Must-See Places
- May 30, 2025
- 2 min read
Updated: Jun 3, 2025
Two places that must be visited on this island for an experience like no other is the Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavík and Fridheimar Tomato Farm. You cannot miss Hallgrímskirkja church when walking through the city. The architecture of the building is like no other. It immediately brings the eye up to the sky with how tall its clock tower is. With high ceilings lined with windows around the sanctuary's perimeter, it holds the largest organ in the country and is also the largest church in Iceland. The organ took up the entire front wall of the sanctuary. Its details led the eye to a new place with every glance. Aside from how stunning the church appeared to the eye, there were many different interactive parts to visiting the church that I had never seen anywhere else. On one side of the sanctuary, there was a small desk that housed a place to write prayers down and will be read at the next Sunday service. There was also a standing chandelier of lit tealight candles that people could light themselves behind a roughly 7-foot statue of Jesus. In front of the church outside is a statue of Leif Erikson. The back of the statue reads, “Leifr Eiricsson Son of Iceland Discoverer of Vinland The United States of America To The People Of Iceland On The Thousandth Anniversary Of The Althing AD 1930.” This historic monument welcomes visitors with a photo opportunity.
Fridheimar Tomato Farm is a family-owned business that takes the art of growing tomatoes to an entirely different level. These tomatoes are grown under artificial lighting all year round in greenhouses that hold nearly 27,000 tomato plants without pesticides. Our guide took us through the process of taking care of these plants and showed us the bees they keep to pollinate them within the greenhouse. The tomatoes are not exported and can only be found and bought within the country. This farm takes an entirely new approach to home-grown tomatoes as they sell many different variations of tomato-flavored items from beverages to ice cream. I personally was thrown off when I heard there was tomato ice cream, but after getting myself to try it, I was amazed by how much it tastes like a fruit sorbet. All sorts of seasoning, tomato chutney and salsas were also available to purchase to take home the memory and taste of this one-of-a-kind place.
My favorite part about the farm was the family-oriented environment that each staff member cultivated. Whether it was taking someone's order at the bar, ringing them up at the store or answering their questions, every member delivered joy to every interaction and a reason to come back and share this experience with someone else. Not everybody on the trip liked tomatoes, but they found a new profound love for trying something new after experiencing the farm, as did I.
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