Reykjavik for The Time Travellers: a Friday-to-Monday weekend

Guðjón Samúelsson's church, begun in 1945 and finished in 1986, shaped like basalt columns; the tower gives the clearest map of the city, so check its closing hour.

A Viking longhouse hall excavated in 2001 sits under glass in the centre of the city, the oldest trace of settlement, with a timeline of the dig.

A small, old-fashioned dining room famous for plokkfiskur and the fish of the day; whale and puffin are on the menu, but the fish is the better order.

The permanent exhibition runs from the ninth-century settlement to today in about two hours, with Viking swords, a bronze Thor and a turf-house door.

Life-size silicone scenes of the settlement, the Althing's adoption of Christianity and the plague years, with an audio guide; an hour, with the harbour cafés next door.

Old farm-kitchen recipes reinterpreted: smoked lamb, salted cod and a burnt-skyr dessert, in the same building as the Saga Museum; book ahead for the short tasting menu.

Iceland's Althing met here from 930, on the rift between two plates; walk down Almannagjá to the Law Rock and bring layers, since the lake wind is strong.

The original 'geysir' is dormant, but Strokkur beside it erupts every five to ten minutes to about twenty metres, reliably, with the whole hillside steaming behind.

Icelandic classics under one roof: lamb soup, fish stew and a long list of local beer, a plain and honest dinner after a day on the road.

Where Reagan and Gorbachev met in October 1986; the house itself is mostly closed inside, so the point is the shoreline path and the tale of the meeting.

Cod Wars and trawler history, with a guided tour of the Coast Guard ship Óðinn that faced British frigates in the 1970s; tours run at set times.

The harbour's old café, serving fish soup and plokkfiskur to fishermen and flight crews since 1935; sit by the window and watch the boats before the Flybus.