Volcanic Eruptions in Iceland

The airspace around Keflavík Airport and Reykjavík has been opened at 7 am this morning. But there are no indications that the eruption in Iceland is ending. The volcanic activity is similar to what it was in the past few days. It seems that the eruption in Eyjafjallajökull is one of the biggest of the past decades. Here you can get an overview over numerous volcanic eruptions in Iceland in recorded history.

Pictures of East Iceland

As announced in my last post, I will soon give some information about my journey along the south coast of Iceland. But first I would like to point out that I have published many photos from the Eastfjords in an online gallery today. Here you will find the Gallery East Iceland with descriptions about the visited places and attractions. There are also some photos of my earlier visits to East Iceland.

Staying in Egilsstadir in East Iceland

As mentioned in my last post, I have visited Iceland some months ago. On 14th September I took a flight to Keflavik (near Reykjavik) and booked a connecting flight to the east coaest of Iceland for the next day. In the small village of Egilsstaðir I have stayed for a few days at Guesthouse Egilsstadir, a farm with cattle close to the lake Lögurinn. The guesthouse has very nice and homey rooms. The guesthouse also offers a comfortable restaurant with excellent food.

In Egilsstadir I have rent a car and made some one-day trips to the fjords and villages along the east coast, such as Bordgarfjörður eystri, Seyðisfjörður and Nestkaupstaður. It is also recommendable to make a trip around lake Lögurinn. In the south west of the lake there is a small path to the beautiful waterfalls Litlanesfoss and Hengifoss, which is the 3rd highest waterfall in Iceland.

After some days I left Egilsstaðir. Next time I’ll tell how I continued my journey southwards to the great glacier Vatnajökull.

Journey to Iceland in 2010

I wish a happy new year to all Iceland travelers! When are you going to visit Iceland this year? I’ve been there some months ago and I’m already planning my next journey. I will publish some photos of my last visit in this weblog during the next few weeks and I’ll give a short description of my tour from the East fjords to Reykjavik. The following picture was takes in south Iceland close to ring road 1.

Visit Iceland by ferry

What’s the drooping Dollar and British Pound mean for US and UK travellers? A journey to the most European countries has become more expensive in the last year. But there is one big exception: Iceland! The country in the north Atlantic ocean has seen its banks collapse and nearly has gone bankrupt. Today the Icelandic krona is worth less than one US penny or 0.0049 GBP.

What about visiting Iceland next year and experience the great nature with volcanoes, geysers, deserts and wide fjords? On the one hand you can take a plane to get there. But of course it’s more recreative to take a ferry to Iceland. Today the ships from Europe to Iceland are both ferry and cruise ships, so that you can enjoy your yourney from the first day on. The only scheduled connection between central Europe and Iceland is from Denmark. So if you want to get to Iceland by ferry from the UK, you have to go from Harwich to Esjberg in Denmark first. But when arriving in Iceland, you will be more relaxed and you will save money, because you can go around with your own vehicle and it’s not necessary to rent a car.

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.