Iceland Summary

Our counterclockwise trip around the country.

 Their currency.

Lava that cooled and solidified.

 Icelandic sheep.

 Their own breed of dog.

And an Icelandic horse, which tend to be stockier with longer manes and tails

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Wednesday, August 23rd.

The makeup of our group consisted of ten people with one guide, Johann Petursson. Two other people were supposed to join us but never showed up. We had:

Fran and Patty from Pheonix Arizona

Per and Ruth from Cape Cod Massachusetts

Leonard and Sheri from Detroit

Arthur, from Sydney, Australian

Mohammad from Jordan (living in Dubai)

Tim from Ottawa

and me.

Six people were older than me and only three younger – go figure, usually I am the oldest.

Our guide, Johann, is a gentle, proud, patient man. He is a geologist by profession but has also been a teacher and a guide. He is very proud of his country and loved to tell us about it. In the tradition of the Icelandic Sagas, he is a consummate storyteller and related many of the sagas stories to us whenever we got to an relevant site. He also sang a couple of traditional songs to us. His knowledge of geology was an unexpected bonus for us, as he was able to explain to us how different formations were created and about the volcanic history of the island.

(N)Iceland is a beautiful, clean, safe country with clean air, big skies and wide open spaces. It is a land very much created by fire and ice. It is a volcanic island where eruptions happen frequently (in geological terms). There is wide variety of landscapes from mountains, plains, glaciers, vast lava fields, coastal cliffs and beaches. In most of the country there are no trees. Only the south west area, around Reykavik has many trees, and most of them are planted. In a few sheltered areas we saw small forests of scrub birch but not much else.

We saw very little wildlife, one reindeer, and few species of water birds, but lots of sheep and horses, and a few cows. The sheep and horses are both slightly different from ones in Europe. The sheep are woollier and the males have curled horns. The horses are shorter, stockier and have longer manes and tails. There are no mosquitoes, and we only saw a few other bugs. At the horse farm guesthouse we did see a lot of midges that are a result of the marsh nearby and all the horses.

Iceland has basically two climatic regions. One is the subarctic oceanic area along the west and south west coast, where trees and bushes can grow. The rest of the country is classified as tundra.

75% of the population of 340000 people live in the Reykjavik area. The rest of the country is sparsely populated and then mostly around the coast in fishing villages or on farms.

Icelandic summers are much cooler than I'm used to, but their winters are very mild and hoover around the freezing mark, which is amazing considering how close it is to the Arctic Circle. They also get a lot of rain or snow.

The guesthouses we stayed in were all excellent accommodations on either active or dormant farms. They were clean, with comfortable beds and great food.

Apparently 90% of all buildings in Iceland are heated by geothermal. That is by super heated water from underground.

The only disappointment we had was we didn't get to see the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, but we were here in the wrong season. The best time apparently is September to November. But I did see puffins just before they all left to spend the winter out to sea.

Iceland is home to reindeer and Arctic foxes but has no polar bears. Occasionally one swims ashore from Greenland but the government policy is to shoot them as they are usually starving and very sick by the time they get here to Iceland.

Food and agriculture. Farming is based around some crops like hay for the horses, cows and sheep in the winter. But there are also large green house farms where they grow vegetables and crops they can't grow outdoors in their short growing season.

Fishing is and has always been a large part of their economy. They are managing their stocks responsibly so far. There are also fish farms in the some of the fjords and lakes. Apparently only a few very rich people own the 50 or so large fishing trawlers/fish factories that cruise around the island.

Tourism has become their largest economy. Before the economic crisis of 2008 the received about 200000 tourists per year. After the crisis and the volcanic eruption that disrupted air traffic around the world, (both of which oddly put Iceland on the map) the tourists have been coming in ever increasing number. This year they will welcome over 2 million tourists. Revenue from tourism totaled close to 2.4 billion US dollars in 2013, making it the country's largest export product.They are getting over 2 million tourists per year and the country is struggling to keep up with the demands to service that many people. And according to Wikipedia: The number of people working in the tourism-related industries in Iceland was 21,600 in 2014, representing nearly 12 percent of the total workforce, and tourism's direct contribution to GDP is now close to 5 percent.

During the summer months the amount of daylight grows until they receive almost 24 hours for about two weeks and then it declines again. When we were there, we were getting about 20 hours, but some of it was more like twilight.

I saw no homeless or destitute people. I think their social safety encompasses all.

The people here that we met were very friendly and helpful and most spoke English very well. About 10% of the population are foreign workers or immigrants.

All in all, Iceland was a wonderful place to visit and we all thoroughly enjoyed our tour. I would recommend the country to anyone who loves the great outdoors and wants to see somewhere different from home.