Page 4 - 2000 ICELAND

ICELANDIC IDYLL

July 1 – July 15, 2000

Travel Agent: Guðmundur Jónasson Travel Company (GJ Travel Service)
(Http://gottravel.is)

GETTING THERE

From Friendship International Airport we

boarded our very cramped Icelandair plane

to Reykjavik at 8:45 PM We ate a little of the
plane’s supper and tried to sleep until an

hour before landing at Keflavik Airport.

The airport is interesting in that it is about 50
miles from the capital city It wasn’t really

intended to be a municipal facility; it was
originally built by the British and US

governments as part of the defense of

Europe and USA during World War II.

Though Iceland tried to remain neutral during that conflict, Churchill
recognized its strategic importance in keeping the sea-lanes open to British

and American shipping during the early days of the war. Therefore, he sent
British troops over to Iceland, not invited according to the official story, and

just commandeered the land to build the airstrip and other necessary
military structures to protect the island from German invasion. He did not

interfere at all with Iceland’s own internal government and things

apparently went on as before during the war.

After the US declared war in l941, the US took over the operations in Iceland
towards the war effort. Amazingly enough, there is little or no resentment

of either the Brits or the US for the rather high-handed way they handled
the country’s “foreign affairs” from l939 to l945. Of course, the Icelanders