Tag Archives: Reykjavik museum

Jun12

The Perlan Museum

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Monday, 20-May-2024


One last post about Iceland.

I’m sad to be writing this final post, but also a bit amazed that there’s so many from such a short period of time… Iceland really is an amazing country, and a great place to explore and adventure.

It’s good that I should end my adventures in Iceland with a full overview of the land of Iceland itself – the Perlan Museum, a Natural History Museum that charts Iceland from when it first broke above the surface of the ocean through to the present day.

There’s a lot of amazing exhibits, and I took pictures of all of them, so please peruse and enjoy the placards and displays that kept me busy for multiple hours in the afternoon. Perlan stayed open a bit later than many other museums, which helped me see everything after an already-full day of adventure, but even then I don’t think I caught every section… I know I missed the planetarium section, which definitely bummed me out a bit because it showed the Northern Lights.

I did get to see the Volcano demo, though, where they somehow piped in Volcano smell! It was a surprisingly pleasant smell of smoldering moss with a hint of sulfur, and really added a neat depth to the video.

Anyways. Yeah – Perlan. Great museum, cool building with interesting architecture, and glorious exhibits. Great end to a great bit of adventure in a great country!





Ohh man, one quick piece that I adored. In the pictures above you can see a story projected onto a Redwood round, that was gifted to Iceland by the US government on Iceland’s 1,100 year settlement anniversary. The redwood round is from a tree approximately 1,300 years old. I mean, how much of a power move is it to say, “Hey, Iceland, here’s a tree that’s been around longer than people have been on your soil”. Just… dang, man.

At least they didn’t do something like “Hey Iceland, here’s a Native American artifact. It’s 1,100 years old, just like your settlement! It was celebrating their 19,000th year in North America!”

Jun10

The Punk Museum of Reykjavik

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Sunday, 19-May-2024


Okay so one more museum for today, I swear.

Wait… yeah. Okay, this is definitely the last museum from Sunday the 19th. Had to double-check that.


From the settlement museum, I was a bit overstimulated and stuffed full of new trivia knowledge… I was happy, feeling good, and enjoying my continued wanderings around Reykjavik when I noticed a sign, pointing down a staircase, under the street.

Signs, pointing down staircases, under streets, are a great place to have your kidneys removed. Alternatively, they remind me of the entrance to the Catacombs in Paris, that I didn’t ever get to see since my friends wanted to see Notre Dam, which we could have seen afterward, but no we had to see first, and it had a huge line, and I never got to see the catacombs, and no I’m not still mad about that what makes you think that?


…


I went down the stairs.





The punk museum of Reykjavik lived up to its name.

Punk isn’t about following rules, or fitting in, or even being particularly understandable. It’s about… well, it’s about punk. Pretty sure that, if you asked 10 punks what Punk is about, you’d get 12 different answers and a fist fight.

The punk museum was built in a defunct public restroom. There was a small entryway, with an exceptionally chill dude talking to friends about some upcoming shows. The “Exhibits” were the stalls, plastered with concert posters, facts, and photos… in something vaguely resembling what could be mistaken for a chronological order.

I asked if I had enough time to see everything before he closed up shop, and he looked at me sideways and said, “Man, I’m not gonna kick you out. Have fun, don’t worry about it” and then went back to his conversation.

Hell yeah. I perused, learned a bit (I think?) and simply appreciated that a museum like this could exist. I repeat – Hell. Yeah.


Jun9

The National Museum of Iceland

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Sunday, 19-May-2024


I am a lover of museums.

I couldn’t begin to guess how many times I went to museums in Boston while growing up. The Museum of Fine Art, the Science Museum… countless other smaller galleries and showcases… It was part of my family, and I wouldn’t trade those memories for the world.

When travelling, I keep that tradition alive.


I had two days in Reykjavik before flying out, and I planned on making the most of them. Originally I only had one, and was going to use it to see the art museum, but I got an extra day when my glacier tour cancelled on me… an opportunity to explore that I wasn’t going to pass up.


I started with the National Museum.

Throughout my adventures in Iceland, I’ve been adoring learning about the history of the country – both the history of its people and the history of the land itself. The National Museum focused almost exclusively on the former, discussing Icelandic settlement from the earliest Vikings up through the modern day. It was really interesting, though I’ll admit to one frustration that I have with many history museums… a lack of a single primary timeline. The history museum in Greenland had one, showing the various timelines, and the museum at Þingvellir had a pretty solid timeline… so my only complaint is that a similar timeline near the beginning, repeated throughout, would have been nice to give context.

Aside, though… the artifacts! They were so cool; being able to see original finds from throughout Iceland’s history… I loved it!

So sit back and enjoy, dear reader, some of the many placards and details from the Reykjavik National Museum!