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My special birthday treat this year was a weekend in Iceland, and I couldn’t wait! We drove down to Heathrow when all the motorways seemed to be full to bursting and arrived at a park and fly car park to wait for the coach – it was getting very near to check-in time. The traffic at the airport was dreadful and then the coach took us to the wrong terminal. After a quick dash along numerous moving pavements and through tunnels, we got from terminal 3 to terminal 1 just in time – sigh of relief. We went for a very welcome cup of coffee. We took off at 1 pm and our seats were very good, so we were able to video the entire takeoff and landing. (Found out later that video cameras should be switched off at these times – too late now).
Iceland Iceland is Europe's westernmost country, an island of contrasts, where the Sagas of the Vikings were written, a land of glaciers, erupting volcanoes and the magnificent midnight sun. It is largely an arctic desert, punctuated with mountains, glaciers, volcanoes and waterfalls. Most of the vegetation and agricultural areas are in the lowlands close to the coastline.
Settled by Norwegian and Celtic immigrants during the 9th and 10th centuries, it boasts the world's oldest functioning legislative assembly. Independent for over 300 years, Iceland was subsequently ruled by Norway and Denmark.
Fallout from the Askja volcano of 1875 devastated the Icelandic economy and caused widespread famine. Over the 25 years, 20% of the island's population emigrated. Limited home rule from Denmark was granted in 1874 and complete independence was attained in 1944. It is a large country but is sparsely populated, with only 3 persons per km². Keflavík It was bright sun and champagne all the way and we descended into Keflavik Airport over the Westman Islands. The landscape was strange to us – mostly black and empty with ribbons of roads. It was 3 o’clock by now as they are an hour behind us – still on GMT. Keflavík Airport was constructed by the Americans during World War II for military purposes and played a major role for the allies. It is situated on the Reykjanes peninsula 50 kilometres south-west from Reykjavík. We searched for the holiday rep. to no avail and in the end we bought tickets for the fly-bus for a 40 minute ride to Reykjavik. Although we expected it to be cold, we didn’t expect it to be as bitter as it was.
Driving between the airport and the city was rather like passing loads of slag heaps! It was a mixture of a lunar landscape and abandoned coal mines, as the rock and soil are all basaltic volcanic lavas. Arriving in Reykjavik Our hotel, the Loftleider, was just outside the town, next to the domestic airport and also acts as a terminal for Keflavik airport. It was very nice and we had a room at the front on the 3rd floor – which is the 2nd floor to us Brits. The internal air service is supposed to be very good, unlike the buses, and the airstrip at the back was full of small planes, some of them offering tourist trips to the major areas of interest. Because of the distances involved and the state of the roads, flying is the most popular method of internal travel.
We ventured out in the cold for a walk, to orientate ourselves. The total lack of traffic was very refreshing and we wandered in the direction of the city centre. The first major building we came to was Hallgrimsskirkja and this proved to be a very useful landmark when we got lost as it is 246 feet high and has a lift to the top. It looks rather like a space rocket and the poured concrete construction makes it unique. It was built to mimic the flow of the lava that has shaped the landscape and lives of Icelanders over the ages.
There was a statue of Leifur Eriksson in front of it, (the Son of Iceland, Discoverer of Vinland) who was the first European to set foot here. It was created by Alexander Stirling Calder and presented to Iceland by the USA in 1930.
Reykjavik is the most northern capital in the world at 66 degrees latitude. Ingolfur Arnarson was Iceland’s first settler and he was so impressed by the hot steam and geysers that he named the city ‘Smoky Bay’. We continued our walk back to the hotel passing several more interesting places but we hadn’t got the guide book so didn’t know what they were at that time, I think the University and National Museum – in any event, we didn’t go the right way to find the actual city centre. At one point a downpour of freezing rain sent us scurrying into a bus shelter to escape.
We decided to rent a car and when we phoned from the hotel they sent someone to fetch us. We were impressed. The car was a left hand drive Toyota but we should probably have got an off roader – we had no idea what the roads were like at the time! Some of them are good but they revert to the Icelandic norm very suddenly. These are gravel tracks interspersed with pot holes. It is the law to have your lights on ALL the time. Still, it was a nice little car with a simple number that would have cost thousands back here.
Andy took charge of the video camera and did quite well for his first attempt, inspite of ten minutes of flapping curtain when he forgot to switch it off!
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