Reykjavik

[mrph]

Well, made it here in one piece. It's actually warmer than Coventry at the moment, if you believe the weather reports...

(although this will change later in the day...)

Today will mostly be ambling and shopping. Currently sitting in the Cafe Loki with souldier_blue, making plans...

And yes, the Hallgrimskirkja is beautiful - but mostly wrapped in scaffolding at the moment. Apparently the same architect did another, similar, church in Iceland's second city - using stained glass gifted by Coventry cathedral just before it was bombed...

Unlikely to get there this trip, though...

Comments

[livingarmchair.livejournal.com]

They took the stained glass out of the Cathedral during the war and put it into storage - plan being to put it back in when the war was over. Of course, the building was bombed, with no chance of a rebuild (If they'd acted quickly it could have been rebuilt) - by the time the war was over a lot of it had gone missing (stolen). Some was used in the reconstruction, and some was given to Iceland.

[souldier-blue.livejournal.com]

Why given to Iceland? Is Coventry twinned with an Icelandic town or something?

[livingarmchair.livejournal.com]

Not sure why - maybe just because it was a new church (It was only built in 1940) and they wanted the glass to go somewhere. And from what I remember, Britain occupied Iceland during 1940-1941.