Well, we made it past the halfway mark on our trip before the rain set in. When we plan these long trips, we usually add an extra day in each location just in case we are “rained out”. Today was one of those days. And if I’m being honest, I really needed a slow motion kind of day.

We had one planned outing, and one unexpected, and very delightful, “outing”. If you call walking out the front door of Cat and Mark’s apartment, and entering a side door of their same building an outing. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

First, the Osvör Maritime Museum. Because we are past the prime tourist season, you need to request an appointment. Mark was successful in getting us a time, so we headed 15 minutes down the road to the next town. The curator met us wearing a traditional outfit made of lamb skin, and cow hide shoes. His mittens had 2 thumbs so you could turn them around if one side got wet. Genius.

He knew a few words in English, and then we reverted to the universal language of pantomime, assertive finger pointing, and wild gestures for the rest of the conversation.

The buildings on the site are re-creations built on the original ruins. I’m hesitant to recount the information I gleaned, my pantomime is very rusty and I’m not sure I’ll be accurate. I’ll let my pictures do the talking instead.

Afterward, we went to Mark and Cat’s rental apartment for some much needed hot soup. The owner came by to make sure everything was OK, and offered to show us the rest of the building.

The building is an old wooden house/workshop brought over from Norway in the late 1800’s. He and his brother bought and renovated it for short term rentals. Cat and I put on our shoes and went outside to walk the 20 steps in the pouring rain to a side door. I have to admit, it was hard to leave my half eaten bowl of hot soup to walk back out in the rain. But I’m glad I did. Peter and Mark opted to hear about it second-hand when we returned.

On the second level of the house was a doll museum. Not an official museum, but a promise fulfilled by two brothers to their mother. She had wanted girls, but ended up with 4 boys instead. So she created a secret doll collection. She kept it a secret because she thought it might not survive a house filled with all those boys. The boys had no idea, until right before she died she had such a collection. She made them promise to put her dolls in a museum. So they recreated her beloved British streets in display cases, and will show anyone who asks to see her collection.

He then asked if we wanted to see his man cave. A modern Icelandic Man Cave?!?!?! OMG! What does this look like?!?!?

Our answer was a resounding, “Yes! We do!”. This man “cave” covered the entire upper floor of the building and could accommodate parties for more than 25 people. When I asked if I could take his picture in the favorite part of his man cave, I thought he was going to sit in one of the comfy chairs in front of the super huge TV.

Instead he walked over to 1 of the 3 bars (this man knows how to host parties), in front of a plain wooden wall with a lock. Before he opened it, he made us promise to show our husbands what they were missing. He proceeded to open the door, his face beaming…..yes, you could tell this was his favorite spot.

We decided to go back to Tjöruhusið, the rustic fish restaurant that Hawk and Hadda took us to last week. The restaurant is in the oldest neighborhood in Iceland and the building was built in 1784. The current owners bought it 2004 from a coffee shop, created a restaurant that was featured by a celebrity chef in 2010, and now it’s the most popular restaurant in the Westfjords.

To give you a sense of the style of the place, here is the ad they place on the tourist map, and a screen shot of their website page. I really love Icelandic humor.