Polar bear and Viking?

We got back from our trip to see the Northern Lights after midnight, and luckily I checked my emails.  I found one from the company arranging our whale watching trip, to tell me that the weather forecast was such that the afternoon trip we were booked on for today was likely to be cancelled, and suggesting we do the morning one instead - setting off at 0900 from the Old Harbour (about 30mins walk, and we had previously been asked to arrive 30mins before sailing, so we needed to be leaving the hotel by 0800 at the latest).  So instead of the lie in on my birthday morning, we were up at 0630 again.

We had a bracing trip, saw a few whale/dolphin fins, but sadly no good views, and certainly no photos.  Nice view of another whale watching ship that I have added as an extra.

Once back on dry land, we went to visit the "Saga Museum" - an interesting trip round some vignettes from Icelandic history.   In their foyer were these models of a Viking and a polar bear.  But there are no polar bears in Iceland.  In fact, there are almost no wild animals - the only truly native wild animal is the arctic fox.  There are some imported reindeer, some imported rabbits, and rats and mice.  And thousand of horses - also imported.  I'm not sure where, or when, Vikings met polar bears.

We had lunch there - oxtail pie and their version of the traditional Icelandic dish of plokkfiskur - see extras.

Then we ambled back to the hotel.  Also in extras is a view of one of the many sculptures around Reykjavik.  And a view of the main shopping street in Reykjavik - not very busy is it?

We have another early start tomorrow - our plane leave at 1015.  We've enjoyed our short stay, I would love to return for another visit.  But we have many other places on our list, so I'm not sure when.