Today is Sunday, May 12, 2024. Gott kvold! This is Icelandic for “good evening.” Thank God I didn’t have to rely on my guide to the Icelandic language in my Fodor’s Travel guide on Essential Iceland since everyone there generally speaks English and a majority spoke without any hint of an accent. This was certainly not Japan, in which we were at a disadvantage in not knowing enough Japanese to get by.

Thus Elliot and I returned from our visit to the Land of Fire and Ice,” which is known as Iceland. We spent about six days based in Reykjavik, which is the capital of the country, in which we took two full-day tours of the countryside seeing peak tourist attractions like the Golden Circle, including the Gullfoss waterfall, the Geyser hot spring area, and Pingvellir National Park. Another tour took us to the South Coast, Diamond Beach, and Glacier Lagoon. The first tour lasted close to 14 hours; the second one lasted about 12 hours. You can expect that we were quite exhausted over taking these tours. However, they were quite fascinating for the extraordinary scenery that we saw on both of them.

For the duration of the vacation, Elliot and I stayed in Reykjavik, the country’s capital city, at Center Hotels Plaza, located on its oldest street, called Adelstraeti, translated to “Old Street.” From there, we took our two major scenic tours of the country.

Some highlights of our stay in the city were going to the National Museum of Iceland which told the history of the country from the founding of Iceland from 870-930 CE, its conversion to Christianity around A.D. 1000, and had Viking treasures and artifacts, wood carvings, and some unusual whalebone carvings, as well as maritime objects, historical textiles, jewelry, and craft objects, At the museum, I learned of the name of the original Nordic settler to the country whose name was Ingolfur Arnarson. But what truly amazed Elliot and me in all of our museum going was visiting the one and only repository of its kind in the world, the Icelandic Phallological Museum, commonly known as the “penis museum.” This iconic museum, located near the harbor area, is dedicated to the male genitalia of mammals from around the world. The museum supposedly houses 280 specimens from 93 different species, according to Fodor’s Travel guide of Essential Iceland. In fact, there were so many specimens preserved in formalin that I was getting dizzy from seeing so many of these mammalian genitals. Of course, I took some choice pics of these preserved genitalia for your edification.

Another intriguing visit to a museum was my attendance at the Punk Rock Museum which is housed in a former public bathroom – I kid you not! – which is overseen by a character in punk rock finery. The museum consists of blurbs written on tags, posters, pictures, and many instruments all strewn about the few bathroom stalls which chronicles the history of Icelandic punk rock. This entire visit could have taken all of 10 minutes, but I stretched it out for about another 35 minutes. Don’t ask me how I accomplished this! I must have attempted to read all of the strips of prose written about these pioneers of Icelandic punk. Actually, if I had known that the museum was only about the country’s punk movement, I would have not gone. I foolishly thought it spoke to the origins of punk rock in Britain, which is where it originated. However, it still was an experience being able to say that I visited the site. Elliot had no interest in seeing it, so I met him some time afterward.

On our last day, I went to the Settlement Exhibition, which was located several doors away from our hotel. I attempted to go on Friday, which was our last full day in Iceland, but towards the end of the day, the museum closed early due to a power outage. So I went on Saturday, the day we were returning to New York. We didn’t have to be at the airport until about 2 p.m. for a 5 p.m. departure.

This fascinating museum chronicles life in Reykjavik during three periods in time – from the 1800s to the 1900s, early 1900s through 1940s, and the modern era, from 1940s through to the present day. The bottom level features the remains of a Viking longhouse dating back to the year 871. It was unearthed in 2001 during the construction of Hotel Centrum.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable vacation. At night, we actually avoided watching the news; we didn’t want to hear any news emanating from the U.S. I needed a break from the tawdry Drumpf election interference case going on right now. Tomorrow promises to be quite explosive, as former fixer Michael Cohen is slated to testify.

Oh, I hope everyone had a happy Mother’s Day.

Stay safe and be well.

This is Skogafoss, one of Iceland’s many waterfalls. A steep staircase leads up to the top of the hill above the falls, which I nor Elliot attempted to ascend since there wasn’t that much time to do it before having to go back to our tour bus. Actually, we were cowards and didn’t want to slip up on the steps since you walked up there at your own risk.

This is it again.

This is Glacier Lagoon, which we saw during our first tour out of the city.

Here are some choice male genitals of some mammals which I don’t recall which exactly. I know it’s not human.

This organ does belong to a human: a man who has the largest penis on record: 13.5 inches flaccid. His name is Jonah Falcon, according to a letter to the museum that was sent by him.

This is the replica of a Viking ship found in the National Museum of Iceland.

This is from Thingvellir (Pingvellir) National Park.