It was hard to believe that our last day in Iceland had snuck up on us so quietly & quickly.
With the weather an improvement on yesterday, we were eager to get out & wander the streets, in some sort of attempt to lap up every last morsel of Icelandicness that we could!
Our first stop was at a café.
We had been told about a traditional Icelandic cake called Vinatorte & have tried in vain to find it. We even asked our food tour guide where we might find it. Although he agreed that it was indeed delicious, he only had a few places to suggest & one of those we had already visited with no luck. Our noses led us to the oldest bakery in Reykjavik, but alas, this cake was not there either. We bought a couple of pastries & coffee anyway & set off to consume them down by The Sun Voyager, this fabulous nod to Viking boats.
Aside from the beauty of it's simple lines, this sculpture looked stunning even in grey & misty weather!
Further strolling took us to an area with new & shiny office blocks lining the streets, where the lights were all red & the sculptures were amazing.
There was one building completely out of place & it was this one!
I wanted to see Hofdi House because it was believed to be haunted. However, there was no mention of that on any of the 'history' panels outside, instead the main focus was on the fact that this house, built in 1909, was where President Reagan & President Gorbachev met in Oct 1986 to begin the process of ending the Cold War.
The house is now owned by the City Government & used to entertain any heads of State passing through!
We weren't able to see inside, but apparently the interior was originally decorated in the Art Nouveau style... which I would have loved to have seen!
This scene was a bit of a pattern today!!
Spot the tourist!!
We eventually found where we had been heading... the one and only Phallological Museum in the World. Yes, we went to a penis museum.
It was fascinating, even if visually hideous.
There was a lot of information & a huge number of sea creature penises. Of the land roaming animals, I was amazed to read that the Bull Elephant has so much control over his penis that he can even scratch hard to reach places with it! How functional!! When his big moment arrives though... his penis takes on a 's' shape!
The section that amused me the most, were the 'mythical creature' penises. These included members from a merman....a Yule Lad (Icelandic traditional Christmas character)... and an Icelandic troll. Who, in my opinion, had the most pleasant looking penis... simple, functional... understated!
(As an aside, the programme I use to type this blog with clearly doesn't like the word penis. Each time I've typed the word, the programme has automatically changed it to 'pens' & when attempting the plural; 'pansies'! )
Just look at what today has looked like from our eyes...
And restaurants started closing... just when we were ready for our last meal of arctic char! (SOB!)
However, we did find a couple of seats in our favourite pub, where Jeff had a reindeer burger & I had lamb soup, & we were able to be there for the start of the game. SUCH EMOTION! It was so special.
As we wandered through the streets on our way back to begin packing & adjusting our minds to leave Iceland behind & to embrace Norway, we came across a large group watching & joined them for a while.
As I finish typing, the bells of Hallgrimskirkja up the road chime the hour & Jeff tells me Nigeria has beaten Iceland 2-0.
I don't think we are the only ones feeling flat & sombre tonight!
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