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From Laekjartorg, turn right into the short Bankastraeti and on, up the small hill, into Laugavegur (Hot Spring Route), the route once taken by local washerwomen to the springs in Laugardalur. This is Iceland's major commercial artery, holding the main shops and a fair sprinkling of cafes, bars and restaurants. Not surprisingly therefore, on Friday and Saturday evenings in summer it's bumper to bumper with cars, their horns blaring, and with well-oiled revellers hanging out of the windows. However, before you give yourself over to extensive retail therapy, there are a couple of more cerebral attractions worthy of your time and attention in this part of town: the grand former National Library, now the Culture House (daily 11am-5pm; 300kr), at Hverfisgata 15, one block north of and parallel to Laugavegur, has the country's best exhibition on Viking history . Vikings and the New World , a permanent display on the top floor, tells how Iceland was discovered by Vikings from Norway who then, under the leadership of Eirik the Red, went on to settle Greenland before finally discovering America around the year 1000 AD. Maps, charts and pictures bring the quest for new land in the west to life, and this shouldn't be missed by anyone even vaguely interested in Icelandic history. Downstairs, an entire room is given over to the independence leader Jon Sigurdsson , though you probably have to be a national to appreciate fully some of the finer details of his bitter struggle with the Danes, and labelling of exhibits here is in Icelandic only anyway. Another small exhibition shows how Iceland has been perceived by the outside world, and, if the collection of oddly shaped ancient maps on display here is anything to go by, knowledge was pretty scarce. Back on Laugavegur and a couple of blocks further east, a museum that causes the staff at the tourist office down to road to blush with embarrassment, is the Icelandic Phallological Museum at no. 24 (2-5pm: May-Aug Tues-Sat; Sept-April Tues & Sat; 300kr), the most offbeat of all the country's museums. Inside is a collection of the penises of virtually every mammal found either in Iceland or its offshore waters, with over eighty of them on display, from the sizeable member that once belonged to a young male blue whale, now hollowed out, salted, dried and placed on a wooden plaque to that of a rogue polar bear founded drifting on pack ice off the West Fjords, shot by Icelandic fishermen and then castrated. A human specimen has escaped the collection to date, although there's a certificate on the wall signed by a farmer in his eighties who's agreed to donate his apparently ample wedding tackle to the museum on his death.
Your Tip for Laugavegur and around
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