We were nearing the end of a very interesting visit to Iceland. We would spend one night in an Airbnb on the outskirts of Reykjavík and visit some of the bird-filled beaches south of the city the next day before catching our flight home. So we would have a half day to tour Reykjavík.

It was still quite windy. Our drive to Reykjavík was not without drama in the sky. Here are a few photos I took along the way. The first three were shot from a moving car and the last three were taken when we stopped along Route 1.

Martha told us to be sure to visit the opera house in Reykjavík, the Harpa. So that is where we headed after finding a parking place near the pond. Here is a view of the Harpa as we walked toward it.

Below is a close-up of part of the glass walls that comprise this building.

The 16-photo panorama below shows a very distorted view of the inside of the Harpa, an amazing building.

Here are some more photos of the Harpa.

We visited the concrete church, the Hallgrímskirkja. This Lutheran church is one of the city’s best-known landmarks and is visible throughout the city. We decided to pass up a ride to the observation tower.

Here are photos from inside the church — Marc, a painting, and a painting with camera movement.

Here are other photos from Reykjavik. They had some neat creatures along the street, some other interesting sculptures, and brightly painted buildings. These seem to be people with a good sense of humor. Perhaps that comes from a very long winter.

After our city tour we checked into our very comfortable Airbnb. The water in the shower smelled strongly of sulfur, but the water from the faucets tasted fine. Here are two photos taken with my iPhone.

All of our dinners were purchased and prepared by alternating teams of Martha and Stephen for two nights and Marc and me for the next two nights. But we had one evening meal left this last night and no one had shopped for it or planned to cook it. But no worry, there was some food left over from previous meals that Martha thought would do fine.

Three of us decided the left-overs would make a nice dinner, but Marc decided to go out for a hamburger. That was the only restaurant meal that any of us ate during our time in Iceland. Here is a photo of my dinner of the left-over food. It actually looks very delicious, and I enjoyed it. The huge sweet potato was great. I don’t recall what that square pink thing is in the lower right of my plate.

The airport at Keflavik is southwest of Reykjavík, so on our last day Marc and I decided to explore the peninsula southwest of Reykjavík. Our flight wasn’t until 5 PM so we had a good portion of the day to explore.

When I got home I tallied the number of photos I took each day of the trip. On this last day I took more photos than any other day and about twice as many as the average day. That’s what happens when you are photographing birds. But except for a few featured here, most of the birds I photographed during the trip will be found on a separate page.

We headed to Garður. As we approached, there was a lot of drama in the sky across the water to the northeast a bit before 7 AM.  The photo below shows Reykjavík in the distance. I believe the tallest building is the concrete church, Hallgrímskirkja.

We got a nice rainbow from the village of Garður.

We spent several hours on the beach near the light houses at Garður. We mostly photographed birds along the beach.  It rained briefly several times while we were there.

I spent the most time at the beach photographing Ruddy Turnstones. Here are three of the photos I got.

But my favorite birds, by far, were the Red-necked Phalaropes. I had actually photographed this species in both Vermont and New Hampshire when they were blown inland by a storm during migration. These birds were in breeding plumage. Their plumage when they are not breeding is a very plain white and gray.

This phalarope breeds in the Arctic regions of North America and Eurasia. It is migratory, and, unusually for a wader, winters at sea on tropical oceans.

Here are three photos of the Red-necked Phalaropes.

We visited the Sandgerði Harbor. Finally a blue-sky day — now that we are leaving.

There I photographed a very shy but cute cat.

In this area we spent some time photographing Arctic Tern, Black-headed Gulls, a flying Whooper Swan, a Rock Ptarmigan, and some sheep.

I photographed the church at Hvalsnes.

One of the most remarkable items here is the gravestone of Steinunn Hallgrímsdóttir, who died when she was 4 years old in 1649. She was the daughter of Hallgrímur Pétursson, Iceland’s most important psalmist. At that time he served as a priest at the parish in Hvalsnes. The gravestone was lost for a long time but was discovered again in 1964. It had been used as a part of a walkway leading to the church.

We returned our rental car, which had worked very well for us, and by 5:30 PM we were airborne over Keflavik heading home after a great trip to Iceland.