A Sunny Saturday in Reykjavik, Iceland

I am here in Reykjavik for a couple of days. Long enough to learn how to spell the name of the town. I might have to stay here instead of getting my rental car and driving north because no other name makes any sense to me.  I get it in my mind but in 5 minutes all I can recall is "It starts with B."

Why would I let that stop me?  Ha! Tomorrow I am getting a car and driving around Iceland on Highway 1, the Ring Road.  It goes around the country near the coast.  My target is the Husavik area, famous for birdwatching.  Maybe in my wanders, I will finally see a gyrfalcon, the national bird.  Although we may have them in Washington State, I have never seen one anywhere.  So off I will go even if I cannot say or remember the names of anything.

But today--sunny and a balmy 51 degrees and only a little wind.  I had a great wander.  As usual, there are more things to explore than I had time for but my brain is full.  Can't do any more.

Here is my street near the "Old Harbor." Although it looks cloudy, it is mainly a sunny day.

My street near the old harbor.  My house is the white one on the right but I showed these as I think they are so pretty. 

I think you can see that these are sided with corrugated metal siding.  Most common siding.

The trim is cut metal.

First Museum
The closest museum is the Maritime Museum, in the Old Harbor.  I did not like it that much.  It starts with the fishing industry in the early 1800's when men are rowing out in very small boats and not always surviving.  The houses are hung about with dried fish of every size--the only or main food.  Could not even find a potato in the display.

After the tiny rowing ships and dried fish, there is a room of shipwrecks.  I lost heart and could not get interested in the 20th C. navigation improvements.

But there was first lunch--delicious fish soup and bread. Some birds in the harbor.  Overall, not bad.

Icelandic fish soup and espresso for lunch; few birds

I moved west into the Town Center which includes the oldest part of the city.  There are several interconnected squares which were full of Icelanders enjoying summer.  A food festival with rock music, skate board-learning youth, middle-aged motorcycle fellows.

Second Museum
I made the next stop at the Settlement and Saga Museum, on one side of the above square.  It is built around a fairly recent archeological excavation of the oldest building so far discovered in Iceland, dated to pre-871.  It is a longhouse farmstead of one of the earliest inhabitants of Iceland, dated because some of the walls are under a layer of volcanic ash of an eruption of 871.

It had been previously thought that the earliest settlers were from the 900's.  Nothing earlier than this dwelling has yet been found but it pushes the settlement back into the 800's.  The associated manuscripts which write down earlier oral sagas are from 1000 and later but include genealogy and history of several generations earlier. Follow the link for more informtion.

The whitish stone in the center is covered with volcanic ash.
The largest part of the house was built after the volcanic eruption.

The whole exhibit is 2 meters below current ground level.  This is the longest part of the main building.  Other outbuildings were nearby or attached.  This part is thought to have been build during the 900's.

This was the main entrance.

 Iceland was not inhabited by humans before this settlement although some traders or fishermen may have come to the island.  The Vikings made significant technical improvements in ships in the late 700's which allowed them to travel safely far from shore.

Their diet was varied including domestic animals that they brought with them, wild birds and eggs, whales and fish.  There is evidence of grain in the house but it is not known whether the earliest settlers grew or imported grain.  By 1000, they had cut most of the forest and were growing barley. They had expanded out from Reykjavik too but it seems to have remained the major harbor.

All that discussion of their food made me realize that I was ready for second lunch.

This is fish and seafood soup with more delicious bread and one of the local beers.

Birdwatching on Tjornin Lake
Smack in the center of the city is Tjornin Lake. Old town is immediately west of the lake and around the other sides are the areas which grew up as Iceland grew in prosperity in the 20th C.

City hall.  I was delighted with the variety of birds.  The children delighted in feeding them.

Looking toward Old Town.  The mountains are across the harbor.

Many active churches here.  The tallest one on right is the iconic church of the city,
Hallgrimskirkja. (Follow the link for more info.)

 General visuals from wandering
I was surprised at the high quality of the graffiti.  There is not that much graffiti but here are a few images of things that caught my eye.

This is a sculpture gift from Japan, memorializing Hiroshima.  The cross and dot are graffiti.

 These images are from various locations and obviously by different graffitisti.  The generally good composition and interesting use of space have caused me to wonder if they teach art from an early age in Iceland so that the delinquent youth have a good eye. Another argument for art education in schools.

Ready for my late afternoon snack.

This is a city with so many great coffee shops, even I cannot keep up.

Odds and ends
I am interested that there are electric car charging stations in most northern European cities.  Here they are topping up, across the street from the lake.




Here is the Old Harbor, almost home.  This is an active harbor with tour boats, pleasure boats, fishing boats, coast guard and small military craft.  Deeper harbor facilities are not that far away but this is deep enough for considerable shipping and is a busy place.

Back Home
I am staying with a young Icelandic couple and their sweet dog Ivo.  They are deaf so Ivo has not learned his name.  But I am helping by calling him 'Good dog, Ivo.".  My room is downstairs and so colorful.  It is sometimes hard for me to believe I can get my very few possessions scattered about in just one day.  But everyone has to be good at something.

My room

Chapel of the McLeod Clan of Harris and Skye, built 1528

St. Celment's Church and cemetery, S Harris Island, Hebrides, Scotland. Church is in the
center of the McLeod territory and was built as their chapel and burial ground.  

Interior looking west.  Church was restored in 1890, now managed by National Trust of Scotland.

Church was built as burial chapel for the McLeod Clan of Harris and Skye just after the King of Scotland defeated the Lordship of the Isles in 1493.  McLeods controlled Harris and Skye from this point in Harris and created their own burial chapel. Iona had been used before this time.  This grave is Alexander, the clan head who built the church. 

Alexander McLeod, 1528

North wall, not clear what this carving is.

Three carvings, west wall of tower: L. a man in highland dress; C, a bishop; R. man masturbating but defaced in 1890's restoration

Closer of man in highland dress.  Because of this and other carvings showing clothing
contemporary with the church's being built, it is thought the carvings were made for the church,
not reused from earlier structure.

Iron age broch in background, viewed looking east from churchyard

Iron age broch (fort) from n side of church.

Sheela-na-gig, a female sexual figure, south wall of tower

Lewisian Gneiss--one of the oldest rocks in the world

The oldest rock in Britain is Lewisian Gneiss.  We visited some today.

This rock is the oldest in Britain and is among the oldest on earth. The Lewisian Gneiss, our host rock, is about 3 billion years old.  Gneiss is a metamorphic rock, formed after layers of shale or sandstone were compressed and heated within the earth until it changed structure to become gneiss. The world's oldest rock is related to this--a gneiss found in the Northwest Territories in Canada; it is about 3.8 billion years old.  (No surprise--there is disagreement about its age.)

Lewisian Gneiss is named for the Isle of Lewis where I am staying now.  The Isle of Lewis and Harris (two names, one island) as well as the Uists and nearby islands of the Outer Hebrides are composed mainly of this gneiss which is named after them.  The eastern side of the islands are a major fault--east of the fault, other kinds of rock are more plentiful. Pink in the map is our host rock.




Besides being old, this rock is beautiful.  The top image in this post shows blocks of cut Lewisian gneiss used as a boundary marker at an archeological site.  The layers and edges show well on recently cut rock like the ones pictured and in road cuts.

Below, small islands of Lewisian Gneiss.  They emerge from the Atlantic Ocean as part of the uplift of the North Atlantic plate.  The small island in the back shows the jagged layers of the gneiss pointing more or less east.

This mountain , shown below, of Lewisian gneiss (about 2000 ft.) is the southern part of the Isle of Harris seen from the ferry.  It is bare rock at the top and peat and heather middle--thus the pink tones. A little thin grassland and a village on the lower slopes. The area was scoured by glaciers, exposing the gneiss.  Climate has allowed the formation of peat but very thin soil.

One of the joys of going to visit Lewisian Gneiss is that one must visit by ferry.  I love ferries and love old rocks.  What could be better.  Well we had grand archeology and birds today too.

Glasgow: Odds and Ends

I have been in Glasgow for a week with no other task than to wander around and look at things.  I have two other blog posts about some aspects of my wandering and poking but there are a few other things to show.

My house and neighborhood
The top two shots show the row of buildings--I am staying in the one with the purple door.  Much of Glasgow was build in the mid-late 1800's as was this terrace, so this style is all over. We are on the top floor. The living room looks out to the tops of the trees in the park across the street.

Queen"s Park is a really big park, we are on the north end of the park, about in the center east/west.  I enjoyed wandering around and got a pretty good bird list, including a little grebe. 

Coffee and lunch

So many good choices, so little time.

Glasgow Cathedral

The Glasgow Cathedral is one of the few religious buildings in Scotland which was not destroyed during the religious ward of the Reformation.  Some elements date back to the late middle ages; St. Mungo founded the church there in the 800's but that building was wooden. The current stone building was begun in the 12th C. during the Norman expansion; most was restored during the 18th and 19th C. during Glasgow's expansion within the British empire.  The decor and graves and monuments reflect Scotland's importance in the military expansion and maintenance of empire.  It remains active as the Cathedral of the Church of Scotland.

Bagpipes and kilts

The Piping competition was happening this week so Glasgow was full of pipers wandering around in kilts or playing in odd spots.  .  I enjoyed coming across classes of students learning piping and drumming.

Kilts are the formal dress of choice for ceremonial occasions and there are stores all over selling outfits. Here, a wedding photo.

The single piper below was playing When the Saints Go Marching In,  just as some Hare Krishnas went by.