Here's hoping for a bright Icelandic night Mon 23rd Nov

Morning brings us darkness, rain and wind. Lots of the latter. Limited indoor activities would seem to be the order of the day. Hot spring bathing is a quintessential Icelandic experience and an outdoor all weather pleasure. We could do this by booking a trip to the Blue Lagoon at the cost of  £50 each and that's just the start. All activities come at an extra charge. Or we could walk to the local swimming pool which has a steam room and two hot massage pools. The cost of this including costume and towel hire is £3.50 each. Guess what we did? It was great, the outdoor hot pools were 42°C and 38 respectively, the indoor pool clear for length swimming and the steam room almost too hot.
After the physical it was time for a bit of spiritual so we headed next to the Hallgrimskirkja church. This building stands on the top of a hill in the centre of Reykjavik.  It dominates the city, though not the Cathedral which is older and next to the parliament building in the heart of the old quarter. Let's have a look at it.

The dominant west front looks somewhat like an Art Deco Ziggurat and the inside Puritan plain with gothic overtones.  The competition for its design was won by Guojon Samuel in1937. He was inspired by the formation of basalt rocks in cooling larva. The commission also wanted the tower to conceal the radio mast for the country's infant national radio service. Samuel was responsible for most of Iceland's significant buildings in the first half of the 20th century. The building wasn't started until 1947 and the nave not consecrated until 1989. Internal decoration is Scandinavian minimal. The 5750 pipe organ is the concession to opulence. 

The other attraction is the trip up to the top of the tower. It costs 800 krona (£4) a head to go up. Fortunately this can be done by lift but as by now walking against the wind on the ground is nearly impossible, we wondered what it might be like at the top. The answer was very, very windy but Iceland is well used to this and designs to ameliorate it. Look at the views. The lift Incidently is up and down all day. A nice little earner at  £24 per ascent. 

See if you can spot the internal airport built by the British in WW2, the Harpa and the cold water tanks under a huge dome. All of Reykjavik is provided with Geothermally produced hot water. This takes care of all central heating and domestic hot water. 

Time for a late lunch some last shopping and rendezvous with our shuttle bus to the airport. The storm? Apart from not being allowed on the tarmac we weren't really aware of it and we arrived on time to a calm Gatwick.