FranceSpainEnglandIceland2015: Biking in Reykjavik

We spent our first full day in Iceland exploring Reykjavik, walking into town from our conveniently located apartment on the outskirts of the city. Our first destination was the Hallgrimskirkja Cathedral, a plain structure composed of five sided columns reminiscent of cooled lava pillars, which form in this shape. Originally planning to linger for the noon organ recital, we were deterred by the prohibitive ticket price (almost 2000 Kronur), and decided instead to satisfy ourselves with a circumnavigation of the cathedral before moving on through the city.
Walking west brought us to the harbor, where we had lunch (just pizza, we will sample the local cuisine at some other time) before renting four bikes for a ride around the peninsula. Cycling along the bike path kept us next to the ocean, which is lined by kelp covered beaches (which smell like similarly adorned San Diego beaches), beaches of fine grey sand, or simply just rocks, most of which are porous and volcanic in appearance (similar rocks of all sizes are everywhere here). We started to cut back across the peninsula near the Perlan, a dome covered structure containing shops, a restaurant, and a viewing platform, which sits on top of tanks containing geothermal water for heating the city. It was almost 5:20 when we returned our bikes and beginning to rain, so we ended our day and walked home, stopping on the way to purchase some Icelandic beer (we had been unable to do this the day before in the supermarket because alcoholic beverages and all other edibles are segregated here).
Tomorrow we embark on the Golden Circle Tour, a trip around some of this country's remarkable landscape. (TS)