Reykjavik, Iceland
Iceland is an amazing place, but most people probably think along the lines Dave did when he told Dan of our safe arrival, “Mum and Dad got to Iceland in one piece. Now they’re thawing out into two pieces again.” But despite being at a high latitude at the edge of the Arctic Ocean, we think of it as warm – the people are warm and gracious, there is so much geothermal the houses are toasty, everyone hottubs daily, the streets are heated, and Icelandic sweaters are portable furnaces.
President of
Iceland’s house from our house.
Highlights
Reykjavik,
the city
“Thingvedler”,
(Ţingvellir)
Heimćy Island
Factoids
There are 240,000 Icelanders. Reykjavik, the capital, represents 45% of population. The high temperature in Reykjavik in 2000 was 65o. Many houses are made of corrugated metal (see Reykjavik,). Icelanders formed their government in 930 AD (see “Thingvedler”,). The North American and Eur-Asian plates are separating in Iceland and splitting the country apart (see Heimćy). Icelandic is little changed from the original Norse from which Danish, Norwegian, etc. are derived. It’s purity is helped by the fact that foreign words are not easily incorporated, so new terms must be translated into Icelandic, e.g. computer is “number predictor.”
Reykjavik, the City
The first resident of Iceland, Ingólfur Arnarson, settled in Reykjavik in 874 AD. A great harbor town with water on three sides and a pond in the middle, Raykjavik is also surrounded by mountains. There are few tall buildings. Looking across the pond …
The buildings are covered with brightly painted corrugated metal, because of the scarcity of trees.
This lovely house was the Minister of Iceland’s house
(Hannes’ great grandfather) that he bought from Norwegian fishermen and had
moved down the coast to overlook the pond.
But there’s more … 
Countryside
Though a birch is native and many other trees are planted,
the sweeping views are often dominated by rugged volcanic mountains. The most common plant is an attractive
gray-green moss that grows on lava.
Check it out …
“Thingvedler”
The chieftains of Iceland began meeting on Thingvedler,
Assembly Plains, in 930 AD. They camped
in tents, called booths, for two weeks, meeting to solve disputes. One person was the “Law Speaker,” reciting
from memory the laws of the land. But
it’s even more impressive. The earth is splitting apart here – North America
and Europe are going their separate ways.
You can see the cracks in the ground throughout the valley. See the pix …
Food & Friends
Hannes Jonssón hosted our visit to Iceland. He handled both the professional schedule
and the social calendar, including this late night visit to Kaffi List with
Helga "lafsdottir. Along the way we
tried the classic Icelandic specialties, … but not the Greenland shark.
Potluck
Power is so abundant in Iceland lights are everywhere. There are lights along the highway the full 46 Km from Keflevik to the Reykjavik. Decorative lighting is abundant. Some folks try to keep the lights on forever.
Heimaey
At 2:00 AM January 23, 1973 without warning the earth split
open across the little island of Heimaey off the south coast of Iceland. The
1.6 Km crack spewed molten lava that threatened the opening to the harbor and
the town’s livelihood. The residents of
Heimaey stopped the lava by squirting cold sea water on it for months. The 5000 residents were safely evacuated the
night of the eruption, though 1/5 of the houses were buried and many others
destroyed by lava bombs. See it today …
There’s lots more … contact us.