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Two old Singer Sewing machines seen in a museum in Djúpivogur, Iceland. And the part of one that is holding up my desk at home. I also have one holding up a table in Gloucester.

On the morning of August 6th on our trip to Iceland was a visit to the Jökulsárlón Glacier Lagoon. I was feeling a bit under the weather so elected to not go because it involved a long bus trip among other things. Robert rsc went and took pictures.

The boat docked in the harbor of Djúpivogur, a village on the southeast coast of Iceland. While Robert was off on the tour I did go into town and among other thiogs saw lots of old stuff in a museum.

Click below for photos:

We then (Aug 5) went to the Seyðisfjörður Technical Museum which had a great collection of old stuff.

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The last place we visited from Húsavík in Iceland on August 4 was Goddafoss Falls; quite a spectacular spot. For the rest of the day we stayed on the boat and attended several interesting lectures about Iceland and the Arctic from the guides.

Early in the morning of August 4th we arrived at Húsavík where we went by bus to several spots. Húsavík is a large town at the northeastern edge of Iceland. Supposedly a Swedish explorer, Gardar Svavarrsson, spent the winter there in 870 along with severla other people - although he might have been the first settler he didn't get credit for that.

The first place we went to was Namaskard which has many sulfurous springs and steam springs. The fumes make it impossible for anything to grow there so the spot is barren.



Click below for more pictures:


And a video of the bubbling spring:

In the afternoon of August 3rd we visited Siglufjördur, a port on the north side of Iceland with a herring fishing industry where you can watch demos and that has a herring museum to commemorate the town's importance.

Click here for a few photos:




And then the fish workers entertained us.

Walking around Ísafjörður (ice fjord) a town in western Iceland in addition to the small village we saw a rustic area with nice waterfalls and streams. We did get some entertainlment when we went into a church.

The area was first settled by Helgi Magri Hrólfsson in the 9th century. In the 16th century, the town grew as it became a trading post for foreign merchants. Witch trials were common around the same time throughout the Westfjords, and many people were banished to the nearby peninsula of Hornstrandir, now a national nature reserve. The town of Ísafjörður was granted municipal status in 1786.



  

  

  

After breakfast on the first morning on the boat we took a tour to Vigur, an island off the coast of Iceland. We went from our boat on the pair of tenders it carried - we had to have life jacket lessons as part of the excursion.

Vigur has one family permanently residing on it and our guide was a member of that family. But there are other people and buildings there. There is an ancient windmill.




  

There are lots of birds on this island: puffins, black guillemot, Arctic terns, eider ducks among others. We were attacked by terns as we walked around - no one got injured - it is amusing and annoying; some people waved sticks to ward off their attacks.

    

One of the museums in Reykjavik we visited was the Phallological Museum. It is a collection of phallic specimens from many mammals (209 specimens from 46 species of mammals)- plus some humor. And yes, it is also called the Penis Museum.





  

  

After resting a bit in our hotel room to help recover from jetlag we started walking around Ryekjavik. We had flown over a day before the cruise was supposed to start - conveniently we were able to get into our hotel room at 7:30 am.

One of the first places we visited was The Settlement Exhibition, a museum with lots of exhibits about the early Viking settlers in Iceland. It is titled Reykjavik 871± 2 because 871 or so was the year when there was a volcanic eruption which deposited some materials which were used as part of the construction of a hall that was occupied from 930-1000.

There was a model of the settlement that was hard to photograph because there was no way to get the camera high enough (I should have had my monopod - left in the hotel room - which would have helped.)


There were models of the building which was a pretty elaborate structure (but I apparently didn't take a picture of it) and lots of information that they had figured out about the settlement.
  

And some items from later times - at many places there were collections of stuff like this which I always like looking at: