Skógar Folk Museum

We are back in Denver. Noah and Max are busy processing everything they saw on vacation by playing it. In spite of the fact that huge amounts of the kids' energy went into doing things that they could be doing almost anywhere, I guess they learned some stuff. I'm still processing too. (I guess I'm just doing it on my blog rather than the living room floor.)

One of the places that was our favorite, as a family, was the Skógar Folk Museum. They have some really neat historic turf farmhouses and historic structures. Generally, I find these types of museums – with lots of old buildings scattered about in a designated area – are fabulous for our younger kids because they can run around between the buildings and release some energy. (Also of note, this is not a living history museum. That, I suspect, would NOT be as successful with little kids.) I wish there had been more information about the buildings, I ended up making up some of my own narrative for the kids, just based on what I observed:

Building were always a cluster of house, stable, workshop, and sometimes food storage shelter. The windows were always south (form warmth and light?) with the northside nestled up against the hill (protection from the chilly polar winds.) The cluster of building on this farm even created a little courtyard open to the south. Kind of cool, right?

On the way to the museum, we had seen some caves and structures that were built right into the mountainside.

Since this is a volcanic and hilly area, I have to believe that there is some danger in being too close to the slope. The kids and I talked about mudslides. Then we observed the way this cluster built an earth damn on the north, rather than digging into the mountainside:

In one of the workshops, we got a hint of how the turf roof was constructed. Heavy timber supporting stone slabs: Interesting!

This is a more finished interior. A bedroom, which is above a stable:

There was also a little set of houses. We think these are elf houses, since IcelandAir informed us inflight that 50% of all Icelanders believe in elves. Although there was no sign confirming what these were.

(I have a photo of this without the crying & scowling child, but I'm posting this one because,
you know, I think it's always important to keep things real.)

The scale of the dandelions on these elf houses makes the dandelions looks like trees, right?(Dandelions grow on the roof of the life-size houses, too.)

If anything, I wanted more information about the buildings and the stuff inside. We might be a little spoiled by a similar museum in Frisco, Colorado, which is quite thoroughly documented.