Interesting Facts About Iceland

1. On Heimaey, there is a cover called Robber's Bay.  In the 17th Century, groups of North African raiders would raid settlements along the south coast of Iceland, taking slaves, killing many and destroying homes and farms.  On one of these raids, one of the prisoners taken told his captors of a safe place to land so they could raid the settlement on Haimaey.  The raiders made it safely to shore and raided the settlement, taking almost all the settlers and killing those they couldn't capture.  Only about 40 people survived the raid, over 400 being taken as slaves.  During the raid, one of the women gave birth.  She hid behind a boulder in the bay.  One of the raiders saw her there and cut his cloak in half and threw it over her so she wouldn't be seen.  All the slaves had to convert to Islam.  King Christian of Denmark ransomed 36 of the slaves and they returned to Denmark, where they all had to be 're-educated' in the Christian religion.
2. There is no separation of church and state in Iceland.  When a person reached 18, they have to pay tax to the church into which they were born, their parents' church.  If they have no religion, they pay the tax to the university.  The state religion is the Lutheran Church, officially called the Lutheran State Church of Iceland.  There is no requirement to belong to any religion and no other religion is banned.
3. In 1925, prohibition of alcohol was introduced into Iceland.  Around 1935, spirits and wine were allowed in.  In 1940, Iceland was occupied by the British who were very upset to discover there was no beer in Iceland.  The Commander went to the Prime Minister and said, 'We want beer'.  The Prime Minister said, 'Beer is banned in Iceland.  It encourages day time drinking.'  The Commander said 'What part of "occupied" do you not understand?  We want beer.'  They got their beer.  Why they'd be worried about beer encouraging day time drinking, I have no idea...

   

   Lunch in Prague

4. Iceland is the land of horizontal rain.  If you see someone walking around with an umbrella, you know they're a tourist.
5. The Icelandic horse is a very important part of Icelandic tradition and culture.  They are a pure breed, no horses from anywhere else in the world are allowed into Iceland.  If an Icelandic horse leaves Iceland, it can never return.  They are small animals with a large range of colours that breeders encourage.
6. The humidity is quite high here all the time.  I know this because my hair is very curly all the time - and because the water in the courtyard from yesterday's rain hasn't dried up yet...
7. There are only 340 000 Icelanders - the 340 000th was born not long ago - and they are all related to each other in some way or another.  When they are born, their DNA is taken.  One company as produced an app where, when you want to get married, you can go to the app to check that you are not too closely related to your prospective partner.
8. HERE ENDETH THE LESSON - For the time being, anyway.