Date: 22nd Feb 2023
We arrived at Keflavik Airport mid morning and picked up our hire car before driving the 45km to our hotel in Reykjavik. After a bit of lunch we took a walk around a few of the city sights. Our first stop was the Sun Voyage sculpture on the city’s waterfront. Despite the name of the sculpture, there was not much sun to be seen, the weather being very dull and overcast. However, you have to work with what you have, so in this image of the sculpture I have edited it heavily to bring out plenty of dark moody cloud structures. The sculpture was unveiled in August 1990 to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the city of Reykjavik. Sadly, the artist Jón Gunnar Árnason did not survive to see it completed, as he died a year earlier.
The Sun Voyager – Reykjavik
After visiting the sculpture the weather turned wet, so we decided the best option was to visit the Hallgrimskirkja, where at least we could get out of the rain and admire the inside of the building. The church was built between 1945 and 1986. One of the main attractions inside the church is the large organ installed in 1992, which has 5275 pipes, is 15m high and weighs 25 tons.
Hallgrimskirkja Organ
As it continued raining, we returned to our hotel, but later in the evening the rain stopped and we decided to go out for some night photography at the church. This turned out to be a bad idea, as the rain re-started when we were setting up. We managed a couple of shots before the rain became too heavy, but even these required quite a bit of editing to remove rain spots. We then got soaked walking back to our hotel – not an auspicious start to our holiday.
Hallgrimskirkja At Night