Day 3, July 6, 2013:
Another beautiful day in Reykjavik, rainy, windy and cold,
about 7 or 8 Celsius when I woke up but as the day wore on it became sunny,
then cloudy again, then the wind rose and the clouds moved in, then it got
sunny again but it always stayed below 10 degrees – you get the point, we dress
for all weather here. Again after a
breakfast of pastries and coffee (there is a Baakari across the street) we
finally staggered out to visit the local flea market on the harbour - crowded,
lots of junk but a lot of fun as well.
The harbour is filled with all manner of craft from pleasure and fishing
to coast guard cutters and naval vessels however Iceland does not have a navy
and according to a local is under the protection of the US navy since world war
II when it was used as a staging area by the Americans to supply the war
effort. Apparently the first beer (Polar
Bear) in Iceland was brewed for the troops stationed on the island and brewing
wasn’t legal for the locals until into the 1980’s – go figure.
After a visit to the flea market we stopped into the
Reykjavik 871 +-2 exhibit. It seems that
while excavating Aoalstraeti (old street)in 2001 they came across the remnants
of a longhouse or a hall which turned out to be the oldest evidence of human
habitation in Iceland, from you guessed it 871 or there about. They can date it accurately because it is
surrounded by a layer of volcanic tephra (ash) that they know the exact date of
eruption of. They have built the
building up around the foundations of the hall which are in the basement and it
is pretty interesting to see how they lived.
They were mostly subsistence farmers and relied on fish and local sea
birds including the great Auk which they hunted to extinction. About 10 people lived in 85 square meters
along with their animals in a hut with basaltic foundations and a wood
supported sod/hide roof. It must have
been dark, dank and smelly but it held up over the winter. When Reykjavik was founded there was abundant
birch forest which again was quickly decimated for fire wood, building and
charcoal. The land was cleared for grain
farming and the soil was gradually depleted of nutrients so eventually most of
Iceland that was habitable became grassland good for herding and not much
else. It is interesting to note that at
its peak about 60,000 people lived this way on Iceland because that was about
all it could support on fishing and herding.
Connor and Duncan tolerated about an hour of cultural
history then it was back outside to eat a Pylsur or local hot dog from the cart
of Baejarins Bestu who according to the timeline published beside his stand has
been selling the dogs for over 73 years.
They serve these traditional cased wieners with brown mustard, remoulade
(sweet mayo) and fried onions – to quote Quinn YUMM! We were still hungry so off we went to Café
Babalu, a little roof top café to have crepes – kind of Kensington market style
and of course drink coffee – again yumm! or in Icelandic yummi!.
We ambled our way back to our apartment where
Mary Rose and I dumped the boys and headed off across the City to the National
Museum of Iceland. For a country of only
319,000, Icelanders have an amazing number of museums and cultural venues, all
of which I wanted to visit but faced significant familial resistance to this
idea so I had to settle for one. What
can I say – beautiful building, stunning setting, lots of cool old stuff and
silver, lots of silver. Gold was only
used for religious objects it seems (gold wash) but silver was the metal of
choice. It was used for money, jewellery
(as well as bronze), filigree and thread.
You displayed wealth and power with silver. I loved the place but I’m glad I left the
kids behind. Back to the eating thing
and we played it safe and went for burgers – as Duncan says, they were burgers
– meh. We watched Johnny Depp in Dark Shadows,
a horrible yet entertaining film (think the rocky horror picture show with a
big budget) and hit the sack – tomorrow it is ponies, cliffs, white water and
pain……..
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