REYKJAVIK – street art

A real Banksy or an imitation? Either way it adds something special to an otherwise dull street.

Reykjavik feels like the sort of place we visitors pass through on our way to somewhere more interesting.

It’s small (population about 120,000) and the main shopping streets remind me more than anything of Queenstown in New Zealand. Like that city, Reykjavik is where visitors book tours to adrenalin-pumping adventures – hiking, whale-watching, glacier walking, horse riding and volcano spotting.

Then we fill in a day browsing countless shops selling outdoor gear, eating pizza and drinking too many cups of coffee. The coffee here, incidentally, is excellent and I can recommend the Kaffitar chain. I’m still shaking slightly from the double cappuccino.

To keep us entertained while we wait for the real fun to start, Reykjavik has scattered art along the waterfront and in other public places.

I liked the skeletal Viking ship on the waterfront.

The harpoon celebrates fifty years of diplomatic relations between Iceland and the US.

Icelandic film director Hrafn Gunnlaugsson calls himself 'a raven', collecting objects for his recycled house.

Not necessarily great art, but a great attention-grabber.

Einar Jonssen, creator of numerous works in the first half of the 20th century, is acknowledged as Iceland's greatest sculptor. More of his work in a later post. I like it.

And of course at this wonderful time for Australian cycling, I had to sneak a bike into the post. Cadel should ask his Mum to knit him one.