Borgannes, Iceland. Day 95 – 96 July 15th
With the weather not conducive to hiking and sightseeing we headed to Borgarnes where I had read about a Farmers Market and a museum – The Settlement Centre we wanted to visit.
The complex housed a fantastic shop with a great range of gifts, a Saga exhibition and downstairs the story of Egill Skallagrimsson – the Egill Saga.
The Settlement museum developed the history of Viking settlement and sea exploration, the evolution of the Sagas and a genealogy of Viking families and descendants along with their stories.
It was useful when reading the stories of the sagas to be reminded that the truth within the stories was often embellished through the oral telling of the stories passed down. And the generational storytelling tradition had grown through the long dark winters.
I loved the exhibition of the story of Egil – the exhibits were mainly created from wood with excellent wood work, wood block etchings, carvings, and recycled carpentry – all creating the figures in the story.
As we came out of the exhibitions we spied a sign for a buffet lunch. A very reasonably priced buffet in the museums café. Some members of our group did not notice the “vegetarian” word until seated. It was pretty much the best deal in Iceland and delicious even for the non-vegetarians. The range of buffet salads was vast – including a range of pastas, many different vegetable salads, several potato salad styles. And this came with a selection of breads, soup and coffee.
After lunch we tracked down the Farmers Market – not quite the collection of stalls selling local produce we had envisaged, more a shop with a range of Icelandic goods. The only goods we were interested in was food for dinner and the meat seemed crazily expensive so we gave that up.
The weather continued to be dreary and while everything looked greener it was not enticing us outside. We headed out to Museum number 2 for the day – the Snorri Sturluson Museum Reykolt very near to our bed for the night.
The museum had extensive written information about the development of early Icelandic parliament and the key people involved. Snorri Sturluson featuring strongly as the person credited with development of early laws. A timeline of his life lit up the floor at the entrance to the museum. A poster featured an artists drawing of a meeting at Pingellur which had been one of the first sites we visited here in Iceland. The museum brought it all to vibrant life.
The town was opportunity for Snorri overload! Reykolt was Snorri’s hometown for a number of years. A self-guided walk around the town included Snorri’s baths pools plumbed from a nearby spring and referred to in writings around 1200. The nearby spring feeding the pool features a Snorri sculptor atop.
The weather remained miserable, cold and a deterrent to too much wandering about. Our house for the night was on an Icelandic horse-breeding farm and my wish for foals along with the tiny adult horses was granted.
The little cabin was small, adequate, and surrounded by farmland. Gerd and Chris decided they needed a trip to the Vin Budin to get them through the night.
