Found right downtown, across from the Tjörnin Lagoon and next to the Free Lutheran Church, the Listasafn Íslands is stationed in a former freezing plant. Why not? What could make a better center for Icelandic art than an ice house?
Just outside the hot spring haven of Hveragerði is the Hellisheiði Geothermal Power Station. If you want to visit, don't worry about accidentally driving past without spotting it. This is the world's largest geothermal plant, spouting giant columns of steam high into the atmosphere, and it's unmistakable.
Precariously situated in the middle of an active geothermal area southeast of Reykjavík, Hveragerði makes for an easy excursion from the capital. During our visit, we explored hot springs, ate an geothermally-cooked egg and treated our feet to a therapeutic mud bath.
Here's a little known fact: anyone who can correctly pronounce the name of Iceland's National Museum automatically wins Icelandic citizenship. Absolutely true. The immense Þjóðminjasafn (that's THYOTH-min-ya-safin, if you feel like practicing) takes visitors on an exhausting chronological tour through Icelandic history. If you want to learn about the country and can only visit a single museum, this is the clear choice.
An asymmetrical glass building on Reykjavík's harbor, Harpa resembles a shimmering iceberg that crashed onto the shore. Since opening in 2010, the city's opera and concert hall has won prominent architectural awards, welcomed over two million visitors and become one of the city's most recognizable landmarks.
By bus, Hafnarfjörður was only fifteen minutes away from our apartment, but it took us over two months to finally get around to visiting. The once proudly independent town is now little more than a suburb of Reykjavík, and though it doesn't rank high on the tourism radar, Hafnarfjörður has fought to retain a history and identity of its own.
The town of Borgarnes is a standard stopping point for buses from Reykjavík headed toward the north. Although we had been here many times, we hadn't seen anything except the bus stop's bathroom. Turns out, there are better places to spend time in Borgarnes, such as the wonderful Landnámssetur Íslands, the Settlement Center of Iceland.
While in Iceland, we've learned that bad weather isn't sufficient reason for modifying plans. If you insist on a sunny day to do anything, you might be waiting a very long time. So, despite the terrifying storm front rapidly approaching from the south, we zipped up our rain jackets and set out on a hike from Varmaland to the nearby town of Bifröst.
