Winter Wonderland as February Begins (with Mini-FFF)
[Photos and blog entry from Sunday 01 February 2015. Enjoy!]
Hey, it’s February!! How’d that happen?!?!
We were expecting afternoon visitors, but they had to cancel, so instead I took the big kids to the library (+ quick FFF stop at the photography museum showroom), coffee house, and Nökkvi’s library, before taking Emma outside, and then ending up making a ton of snowmen, because the snow was perfect! (30 images total)
Winter Wonderland!
FFF #2.5 – Advent Concert of Hafnarfjörður’s Brass Band
[This happened on a lovely Saturday afternoon on 29 NOVEMBER 2014, but was only written up just now, on 11 JANUARY 2015. Better late than never, eh?]
Fake-Football-Fanclub activity experienced a four-weekend-hiatus in November, mostly because Dear Husband (aka Finnur) was off in California for 3 weekends, which was followed by a crazy weekend where we attended two Thanksgiving parties!! (Where I took no photos, so I wouldn’t have to blog about it. Tsk, tsk!)
But, a good thing is hard to kill, so I decided leave Finnur to deal with the kiddos in order to attend the annual advent concert of the Hafnarfjörður Brass Band (Lúðrasveit Hafnarfjarðar) at the photogenic Víðistaða-Church. Our good friend, Adda, is a band member, and … uh, Adda, don’t I still owe you for the ticket?!?!?!? (Small writing hiatus while I go pay Adda for the ticket. Oops!)
Afterwards, I followed Adda and her extended family to her abode, where we ate ice cream. Mmmm… (10 images and 1 video total)
FFF #2.4 – Fishspa and Kjarvalsstaðir
[This happened on Saturday 25 October 2014, but was written on 26 October 2014. Indeed!]
This past spring I received a gift certificate to visit a Fishspa that is located downtown. It is a place where you dip your feet into a tub full of fish for at least 20 minutes, and the fish eat all the dead skin away, leaving you with very clean smooth skin.
The experience was a little weird, the fish really liked my feet, and didn’t seem to be quite done when my 20 minutes were up! The sensation was somewhat ticklish, but not so ticklish that I needed to move my feet around. The fish don’t have teeth so there was no biting and no pain. I’m thinking this might be a nice fun thing to do annually…?
I hadn’t planned what to do after getting my feet eaten, but since it was nearby, I decided on Kjarvalsstaðir, the art museum where they display the works of legendary Icelandic painter Jóhannes S. Kjarval alongside other exhibitions. I last visited Kjarvalsstaðir on my very first FFF outing, and since this was an unplanned visit, I had no idea what was in store for me.
Both showrooms where hosting a mixed exhibition of the works of Kjarval (Top Soil) and Swedish artist Andreas Eriksson (Roundabouts). The Swede supposedly took some inspiration from the works of the much older Kjarval, which is why their works were being shown somewhat side by side.
My take on the Swede was that he was a) not my cup of tea, but that b) he was very internally consistent in showing the murky colors of the woods surrounding his home. Also shown were bronze castings of birds that had died after flying onto his windows, as well as molehill mounds. Yes, very woodsy. It wasn’t all brownish green to black though, two spray-painted images in bright colors were a little odd, and then there were white 3D things. Yeah.
Anyway, enough wordage, on to the photos! (51 images total!)
Hello there Fishspa, almost hiding on the first floor. Up the hill is Laugarvegur, the downtown shopping street, and …
FFF #2.3 – Archery and Cafe Kruðerí
[This happened on 19 October 2014, but was written on 20 October. Nearly instant!]
The FFF had a big outing, with four childless ladies shooting arrows for an hour, before enjoying some lovely hot drinks and pastries at nearby Cafe Kruðerí. (12 images total)
Adda and Þóra all geared up.
Fake Football Fanclub #2.01 – Hafnarborg and Gló
[Written 14 September 2014. Same-day craziness! Don’t get used to it…]
The football season is well and truly under way in the UK, so it was high time to go do something FFF-fabulous!
A friend had mentioned an art gallery, Hafnarborg, in the neighboring town of Hafnarfjörður (Harbor-fjord), so I called up Adda (my resident Hafnarfjörður local expert) and badgered her into coming with me. I didn’t want to get lost! (I’m joking!!)
So, to Hafnarborg we went, where the works of a few contemporary Icelandic artists were on display. (23 images total)
The art gallery lives in this big building, and so does a branch of the restaurant chain Gló (Glow). The building incorporates another older building (a pharmacy) which was gifted to the museum.
FFF #11: Ásmundarsafn and Te og kaffi at Borgartún 21A
I aaaalmost didn’t make it out of the house for an outing today…
First of all, I hadn’t formally planned anything (although I had an idea or two kicking around), and secondly, I was really tired for some reason. But, the weather outside was lovely, so after laying in bed for a bit, I rallied and kicked myself out of the house.
Today’s destination was one of those places I’d driven past thousands of times, but never actually entered.
It’s called Ásmundarsafn, or the Museum of Ásmundur Sveinsson. He was a sculptor, who built and lived in the house that currently houses the museum. Go here to check out his catalog owned by the museum.
I was duly impressed by the building itself, as well as some of his pieces. Ásmundur was probably a pretty cool cat in his day and age!
Alongside the works of Ásmundur were more recent works by other Icelandic artists. They were more hit or miss. (55 images total)
At the museum entrance. The museum sits on the edge of an outdoorsy sports and family area called Laugardalur (The valley of the hot springs – people used to wash their clothes there).
FFF #10 – Volcano House
Soooo… The FFF had to take a couple of weekends off because I was limping along with an injured heel, and two-hour walking-fests weren’t really high up on the want-to-do list.
My heel is slowly getting better, although I did a stupid thing at gym again, and probably made it slightly worse (again), but that’s just the nature of plantar faciitis. It’ll take a while…
But I was getting antsy again, so I decided to finally visit a low-walking venue that I’d both seen on the TripAdvisor to-do list for Reykjavik, and driven past a few times, sparking my curiosity.
It’s called Volcano House (#20 on the TripAdvisor list), and is basically a tourist trap/cafe/restaurant/rock display/tiny cinema. I really doubt they get a lot of Icelanders through their doors, so I figured I’d fall on the figurative sword and see what the touristy fuss was about.
The short story is that the meat soup was filling, but on the salty side, the rocks were mostly pretty, and the videos made me wonder why the heck anybody would live in Iceland. Ever. And that the people that do are therefore nuts and/or ridiculously stubborn. Which, incidentally, isn’t very far from the truth. (41 images total)
The Volcano House lives on the ground floor in that house on the left. Unseen, left-ishly behind me, is the Reykjavik Main Library, previously visited here.
FFF #9 – Geysir Bistro, The Settlement Exhibition, and Stofan Cafe
[Written 21-22 March 2014]
Again, the timing of this weekend’s FFF outing was constrained by a very busy weekend schedule, so yet again I had to find something to do around lunchtime.
After perusing the TripAdvisor listing for stuff to do in Reykjavik (Gullfoss is #1?!?! That’s like an hour and a half away!), I decided to check out the Settlement Exhibition (click here for the official multimedia site).
It didn’t hurt that the admission was included in the Culture Card I got in January.
First though, I had to get food, and had my sights set on almost-next-door Fiskmarkaðurinn (The Fish Market). As it turned out, that restaurant is closed for lunchtime on the weekends, so I ended up at Geysir Bistro a few houses away. After the exhibition, I still had a few minutes to spare and a grumbling stomach, so I walked a few steps to the Stofan Cafe for a pick-me-up, before heading home.
The Settlement Exhibition was cool, surprisingly cool. I’ll have to take the kids (at least Anna) there one day soon. (52 images total)
I was early enough that parking was a breeze! That gray stone building is the parliament building, and behind it you can see the Reykjavik cathedral.
FFF #8 – Gerðarsafn (Myndir ársins 2013), Cafe Dix, and Archery
[Written 13 March 2014]
Yet again, our busy weekend schedule meant that my only opening for a FFF outing was from 11 am on a Sunday morning, to about 2 pm.
I was feeling ‘sporty’ so I was initially just going to go shoot arrows at paper targets, but discovered just in time that the Archery Range opens at noon.
To pad out the outing, I therefore decided to visit Gerðarsafn (Museum of Gerður) first, where they were showing the Icelandic Photojournalism Association’s Pictures of the Year. (Ironically, I decided not to bring my ‘big’ camera, all the following images are from my phone.)
The photo show was pretty much as expected, except that I learned that almost all Icelandic Photojournalists are male. And it showed. (11 images total)
Back at Gerðarsafn. (See also FFF #4.)
FFF #7 – Hafnarhúsið Art Museum and Laundromat Cafe
Another short-notice FFF outing, due to a last-minute schedule change, but Elsa chimed in anyway and let me know she’d be joining me for lunch!
Not a lot of places are open at 11 am on Sundays, so I decided to use that ‘Culture Card‘ I got way back in the beginning, and visit the Reykjavik Art Museum at Hafnarhúsið (the Harbor House) “for free”. (34 images and 1 video total)
The Art Museum is right next to the Museum of Photography/Main Library (see FFF #5).