Scouring Reykjavik's Museums

March 8, Thursday:

Scouring Reykjavik’s Museums

         Llew and I found it hard to wake up as we were jetlagged and still on US time.  Still, without too much ado, we showered and had breakfast in our Air B and B—breakfast we made ourselves: muesli with Skyr caramel yogurt and decaff coffee.  Icelanders are very proud of their yogurt that they call Skyr—they eat it for breakfast, as a snack and as dessert with fruit and nuts. It is available in many flavors and we tried caramel, honey and pear while we were there.

         We thought we would devote the morning to scouring Reykjavik’s many museums—best places in which to escape when it is freezing outside. After a walk of about a half hour, we arrived at our destination, across the Lake.

The National Museum:

            Iceland’s National Museum in a modern building with Scandinavian flourishes. They did not recognize my Metropolitan Museum affiliation—we, therefore, had to buy tickets for 2000 kroner each (about $20) and take a self-guided tour that was very easy to do as the museum is small and has a wonderful brochure. All highlights are in black polished granite showcases—so they are extremely easy to find. Llew and I followed the route on the map and ended up seeing some interesting Norse treasures—such as wooden doors from Valthjófsstadur carved in the 13^th century and in a superb state of preservation that depict a Norse battle entitled Le Chevalier Au Lion. This is the museum’s biggest highlight. We also saw a small metal figurine from the 11^th century, a stag horn that was exquisitely carved, treasures of Icelandic medieval churches called Staves (I had seen many of these in Oslo, Norway), the first edition of a Bible first printed in Icelandic, a very old traditional embroidered woman’s outfit, and a section that tells the story--using hundreds of everyday objects--of the nation in ancient times, while under Danish colonial rule and since Independence. We learned a lot about the nation’s history and its proud heritage.

The Culture House:

         Our ticket to the National Museum included free entry to another museum called The Culture House that was in downtown Reykjavik. It has a collection of fine art works that represent the best work from the country’s best-known museums. Since it was offered for free, we decided to take advantage of it and see it instead of the National Museum of Art that we had originally intended to peruse.

         We took a bus and arrived there in about fifteen minutes. Inside, we found four floors that were not chronological, but rather thematic. As advertised, they offered wonderful interpretations of the history and natural wonders of the nation from volcanic eruptions that have affected the entire world as well as the national movements that have impacted all its residents. We saw paintings, sculpture, collage works (by a famous artist called Erro), photographs, installations plus ceramics, books, tooled leather, etc.  Everything was well sign-posted in English—which made it very easy to do self-guided tours. The museum gave us a composite idea of the great work that is being produced in this small island nation with a population of less than half a million people. What is also interesting is that most people can communicate very well in English as it is taught in schools from infancy. I suppose when less than half a million people in the world speak your language, you need to be able to speak something else!

Lunch: An Icelandic hot dog

         We were feeling puckish by this time and thought it would be a good idea to go in search of an Icelandic hot dog that I had read about in the in-flight magazine. We found a nice hot dog stand on a busy tourist square close by and felt fortunate to be able to sit indoors and eat it in an adjoining pub with a pint of Viking (local Icelandic) lager.  We discovered that what makes Icelandic hot dogs different is that they are served with mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise as well as raw and crunchy fried onions. In fact, crunchy fried onions are so ubiquitous that they appear to be used as a condiment in this country.

The Sun Voyager Sculpture:

         It was time for us to go in search of the sculpture on the waterfront that is referred to as the Sun Voyager by Jon Gunar Anarsson. It was installed on the sea-facing promenade in 1990 and seems to have seized the public imagination instantly.  In Modernist form, it depicts a vessel with stick-figures populating it in polished aluminum.  They are meant to depict adventure, hope, discovery. It reminded me of the Discovery Monument on the river-front at Belem outside of Lisbon, Portugal, that depicts a caravel, a Portuguese sailing vessel that took adventurers such as Pedro Cabral to Brazil and Vasco da Gama to Goa in India. I am finding out that the more I travel, the more I am able to make connections between the sights I see. We took a few pictures and left.

Back Home for a Nap, Tea and Thai Dinner:

         By this time, we decided to take it easy for the rest of the day. So, we took a bus and got back to our Air B&B and took a nap. When we awoke, we made ourselves some tea, ate a snack and then spent time chatting with our roomies, Walter and Lara. Later that evening, we took a short walk along Laugavegur to see the ritzy street by night before looking for a meal close by.  We chose a Thai place called Noodle Station (recommended by Lonely Planet) that offered us humongous soup bowls filled with rice noodles and all sorts of Asian goodies that fueled us up well.

         A little later, we returned to our Air B&B to pack up our bags as we would be leaving in the morning for the start of our driving tour of Iceland.

         Until tomorrow...goodnight.