First tour of Agricultural University of Iceland
We arrived this morning after a five hour overnight plane ride. I got no sleep on the plane and was too tired to do much besides get my luggage.
We got our first look at scenery in Iceland driving from the airport to Agricultural University in Hvanneryi. On the way we went through the Hvalfjord tunnel. I recognized it from writing about Hvalfjörður. It took about five minutes to get through, just as in the videos I watched.
At the university we met our guide Tobba and got our rooms. I got much needed shower and much needed lunch – I had had no food since 10 p.m. the night before, and it was almost 1 p.m., so I was starving.
The horses were curious
After lunch we walked around the small campus of Agricultural University to see flowers and birds. Like most agricultural colleges, AUI had horses and cows who seemed very curious about us. Dandelions seem to be ubiquitous worldwide, but we also also saw a purple flower called lupine. It’s considered an invasive species in Iceland but I like it.
We ended up at wool shop and Agriculture Museum. I was too tired to take in much at the museum. The hand-knitted scarves at the wool store were gorgeous, but prohibitively expensive, especially considering I have a habit of losing scarves.
Lupine is everywhere in Iceland
We then had a snack, and heard about how the yarn is created with botanical dye. The dye is all plant based and works through basic chemistry. Some of the results are pretty cool and unexpected. Insects are used to make the red dye, not just for yarn but also food. Do vegans know this is in so much food?
We also saw a small hydropower plant that runs from a small waterfall. The waterfall was gorgeous and not spoiled from being used for the power plant. I liked that the power plant is small, distributing power in a local area. A few huge power plants can do more environmental harm, and monopolies of power make a few people rich.
We had been scheduled to swim on campus that afternoon, but the campus pool was closed, so we went to an art exhibition in the woods. The photography was amazing and displayed entirely outdoors.
An art exhibition in the forest