ICELAND - Jim Colyer

ICELAND 2007 After missing the northern lights in Alaska, I traveled to Iceland, December 4-9, 2007. Iceland is a Scandinavian country lying between Greenland and Norway. It is an island nation the size of Kentucky with a peninsula looking like a crab with pinchers jutting from the northwest. Iceland was a Danish colony until 1944. It gained independence when the Nazis occupied Denmark. Iceland's flag is a red Scandinavian cross outlined in white against a blue field. Iceland is warmed by the Gulf Stream. People like to say that "Iceland is green, and Greenland is covered by ice." Denmark granted Greenland self-rule in 1979. I flew U.S. Airways to Boston and took Icelandair. I landed at Keflavik International Airport. This airport was built by Americans during the Cold War. It is 45 minutes to Reykjavik. On the Flybus, I heard One Of Us by ABBA. They follow me everywhere. Iceland's population is 300,000, 200,000 of which live in the capital of Reykjavik. Icelanders are businesslike, fortified against the extreme climate. They are descended from Vikings who came from Norway in the 9th century. I saw lots of square-faced blondes. Icelanders teach us. They prosper on an island in the North Atlantic under harsh conditions. Why? Because they make the most of everything, utilizing the many hot springs. They heat their country by geothermal energy. They take care of each other. Reykjavik is the northernmost capital, and the daylight at noon on December 8 was like a soft twilight. SUVs crowded the streets. Hallgrims Church is the tall building in the city center. It is Lutheran. I climbed the tower. It was misting rain and quite gloomy. The Leifur Eiriksson Hotel, where I stayed, faces the church. I could see it through my window. Venus was visible in the morning sky beside the church. The statue of Leif Ericson sits out front. He was born in Iceland and was the first European to set foot in North America. The people speak Icelandic but also English. Icelandic has changed so little since the 9th century that they can still read the medieval sagas (Old Norse). The krona is Iceland's unit of currency, abbreviated ISK. $1000 got me 54,000 krona. It takes some getting used to. A bottle of water cost 200 krona. Reykjavik is where Bobby Fischer met Boris Spassky for the World Chess Championship in 1972. Fischer, with a long history of personal problems, was living in Iceland at the time of his death. I went out with Reykjavik Excursions three times. My first tour was the popular Golden Circle. It cost 7,000 ISK and lasted eight hours. I saw my first geyser since Yellowstone. The landscape was stark and barren. There were no trees, and snow was on the ground. It was cold, and I appreciated my long johns. Iceland is fire and ice, volcanoes and glaciers. An arctic-like setting displayed deadly beauty as a yellow sun skirted the horizon in a turquoise sky. It was cloudy the first two nights. Clouds seemed to materialize from nothing only to quickly disappear. I took the northern lights tour my third and fourth nights. Did I see them? No. Conditions were better the second time out. It was clear and cold. The coach parked for an hour, and everyone got off. There was a band of white light in the north below the Big Dipper. It could have been my imagination, but I thought it had a greenish tint. Our guide called it the "beginning of the lights." He said the raw material was there, but that it lacked the final touch needed to burst into activity. I got my bearings. The north star was high in the sky like in Alaska. The Summer Triangle was a surprise. Vega, Deneb and Altair are down in Kentucky and Tennessee this time of year. I marveled at Cygnus in December. Mars burned bright in Gemini, and I saw Capella, Aldebaran and the Pleiades, the classic sky visible from my parents' back porch. I felt fortunate to see the celestial sphere from different angles. I came away realizing one does not go to Alaska or Iceland for a few days and see the northern lights in their glory. Those stories are told by the people who live there. So I did not experience lights. What I did do was fill in a missing piece between Alaska and Sweden, completing an arc across half the world. I have been in 42 states and eight foreign countries on three continents. Icelandair Reykjavik Tourist Information Center Reykjavik Excursions Liefur Eiriksson Hotel