Woolly says – After our wonderful day touring the Golden Circle as it’s known we were both excited to set out to see the Northern Lights. We knew that there would be no guarantee, but I had everything crossed that we might at least get a twinkle in the sky. The coach took us out of the city and into a remote area where our guide told us that they were there in the sky, I peered upwards straining to see anything green or gold, I could see a number of starts but nada on the Aurora Borealis. The guide had shown us all how to change our settings on cameras and phones but warned us that if our equipment was more than a couple of years old, we wouldn’t see anything, I looked at my human’s camera phone and realised that our chances were nil.
Having stood freezing my tusks off for over an hour whilst Jo tried her level best to get something on the screen I realised it wasn’t going to happen and went to sulk in the warm confines of the bus, the human joined me not long after and we sat in disappointed silence along with half the rest of the tour group who all had the same problem. Arriving back late in the city we were dropped off at our accommodation and climbed into our bunks to lie there imaging what might have been and feeling sightly resentful of the tourists that had actually got something on their cameras.
Morning broke with a low cloud base and as we set off to look round Reykjavik, I decided that although I had missed out on one thing there was lots to see here. Reykjavík is the capital and largest city of Iceland and is located in southwestern Iceland, on the southern shore of Faxaflói bay. Its latitude is 64°08′ N, making it the world’s northernmost capital of a sovereign state. With a population of around 131,136 it is also one of the smallest capitals. Reykjavík is believed to be the location of the first permanent settlement in Iceland, which was established by Ingólfr Arnarson in 874 CE. Until the 18th century, there was no urban development in the city location, and it didn’t get city status until 1786.
Our first stop was the iconic sculpture of the Sun Voyager a sculpture by Jón Gunnar Árnason it is described as a dreamboat, or an ode to the Sun. The artist intended to convey the promise of undiscovered territory, a dream of hope, progress and freedom. It was really striking and even with the grey clouds above it made for a wonderful shot.
We walked along the seafront enjoying the salty smell. Pausing to take a picture of the Harpa building which had been constructed in 2011 to provide a concert hall and conference centre for the city, it had a striking design.
I checked our list of places to see as Jo attempted to read the map telling me that we were going the right way, I failed to believe her and kept my beady eye out for my big choice of the day. We wandered up and down the roads admiring the corrugated buildings that abound in the country to keep their residents warm, they looked really good even on a dark cloudy morning.
We still hadn’t found my main destination as we rounded yet another corner and I spotted a sign for something else on our list and hurried inside to warm up and to learn a little more about Viking history. The Settlement Experience main focus is the remains of a Long House which had been inhabited during Viking times at around
c. 930–1000. The excavation work had begun in 2001 and the exhibition had been built around the find.
The gallery that it was in gave us a much fuller view of how the Vikings had settled in the area and the things that they had left behind.
The star attraction although looking like a few rocks and mud had distinguishable doorways and was much longer than I had expected. When inhabited around ten people would have resided there and many of the objects found during the excavation had been found in the house.
A model replica showed what it would have looked like in its day.
A corridor led us through the history of the city explaining how it had grown and the ever increasing residents that needed to be housed. As my carer sat watching an old film, I noticed what looked like a hamster and headed over to see what he was doing there.
The film had been interesting and as I looked around I saw my small companion attempting to communicate with what appeared to be a rodent of some kind, there was no explanation as to why it was there and Woolly obviously wasn’t having much success with making himself understood so we left him to it and headed up a set of stairs to find our more about cities modern history.
On the 24th April 1915 fire had broken out at the largest hotel and the city had nearly burnt to the ground, the rebuild took years but they had done it and had achieved a very pretty environment. Many of the dwelling still exist now but are surrounded by much more modern buildings.
We moved onto the war years and were shocked to discover that the Brits had occupied the city in 1940 building an incredible amount of Nissan huts, the Americans joined them in 1943 when the population was around 120,000 of which 38,000 were allied forces.
With the museum at an end, I set off once more to find my choice of destination only to find ourselves at an area known as The Pond, a large lake seemed more like it, surrounded by large houses and stocked with hundreds of geese, swans and ducks.
A strange statue stood to one side, known as the Monument for the Unknown Bureaucrat. The work is made from basalt and bronze and is both figurative and abstract. It was curious and thought provoking.
As we turned away from the pond, we wandered over to Reykjavík Cathedral that was constructed in 1787 from a design by royal building inspector Andreas Hallander. The building was demolished in 1847 to make way for the current building a fine looking corrugated construction. We peeked inside only to find that a memorial service was about to take place so having taken a quick photograph we headed onwards.
‘Where is it?’ I sighed, we had still failed to find my ultimate destination of the day still, and it wasn’t for want of trying.
I had asked at least five people by now and was finding an ever increasing level of embarrassment in asking the way to the Penis Museum!
Woolly says – The Icelandic Phallological Museum, houses the world’s largest display of penises and penile parts. it holds well over 300 penises from more than 100 species of mammal, 22 penises from creatures and peoples of Icelandic folklore and in July 2011 it obtained its first human penis, one of many promised by would-be donors. Its detachment from the donor’s body did not go according to plan and it was reduced to a greyish-brown shrivelled mass that was pickled in a jar of formalin. The museum continues to search for “a younger and a bigger and better one, I wouldn’t have thought that volunteers were rushing to help them out.
Founded in 1997 by since-then retired teacher Sigurður Hjartarson and now run by his son Hjörtur Gísli Sigurðsson, the museum grew out of an interest in penises that began during Sigurður’s childhood when he was given a cattle whip made from a bull’s penis. As we came to the end of yet another road, I could hardly contain my excitement as the sign came into view.
I have to say it seemed a strange choice of museum but having made my small friend promise on Sion’s life not to speak the word, penis, all day I had agreed to having a look round.
Woolly says – We entered through the Penis Café and having collected our tickets headed inside. It was a bit bizarre, pictures of animals on the walls with large and small jars displaying their manhood’s forever in time.
My mind started to boggle somewhat as I looked at what a female Zebra could expect with the other end of the spectrum for an area relating to small mammals.
We arrived in a section dedicated to dolphins and all marine mammals, I nearly fell over when we arrived at the largest exhibit of them all, the Blue Whale who was topping the charts at 95 inches!!
A section of items made from penis skin came next along with information on how eating whale penises was considered an ancient Viagra.
We arrived in an area dedicated to man and the stories and gods that had once been a part of life.
And there in front of us was an actual man’s full piece, which made it all to real.
A cast of Jimi Hendrix’s appendage made Jo smile and mutter that it least it wasn’t an actual one.
Having looked at some of the items that have been made for purchase over the years, all penis related we had arrived at the end, I looked up at my carer for her reaction which seemed to one of shock.
I was still getting over the blue whale, but it had been interesting and defiantly unique, I did however feel the need for coffee and not in a penis shaped cup.
Woolly says – We headed towards Rainbow Street, one of the main streets in downtown Reykjavík which is supported by the city is a sign of joy and support for diversity. As we walked upwards it gave us a grand view of Iglesia Hallgrímskirkja,
inspired by Icelandic traditions, this modern cathedral, consecrated in 1986, has a 73m-high tower and stands high above everything else in the city.
Arriving in front of it a large statue of Viking Leif Eiriksson, the first European to set foot on the North American continent around 1,000 AD.
The interior of the huge building was very modern in design with a massive organ and what seemed like a very small pulpit in comparison.
Having walked around the exterior to see what pictures we could get of the building and the views from it the clouds had turned to rain, and my thoughts turned to a very late lunch and the need to warm up. Reykjavik as a city had been excellent with a wide variety of things to do and see and we both agreed that we had enjoyed it immensely.