Museums in the rain
As forecast, today it rained. All day. Heavy rain. Thankfully we’d made plans for this. As we had diligently explained to Conway, we would be going to the Whales of Iceland whale museum “when it is raining”, much to his disappointment yesterday, which was all he wanted to do, even after seeing a real whale.
After too much walking for the boys, today we drove to the museums. In the wind and rain we kept dry in our car, waiting for the whale museum to open at 10.
Inside we found life size replicas of orcas, dolphins, sperm whales, humpback whales, belugas, bottle nose whales, fin whales, and a narwhal. Standing beneath these great giant models, you can take in the sheer size and majesty of these beasts, in a way most cannot, unless they are a very brave diver. Whales are simply huge.
We went from one, to another, and the boys loved looking at each one, exploring how it was different from the others. And none of us had expected narwhals to be so large (and belugas to be relatively small). The kids loved the orca climbing frame, which they climbed into and pretended they were in the belly, or riding the tail, or driving it – Forrest thought the front looked like a steering wheel, and it was just adorable.
In the fin whale room we lounged on large whale-cushions and watched a video of these giants swimming and singing in the sea.
We exited through the gift shop, argued about over priced whale plushies, and in the rain, continued onwards to our next museum, Perlan.
Perlan
Perlan is a great vantage point looking out over Reykjavik, to the mountains around it. Of course, if it’s raining and the cloud is low, you can’t really see anything. Still, also, there’s a fabulous museum, which managed to occupy us for 5 hours. We did everything.
But first – we were hungry – and the website had promised some gourmet dining, or, more likely, a cafe that did burgers, sandwiches, etc. We paid our entry fee, took the lift to the 5th floor, no signs of any gourmet restaurant (it has closed down), and found our table in the rotating dome, and asked for menus from the cafe. “Sorry, our kitchen is closed, we have croissants?”. Hmm, how can we satisfy the hunger of a family of 4.
They did also have soup, with free refills and sides of bread and cheese and cucumber. So we ordered two soups and loaded up side plates of bread rolls to feed the kids with. The soup was very tasty, but it should have been, given it was the most expensive soup I will ever buy – two soups – £35, are you kidding me? We made the most of those “free” refills.
We did at least fill up, less grumpy, and recovered from the cost, we set about exploring the museum. First up – a water exhibit on the 2nd floor. I thought we’d fly through this, but Conway and Forrest were fascinated with the live fish and accompanying magnifying glasses, and with digital exhibits where you move around a wetland map searching for birds.
Downstairs we found a wonders of Iceland exhibit, which focused mostly on volcanoes, a light show poured fake lava across the floor, and a video showed magma bursting up and out – the boys loved it. We pretended our bums were getting hot on the illuminated stone chairs, and pretended we were in jeopardy.
Further round there were models of arctic foxes, eagles and an extinct great auk. Beyond this, a great replica of an Icelandic bird colony, nesting on a cliff – razorbills, puffins and other seabirds, crammed on the ridges, white excrement decorating the walls. Pretend viewing telescopes allowed the children to explore the wall and find hidden videos, that showed hatching pufflings, foxes stealing eggs and aggressive chicks fighting for food.
Then onto the main attraction the ice cave. We waited 10 minutes for the doors to open, and thoroughly explored the to-scale polar bear model beside us. “Wear your coats to enjoy the most. It’s -15C inside”. The ice cave is a man made replica of a glacier ice cave, and it was very cold. We put on our coats and explored. It had it’s own tunnel system, a fake moulin, some ice blocks, an ice throne to sit on, and the boys loved racing around the little tunnels, trying to catch each other – we took it slow, and had the place to ourselves for the most. And stayed until we were too cold and had to go.
Of course we followed this with ice cream and the same rotating view from lunchtime. Conway took about half an hour to eat his giant scoop of chocolate, while Forrest ate half his raspberry sorbet then ran laps around the restaurant, with either mummy or daddy in tow (with short breaks in between to just stop and lie on the floor).
All the play suddenly stopped when we realised it was 4pm and we could run downstairs to the planetarium and see the Aurora show – we were a couple of minutes late, went right down to the front, lay back on the chairs and stared upwards, as a 360 show treated us to the wonders of the northern lights and their mythology.
Conway asked to see the puffins again, so we finished up at the bird wall again, drove home via a supermarket for supplies, cooked fajitas, and got the boys to sleep.
Now to work out what to do tomorrow, more rain, but we’ve done all the best “on a rainy day” activities. Hmm.