Icelandair offers direct flights to Seattle

The airline Icelandair will start flying from Iceland to Seattle four times a week beginning in July this year. “This puts Icelandair in a favorable competitive position on the route between Seattle and Europe. We can offer three hours shorter flying times than other airlines from the Scandinavian capitals and other locations in Europe,” Icelandair CEO Birkir Hólm Gudnason said in a statement. The airline will use Boeing Co. 757 airplanes for these flights.

Low corruption in Iceland

The Corruption Perception Index (CPI) is issued annually by the Transparency International Organization and was published this week again. The index ranks countries on a scale of zero to ten according to their perceived levels of corruption, with a higher score indicating less perceived corruption.

Iceland achieved a score of 8.9, which indicates a very low corruption. Sweden, Denmark and New Zealand. Finland reached the highest score in the new survey. ranks at 9.0 points. Norway ranked lowest of all the northern countries with a score of 7.9. The lowest ranked country in this year’s index is Somalia at 1.0.

Record number of students in Iceland

By the beginning of the new term more than 20,000 students were enrolled to universities in Iceland. This is a record number of students in Iceland. All together there are eight institutions of higher education in the country with the largest one in Reykjavik (University of Iceland), where 13,600 students are enrolled right now.

There were 17,449 university students in Iceland in 2007. This year that number has grown to 20,300. The University of Akureyri in North Iceland reports 60 additional students since last year with a total student number of 1,400.

Iceland won the silver in handball

The Icelandic handball team lost against France in the final at the Beijing Olympics. But now they are taking home the silver in handball for the very first time.

This is the second silver medal Iceland won at all at the Olymptic Games and the fourth medal overall. Only once before Vilhjálmur Einarsson has won the silver in 1956 in Melbourne. In Los Angeles 1984 and in Sydney 2000 two Icelandic athletes won the bronze.

Icelandic handball team qualified for the quarter finals

The Icelandic men’s handball team is very successful at the Olympic Games in Beijing, China. After they have beat world champion Germany they also won against Denmark on Saturday and Egypt on Monday. The Icelandic team has now qualified for the quarter finals of the competition.

Surtsey on UNESCO’s World Heritage List

Surtsey has been Inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List in July. The Island is one of the Westman Islands approximately 32 kilometers off the south coast of the country and was formed during a submarine eruption from 1963 to 1967. All together 19 cultural sites and eight natural sites were added to the World Heritage List on 8 July.

Warm Summer in Iceland

By the end of July 2008 temperatures rose above 20°C in a lot of parts of Iceland. On 29th July in Thingvellir the temperature reached 27°C which is a new record of this summer and the highest temperature since many years. As a result, Nauthólsvík the thermal beach in Reykjavik and swimming pools all over the country were crowded during the past few days. Usually the warmest summer days can reach 20-25°C Iceland. The absolutely highest temperatures recorded at around +30.5°C in 1939 on the southeastern coast.

Iceland weather forcast

New fishes in Icelandic waters

Due to global warming the temperatures in the sea around Iceland has risen in the past years. As a result some new species of fish have become common is Icelandic waters. According to the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, the warming period began about 12 years ago causing fish that usually live further south to migrate north. Some of the new species are e.g. mackerels, haddocks and monkfishes. These news reported the daily newspaper Morgunblaðið in Reykjavik last week.

Landsmót Horse Festival

The Landsmót Horse Festival – the Icelandic National Horse Show – took place near Hella in South Iceland this year. The organizers are very satisfied with this year’s tournament, reports Fréttabladid. More than 13,000 people visited the compitition on its final day. Also the police was lucky to say that everything went smoothly but the large number of visitors. The Horse festival takes place every two years. The next Landsmot 2010 will be held at Vindheimamelar near Skagafjörður in North Iceland.

Books on Iceland

Of course there are many books on Iceland and it is difficult to say, which travel guide is the best. Propably most of them are good. My personal favorite is the travel guide of Lonely Planet. The guide features a comprehensive coverage of Iceland’s attractions and gives useful travel information.
You can buy a new or secondhand book e.g. at Abebooks where you can get it from 1 GBP/1$.