed Aug 20
Today’s the day we board The Azamara Quest, but we’re not quite done with Reykjavik yet. The ship is staying in town for two nights and we have more to see. We plan to board later in the afternoon.
In the meantime, we check out of our hotel, eat our Skyr and leave our luggage with the hotel. (If you’re counting, that’s 3 different hotels in 4 days).
We grab some (expensive) coffee and tour the Hallgrímskirkja church (Literally translates to Church of Hallgrímur, a clergyman from the 1600s). In the tiny town of Reykjavik, it sits as a massive gothic structure overlooking the city.
Of course, we climb .... what?!?! No stairs? Well, damn. We lazily take the stupid elevator up for the view.
Check out this amazingly carved door. No store name. Nothing there. Just someone's door. Life goals! --->
We meander around the tiny city until we start to get hungry. It's perfect timing, because we are heading to a food tour. We've been here for days, but there are still some traditional Icelandic foods we want to try.
We try Icelandic free range lamb flatbread and baked arctic char, and walk past people basking in a rare sunny Reykjavik day.
The tour continues to the Icelandic Bar, where we ate last night. However, today we have the 'opportunity' to try the infamous Fermented Shark. The food goes back to the old days when food was scare. Somehow, Icelanders figured out how to make a untasty and poisonous shark safe to eat... by fermenting it for months underground in urine. Nowadays, they use ammonia. Doesn't make it any better, does it? Locals still eat it on rare occasions, and tourists eat it because they are tourists. Being brave (and perhaps not that bright) Americans, we try it out.
It's a very small piece. And, the smell hits us in the face. We brave the overly chewy chunk of formaldehyde (and await the beer chaser). Mel's face pretty much says it all.
The tour finishes at Cafe Loki, right in the shadows of the church. This Norse God themed restaurant has incredible artwork throughout. And, we get sweet rye bread ice cream to finish our tour. In case you weren't sure, the ice cream is much better tasting than rancid shark.
Oh, one last tour anecdote. This is foreshadowing, so you need to remember this for our last day of the trip. Remember, okay?
During the tour, we are supposed to stop at the famous Bæjarins Bestu Pylsur. They serve lamb hot dogs. This is most likely the cheapest meal in all of Reykjavik (~$8 USD). The stand is usually crowded, and the tour gets there at prime time. We skip it rather than wait in line, but we get a free coupon for later. It's later.
We walk past the stand, and the line is just regular long. Three of us try it out. Ruth saves her coupon. She wants to use it at a stand in the airport, since we'll be hungry before our flight.
Ruth eats most of mine, since I don't really like hot dogs, but she spends the next week talking about her plan to get a hot dog right before her flight, and won't we all be jealous.
Moving on...
We grab our luggage and board our ship, our home for the next 10 nights.
It's been a long day, and we're tired, and so we ....
Yeah.
You guessed it. Jim and Mel wanted to get dinner in town and spend our last night in Reykjavik. And so, we go to a food hall, and finish with one last beer at Skuli.
Tomorrow, relaxing, Reykjavik style!
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