August 5

(Details on the North Iceland map)
 
Old Times!

100 years ago the Icelanders lived in grass houses. Wood was very rare and stone was a bad isolation and, therefore, they used grass bricks instead. It looks nice from the outside, but lets have a look inside...

 
 

Windows were a luxury and, therefore, the interior resembles the stomach of a cow - complete darkness. The floor is made of tamped dirt and this keeps the house very humid. Heating? Not really, only the kitchen was heated - and full of smoke as well.

 
 
 

The 'living room' was definitely the nicest room of the 'house'. This one was built additionally to the house long afterwards. Moreover, the house in the museum in Glaumbaer is really big. An average house had only 3 rooms and the very small beds were used by two people. The boards of the bed are inscribed with sayings against ghosts.


 

The simple wood and concrete houses of today, with their typical corrugated iron roofs are a luxury compared to the houses of the past.

The late evenings here up north, near Siglufjördur are incomparable. The nearly setting sun and the clouds always draw new pictures into the sky. Would you go to bed now?