July 30-31, 2019
After breakfast we returned our rental car near the cruise port of Reykjavik, Iceland. We return to the hotel, checkout and leave our bags in their locker. The dockyard outside the hotel is still busy rehabbing ships. Arctic waters are probably rough on fishing vessels.
Visiting Eric the Red’s Home piqued our interest in why Vikings settled in Iceland. So we visited The Settlement Center. This museum is built around Long House ruins discovered during a construction project. They are dated to 872 AD, the year the first settler arrived according to Iceland’s historical narrative, The Sagas. A handful of artifacts discovered during the excavation are displayed. Storyboards discuss the Viking Age when Scandinavians sailed abroad, harassing their neighbors, and creating trading posts throughout Europe. The question of why they came to Iceland to live is not answered well. One interesting fact right up Aimee’s heritage is DNA testing has discovered the majority of Iceland ancestry is Scandinavian male and Celtic female. This implies Vikings headed for Iceland, stopped in Scotland and Ireland to pick up extra wives and concubines.
After an hour in the museum, we walked around town, before having lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant. At 2pm, we met our driver who took us back to Keflavik Airport. We talked non-stop about living and growing up here. Icelanders are proud of their Viking heritage and are trying to protect it despite the outside onslaught. The government dictates a list of approved First names that all new parents must use. Last names are derived from the father’s name with son or daughter added. For example, one of our female innkeeper’s last name was Ragnarsdottir, because her father’s first name was Ragnar.
We also talked about the many foreigners working here. Iceland, while not an EU member, is part of the Schengen Treaty. This means that any European can come here for a job. After six months they get citizen rights. With the huge surge in tourism, Iceland needs seasonal workers.
Late in the evening, we catch a flight to Seattle, and then another to Phoenix. We get in very late so we spend the night at an airport hotel before making the drive home.
We had a nice time in Iceland. Iceland has terrific scenery. It is a great intersection between volcanic cliffs, ocean and ice. It is a little worrying though when just about anywhere in Iceland, you can drill a hole and find hot water. That is a little too close to your volcanic origins. Ten days was enough to see it all and probably our limit for cold cloudy weather. Although it is highly touted, I wouldn’t come for a short visit. Sights near Reykjavik are not worth the hassle. The rural South and East have the most to offer, although we both liked the West’s Snaefellnes Peninsula too. The crowds are also thinner farther from the capital.
Iceland is not for those travelling on a shoe-string. It is wickedly expensive. Icelanders are some of the wealthiest in the world. Surprising for a group that for most of its history were subsistence farmers living on the edge of civilization. That experience apparently taught them valuable survival skills, something Americans have surely lost. This new modernity has all but eliminated the need for real cash. Icelanders pay for everything electronically, even toilets. I took $15 dollars worth of the local currency and I still have all of it.
