Off the Beaten Path
Hallgrímskirkja: Church, Square, and Tower
Hallgrímskirkja's tower elevator takes you to an observation platform 73 metres up with a clear 360-degree view over all of Reykjavik — the harbor, the mountains across the bay, the grid of brightly-coloured buildings below. The church interior is worth seeing before or after: the 5,275-pipe organ at the far end is one of the largest in Europe and occasionally plays during free recitals (check hallgrimskirkja.is for dates). The Leif Eriksson statue outside was given by the United States in 1930 to mark the 1,000th anniversary of Iceland's parliament — there is a story there about who discovered America first.