Saturday, October 27, 2007

Eventful Day

Today Alex had his first real chess tournament. It was speed chess games with seven minutes each and he was the youngest player there (younger than the rest by at least two years). Being the youngest one he opened the tournament and played with the oldest player there. He did extremely well and won four games out of eight. Ted was so proud of this event that he wrote a more detailed description and put it on the chess site.
He also managed to win a raffle prize - dinner for two in our local restaurant; now we are, of course, trying to decide who will have the honour of going with our little winner, well, perhaps we will turn it into a family event.

While Alex and Ted were enjoying the chess tournament, Anton and I went to Reykjavik to check The Settlement Exhibition. It shows the remains of a 10th century hall, excavated in 2001. It is really interesting. In the center of the darkened room you will see the focus point of the exhibition - a longhouse, preserved in its original location. The walls circling it are a panoramic view of what used to be the scenery of Reykjavik during the Viking Age. Small frames integrated into the panorama feature ghost- like figures (they appear and disappear) of people doing everyday tasks – hunting, fishing, burying the dead, praying. There are plenty of interactive features – buttons to push, signs to touch, texts to read and recordings to listen, which make the journey through time simply fascinating.

Oh, and did I mention that after several rainy, gloomy days it was sunny today?

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