7 Best Sights in Reykjavík, Iceland

Viking treasures and artifacts, silverwork, wood carvings, and some unusual whalebone carvings are on display here, as well as maritime objects, historical textiles, jewelry, and crafts. There is also a coffee shop.

In addition to exhibits that explore important moments throughout Iceland's history, this museum also lets you try on clothing from Viking times. The wax models illustrating events of the Sagas are oddly endearing.

At the Open-Air Municipal Museum, 19th- and 20th-century houses furnished in period style display authentic household utensils and tools for cottage industries and farming. During the summer you can see demonstrations of farm activities and taste piping-hot lummur (chewy pancakes) cooked over an old farmhouse stove. To get to the museum, take Bus 12 or 19.

This museum and exhibition space was put together by the National Museum of Iceland and the Reykjavík City Museum to help celebrate the country's 100th anniversary as a sovereign state. Aðalstræti 10 is the beginning of a five-location museum that covers Icelandic life through the ages and includes turf houses.

The core exhibit here features the remains of a Viking longhouse dating from around 871. Unearthed in 2001 during the construction of the Hotel Centrum, this remarkable find was preserved in situ and now occupies an oval-shaped basement designed specially to frame the excavation site. A large, backlit panoramic image, showing how Reykjavík might have looked during the age of settlement, encircles the longhouse, and an illuminated strip installed in the surrounding walls marks the layer of tephra used to determine the approximate date of the remnants. Sounds and aromas add a multisensory dynamic to the experience, while high-tech media installations provide historical insight into life in Iceland's Saga Age.

Housed in an old fish freezing plant with great views of the harbor, the city's maritime museum has exhibits on Icelandic fisheries and trading vessels. There's also a whole Coast Guard vessel that can be explored.

Crests on the facade of the impressive former Landsbókasafnið (Old National Library) name significant Icelandic literary figures; the renovated building now houses interesting cultural displays and art exhibits. Erected between 1906 and 1908, it was primarily a library for most of the 20th century, but its book collection has been moved to the Þjóðarbókhlaðan at the National and University Library of Iceland. A free guided tour in English is offered Tuesday through Sunday at 2 pm, September through May, and weekdays (except Wednesday) between June and August.