Day 11: Eiríkstaðir and Breiðafjörður

There aren't many Viking-era ruins in Iceland. Well...none. Because they A) became farmers and settlers when they got here and B) they made houses out of turf, there not being much wood in Iceland. (but plenty of lava rock, yet they didn't use it to build anything...hmmm)

So any Viking-era building we see is a reconstruction, based on stone foundations found here and there. Today we visited the place where Eirik the Red (father of Leif Eirikson, discoverer of the New World) lived for a while. Now, he only lived there for 10 or so years, because he was a massive dick and couldn't get along with his neighbors and was banished, after a time, from Iceland for 3 years, at which point he sailed west and discovered Greenland. That's another story.

So we visited the site where he lived for a while in Iceland, and they've built a reconstructed turf house as they imagine his might have been: ( Read more... )

Day 12: Snæfellsnes and Berserkers!

Today we spent on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which is capped by a glacier, however we never got to see it as the weather was uncooperative, and in fact at one point the clouds were openly mocking us by descending to practically sea level to prevent our attempts. We saw five glaciers in one day last week so we didn't care. I only had one thing I wanted to see today, but we saved it for the end. ( Read more... )