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Click on the picture to watch this audio slideshow about bird watching at Óshólmar, an area at the mouth of Eyjafjardará river just outside Akureyri in north Iceland, the largest Icelandic town outside the capital region. Not many tourists know about this attraction, which is perfect for a walk in the sun.
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Located just 40 minutes by car and six minutes from Keflavík International Airport, Sandgerdi (“Sandy Hedge”) is a growing town of 1,700 with a storied history and loads to see. Read this special promotion about the hidden secrets of one of Iceland's most charming seaside villages.
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The government of Iceland and the opposition in Iceland’s parliament reached an agreement yesterday on a discussion point to use in renegotiations with British and Dutch authorities on the Icesave obligations.
Minister of Finance Steingrímur J. Sigfússon is optimistic that the dispute will be resolved but opposition leaders said it is too early to celebrate, Morgunbladid reports.
Chairman of the Independence Party Bjarni Benediktsson said the next project is to get the message across to British and Dutch authorities that Icelanders are not prepared to sign agreements that aren’t supported in Iceland.
“We will not have achieved anything until our negotiating partners have declared their intent to be fair and understanding towards our points of view,” Benediktsson said, adding that he is satisfied with how matters have developed between the government and the opposition.
A cross-political agreement in Iceland was a condition for renegotiations, as British and Dutch authorities had announced.
The agreement between the government and opposition includes that the advice of Lee C. Buchheit will be sought, an American expert on debts of states and national obligations, who is a co-owner of the law firm Clearly Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton in New York. He will arrive in Iceland today.
“It is important to recruit all the advisors and geniuses people think might be able to help,” Sigfússon said when asked whether he was satisfied with Buchheit’s participation.
According to Fréttabladid, it is now being discussed that Iceland begin repayment of the Icesave loans from the UK and the Netherlands sooner than 2016, as anticipated in the current agreement.
The goal is to lower the cost of interest rates, because although repayment won’t begin until 2016, interest rates will be calculated from 2009.
British and Dutch authorities demand that the principal of the loans be paid in full and therefore Icelandic authorities are working out how the entire sum can be lowered through other means.
There are two ways to lower the cost of interest rates, either by lowering the interest rate percentage with better loan terms or by starting repayments sooner than originally planned, which would save extensive amounts.
The treatment of Landsbanki’s assets is key in that regard. It is now being discussed how quickly they can be sold without diminishing their value.
Click here to read more about Icesave.
A skeleton from a person who suffered from the Paget’s disease of bone was unearthed this week during an archeological excavation project at Skriduklaustur in east Iceland, where a monastery was once operated.
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The human being will be on display for the first time in its natural environment in the Reykjavík Family Park and Zoo next weekend. Visitors can observe three men and one woman in a cage after 10 am on Saturday and Sunday.
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The formal Videy island swim took place yesterday and there were three participants, two men and one woman, Thórdís Hrönn Pálsdóttir, who is the first woman to participate in the Videy swim since 1959.
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The Environment Agency intends to investigate whether the Heath Protection Authority handled the situation in Eskifjördur, east Iceland, in the correct manner when contaminated water from a trawler was carried into the town’s drinking water system.
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The second issue of the print edition of Iceland Review 2010 has just been published. Entitled “Under the Volcano” the magazine dedicates 20 pages, words and pictures, to the volcanic eruption in Eyjafjallajökull glacier which made headlines all over the word. New subscribers will receive the book Puffins as a gift and all subscribers are part of a draw to win a trip to Iceland. Click here to subscribe to the magazine.
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REVIEWS
Hendrikka Waage is an accomplished jewellery designer whose first children’s book Rikka and Her Magic Ring in Iceland, takes readers on an enchanted and educational journey through the country. It’s beautifully illustrated and a good lesson in geography, but the plot could have been better thought through and the moral of the story is a bit too prominent.
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On the third day of the Eyjafjallajökull eruption we drove from Skógar to Hvolsvöllur in total darkness, a distance of 18 kilometers. It was frightening, the darkness being so impenetrable that we could hardly see out the windows of the car. We could see faint lights from the farm standing right next to the highway.
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Ásmundur Sveinsson is among the foremost Icelandic sculptors. The current exhibition in the Ásmundur Sveinsson Museum in Reykjavík is entitled “I choose women who thrive…” and features women as symbols in the sculptor’s art. The works in the exhibition are selected from his entire career.
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