14 July 2025, in Reykjavik, Iceland

Last night we flew from Pittsburgh to Reykjavik on the first leg of our journey to Finland. We could have changed planes at 6:30am GMT (2:30am EDT) and flown right away to Helsinki but we decided to take a break for jet lag and stay one night in Reykjavik, Iceland (bottom left of this map).

“Night” is not dark here. Reykjavik is so far north that the sun rose today at 3:38a GMT and sets at 11:26pm for 19hr 47m of daylight. Our internal clocks think this is just a very very long day.

We are staying in the heart of downtown near the city’s oldest square, very close to the art museum and a 10 minute walk to eBird hotspot Tjörnin pond(*), pictured below.

I hope to see some of the birds photographed at Tjörnin last month including this pair of whooper swans …

… and a male Eurasian wigeon.

If I’d visited in early June I would have seen this duckling who is probably full grown now.

Tomorrow morning we fly to Helsinki — not very far, just a 3.5 hour flight.

(*) “Tjörnin” means “the pond” in Icelandic so calling it “Tjörnin pond” is redundant.