This country, which has
the land mass of Kentucky, is home to only two million people. Located just
below the Arctic Circle at the 66th parallel, this island is a world
of its own. Isolated from each other and the rest of the world, tourism is just
now coming to Iceland and you don’t need Eric the Red to get you here. It was a
six-hour jet ride from Minneapolis to Reykjavik, the capitol city. This had
been on my personal Bucket List for a while, and each day has been full of awe.
About half the size
Oklahoma, Iceland is the land of volcanoes, geysers, and lava fields. I saw a
T-shirt that read “Why go to the moon when you can visit Iceland?” It’s true,
there are miles and miles of strange landscape that even NASA thought was “moonlike”
and sent astronauts to Iceland to train. There is an area called “Hell”, but it
was much too lovely. It reminded me of the Garden of the Gods rock formations
except in black. Millions of years of geothermal activity has turned over the
earth like plowed ground. Giant crevices are falling points for cascading
waterfalls too numerous to count. Hot springs and hot pools steam on the
landscape in more places than the well known Blue Lagoon. We went straight for
our soak after our flight which was a smooth move in the 98-104 degree silica
rich waters.
Brought over by the
Danish, trees are somewhat new to the island. Houses were originally
constructed of sod and there are some that remain. Out buildings for livestock
are often subterranean, and very close to the home. It’s not all lava rocks.
Beautiful, lush, green grass meadows with fat, fluffy sheep extend for miles
and miles as well. Icelandic horses known for their five gaits graze the
hillsides. We visited a horse farm to learn more about the “Flying Pace.” This
gait is faster and smoother than a trot, and the horse has all feet off the
ground at times, flying.
Another reason to visit
Iceland might be there are no snakes, no spiders, no mosquitoes, and no ticks.
But there are those annoying black flies, midges, in the northern lake areas.
But what can you expect? There are no bats, no frogs, and only about 70 breeds
of birds. There’s a short list of animals to learn, such as mink, fox, and
mice. Our tour guide is an elementary school teacher, and I asked if the time
saved on animals was used on spelling because the Icelandic language is
impossible to hear and try to spell. Its roots are in German and Norse
languages, but they use the 32 letter alphabet liberally. There is a 64 letter
word that means something like “key ring to the tool shed for road workers”,
but I didn’t have the chance to use it. I’m still working on good morning.
