A quick trip to the local supermarket, Bonus, yielded local yogurt (Icelanders eat lots of yogurt), cottage cheese, fruit (very limited selection), cheese, and crackers. Dinner at a local Italian restaurant, a nice walk through the neighborhood, and then an early night.
Tuesday began our adventure with a South Coast tour, small van, 3 passengers, and our guide.
Iceland is a volcanic island that still has 130 active volcanoes, multiple small earthquakes almost daily, a shifting continental divide over the tectonic plates that is expanding the country about 1" a year. The panorama is volcanic, green fields in some areas, small villages, and a few principle cities. Total population of this country, which is the size of Kentucky, is 320,000 people. Few people emigrate or immigrant and the population is very slowly rising. Until the economic downturn of October 2008, a month every Icelander we encountered remembers clearly, Icelanders enjoyed the highest living standards, almost no unemployment, a long work week averaging 46 hours because many held two jobs. Things have changed over these past 3 years and recovery, while it is happening, is slow. A current debate is whether or not to join the European Union. There's many complex issues to consider including the required sharing of its valuable fishing zones which provide over 35% of Iceland's income.
Iceland has socialized medicine for everyone, free education including 13 universities (99.9% literacy, 30% college degrees), high retirement benefits that are a combination of a social security system and some controlled investments. There's virtually no crime, a total of 45 people in prison, and work camps for teen agers during the long summer months. The government taxes cigarettes and alcohol very heavily and there is little smoking or drinking and the ill-effects they cause on a society. Iceland is nearly 100% energy independent. They use geothermal power for heating and most of their electricity; the balance of their electric needs are supplied from hydro electric plants. They import raw materials for making aluminum because aluminum manufacture is heavily dependent on electricity so it is economical to produce it in Iceland and then export the finished products. Iceland has been experimenting with hydrogen cars and already has a hydrogen bus fleet. The air is clear, the water drinkable, average citizen pays $70 a month for heating, electricity, cable, sewage, and other services. The streets are clean, although there is some graffiti in recent years.
Iceland has no army, a small coast guard, and a small police force. The prime minister's offices are open to the public and her phone number is listed in the yellow pages. Parliament is also open for visitors and although there is some security, it is barely noticeable. Iceland is a Lutheran country with some Catholics and others, but not many. Although Caucasians, blonds in particular, prevail, there are other races here and there doesn't appear to be any issues with Black and Whites.
Iceland raises sheep, that outnumber the population about 3 to 1, horses that are particular to the island (shorter legs, thicker coats), and dairy herds. All of these are free range, able to forage over the winter months. Vegetables are hot house grown, hot water is free as is heating, and they manage to export bananas to Europe. However, food is costly and fresh food more scarce and higher priced than we've encountered elsewhere.
These rather ideal conditions are offset, however, by the harsh weather. Although they claim the winter is about the same as other northern European cities, cold, during the summer it never gets very hot. Our 3 day stay in mid-May was colder than average with temperatures hanging around 40 degrees and lower at night, not much warmer, given the wind-chill factor, during the day.
We visited some of the coastal areas, a glacier (there are about 30 in Iceland), the sea shore, a geyser, and hot springs. Iceland is well suited for the adventure tourist as they can hike, walk on glaciers, use ATV's, horseback ride, fish, boat, and some even go surf boarding! For the more sedate traveler, the physical beauty is striking, and the Blue Lagoon for thermal bathing is lovely. The modern country is only about 150 years old so there are few relics of former norse days, and not very interesting places to visit in the capital. On Wednesday we spent the day in town visiting some museums, the national museum of history is outstanding and we spent several hours there, walking about the lovely ponds, riding the buses, and enjoying the language--so different from anything we use or hear on a regular basis.
Thursday morning we went on another tour of the island, saw fish drying for export to Nigeria (we are truly global in all we do), drilling for another geothermal well, a working lighthouse on the coast, a small fishing village, and then the Blue Lagoon where we bathed in the hot thermal waters before departing for the airport.
Iceland was friendly, relatively easy to get around with a good street map, rugged, and worth a stop in our travels.
We bid a fond farewell to Iceland and Europe, boarded our New York bound plane and began our trip home on Thursday afternoon. This concludes nearly 5 weeks of wonderful travel with the final days planned for family visiting in New York.
Stu and Adrienne
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