Celebrities

Today my parents and I met several people who were interested in meeting us descendants of Konrad Maurer.

They are, back row: Árni Björnsson (ethnographic scientist), me, Jóhann J. Ólafsson (K. Maurer expert), Baldur Hafstað (translator of Íslandsferð 1858, the travel description of Konrad Maurer), Ólafur Egilsson (Ambassador of Iceland), front row: my parents.

We had a lovely lunch together in a very special house: this is the very house in Reykjavík in which Konrad Maurer lodged for 8 weeks while he prepared for his tour around the country. It's amazing that this building survived to the present day; it is now used as the cafe of Árbæjarsafn historical open air museum, and we can go in and see all the rooms as Konrad had described them in detail in his manuscript, 150 years ago.

I am really overwhelmed by the attention we get, being just "ordinary people" who happen to have a grandfather who has been of some importance for Iceland. María Ólafsdóttir from the newspaper Morgunblaðið was also there; she will write an article about this event -- to appear on the weekend -- I'll keep you posted!