Enjoying Reykjavik

Sunday, September 29, 2013
Reykjavik, Capital Region, Iceland
We set out after breakfast to walk around the centre of the city again, as unlike last time there was no wind and it was a reasonable 6 degrees. Lovely. We returned to the hotel and lunched in the room as we had lots of food left over from our travelling cold pack and that day's breakfast in the room.

We set out to see the city hall where they have a paper mâché topographical model of the country and you can visualize where you travelled as if flying about In a helicopter . The model is about 20 by 20 metres including the glaciers, fjords, and indicates roads and cities. It took seventeen man years to build.

We strolled the old city center and saw the house of parliament, the iconic Borg hotel originally built to house delegates to the independence celebrations, the catholic cathedral, and many statues and the tourist info center. We also went into their new cultural centre whose construction in glass mimics the basalt pillars we have seen around the country where the panes of glass are of various colours according to the reflection of the sky and city.

Rehkjavik Steamies, or hot dogs. The locals love their hot dogs. We stopped by at a, . . . . . . wait for it, . . . . . hot dog stand replete with picnic tables with grooved wooden platters to hold multiple hot dogs. At 6pm in foggy drizzly weather In a remote spot on the waterfront we find about fifteen adults and seven kids lined up for their treat . It is food, it is between meals, and we are on vacation, so we did it too. Steamed foot long hot dog in a steamed warm bun (very white bread style) with brown mustard and yellow Reykjavik mayonaise, raw and fried onions with the traditional . . . Coke! It was delicious and it is nice to enjoy life and behave like local when travelling.

We walked the waterfront to see their iconic city sculpture reminiscent of the Viking ships and reindeer horns and whale bones. Breathtaking, and got some great pictures.

For dinner we went to one of the top restaurants in the city, The Grillhouse. What a beautiful spot. The walls were covered in various areas by lava, dried spotted catfish skins, birch twigs, moss covering concrete wall. We had the tasting menu and were delighted, to put it mildly. Here is what we had:
1. Iceland bread, whipped butter, lava salt
2. Batter fried shrimp and spinach tinted batter fried dried salt cod with cream of Tatar sauce
3 . Roast duck salad with spinach, sweet potato and mozzarella
4. Grilled minke whale with fried mushrooms and sesame oil/chile/onion sauce
5. Barbeque Chicken wing with sauce and roasted garlic
6. BBQ pork ribs with BBQ sauce, crackle rice, parsley and their own grillmarket dressing
7. Grilled salmon with dry roasted broccoli and marinated fennel salad and teriyaki sauce
8. Grilled lamb chops with braised carrots and roasted sesame seeds and grilled dill potatoes with KYSO bernaise sauce (knock your socks off)
9. Grilled ribeye with fried mushrooms, baby corn and spinach with mushroom glaze (OMG and KYSO) and lava salt on the side
10. Brewed decaf coffee (an Iceland first)
11. The fivesome: creme bruleé, chocolate mousse, ice creams of blueberry and of red current, chocolate volcano- coffee ice cream and mascarpone covered in hardened chocolate and topped with hot caramel til it 'explodes the chocolate and a crater develops', and fresh fruit because Icelanders are so health conscious.
And yes, we both ate it all without Minna asking me to help her out.yhis was our meal to remember for this trip.
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