Day 5 – Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum
Before embarking on this trip to Iceland, I think one of the few things I knew about it was learned from The Mighty Ducks, when Emilio Estevez is trying to pick up the Icelandic lady in D2… Iceland is actually green whereas Greenland is actually icy. Go figure, Disney, you actually taught me something there.
Regardless of this gem of information, I decided to dress in 3 layers, as the day was not exactly shining and blue before we disembarked. (I would find out later in the day that about 5 to 7 layers would have probably worked better.) We were met on the dock by Siggy from TOURIS tours, and he thankfully had a warm van waiting for us. He was anxious for us to be on our way so that we could "beat the tour buses" to each of our destinations.
Along the way, he told us several interesting facts about Iceland, including that almost every building is heated by geothermal energy, and the water that comes out of faucets in Iceland is pure spring water without additives. Pretty cool.
We visited a really neat site called Geysir, with (not surprisingly) a geyser that goes off every 5 to 7 minutes. The cold air was tainted with an unattractive sulphuric smell coming from the many gas vents pouring out through the volcanic rock. Regardless, we watched the geyser explode for 3 cycles, and then, much too cold to continue standing amongst the gas vents, we piled back into the van.
There were several more stops along the way, including a superb waterfall, a fantastic volcanic crater, and some really neat fault zones. (Okay, I'm a geologic geek...standing on an active margin between two tectonic plates was a pretty awesome experience!) Iceland is situated on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, which accounts for its constant geologic activity and access to geothermal heat. The igneous rock that is visible across the landscape was also pretty neat to witness. The rock has beautiful curved patterns on its surface. I managed to take some rocks with me, after our tour guide assured me that there was no curse associated with doing so, as they say there is in Hawaii.
After viewing the stunning landscape, we headed towards the Saga Museum closer to the city of Reykjavik. I had found them online, and was looking forward to seeing how museums in Iceland operate.
The Saga Museum is situated in Perlan, a stunning building with a glass dome spanning 6 gigantic tanks of geothermal water. One of these 4 million litre tanks was drained, and the Saga Museum is now inside. If that's not an interesting location for a museum, I don't know what is!
Our host at the museum was very helpful, explaining the museum's history and giving us audio tours to guide us through. We then entered the museum to begin our journey through Iceland's history. My first impression was that the figurines were incredibly lifelike. The amount of detail that went into them surpasses anything I've seen. They have hair on their arms, sweat on their brows and one figure even bobs slightly up and down as he "breathes." (That one did scare me a bit!)
The scenes are very well crafted and the audio guide was clear and interesting with features allowing for pausing and fast forwarding (these features really come in handy with audio guides). One of the stories portrayed was about Ingolfur Arnarson, the first free Norseman to come to Iceland. He decided to let the gods determine where he would settle, so he threw carved pillars into the sea from his ship. They landed on what is now Reykjavik, and he built his farmstead there in AD 877. That's history!
We went through the rest of the museum, and I must applaud their use of space. Creating a really interesting narrative within what is basically a huge cylinder could not have been easy, but they did it.
One of the neatest parts was the "making of" video at the end, where they showed footage of actually people being covered in material to create the casts for the figurines. I love that sort of thing; it's like the bonus features on DVDs. Museums should add those in more often.
After the Saga Museum, it was time to head back to the ship. The day went quickly, but we managed to see many different geologic features over a large area. I definitely would like to visit Iceland in the future. I don't think one day was long enough to see even a small percentage of this beautiful and unique country. We found brochures on touring Iceland by horseback. Neat idea, but it is probably doable only in summertime. Next visit, I am packing a parka.
View interactive map of the voyage
Back to Travel Diaries
Days 7-12 St Johns, Halifax and Journey's End
A Peak at the Inner Workings of the Norwegian Jewel
How to Pour Champagne in a Moving Vehicle
Day 5 - Icelandic Saga
Day 5 - Straddling the Mid-Atlantic Ridge
Day 5 - Steam and Snow in the Southwest
Day 5 - Golden Waterfalls and Pearls of Architecture
Day 5 – Iceland: Tour, Geology and Saga Museum (you are here)
Days 0-4 Dover to the Shetlands
Useful links
Geysir Center
Saga Museum
Added 2008/09/24 @ 12:10:07
Average customer rating
awaiting 5 vote(s)...
