Iceland is a fascinating country! It is 1/3 of the size of Germany and has only 339,039 people (Germany has 83 million more people!). It is very harsh here, extremely beautiful, clear, natural and freezing fucking cold – excuse my language, but an average of 12 degrees Celsius in summer, when the sun “shines” 24 hours a day, that’s the big minus! They should say the sun “is present” 24 hours, or the sun “shows up” 24 hours a day, but shining? Definitely: no way!

Iceland is the perfect setting for movies: Fast & Furious 9, Game of Thrones, Die Another Day, the Secret Life of Walter Matti, etc

Icelandic students have to learn Danish, starting in 5th grade. From 6th grade on they learn English. Danish is not very popular, the past was just too cruel and brutal… Btw, schools are used as hotels during the summer months! Most highschool students live in dorms at the highschool because they live too far away. And there are 3 universities in Iceland!

Police is not armed here. They do have a gun in a locked glovebox, and when they need to use it, they have to call their chief to get a code to open that glovebox. By then the criminal has run off 🤩 Crime rate is still very low! When you’re 18 years old you are a legal adult with all responsibilities. Drinking age is 21 though and you can only buy alcohol in a few government owned liquor stores.

Trees are rare here, but according to one of our tour guides, Iceland was covered with trees before the Vikings settled here in 900CE. The only native tree is a birch tree. Nowadays they have a variety of trees, but they are not very tall. In fact, there is this saying: What do you do if you ever get lost in an Icelandic forest? Stand up! 😆

The only native wild vegetable growing here is Rhubarb! Wild fruits are berries, especially blueberries. They grow a lot of things in greenhouses in the south of Iceland. In fact, our guide told us that Iceland is the biggest produce producer in the world – per capita 🤪

And tonight we will continue on to cross the Norwegian Sea to Olden, Norway. It is more than 600 miles to Olden, so we’ll arrive there in 2 days, Tuesday June 28th. And we’ll change the clock tonight again: 1 hour forward!