Reykjavik, Day 3--Perlan

We were feeling a lot better by this point, so wanted to do a bit more.  Even though it looked like this when we got up:

We had been hearing about a place called Perlan (The Pearl)--a museum built in some former water-storage tanks on a hill in Reykjavik.  We had seen it on other trips--it's hard to miss, being on top of a hill and crowned with a glass dome.  There's a restaurant in the dome, with a 360-degree view of Reykjavik and an observation deck around the outside. But the rest of it had sounded awfully "touristy"---an indoor ice-cave and bird-cliff and a few other things that we've seen in real life. So we weren't too sure.  But it turned out to be worth it on many levels.

One level was the walk from Eric the Red to Perlan, though the 4" of fresh, fluffy snow.  It took about 20 minutes, crossing under a couple of freeways, over city streets, and finally climbing the hill through a small forest!

The view was unparlleled, the exhibits were better than anticipated, and there were a couple of nice panoramic films about the aurora.  If there is one thing Iceland does very well, it's their museums.  the bird cliff had these "binoculars" that directed you to specific spots on the cliff, and then showed a short animated film of life on a bird cliff....like an auk's egg about to roll off the cliff, and nesting puffins, and a baby bird's first plummet into the ocean.

Lots of other interactive displays....I wish there was a way to show the one where you stand in a specific spot and direct the evolution of a fish down one of several pathways by waving your arms, so that it "eats" certain things, becoming an ocean fish or a lake-dweller or river fish, depending on your choices.  A full-body video game!  And after the ice cave, there was a table display of Iceland's main glacier Vatnajökull (Europe's largest glacier), and by turning a wheel around the edge of the table, you could take the glacier from 300 years ago up to the current projections for 2200, when it is predicted to be almost totally gone.  Sobering.

The interior is spectacular.  Here are a few random shots from various points, including a waterfall made up of the names of all the 200-some waterfalls around Iceland, and a curtain made of chainmail fabric that Sheila found fascinating.

Somewhere in the middle of the 4 hours we spent there, we ate lunch at the cafe in the dome.  This was described as Avocado Toast:

The views from the observation deck were as spectacular as could be, although I think if we'd gone outside before lunch, it wouldn't have been quite so cloudy.  You're supposed to be able to see Snaefellsjökull, but it wasn't happening this day.

The walk home was more of an adventure than anticipated, because Google Maps had a different path in mind than we could find, and for some reason we couldn't find the path we had walked up on.  But it's a huge advantage to staying at Eric the Red, that you can always find your way home by sighting towards Hallgrimskirkjan, which is visible from anywhere.

For our last meal, it was back to Cafe Loki--we had done plenty of walking for this day.  Sheila took Edda's advice and got the plokkfiskur again.  Edda thinks Loki's is the best there is, and it was certainly more as expected.  Lars got the meat soup again.  Both came with large slices of delicious dark rye bread.

Then it was home to bed for an EARLY start the next day.