A Trip to the Saga Museum

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We had two possible options today: the thermal pools or the Saga Museum. Having done thermal pools a lot in New Zealand, we decided to go the the Saga Museum instead and so, after packing a lunch, we headed off.

The Saga Museum is about a half hour walk from our apartment and is more on the outskirts of Reykjavik. It is a very modern looking domed building, visible from quite a distance away.

As we approached the museum, we found ourselves on a rise of land from which we could see most of the city. The gardens around the museum are full of the same purple and white wildflowers, lupines-as Evy later learns, that we saw when we first landed in Reykjavik.

The museum is quite ingeniously built using old oil tanks, though you wouldn't know it unless you looked closely. A newer section bridges the gap between these tanks and form the main hall. We bought our tickets and were each lent a mp3 player which would serve as the audio guide.

The tour consists of a series of figures posed to recreate scenes from Icelandic history, starting with the first arrival of people here. It was fairly well done and their were some intesting connections for us like the fact that they went on from here to visit Newfoundland. They certainly do have a bloody history in many respects.

Though the tour was good, I would like to have some things on modern day Iceland too. As it was this tour only really took the history up until about the 1700s.

After the tour, we took the elevator up to the top floor and went out on the viewing deck. Here there is an excellent view of Reykjavik and you get a sense of the whole city. After this, we went back down and left the building, eating our picnic lunch in the gardens.

Walking back to our apartment, we tried to find one of the hotels where the shuttle bus had stopped, hoping perhaps to catch it there tomorrow, but with no luck. Joshua, Evy, and I took a look in a wood carving shop before joining Benjamin back at the apartment. Later, we went out and bought stuff for dinner.

It is an odd feeling to be finishing the final full day of our trip. Our flight home doesn't leave until about 5 pm tomorrow, but check out time for the apartment is 11 am, so we may end up at the airport for some time. We ended up staying up until mid-night and it never got dark.

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