the city & the blue lagoon.

We ate the same hot dogs that Bill Clinton had in Iceland from Bæjarins Beztu Pylsur. So yummy! & Zara did not do this on purpose ::

Reykjavík has so many museums, we could only choose one. We picked the art museum and I am so glad! Featuring all Icelandic artists, the exhibits focused on the landscape. The beauty of it and how it is being shaped by humans. I am just blown away that Iceland's population is 330,000 and it has over 1 million tourists every year. There are 481,00 sheep, haha. Anyway, this tourism boom is a hot topic for Iceland and there is a lot of talk about the future of the country's landscape and resources. The art museum is divided into three places across the city. The first had a lot of pieces that seemed to focus on the harm that humans have on the environment in Iceland. The second stop was full of dreamy paintings inspired by Iceland. I loved learning more from the perspective of these artists:

 I love these photos on scale::

 Exploring & walking to the next part of the museum::

 I read a few quotes at the second part of the art museum that I loved. The first is from Jon Stefansson: 
"To me, Icelandic nature in comparison with the nature in Mainland Europe is like a naked body versus a fully clothed one. The nakedness of Icelandic landscape is what makes it so marvelously beautiful."

The next quote is from ÁSGRÍMUR JÓNSSON:
"To cut a long story short, this is the most fantastic landscape you can imagine and equally beautiful."

 Shout out to my nephew who was so helpful on this trip. He did not complain about anything. He was very patient with Zara and took over caring for her many times when I was tired.

 The Viking statue::

Ice cream at Valdi's. Jonas and Rock had Turkish Pfeffer ice cream & liked it. yikes.

 We explored the harbor and Z loved showing us all the ships::

 We had our last meal at a Thai restaurant. Like all of the other restaurants in Iceland, there were no changing tables. So it was paper towels on the floor for us!

 I always take a photo of foreign currency::

 I went to Sandholt bakery for geothermal bread but they didn't have it. The clerk told me that I shouldn't eat it anyway because of all the sugar. I settled for this bread and she told me it was best because it does not have much sugar, haha. She was very concerned.

 I have more Blue Lagoon photos coming but they are being developed... I sort of regret the lagoon. It was expensive, man made, the water ruined my hair, there were nasty changing areas & the staff was sort of cranky. Iceland is full of really nice people, we even called it "niceland" a few times, so the mean staff was a bit shocking. There are so many visitors, I am sure it is an overwhelming place to work. We even purposely visited during a slow period. If I could go back I would probably just visit a different geothermal pool::

& that was our trip to Iceland!