Date: Fri, 1 Dec 2000 17:54:45 -0800
Reply-To: Bjorn Ratjen <Bjorn@IGLIDE.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Bjorn Ratjen <Bjorn@IGLIDE.NET>
Subject: Re: Vanagon Happening on Iceland in 2002?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
Hallo Helmut,
Iceland? Sounds like a great idea. It is just somwhat cimbersome to get
there from here (Canadian West Coast). I have been there in 1980 with my 78
Bulli (VW-Bus alias "loaf") who is now standing right here in my back yard
here. So it is possible to go from there to here.
From Europe there is only one passenger/car ferry which travels from
Scotland via the Faroe Islands to Iceland then to Norwa, Denmark and back
to Scotland etc. The VW dealership in Iceland also services Land Rovers.
For those of you who do not know Iceland - and there seem to be many
according to the latest flurry of comments - it is a very interesting place
to visit. There are for example no trees to speak of on the Island mainly
because the Vikings used all of them for their ships. Erosion and the
everchaning weather did the rest.
The whole city of Rejkjavik is geothermally heated. In other words when you
dig you come up with warm water. This is used to power and heat some
greenhouses where indeed amongst other things bananas are grown.
There are some other curiosities. The telephone book is organized by first
names because all the last names are so similar: Gunnarson, Jakobson, etc.
(the son of Gunnar, Jakob, etc). Like new Zealand there are more sheep than
inhabitants. Before the winter all farmers get together and bring home the
all sheep jointly. Farmers know their sheep and they sort them by their
faces (beats my skills).
Driving in Iceland is sinfully expensive. There is only one road around the
country and two across. The inland routes are not passable in winter and
all rivers have to be forded. My 2WD Van did quite well there. I remember
though that water had entered my transmission because of water depth and it
made expensive repairs necessary after the trip.
There are some freighters going to Iceland. It would be possible to ship
from the East coast of North America and maybe fly with Icelandair.
For our dear US neighbours I could include some interesting comments on how
democracy works in Iceland, where all party leaders usually travel together
on a tourbus and hold joint elections events in the small settlements. No
lawyers are involved....
I could go on, but I think this enough for my Friday afternoon lecture.
Cheers,
Björn
Björn Ratjen
Mill Bay, B.C.
1987 Vanagon Syncro est alia (self camperized, TDI wannabe)
1978 VW Bulli (self camperized)
1995 Passat TD Wagon (hers)
1970 VW Beetle (son's)
1991 Jetta TD (ours)
