Skolavordustigur Street

The rainbow stripes are the reason most people walk this street. A stretch of the road surface is painted in colour bands, and they run in the direction of Hallgrímskirkja. The church closes the view at the far end. That pairing of painted ground and church front is the photograph everyone comes for.

The rest of the street repays the walk. Shops, cafés, restaurants and bars fill the ground floors, older residential houses sit above them, and murals cover some of the side walls. The shopfronts are small and independent rather than chains. It is not Reykjavík's main shopping street, and it does not behave like one.

• Crowds: the street is packed at peak hours. Expect people in every frame, and expect to wait for a gap.
• Toilets: the nearest public toilet is about 246 m away and charges a fee. A free one is about 418 m off.
• Water: a public drinking water point is about 52 m from the street, free to use.
• Information: a tourist information point sits about 229 m away, with a second one close to it.

Two public car parks sit about 30 m from the street, so a car can be left almost on it. Everything after that is on foot. There is no approach path, no gate and no entrance: you step onto the pavement and start walking. The street itself is the walk, running from one end to Hallgrímskirkja at the other, and the shopfronts and the painted road surface are all on the way.

Better: early in the morning.

Avoid: peak hours.

The street is extremely crowded at peak hours. Come early and the painted road is clear enough to photograph. Come later and you will be waiting for gaps between people, then editing out the ones you could not avoid.