The Mt. Esja Ultra
If you think you’ve tried it all, completed a marathon or two even, the Mt. Esja Ultra should be the next thing on your Bucket List. There are three distances available; the shortest is a 2-lap run up and down the mountain (14km, 1200m +elevation gain); a 5-lap run (35km, 3000m +elevation gain); and finally an 11-lap run (77km, 6600m + elevation gain). Registration closed yesterday (June 19th) but you can cheer on the runners and figure out if you’re ready to come back for the 4th Annual Mt Esja Ultra next year. It’s worth mentioning that those running 11-laps will be rewarded with two ITRA qualifying points for the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2015.
Weekly Guided Tours around Kjarvalsstaðir Museum
At 1pm GMT on Friday’s over the course of the summer, the Reykjavik Art Museum offers guided tours through Kjarvalsstaðir Museum. The Kjarvalsstaðir Museum is mainly devoted to paintings and sculpture by well established Icelandic and international artists and offers a permanent exhibition of key works by one of Iceland’s most beloved landscape painters, Jóhannes S. Kjarval. Another current exhibit is one called ‘Affinities’ in which different artist who lived during different times are brought together through their art. As artists face comparable choices, the audience may sometimes discern affinities in their works, but the affinities are the things that bring us new insight and reveal what lies behind the art.
Suzuki Midnight Run
For the 22nd time, runners and Reykjavik will tie on their shoes and get in their running gear at midnight on June 23rd and run into the first hours of June 24th. Everyone and anyone can register for the run and the option is between 5km, 10km and a half-marathon (21km). The run starts and ends in Laugardalur Valley and the Laugardalslaug swimming pool offers all runners free entry into the pool at the end of the run. We don’t know about you, but soaking in a hot tub in the wee hours of a Tuesday morning – under the midnight sun. That’s a solid end and start to the day.
Double the pleasure, double the fun
At 6pm GMT on Thursday’s this summer, the Reykjavik Art Museum offers guided tours through the Hafnarhús Museum in downtown Reykjavík. And just when you thought things couldn’t get better: The café at the museum, Kaffi lyst, offers Happy Hour between 6pm and 8pm on Thursday evenings. Among current exhibits at the Hafnarhús Museum are works by Erró, a global nomad and a postmodern Icelandic-born artist. The exhibit, ‘The World Today’ shows Erro’s gifts to the Reykjavik Art Museum in recent years. The works represent a new period in the artist’s career, during which he has created his own visual world using new approaches and themes.
Dinner Cruise in the Midnight Sun
If you’ve already sampled puffin and hot-dogs and are ready for a different meal, how about eating while cruising on the Atlantic Ocean? Special Tours offers a dinner cruise every Friday night this summer departing the Old Harbour at 8m GMT. The price is shockingly affordable for a four-course meal, a welcome drink, a cruise along the coastline of Reykjavik and live music by one of Iceland’s most loved singers, Helga Möller. Coincidently, she was the first Icelander to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and really, that’s reason enough to try out this cruise.
This is the Reykjavík section of Best of Iceland This Week, the only Icelandic guide of its kind. New every week.
The Mt. Esja Ultra
If you think you’ve tried it all, completed a marathon or two even, the Mt. Esja Ultra should be the next thing on your Bucket List. There are three distances available; the shortest is a 2-lap run up and down the mountain (14km, 1200m +elevation gain); a 5-lap run (35km, 3000m +elevation gain); and finally an 11-lap run (77km, 6600m + elevation gain). Registration closed yesterday (June 19th) but you can cheer on the runners and figure out if you’re ready to come back for the 4th Annual Mt Esja Ultra next year. It’s worth mentioning that those running 11-laps will be rewarded with two ITRA qualifying points for the North Face Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc in 2015.
Weekly Guided Tours around Kjarvalsstaðir Museum
At 1pm GMT on Friday’s over the course of the summer, the Reykjavik Art Museum offers guided tours through Kjarvalsstaðir Museum. The Kjarvalsstaðir Museum is mainly devoted to paintings and sculpture by well established Icelandic and international artists and offers a permanent exhibition of key works by one of Iceland’s most beloved landscape painters, Jóhannes S. Kjarval. Another current exhibit is one called ‘Affinities’ in which different artist who lived during different times are brought together through their art. As artists face comparable choices, the audience may sometimes discern affinities in their works, but the affinities are the things that bring us new insight and reveal what lies behind the art.
Suzuki Midnight Run
For the 22nd time, runners and Reykjavik will tie on their shoes and get in their running gear at midnight on June 23rd and run into the first hours of June 24th. Everyone and anyone can register for the run and the option is between 5km, 10km and a half-marathon (21km). The run starts and ends in Laugardalur Valley and the Laugardalslaug swimming pool offers all runners free entry into the pool at the end of the run. We don’t know about you, but soaking in a hot tub in the wee hours of a Tuesday morning – under the midnight sun. That’s a solid end and start to the day.
Double the pleasure, double the fun
At 6pm GMT on Thursday’s this summer, the Reykjavik Art Museum offers guided tours through the Hafnarhús Museum in downtown Reykjavík. And just when you thought things couldn’t get better: The café at the museum, Kaffi lyst, offers Happy Hour between 6pm and 8pm on Thursday evenings. Among current exhibits at the Hafnarhús Museum are works by Erró, a global nomad and a postmodern Icelandic-born artist. The exhibit, ‘The World Today’ shows Erro’s gifts to the Reykjavik Art Museum in recent years. The works represent a new period in the artist’s career, during which he has created his own visual world using new approaches and themes.
Dinner Cruise in the Midnight Sun
If you’ve already sampled puffin and hot-dogs and are ready for a different meal, how about eating while cruising on the Atlantic Ocean? Special Tours offers a dinner cruise every Friday night this summer departing the Old Harbour at 8m GMT. The price is shockingly affordable for a four-course meal, a welcome drink, a cruise along the coastline of Reykjavik and live music by one of Iceland’s most loved singers, Helga Möller. Coincidently, she was the first Icelander to participate in the Eurovision Song Contest and really, that’s reason enough to try out this cruise.
