Tag 211: Forest Museum

Today we started early. At half past nine I had an appointment with Janne in Hvolsvöllur (the village near here).

After about three quarters of an hour of driving we arrived at the Skógar Museum. Entry cost 2750 ISK (around €18.50). This gave us access to the museum, the open-air museum and the transportation museum.

First we looked around the main building. There were different “themes” in different rooms. On the ground floor there were crafts, farming and fishing, and there was also a real, old ship in the room. On the first floor there was an extension of crafts with a balcony overlooking the ship. In the basement there was natural history with various skeletons of birds, their eggs and other animals. It was really interesting to see how people worked back then. Most of the larger signs were translated into English and German, but unfortunately smaller signs were only in Icelandic and therefore not really legible for us.

Since two tourist buses arrived shortly after us and were given a tour in English and one even in German, we were able to partially listen there.

Then we went outside to the open-air museum. First we looked at the small turf houses, which were relatively small but still contained five beds plus a baby crib. There was even a small blacksmith shop in one hut.

Then we went to a small school. The emphasis here is really on small. There was a small storage room and a classroom with a teacher's desk and two benches.

Then we went to a comfortably furnished, slightly younger house.

There was also another house with an adjoining stable, which from the outside looked like three houses built together, but which were connected on the inside.

Finally we went to church, where we took a short break. There is something really beautiful about churches in Iceland in general, as they are very minimalistic, but still really beautiful.

Then we went to the Museum of Transportation. It was in a huge hall that also had a souvenir shop and a restaurant, although it was already relatively full. The museum was divided into different periods. You could see the development from horses to cars, but also the development of telephones and connections to other countries. It was also shown how rescue teams have become more and more trained and how postmen used to have to travel the whole country on foot.

By the time we were through the museum, both of our feet were hurting and we were pretty exhausted. The museum is totally interesting and beautifully done, but it's just quite a lot for one tour. In my opinion it was still worth it.

Finally, we drove again to Skógarfoss, which is less than five minutes away. But we didn't stay long.

Back in Hvolsvöllur we sat in a gas station for another hour and played cards, as Janne had come by bus and of course that doesn't run very often in a village like this.

See you then

Julia