MPR: An Iceland Diary

An Iceland Diary
By Perry Finelli
February 2000

Minnesota Public Radio's Perry Finelli spent two weeks in Iceland last October. He interviewed several Icelanders about a variety of topics for some stories he has prepared.

Take a slide-show tour of Iceland.

MOST PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD celebrated the beginning of a new millennium on January 1st. Some people in Iceland and the United States are noting another millennium, as well. Iceland and U.S. officials have proclaimed October 9th as the 1,000th anniversary of Viking explorer Leif Ericsson's landing in North America.

Officials are hoping to use the months leading up to the event, in part, to lure more North American tourists to the island nation and to interest consumers in Iceland's products. Whether or not you subscribe to the theory that Leif Ericsson and his band of Vikings were the first Europeans to set foot in North America almost 500 years before Christopher Columbus, you'd be hard pressed to convince fellow Icelanders to think otherwise.

Iceland officials are hoping people who believe the Icelandic Sagas, or are at least interested in a great adventure story, will want to see the place where native son Leif Ericsson set sail.

Magnus Oddson is the Director General of the Icelandic Tourist Board.

Oddson: We are interested in telling you the story. Are you interested in listening, and maybe know more? So, we use this opportunity that the two countries are related through this event, 1,000 years ago, to tell people about it and hope they will be interested to hear more, see more and so, they would, of course, like to come to us.

The main attraction for most people who go to the "land of fire and ice" is, of course, the landscape and the opportunities to explore nature. Hot-water spouts and steams out of the ground, waterfalls appear out of nowhere at just about every turn, and lava fields, volcanoes and glaciers cover much of the land.

Oddson says tourism officials are seizing on that attraction to not only get more people to visit, but also to make them more aware of what products they have to sell.

Perry Finelli interviews Gunnar Marel Eggertsson, the captain of a Viking-replica ship, who will take part in sailing event in North America this October as part of the Leif Ericsson Millennium Celebration. Listen.

Oddson: The fish, the produce that we are exporting. The message to the people of North America is that we are from this fresh, unpolluted and clean nature.

Oddson says he is satisfied with the increase in the number of North American tourists to Iceland. But the aim is to make tourism a bigger part of the country's economy.

More than 40,000 Americans and Canadians will travel to Iceland this year, - a 20-percent increase compared to last year.

Pall Pallson has been taking tourists to the Westmann Islands, located just off Iceland's southern coast, since 1973. That's the year a volcano erupted on Heimaey Island, changing the area forever. Pallson says visitors flocked to the area to see the after-effects for several years. But, he says the number of tourists has fallen off as time passed and other Icelanders figured out old fishing vessels make great tour boats.

Pallson: Just if you go back 10 years, this was the only place that had boat tours. Then came Stykkolshomur on the West. And now, we have boat tours all over Iceland. So, that tells us a little bit.

Still, Pallson thinks what's good for Iceland is good for him, and he thinks the Leif Ericsson anniversary celebration is a good idea. Icelanders are coming up with creative ways to use the names of Ericsson and other famous Viking explorers to promote tourism.

Magnea Gunnarsdottir, the public relations director for one of Iceland's biggest draws - a geothermal pool called the "Blue Lagoon" - thinks people are intrigued by the Norse adventurers.

Related Story
Perry Finelli and his entourage sample two Icelandic foods only the adventurous will want to try. Hear his report.

Gunnarsdottir: They tend to be very interested in the Vikings and it's nice to be able to tell the story that the Vikings were well-known for bathing in warm pools around the country. That's probably where they got some of their great ideas. And, I'm quite sure that if they would have had a "Blue Lagoon" at the time, they would have taken the opportunity.

Headlining this year's Leif Ericsson Millennium Celebration in North America will be a two-month event featuring Viking ships sailing en masse from Newfoundland, Canada; visiting ports along the eastern U.S. seaboard as they make their way to Philadelphia on October 9th.

Iceland officials hope people will see one mode of travel from long ago, and entice them to hop on an airplane bound for the land of the Vikings in the year 2000 and beyond.

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