May 22

We had originally planned to go on a whale watching boat but it was overcast, windy and chilly so we passed on it, which was a good idea since it began to drizzle about the time the boat would have left.  We did some more wandering around town and had a delicious seafood soup for lunch.  We explored several shops and saved a lot of money by buying nothing.  There are some wonderful wool sweaters and other wool products, but our Florida weather makes them impractical.  We spent some afternoon time catching up on internet stuff and went back out to wander.  We ended up having dinner in our small 3 star hotel and it was one of the best dinners we had, and the least expensive.  Beef Tartar, Icelandic lobster and prime lamb were ordered and enjoyed.

Some Iceland trivia: 

Iceland has several golf courses and the locals are avid golfers, a fact proven by the number of golf bags in the checked luggage every time we fly through here on Icelandair.  Every year on June 21 (or so depending on weather) there is The Arctic Golf Tournament during the midnight sun.  Tee times begin at midnight and play lasts until 7 or 8 am depending on the number of foursomes.  Since the sun doesn’t set, there’s plenty of light.  If you think Florida courses are difficult with water along the fairways, try avoiding lava rock fields.  Gotta be a target golf hitter here.

There are Polar Bears in Iceland, but they are all stuffed.  There’s not sufficient glacial ice in the surrounding water to support them.  Occasionally a bear will get close enough on an ice berg from Greenland to swim to land (it’s documented that they can swim as much as 360 miles in a few days) but they have to be put down because they are extremely dangerous to humans & livestock.  Iceland has offered to tranquilize and return them but the bears aren’t cooperative and Greenland won’t accept any that have been in another country.

Iceland quit fossil fuel power and uses hydro, geothermal and nuclear.  They have such excess power production that they are negotiating supplying Greenland, Norway and even Belgium.  Power cables would be quite long.

Crime is minimal and 2 murders in a year are unusual.

Iceland has the most active volcanoes in Europe (about 47 of them.)  It’s parliament has operated continuously since 930AD, the longest of any country in the world.

The population is approximately 320,000 with about 180,000 living in the greater Reykjavik area.

Leif Ericksen sailed from Iceland to found the first European settlement in North America in 1000AD.  The settlement remains are an open air museum in L’anse au Meadows Newfoundland.

Icelanders believe in elves.  They even have an official government negotiator to negotiate disputes or issues between humans and elves.  We were given examples of some of these real and legitimate negotiations.  If you set your hat down on the ground in the country, it may disappear, but will eventually be returned to you by the efl borrowing it.  (Americans seem to believe in elves also – we believe their promises and elect to political offices.)

30% of Icelanders have university degrees.

Bars close at 1:00am weeknights and either 3:00am or 5:00am weekends, but they may still be open until 7:00am.  We didn’t check it out.

There are outdoor sculptures all over the public areas.  Very interesting.