Settlement Centre in Borgarnes, Iceland

During our stay in Reykjavik in Iceland, we made the hour-long drive to Borgarnes, going through a five kilometer tunnel underneath one of the bays, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the restaurant of the Settlement Centre.  We then took the tour through the museum, which consisted of two thirty-minute audio tours that covered the history of how the Vikings first came to populate Iceland as well as their turbulent history once they arrived.  The early history of Iceland is told through Viking Sagas, one of which is the Eglis Saga.  Egill Skalla-Grimsson was a famous Viking and poet whose story is used to provide an understanding of the first people to populate Iceland.  It isn’t just a recanting of his poetry, but is the tale of his life, beliefs, fortunes, and misfortunes.

Witch Display at the Settlement Centre
Tunnel Entrance
Relief Showing a Young Egill
Stories

It is a bloody history filled with mythical tales of beasts, witches, and betrayal.  The Settlement Centre does an excellent job of relating the relationship between Egill and his father, brothers, and mother and how that shaped his manhood. Most importantly, the Viking Sagas correlates the history of the individuals that shaped the creation of the nation and how the country and its culture grew and changed over time to what it is today.

Viking Wardrobe
Depiction of Egill’s Death
Horses Along the Drive
Map of Iceland

We knew that the Vikings were great seamen and that they had conquered the oceans long before the rest of Europe had done so because of their invention of the keel.  One interesting fact that we learned was that they didn’t use the stars to navigate, despite their ability to travel such long distances, eventually leading to the discovery of North America.  The reason, once we learned it, was quite obvious.  There are times of the year when there are no stars visible or not visible for very long due to the length of the days during the summer, so obviously they couldn’t rely on the stars.  Instead, the Vikings learned to navigate by following the birds, the migration paths of the whales, and other patterns that allowed them to travel back and forth between Norway and Iceland with ease.

Viking Ship Replica
Settlement Centre Restaurant
Buffet at the Settlement Centre Restaurant
Viking Mask on Display

Borgarnes is definitely worth visiting and the restaurant at the Settlement Centre is one of the best on the island.  It is a beautiful drive along the coast with stunning views, even as you drive across the bridge that leads you into town.  Even if you’re driving the ring road that goes around the entire island, stopping at Borgarnes is something that is well worth the time.  We hadn’t originally planned on going to Borgarnes, it was one of those last-minute whim decisions and we couldn’t have been happier with the unexpected surprise and the history that we learned while we were there.

A Departure from the Norm

This week’s Daily Post Discover Challenge is to take a risk and write a post that takes us out of our comfort zone. Blogging in general has taken us out of comfort zone as we continue to share more and more about ourselves as much as about our travels. Early in our marriage, Pete would write poetry to Dona often, including writing her a poem on a napkin the night that we first met. Unfortunately, work and life have reduced the frequency of the poems, but not the sentiments that we both share towards one another.

Below is a poem that was written less than two months after we first met.  Don’t worry, you won’t be seeing poetry on our site on a regular basis.  And, since we always try to put a photo with our posts, we’ve included a couple of pictures of orchids, which like love, need to be carefully tended to in order to bring out their full beauty.

Purple Orchid

In your eyes I see a smile that warms my heart.

In your touch I feel a passion that stirs my soul.

In your kiss I get lost in a world of emotion that I wish would never end.

With my arm around you, I feel so secure.

When I talk to you, I feel that I could conquer the world and make it our own.

When you hug me, my blood begins to boil with the passion from within.

When we’re together, nothing matters except that I’m with you.

When we’re apart, I feel the pull of my soul, which feels incomplete.

Never in my life have I felt emotion so strong that with the mere mention of your name, I get flustered and confused.

Never in my life have I ever truly felt anything until the day that we met.

White and Red Orchid

 

Vikings, Witches, and Poetry

On the night before we drove to Borgarnes, our dinner took longer than expected and it was a very cold and windy night, so we decided to take a taxi back to our hotel from downtown Reykjavik.  Our driver, like almost everyone we met during our trip, was extremely friendly and immediately struck up a conversation with us.  He was trying to discern from our accent where we were from and he told us that he was keen on learning the variations in accents from within different countries.  Somehow that led us to talking about German accents and from there we related a story about a time that we flew through Frankfurt.  It was an overnight flight and they offered headsets to listen to a variety of radio stations, one of which was a German station that told lullaby stories.  As soon as the words “German lullabies” came out of our mouths, our driver doubled over in laughter, tears streaming from his eyes as we all contagiously laughed together.  Perhaps not as funny now as it was at the time, but the image of Grimm’s Fairy Tales being told to lull children to sleep in a language that is somewhat guttural certainly seemed to provoke a comical image in our driver’s mind.  After our following day touring the Settlement Centre in Borgarnes, it seemed more than just a little hypocritical considering the violence of their own Icelandic tales.

Driving to Borgarnes

Witch Display at the Settlement Centre

Sunrise from Our Hotel Room

We made the hour-long drive to Borgarnes, going through a five kilometer tunnel underneath one of the bays, and enjoyed a wonderful lunch at the restaurant of the Settlement Centre.  We then took the tour through the museum, which consisted of two thirty-minute audio tours that covered the history of how the Vikings first came to populate Iceland as well as their turbulent history once they arrived.  The early history of Iceland is told through Viking Sagas, one of which is the Eglis Saga.  Egill Skalla-Grimsson was a famous Viking and poet whose story is used to provide an understanding of the first people to populate Iceland.  It isn’t just a recanting of his poetry, but is the tale of his life, beliefs, fortunes, and misfortunes.

Tunnel Entrance

Wind Swept Mountains

Relief Showing a Young Egill

It is a bloody history filled with mythical tales of beasts, witches, and betrayal.  Neither of us were particularly fond of history when we were in school, but that is because the way that they used to teach history was fundamentally flawed.  We don’t know if they’ve changed, but when we were growing up, history was about memorizing dates and names without context to how all of the events were interrelated or how cultural and religious pressures and prejudices affected personal decisions of those who affected our history.  History would be a lot more fascinating if told around a campfire by the village elders as it was in the past versus dry text books.  Generally speaking, history is far more fascinating when you understand the motivations of the individuals involved.  This is also true of the Viking Sagas, which the Settlement Centre does an excellent job of relating the relationship between Egill and his father, brothers, and mother and how that shaped his manhood.

Viking Wardrobe

Depiction of Egill’s Death

Horses Along the Drive

We knew that the Vikings were great seamen and that they had conquered the oceans long before the rest of Europe had done so because of their invention of the keel.  One interesting fact that we learned was that they didn’t use the stars to navigate, despite their ability to travel such long distances, eventually leading to the discovery of North America.  The reason, once we learned it, was quite obvious.  There are times of the year when there are no stars visible or not visible for very long due to the length of the days during the summer, so obviously they couldn’t rely on the stars.  Instead, the Vikings learned to navigate by following the birds, the migration paths of the whales, and other patterns that allowed them to travel back and forth between Norway and Iceland with ease.

Viking Ship Replica

Settlement Centre Restaurant

Lava Rocks on the Beach

Borgarnes is definitely worth visiting and the restaurant at the Settlement Centre is one of the best on the island.  It is a beautiful drive along the coast with stunning views, even as you drive across the bridge that leads you into town.  Even if you’re driving the ring road that goes around the entire island, stopping at Borgarnes is something that is well worth the time.  We hadn’t originally planned on going to Borgarnes, it was one of those last-minute whim decisions and we couldn’t have been happier with the unexpected surprise and the history that we learned while we were there.

Scenic Drive

Drive Along the Ocean

More Scenery