Suddenly it was our last proper day in Iceland. We had no plans that day. Originally, we had considered doing another excursion that day, but both of us had enough of coach excursions for one trip. When I did my research the evening before, I came across something called The Settlement Exhibition, which looked interesting. I showed this to Graham once we were awake that morning and he liked the look of this as well. We got ready and headed down to breakfast.
We both had a latte and some juice, and I had some sparkling water. Graham had some fruit with the mango skyr followed by porridge and scrambled egg on toast. I tried to plain skyr with strawberry jam. The cocktail frankfurters had been replaced by mini bratwurst that morning and I had those with hash browns and boiled eggs. This was our last breakfast at the hotel as we had to go to the airport at the crack of dawn the next day.
After breakfast, we went back to the room to add some layers and get our coats. I took some photos from our room. I realised that if i zoomed in, I could get a photo of the statue of a Viking boat near Harpa. Then we headed out. We walked down Laugavegur. When I came past the shop where I had bought my necklace earlier in the week, I decided to go in to get the other necklace that had caught my eye. I thought I was out of luck as it was not where all the other necklaces were. However, I had a good look around the shop and it just had been moved to another area.
I knew that there was a bakery near the intersection with the street where we had the ice cream earlier in the week. I was determined to find this. We were in luck. The bakery had a sizeable line outside. We were not in the market for baked goods at the time, but we thought we may come back in the afternoon. Nearby was a house with some interesting murals. I took some photos of this.
The end of Laugavegur is opposite of the connection bus stop that we had used the previous day. Behind this is the closest that Reykjavik comes to an old town. There are some interesting and beautiful buildings in this area, including the parliament building. We also found the actual Lutheran cathedral of Reykjavik, but this did not look very open.
Instead, we pushed on to The Pond. Now that we had found the real cathedral of Reykjavik, I wondered what the church by The Pond was. I decided to take a photo so that I could use the landmark finder in the photo app. It turned out to be the Lutheran free church. Light in Iceland can do funny things to you. Those photos were taken around 90 minutes after sunrise.
We hung out by The Pond for some time. Apart from the usual mallard and the whooper swans that we saw earlier on in the trip, we also saw tufted ducks, Eurasian wigeon and greylag geese. Once cloud started to cover the sun, it started to feel quite cold, and we moved on.
The area we walked through had all kinds of quirky bars and restaurants including an Irish pub which was called The Drunken Rabbit. From there, it was not far to The Settlement Exhibition. This is part of the Reykjavik City Museum, which is spread over multiple sites. The exhibition is based on the archaeological excavation of the ruin of one of the first houses in Iceland and findings from other excavations in the city centre. The centre piece of the exhibition is the remains of a hall which was inhabited from c. 930–1000. The hall was discovered in 2001 as part of the excavation for a hotel project. Various artifacts from the settlement era had been found over the years on adjacent plots, but I think this find took everybody by surprise.
The beginning of the exhibition is in the basement of the building. Opposite the ticket office is a screening room that sets the scene about what life was like when the hall was built through a short film. You then enter the main room. The centre of this is what is left of the hall with a timeline of the early history of Iceland and display cases with artifacts from the same era around the walls. It was fascinating what had been found. There were some glass beads from the 10th century that are believed to have come from China.
This room was originally the grand total of The Settlement Exhibition, but this has been expanded to showcase the history of Reykjavik all the way to the present day. The second room on this level concentrates on the history between 1000 and 1900 and the rest of the exhibition was spread over two more floors. On the top floor, there are various rooms that showcase the history of the building. The whole exhibition was very interesting and incredibly well done.
On the way back towards the city centre, we came across another building with a beautiful mural. There were also some other interesting buildings that caught my eye, and I stopped to take a few photos of those. Then we headed out towards the harbour. When Graham had done some research before the trip, he had come across an indoor flea market. This only happens on weekends, but as it was a Saturday, this was no issue. This was a bit of a mixed bag. There were some things I genuinely liked like some stalls with artisan jewellery, a stall with artistic photos and some stalls with authentic Icelandic sweaters. Most of the stalls however sold the kind of mass-produced tat that you can often find at flea markets. We did not stay very long.
As we were nearly at the harbour anyway, I figured we may as well push on. When I was reading up on Reykjavik, various websites and blogs recommended Röst, which is a local coffee house and bar. This is located at the harbour. I figured as we were so close, it would be a shame not to give it a try. Graham had a latte, and I had a flat white. Graham did not rate it at all. I liked my coffee well enough, but I am not sure what all the hype was all about.
After this we headed back towards the city centre. On our first evening, I had spotted an interesting looking noodle bar. Graham suggested that we should have a late lunch/ early dinner there and then on the way to the hotel stop by the bakery we had found in the morning to get a snack to enjoy before bedtime. I was all for this. I knew that once we were back at the hotel, neither of us would want to leave again.
The noodle bar turned out to be a good find. Because it was in between mealtimes, it was not too busy although they did do a steady trade. Graham wanted to try the torpedo prawns with sweet chilli sauce and then he had the chicken fried rice. I just had a main course, which was grilled chicken and char siu pork with sticky rice, pickled carrots and gherkins. Everything was delicious.
I have already mentioned earlier in this trip report that the kind people of Iceland take their baked goods very seriously. It therefore is not really a surprise that there is some lively debate on what the best bakery in Reykjavik is. The main contenders seem to be Braud and Sandholt. The bakery we went to was Sandholt. When we got there, there was no longer a line out of the door, but the inside was packed. Graham chose a slice of the local take on cheesecake, and I had something that was very similar to brioche filled with plums and marzipan ganache. We ordered it to take away to enjoy at the hotel later. In the absence of evidence to the contrary, I suppose we are team Sandholt for now, but I do feel strongly that some more research is required at some point in the future.
With treats obtained, we headed back towards the hotel. For some reason, I walked straight past the supermarket. Fortunately, there was another supermarket closer to the hotel. I wanted to get a few flavours of Collab to take home. I got two cans each of raspberry and apricot, lime and elderflower and a limited-edition flavour of watermelon and prickly pear. With this accomplished, we went back to the hotel. I took a quick photo of the building and then we headed up to the room.
As soon as we got back, we packed, which did not take very long. Then we just chilled for a while. Graham enjoyed his cheesecake and then he got ready for bed. I was not quite ready to settle down and read for a bit. At some stage I had my cake, which was absolutely amazing. Around 21:00 I got ready for bed, too.
Dolphingirl’s Travels 
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