MAKE THAT: HEY ICELAND!

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

Note:  Since posting this a few hours ago, and having trouble finding a website based on the address I found in the booklet below, I asked Jonas Thor what current web address should be used.  He answered:  Hey Iceland!    So, that is a site I recommend to get information, and further, to make plans for your travel to Iceland. -  DP

IcelandicCelebration2020 is but 15 months away, and for those who wish to consider travel to Iceland as a member of the (unofficial) Washington Island delegation, and meet with Icelandic counterparts, advance planning should begin.   Each traveler will be responsible for making his or her own air and lodging plans and also tours or sightseeing plans, apart from the planned group visit to Eyrarbakki.  As of this date, that event is planned for Tuesday, June 9, or Wednesday, June 10, 2020, depending upon our Icelandic hosts' preferences and schedules.

We recommend submitting your email information if you're interested in this event, whether you decide to travel to Iceland, or wish to participate in welcoming for Icelandic travelers when they arrive here in early October of 2020...or just wish to stay informed of plans.   To register your interest go to:    Icelandiccelebration2020@gmail.com
Bill Schott is maintaining a list of interested persons, and you will then be included in group communications as plans develop.


As a traveler to Iceland in 2020f, you might desire to plan extra, "personal" days prior to the celebration date, or afterwards, in order to tour on your own or with friends.   It could also happen that a group "leader" will emerge over time, and if so, group outings might be planned with costs shared by participants.  Such activities are yet to be undertaken, and as I'm staying here...it will be someone else who does that planning!

With today's internet capabilities, trip planning becomes easier, although personally I find it a bit daunting to do such planning online.

Here's another recommendation I heartily endorse!   In the lead-up to our family trip to Iceland in June 2015, a good ten months in advance I contacted Iceland Farm Holidays Association (IFH) - which you can now access at "Hey Iceland!" - and I was assigned an associate who then "held my hand" through the process. This organization is a cooperative of lodging members located throughout Iceland, many of whom offer B&B experiences on working farms.  This becomes an excellent way to get to know Iceland from the inside, with personal, often family contacts.

I made a rough outline for what we wanted to do, and dates for where and when we wanted to stay:  two nights in Reykjavik to get acclimated and to learn about that city, and to meet with relatives;  several nights in rural settings in southwest Iceland;  then, one final night in Reykjavik as our trip came to a close, to return our rental bus and prepare to fly home the following day from Keflavik airport. (Which is an approximately 45-minute drive from downtown Reykjavik.)

Waterfalls are abundant, and at this park you can walk
beneath the waterfall.

I began making our arrangements through our IFH contact and took her suggestions as we planned together.  As a result of our email communications we made these travel arrangements:  airport transfer to Reykjavik upon arrival (and return one week later);  all lodging arrangements (multiple rooms were  required to accommodate our 11 family travelers);  a rental bus that we picked up on our third morning.   All such reserved services were paid in advance, which then guaranteed our rooms upon check-in.  I should note that our flight brought us into Iceland in the early morning from Minneapolis, and we were "beat."  Our rooms, however, were not available until about 3:00 pm, later that afternoon, a rather standard practice.  You might consider an alternative:  rent lodging for one additional night so that you can immediately go to your room and catch up on sleep.  But, at the time that seemed unnecessary to me - and too expensive - and as a result we snoozed in the lobby confines until our rooms were ready.

At our rural hotel, Evy encountered this small lamb that
had wandered wandered away from its mother
In late afternoon, at this same lodge, dozens of horses and
riders arrived for a weekend stay, a riding club
out of Reykvakik.

IFH does not make air reservations, nor will they reserve ferry tickets to Westman Island (Vestmannaeyjar), where we made a one-day excursion.  I think such arrangements are best made by the consumer, direct with the provider.  

We did well with our 14-passenger rental bus decision (room for luggage on rear-most seats).  Driving rules are similar to the
U. S. with the driver seated on the left side.  Roads are (generally) well-marked and in good condition, and you can get around quite well on your own.  Travelers are warned, however, about off-road driving, as these roads become exceedingly rugged and you may then wind up lost.  Request a GPS for your rental vehicle.  There may be considerable distance between towns or points of interest, and many miles of farms or open, natural landscapes.

A rather typical scene with farm building against backdrop of mountainside,
on southern coast on route to Vik.

One added feature of IFH services are their featured, pre-set, self-drive tours.  IFH will arrange your lodging in the geographic section of Iceland that most interests you.  Perhaps you'd like to drive around the entire island?  They will arrange that, too, for 11 nights, 12 days.   IFH featured tours can connect you with such diverse activities as mussel picking; horse riding; working farm experiences; bird watching, and so forth.   There are a great variety of activities to choose from, more than an average visitor generally has time.  Our interests tended toward museums and cultural points of interests, and as such they probably fell in line with interests shared by typical American tourists.   I made certain we had significant time - one day set aside - for our Eyrarbakki visit, and so we stayed in lodging roughly 40 minutes away, north of Selfoss.  Our lodging choices tended to be more of the "resort" or "hotel" variety than farm B & B.  We were pleased with all of our lodging arrangements.

Not everyone's idea of sightseeing, but
interesting fishing vessels and a major fishing processing center 
at Thorlakshoven, a port about 45 minutes west of
Eyrarbakki. A high stone breakwall offers
protection from the North Atlantic and  
also serves as a port for ferries to Vestmannaeyjar
 (Westman Island) in winter months.

My introduction to IFH was through Jonas Thor, an associate who has worked with IFH for a number of years and who most recently visited Washington Island in 2014.  He brought with him a box of the IFH 2013 booklets.  I still have a few copies left and will make them available to anyone who asks.  I recently asked Jonas if it would be OK to recommend to our prospective Island travelers the services of the IFH staff?

His reply:  "By all means recommend IFH. We can plan everyone's trip in detail!"

So, while there's plenty of snow still on the ground, why not get started by going online to check out IFH and activity options in Iceland?

Just go to:    Hey Iceland!
-  Dick Purinton

ICELANDIC CONNECTIONS

Archivist Janet Berggren (L) and volunteer Kirby Foss (R) assisted
Jonas Thor and his wife, Anna, at the Island Archives.

Detroit Harbor, Washington Island -

Jonas and Anna Thor of Reykjavik, Iceland, recently visited Washington Island for one week as our guests.  The Thors have traveled here before. Jonas led three tours of Icelanders as they traced the route of Icelandic immigration in the midwest.   On those tours, Hannes Andersen was their step-on Island guide, imparting local knowledge of settlement here.  Hannes himself had visited Iceland several times, and he maintained contact with cousins there.

I began email correspondence with Jonas Thor in the late spring of 2012, when he planned another tour of Washington Island (although that tour didn't materialize).  At one point in our exchanges, I referred to letters in Mary Jo’s possession that had been mailed to her great-grandfather, Arni Gudmundsen, between the years 1880 and 1930.   Jonas offered to translate them.  This “exchange” of old letters for translation is ongoing, and we both realized there could be more such letters on Washington Island, in attics or trunks, that would describe in fair detail the life and times of those who lived then in Iceland, as the family members corresponded  back-and-forth with one another over the years.

Icelandic immigration is a topic of longstanding interest of Jonas Thor’s.   He taught for ten years at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, wrote several books about Icelanders as they settled across North America, and more recently, through his historian's background he helps set up tours, both for tourists in Iceland, and for Icelanders who visit North America or Europe.

The tour company with which he is associated is Icelandic Farm Holidays, a cooperative of rural farm owners who provide lodging and meals for their guests.  These farms - like our B & Bs - are found at various locations rimming the coastline of Iceland.  There, tourism has been on the rise, with many visitors from European nations, but also from Japan and China.  Tours for Icelanders who travel abroad are with historical connections in mind, but they may also be simply traveler holidays.

Thor is eager to learn more about Washington Island’s Icelandic settlers:  family names; family stories; the location of individual family home sites; and even the whereabouts of individual Icelandic settler burial plots.  These sorts of things, he says, are of great interest to Icelanders, knowing where family members dispersed to and their history upon arrival in the new continent.  From our talks, it appears 

that Jonas already knows more than many of us do about our Island's early history.

Arni Gudmundsen (immigrated from
Iceland in 1873), wife Haldora,
 daughters Gudney Anna, Johanna Andrea,
Margaret Sigridur (mother of
Arni Richter.) Year unknown. 

It comes as no surprise, then, that in addition to speaking on this same topic at the Archives program Sunday afternoon, June 9th, Thor also spent a great deal of time at the Island Archives.  For a start, Archivist Janet Berggren provided Thor with an Index of Washington Island Icelandic immigrant family names. 

The Washington Island Archives intends to assist him in his research by encouraging Islanders to bring in Icelandic settler family photos, and letters sent to them by Icelandic relatives that need to be translated.  Because this topic is a big one, Thor has narrowed his interest for correspondence and photos to ones that date roughly 1870 - 1914, an era when over 16,000 Icelanders (equivalent to about 20% of the population) left Iceland for North America.  

Archives staff will scan old letters and family photos (with the owner retaining the originals), and then forward them by email to Jonas Thor.  In this way, both Icelandic files and the Island Archives will have copies. 

If this process can be streamlined and continued, Jonas Thor’s dream may be realized:  to eventually organize such available information on a website, so that interested people everywhere can benefit from those connections.

(Note:   I have a number of booklets that describe the various tour offerings of the Icelandic Farm Holidays company.  Ask me for one when you see me, if you’d like a copy. Otherwise, on the web go to:   www.farmholidays.is  )

-  Dick Purinton