Siglufjordur calling . . . but first a few days in Reykjavik. Yes, I went to Iceland.

On the Flybus at the airport. It looks like the middle of the night, but it's about 8AM

at the harbor in Reykjavik 

Inside the Harpa Concert Hall, designed by Olafur Eliasson

This is the hallway that every signature building has - the one that's purely functional, an ordinary space that's free of the glamour and assertive design of the rest of the building.

but turn 90° to the right, and the view is extraordinary.

at the flea market in Reykjavik

and tiny dramas of jumbled objects inside an antique and junk shop

looking out from the stairwell at the photography museum

Hallgrinskikja, Church of Iceland (Lutheran) parish church designed by Gudjon Samuelsson and built between 1945 - 1986, and a walk through adjacent neighborhoods

Then on to Siglufjordur . . .

in Akureryi

finally, in Siglufjordur

the avalanche control station

Two of the three buildings of the Herring Museum, 3 large buildings dedicated to showing, and re-living aspects of the herring fishing boom that built the town. Orlygur Kristfinnsson has planned, built, procured the collection, designed, and got lots of local help in creating this amazing place. This building houses a re-imagined factory, with original period equipment, used in processing herring oil and meal.

One of the meticulously arranged displays at the museum, showing what a kitchen might have looked like in the 1920s and 30s at the worker's dormitory.

This building houses the dormitories. Reminiscent of the way the Tenement Museum in New York has set up its display of immigrant housing on the Lower East Side. 

This is the main museum building, which houses a re-creation of a pier, complete with boats, boardwalks, a hardware store, and tons of amazing gear.

 

Visitors are allowed to walk around the main fishing boat. 

And on a bench outside, whale fins, and a whale bone, below, found on the beach nearby.

night falls early in Siglufjordur

Breakfast inside a tiny traditional-style Icelandic cottage. The cottage is very warm!  This one constructed without nails, and each piece fitting together in what looks like very complicated carpentry, shown below. 

The cottage itself, braced by stone walls and topped with a turf roof.

The visit to Siglufjordur is over. We caught a ride  down towrds Reykjavik with Kristinn, a fisherman/musician/basketball player. We stopped in Hofsos, so he could show us the view

... and the geothermally heated public pool and hot pot designed by Icelandic architects, Basalt Architecture.  

Then, simply, more snow and big skies as we traveled south

Back in Reykjavik to have a quick look at the Black Cone Monument to Civil Disobedience. 

Getting the bus to the airport

And back in NYC, at JFK in the queue for a taxi. On the ride home, I noticed how much it had snowed here while I was in Iceland. A few shots below from Bushwick.