Photo by Nicolas Leclercq on Unsplash
Can you imagine a country where 109 languages are spoken and refugees and others from around the world are embraced and welcomed and fully included in their society? Well, that country does exist and is also where 375,000 people reside. It is, of course, Iceland, a nation that experiences only three daylight hours in their winter months and three hours of nighttime darkness during their summer. The amount of new construction in its rapidly growing capital city of Reykjavik is vast, which is where the refugees live who have immigrated there and are settling into their new jobs, houses, and schools. Another unique aspect of Iceland is that two-thirds of Icelanders rely on geothermal energy and over 80% of them on renewable energy sources.
This nation is as rustic as imaginable in its vast countryside areas, but it also has many ethnic restaurants in Reykjavik which are of the highest quality. Lava flows exist from their active volcanoes in some of the countryside and there is a recreational outdoor pool, larger than anything I could have imagined, named the Blue Lagoon, which is a favorite tourist destination.
Their numerous countryside waterfalls (one shown below) are equal in beauty to any I have seen in the United States.
Photo by Hugh Winig
The trip I took circumnavigated this entire island country, a remote place seven time zones away from California, yet the very place where Presidents Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev held a summit meeting back in 1986 in Reykjavik. In that same city there are also some world class museums as well as towering building structures. Some of these comparatively small museums were so unique that they remain firmly in my memory.
Touring remote areas in the world has captured my imagination for many years. Antarctica, the Arctic, and now along with Iceland, are must-see places for adventurous travelers who are interested in exploring the natural world in which we live.
Dr. Hugh Winig is a retired psychiatrist and a longtime OLLI @Berkeley member and volunteer.