It goes without saying that Iceland at the end of February is very very cold! For me, it was a real novelty to see proper snow and I just loved wrapping up warm and walking around the city just taking it all in :)
This is the snow that snowploughs have scraped up off the road and they just leave it in a big mountain!
Of course, all this walking about in the cold means that you have to stop every so often to warm up and refuel! We found so many quirky coffee shops/cafes in Reykjavik city - they have a lot of personality and GREAT hot chocolate, cakes etc.
C is for cookie was one that was really highly rated on Trip Advisor so we had to give it a go :) One thing we found about all the coffee shops we frequented is that they don't rush you -- you can buy a drink and a slice of cake or whatever, and sit there and just take your time.
I'm guessing that this is different in the peak tourist season (through July/August) but it was really great for us as we were able to use the free wifi that a lot of the coffee shops offered, to also rest our tired feet and to warm up before heading out sight-seeing again.
Peter was a bit disappointed with the cheesecake here as it was SO highly rated on Trip Advisor; I think he'd psyched himself up too much for it so it was bound to be a disappointment! My hot chocolate was gorgeous though ;)
I REALLY loved these arty cross-stitch signs for the loos in the coffee shop :) - and then there were all these rats trying to get inside ;) :)
This was our favourite coffee shop of them all I think -
It was really spacious, with seating upstairs and downstairs - it would get quite busy at times but we were always able to find a table. Peter was delighted that they served draught beer as well as hot and cold beverages ;) -- and they served the best carrot cake we'd had all holiday!
As always, I brought my crochet with me pretty much wherever we went, especially on the days where we just had a wander round the city. One of our tour guides had said that everyone of us should go inside the Harpa building (concert hall) by the sea and I'm so glad that we did - the architecture was amazing (and I'm not usually a huge big fan of modern architecture) and we could warm up and have a rest too.
The scale and light in Harpa just made me speechless - I was so glad that we heeded Siggi's advice and went in to explore it, instead of just viewing it from the outside.
On our last day in the city we stumbled across this treasure while wandering down some of the back streets - it's a record shop and a vegan/vegetarian cafe!!
We liked it so much that we had our lunch here - a lovely vegan lasagna - and I had a great hot chocolate too! We wished we'd found them earlier on in our holiday - I hadn't found them on Trip Advisor (they only had under 10 reviews so they didn't show up on my searches) - it looks like they only opened late last year so I guess they are still trying to get established and 'found' on sites like TA or Lonely Planet.
I have to say that this was probably our best holiday ever foodwise as well as everything else -- as we are both vegetarians it sometimes has been difficult to trace veggie/vegan restaurants and often there's been a language barrier when we've been abroad....but this was by far our best holiday as vegetarians :)
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