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Click on the picture to watch an audio slideshow of Þorrablót, an Icelandic mid-winter feast. In the past there was no fresh food available at this time of year so people ate dried fish, smoked lamb, putrefied shark and soured blood and liver pudding along with other soured meat products—ram testicles included.
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Fjallabyggd (“Mountain Settlement”) is a skier’s dream. Its slopes are perfect for slaloming and there are also tracks for telemark skiing. Winter sporting enthusiasts can also go ice skating or rent snowmobiles. In summer, Fjallabyggd turns into a paradise for hikers. Read this special promotion about one of Iceland’s best hidden gems.
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A bus which was specially-designed for the German military and was intended for desert warfare will be used to ferry people across the Múlakvísl river in south Iceland. A glacial flood from Mýrdalsjökull destroyed the Múlakvísl bridge on Friday night and tore a hole in the Ring Road.
The Mýrdalssandur plains through which Múlakvísl flows. Photo by Páll Stefánsson.
It is hoped that the bus, which carries 40 people, can be put to work today. Meanwhile, three trucks intended to take people and goods across Múlakvísl have arrived at the river. The drivers are currently looking for the best place to cross, ruv.is reports.
The trucks will be able to carry 30 persons and two personal cars on each crossing. The service will be free of charge and open to everyone. There won’t be any special prioritization unless police and search and rescue authorities deem otherwise.
As for the specialized bus, only four such vehicles exist in the world and one of them is located in Iceland, as Björn Sigurdsson in Eyjafjördur, who is leasing the vehicle, told Morgunbladid.
The owner, Ágúst Gudjónsson, lives in Hólmavík in northwest Iceland where the bus was located last winter and came to good use during heavy snowfall and on impassible roads.
“We can easily drive across the river. Nothing stops this bus. It weighs 12 and a half tons when empty, so the current has to be really strong before it budges,” Sigurdsson stated. The bus is of the make Iveco and was constructed in 1981.
“It has an air-cooled eight cylinder engine and the tires are the size of those used on road graders. The body is made of thick aluminum, is bullet-proof and the windows are bullet-resistant,” Sigurdsson described.
The Icelandic Road Administrator had the initiative of acquiring the bus, stressing that safety is guaranteed. Sigurdsson assured that everything would be all right.
“This is the only way we see to bridge the river, so to speak, until the temporary bridge is ready. Buses can be placed on both banks to accept people. We have to keep the tourist industry going,” Sigurdsson concluded.
Click here to read an announcement in English and German about the situation.
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A Playboy model, Progressive Party in trouble and a bad hair day.
Seven companies have asked to be listed on the NASDAQ OMX in Reykjavík, in one of the biggest privatization plans in the country’s history. All seven companies are owned, at least in part, by Landsbanki Íslands, which the Government of Iceland owns 81 percent.
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Landsvirkjun accounts for 75 percent of total electricity production in Iceland; in the year 2010 production reached 12,625 GWh. Climate change and the resulting increase in temperatures are expected to lead to a significant increase in the flow of glacial rivers in the years to come.
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The Special Prosecutors’ Office has filed charges in the so-called Al-Thani case, which pertains to the purchase of a five percent share in Kaupthing Bank in late September 2008, merely two weeks before the banking system’s collapse.
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The current issue of the quarterly magazine Iceland Review includes for example an interview with world-renowned fashion designer Steinunn Sigurðardóttir as well as features on the successful biotech company ORF Genetics and the hot debate regarding the EU. If you subscribe now, you will receive a photo book by IR editor, photographer Páll Stefánsson of the eruptions in Eyjafjallajökull as a gift. Click here to subscribe to the magazine and here to buy a gift subscription.
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REVIEWS
The second series of The Press continues to follow the life of journalist, mother and wife Lára and her investigation of Iceland’s underground world.
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Harvesting human-like protein from genetically modified barley, Icelandic company ORF Genetics is revolutionizing the world of green biotechnology. With Iceland’s First Lady Dorrit Moussaieff and Hollywood stars among its loyal fans, the company’s phenomenal skincare range has, quite literally, changed the face of the cosmetics industry.
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The international recognition that the architecture firm Snøhetta has received is quite unique in a Norwegian context.
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