The Mass we were planning on attending didn't start for another hour and a half, so we took a stroll through the neighborhood, and discovered Hólavallagarður cemetery, which had been consecrated in 1838 (by 1932 all plots had been allocated). It was peaceful, full of trees and bushes, green everywhere. One could take a very nice walk through the grounds, and I would have liked to see more of it.
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After Mass we visited the National Museum of Iceland, which emphasized "The Making of a Nation." There were two large floors of exhibits, with time frames focusing on 100-year to 200-year increments, beginning with the earliest settlements in 800 AD to present day; it was quite comprehensive. We had just under three hours there, but there was so much to see that we had to start making judgment calls about what we wanted to spend time looking at and reading.
I especially enjoyed the historical religious exhibits and Catholic rituals of the medieval church, specific periods history in which I've always been especially interested; there were religious artifacts from both before the Reformation and after, when the country became predominantly Lutheran. (Iceland converted to Christianity circa 1000 AD.)
Three excavated skeletons were also on display - a man, who had been buried with his horse and shield; a woman, who had been buried with various household items and jewelry; and an eight-month old baby, who had not been buried with anything. Each was an illustration of the differences in burial between men, women, and children (the last of which was apparently a rarity).
But something I found really fascinating was the research in progress that was studying the DNA of where the Icelandic people came from. DNA testing showed that just over 60% of Icelandic women were descended from those from the British Isles, while 80% of Icelandic men were descended from those in Scandinavian countries; Scandinavian men had essentially married Celtic women and migrated to Iceland.
We had an excellent seafood buffet at Restaurant Reykjavik for dinner tonight; it was a bit on the pricier side, but it was a treat to have a variety of both hot and cold dishes to try, and to sample a variety of desserts as well.
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