The weather this morning was a little overcast with some drizzle in the air and so we decided to take a trip on the Hop-On/Hop-Off bus around the city. Our guide gave us usual facts about the town and the history of its development informing us that Reykjavik is the only major capital city that does not have a MacDonald’s restaurant. You could find KFCs, Dominos and Subways but no maccy Dees. This is a city that you would not want to visit Oliver.
To compensate for the lack of such Haute Cuisine the city has more statues and sculptures than I have ever seen. It seems that on every corner or spare piece of land some artist has been busy, it makes for a very interesting ride around the centre.
They also have a lot of museums, in addition to the normal Natural History museum, National Art Gallery and the like, Reykjavik can lay claim to some of the strangest museums. One such example is the Phallus Museum which offers a display of the intimate parts of all the mammals of Iceland, yes all of them. We however decided to visit the Icelandic Saga Museum, which brings to life the stories of the Icelandic Vikings with an audio commentary and life-like figures.
The museum gave us a great opportunity not only to learn about the history of the island but also to pose with the full scale silicone models , such as this fisherman.
One of the sagas involved a Viking woman (whose name was far too long to remember), who when her husband was killed by natives bared her breast and threatened to cut it off. This apparently scared off her aggressors who fled the scene. Quite a scary sight.
At the end of the exhibition was an area where you could dress up in authentic Viking wear,I tried on a helmet , which was very heavy…..
…….but I was still able to ward off this polar bear.
From the Saga Museum we made our way to the Maritime Museum. We had a quick look in but decided not to visit as the Maritime Museum at tomorrow’s call, Isafjordur, is supposed to be the best in Iceland.
Walking back towards the bus pick-up point we passed an exhibition in the street displaying every ship lost in Icelandic waters in the last 200 years, from large sailing ships up to modern day trawlers. It was quite amazing to see how many wrecks there had been especially during the war, when many lives were lost in these icy waters.
Further on was a steam engine which Sylvia couldn’t resist climbing on.
As we sailed away from the city passing snow capped mountains on the way we watched Wales beat Northern Ireland in the euros. Well done Wales.
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