3 July 2018:
Djupivogur, Iceland:
Arriving in Europe’s Wild West

By Corey Sandler, Destination Consultant Silversea Cruises

The nation of Iceland is a large island with a pretty small population: about 332,500 people spread over 40,000 square miles or 103,000 square kilometers.

The westernmost country of Europe, Iceland is also the most sparsely populated country of Europe.

Our first port of call is a fairly large town, with a tiny population: 437 square miles, or 1,133 square kilometers, with about 456 residents when everyone is home.

Silver Wind, our lovely small ship, will more than double the local population when our guests and crew arrive.

Vatnajökull

On this trip I went to the Vatnajökull glacier, the largest (by volume) glacier in Europe, covering about 10 percent of the nation of Iceland.

I wish I could tell you of grand views, but we were engulfed in fog all day. But the vastness of the glacier was all around us.

Here is some of what we saw:

All photos by Corey Sandler 2018, all rights reserved

The Norse and the Vikings get most of the publicity, but they were most likely not the first settlers of Iceland.

It is pretty clear that the first outsiders to set up habitation on this cold and bleak island were Irish monks, probably about the year 795, according to an Irish scribe named Dicuil.

The Irish came over from the Faroe islands.

But these monks don’t get the credit as first settlers, because they were, you know, monks. Celibate. Monastic. Monks.

No wives, no children, no offspring. That’s the story, and we know no more.

All photos and text Copyright 2018 by Corey Sandler, all rights reserved.

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