Iceland Day 6: Maritime Museum and Sundry

With two days of the trip left, we'd planned on doing more stuff in and around Reykjavik. Our list ended up way too long, but we did manage to get in a couple of the things we'd planned.

The Reykjavik Maritime Museum is a little different from other maritime museums I've visited. It's the only one I know of that's almost entirely dedicated to fishing. The main exhibit focuses on the development of fishing boats from tiny rowboats all the way to modern mechanized trawlers.

The museum also owns the Odinn, a coastal patrol ship that was operated by the Icelandic Coast Guard from 1960 until 2006 - and I highly recommend taking a tour. We were surprised to walk into her engine room and smell relatively fresh oil. "Museum ship" my...

(The engines, it turns out, are the only ones of their type still in serviceable condition and may be being mainted because of their value, but I'm betting that in a true emergency situation where they needed anything seaworthy they'd take her out).

Also on the docket was some exploring of Reykjavik. We also discovered Culture House, the administrative building of the Reykjavik National Museum. Like the Smithsonian Castle, it has some exhibitions in it - including a sample of Medieval books from the largest collection of Medieval Icelandic literature. Worth checking out if old books make you go "Oooh."