Icelandair Stopover magazine - winter 2020

STOPOVER MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 2020

Winter Magazine 2020

#MyStopover

STOPOVER

Blua lagoon augl. baksíða

SPIRIT OF ICELAND STOPOVER MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 2020

Expeditioner Vilborg Arna on Everest and the South Pole page 18 Animation: Frozen II’s Icelandic Inspirations page 22

Adventure: Backcountry Skiing and Flying Across Iceland page 30

Interview: Jeremy Strong on Iceland and Succession page 36

Photo Essay: Benjamin Hardman’s Winter in the North page 52

Keeping Iceland warm since 1926

Make the most of your last hours in Iceland.

We are your one stop shop for Icelandic design, souvenirs and traditional food. Browse wheninkef.is to see our selection and offers.

All shops and restaurants are tax- and duty free.

66north.com | @66north

Make the most of your last hours in Iceland.

We are your one stop shop for Icelandic design, souvenirs and traditional food. Browse wheninkef.is to see our selection and offers.

All shops and restaurants are tax- and duty free.

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26 WINTER 2020 I PUBLISHED BY ICELANDAIR

Read Icelandair Stopover magazine (including past editions) online at issuu.com/icelandair

LOOK INSIDE Featured Content: 4 Letter From Icelandair 8 Landscape: Icy Hues of Blue 10 Icelandic for Beginners 12 What to Do This Winter 14 Culture: Artsy Foot-Bath 16 Recommended Reads 18 Cover Interview:

40 Icelandair on Instagram 42 Film: Trapped, the Thrilling

67 Special Supplement

—Travel Tips:

46 Ok Glacier: In Memoriam 48 Festival: March of the

Langjökull, Inside and Out

Season 2

Designers

Hardman’s Take on the North

52 Photo Essay: Benjamin

Expeditioner Vilborg Arna

Inspirations

Icelandair’s Destinations

62 Our Destinations:

and Skiing

64 Our Destinations:

22 Film: Frozen II’s Icelandic 26 Travel: Icy Activities in

30 Travel: Backcountry Flying 32 Map: Snow Sports Across

52

56 Our Top Stopover Picks 60 Our Destinations:

Toronto’s Top Winter Activities Smart Tourism in Helsinki

Iceland

Shopping, Sledding and Indulging in Zürich

Ceramics by Inga Elín

Iceland’s Winter Tale

on Being Kendall Roy

Succession in Iceland

34 Saga Shop Product Profile:

66 Children’s Corner: A Treasure

36 Interview: Jeremy Strong

68 Into the Glacier: Exploring 70 Krauma: Bathing at Europe’s

Most Powerful Hot Spring 72 FlyOver Iceland: Reykjavík’s

Most Thrilling New Attraction 73 BIOEFFECT Greenhouse Tour:

A Behind-the-Scenes Journey 74 DutyFree: Happy Shopping

at Keflavík Airport 76 Reykjavík Eats and Treats:

A Guide to Dining and Drinking 81 Icelandic Lamb:

Unique Wild Flavor 84 Map of Iceland and Domestic Routes 86 Iceland 101: The Basics

for Traveling the Country

87 87 88

Flyer’s Hub: Route Network Outlining Icelandair’s Green Efforts

90 94

95

I celandair @Work: Novelties and News Saga Shop Kitchen: On-Board Menu

Map of Keflavík International Airport

98 In-Flight Entertainment 102 Icelandair Travel Experience 104 Our Fleet: Aircraft Types

and Names

106 Devices and Wi-Fi 108 Safety Information 110 Guide to Customs Forms

38 My Location:

Editor: Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir (editor@icelandair.is) Cover Image: Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir by Ari Magg Copy Editor: Sarah Dearne Contributing Writers: Sigríður Ásta Árnadóttir, Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir, Carolyn Bain, Sally O’Brien, Nancy Campbell, Sarah Dearne, Björn Halldórsson, Benjamin Hardman, Tina Jøhnk Christensen, Lea Kuliczkowski, Massimo Lupidi, Brandon Presser, Lisa Gail Shannen, Oddur Sigurðsson, Keree Smith Contributing Illustrators: Alfreð I. A. Pétursson and KIDZinflight

Contributing Photographers: Shawn Ang, Eyþór Árnason, Björgvin Franz Björgvinsson, Nancy Campbell, Brian Chan, Giní Cormerais, Roman Gerasymenko, T. Storm Halvorsen, Benjamin Hardman, Maarit Hohteri, Graeme Hunter, Lilja Jónsdóttir, John LaGuardia, Gigi Ling, Massimo Lupidi, Pekka Keränen, Elli Thor Magnusson, Sally O’Brien, Joshua Reddekopp, Axel Sigurðsson, Oddur Sigurðsson, Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson, Nikola Tomevski, W. van der Beek, Hanna Dís Whitehead Advertising: icelandair.com/about/media; Ingimar Elí Hlynsson (advertising@icelandair.is) Design: Ágústa S. Þórðardóttir / Icelandic Ad Agency

Correction: In the 2019 Fall Magazine of Icelandair Stopover, in our coverage of live shows as part of the article “Our Top Picks” on page 60, it is incorrectly stated that many of The Secret Cellar’s comedy shows are in English. All of their shows are in English. We apologize for the error.

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VOLCANO & EARTHQUAKE EXHIBITION The Lava Centre is situated at Hvolsvöllur on the South Coast of Iceland, surrounded by active volcanoes. It truly acts as the gateway to Iceland’s most active volcanic area. It’s a must-see for anyone wanting to get a better understanding of the incredible forces that have shaped Iceland.

The Lava Centre just received two Red Dot Awards, which cement its position as a world class exhibition.

More info and tickets at

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Open every day

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Lava now accepts

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Iceland Volcano & Earthquake Centre Austurvegur 14, Hvolsvöllur · South Iceland

Icelandair Stopover 3

LETTER FROM ICELANDAIR:

WE ARE THE TRANSATLANTIC AIRLINE GÍSLI S. BRYNJÓLFSSON, DIRECTOR OF GLOBAL MARKETING.

in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean, and who know this part of the world so well.

Dear passenger, welcome aboard!

The Icelandic winter has something for everyone, from culture connoisseurs to backcountry skiers. Our cover interview is with one of Iceland’s top expeditioners, Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir. A true lover of the outdoors and someone who’s always up for a challenge, she was the first Icelander to cross the South Pole solo and the first Icelandic woman to summit Mt. Everest. Read more on page 18.

Joining Icelandair in early 2019, after 15 years heading a Reykjavík advertising agency, was a lifelong dream come true for me. It’s a privilege to be entrusted with a brand such as Icelandair, so clearly connected to its roots, with strong heritage and genuine values.

This is a brand shaped by the spirit of Iceland, a country with a unique history, where the weather and geography often pose challenges but the locals always rise to the occasion.

We have channeled our resourcefulness into qualities known around the world, including creativity, resilience, and optimism that things will work out okay.

When I travel across the Atlantic—especially in winter—and hear the Icelandair greeting of velkomin um borð (“welcome aboard”), I feel comforted knowing I’m in the hands of experts well versed in the ways of fickle weather and trained by Iceland’s nature since they were kids. All Icelanders share that training; a respect for nature is ingrained in us as children and stays with us as adults. This is the ultimate training you need to fly over the Atlantic. As a passenger, you’ve made a great choice to travel with people who live on a unique island

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Private pilot Keree Smith tells us about her and Lexi duPont’s backcountry flying and skiing adventures in Iceland, accompanied with stunning photographs by Elli Thor Magnusson (page 30). Following their feature is a guide to Iceland’s prime snow-sport locations.

Photographer Benjamin Hardman also journeys to Iceland’s icy North, capturing frozen winter landscapes for his photo essay on page 52.

For other winter activities in Iceland and beyond, check out Nancy Campbell’s compilation of icy attractions in some of Icelandair’s destinations on page 26.

Jeremy Strong, a.k.a. Kendall Roy of hit HBO series Succession, discusses his role and his experience of filming in Iceland on page 36.

Actor Elva María Birgisdóttir of popular Icelandic crime series Trapped talks about the second season—which can be watched on

board this flight—on page 42, and on page 22 you can read about how Icelandic nature and folklore inspired the creators of Frozen II. An endless source of inspiration, five cutting-edge Icelandic design companies are covered in connection with DesignMarch on page 48.

Green design and sustainability are a theme for this year’s festival, apt given that Iceland bid farewell to its first glacier in 2019, marking a milestone in the national and global economic crisis (see page 46). Read about Icelandair’s green efforts on page 88.

Destinations in focus in this issue are: Toronto —Icelandair’s Lea Kuliczkowski lists her favorite things about her hometown in winter (page 60); Helsinki—presenting smart tourism in Finland’s innovative capital city (page 62); and Zürich for culture and other curiosities in Switzerland (page 64). When you travel with Icelandair between Europe and North America, you can add a Stopover in Iceland at no additional airfare. In “Our Top Picks” on page 56, we suggest how to make the most of your Iceland Stopover. Also don’t miss our special “Travel Tips” supplement on page 67.

Whatever travel adventures you have planned, we at Icelandair wish you a pleasant journey and hope to see you on board again soon.

Góða ferð! Have a good trip.

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Icelandair Stopover 7

CRYSTAL CAVE TEXT AND PHOTO BY MASSIMO LUPIDI. A little opening leads you down into a magical world of ice and snow.

The entrance is not so different from any other cave until you go inside it. The walls and ceiling are solid ice. Equipped with a powerful headlamp, helmet and crampons, I make my way inside. I hold my breath. It’s an adventure that I will never forget.

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Svínafellsjökull

Few visitors see a glacier from the inside. It’s a peculiar and spectacular vantage point. A magical blue world of ice caves, a frozen world that is shaped in the summer by melting ice and snow flowing through channels under the ice. It’s another world hidden under the centuriesold glaciers in Iceland.

The picturesque blue color of the ice caves is formed when a glacier has been compressed by its own weight for hundreds or thousands of years. They are a truly mesmerizing wonder of nature. The ice looks like huge waves trapped in suspended animation in a maze of interconnected frozen chambers, and it can turn a luminous blue when the sun is rising or setting.

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Hornbjarg

ICELANDIC FOR BEGINNERS

One thousand years, under 400,000 speakers and 50 words for snow. The Icelandic language is something else.

Fewer than 400,000 people speak Icelandic, a Germanic language that developed from Old Norse, the language of the Vikings. Listening to it is like traveling through time—due to the nation’s geographic isolation and conscious preservation, it has changed remarkably little in the past 1,000 years. Preserved ancient texts— which are still largely intelligible to modern readers—are studied at all school levels, and young and old still enjoy the Icelandic sagas.

• The word for helicopter is þyrla, from a verb meaning twirl.

In Iceland, creating new words for techno logical innovation is a national pastime, especially since the 19th century. Usually they are based on existing ones.

• Þ / þ (sometimes written as “th”) is pronounced like the “th” in think.

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• The word for telephone is sími, from an ancient word for long thread.

• The word for computer is tölva—a fusion of tala (number) and völva (prophetess).

The Icelandic alphabet has 32 letters, including:

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snjóhraglandi and hundslappadrífa. For some reason, the most popular one is snjór. n

• Æ / æ (sometimes written as “ae”) is pronounced like the “i” in tide.

• Ð / ð (sometimes written as “d”) is pronounced like the “th” in there.

Of course, Icelanders have selected their favorite word in a national referendum: Ljósmóðir (literally, “mother of light”) is the Icelandic word for midwife.

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Icelandic contains approximately 50 words describing different types of snow. These include skæðadrífa, kafaldsmyglingur, él,

Unlike many other European languages, there is no formal and informal version of the word you in regular speech. Simply use þú regardless of whom you are addressing.

And make sure to address Icelanders by their first name, even if they’re a music icon (Björk) or the world’s first female president (Vigdís). In fact, our phone book is listed alphabetically by given names.

Iceland has a strict government-run committee that decides which names are appropriate for giving to newborns.

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Hornbjarg sea cliff in Hornstrandir, the northern Westfjords. Photo by Axel Sigurðsson.

ICELANDIC 101 Hello Sæl (seyel) for addressing a woman Sæll (seyetl) for addressing a man Hi Hæ (hi) Good morning / afternoon Góðan daginn (go-than dye-yin) Good evening Gott kvöld (goht-kvohld) Good night Góða nótt (go-tha noht) Goodbye Bless (blehss)

10 Icelandair Stopover

Bye Bæ (bye)

Okay Allt í lagi (allt ee lye-yih)

See you later Sjáumst (syow-umst)

I love you Ég elska þig (yeh elska thih)

Thank you Takk fyrir (tahk fe-reer)

My name is Ég heiti (yeh hay-ti)

You’re welcome Það var ekkert (thah vahr ehk-kert)

One hot dog with everything please Eina með öllu, takk (ay-na meth oddlu takk)

Yes Já (yow)

Where can I find…

Hvar finn ég... (kvahr finn yeh…)

No Nei (nay)

I don’t speak Icelandic Ég tala ekki íslensku (yeh tah-la eh-kih ees-len-sku)

Maybe Kannski (kahn-skih)

Nr. 1 Attraction in Reykjavik

Perlan is a Must-Visit Landmark and Nature Exploratorium Perlan – Wonders of Iceland is an exploratorium in Reykjavík.

Experience a real Ice Cave, Icelandic Glaciers Exhibition, Guaranteed Northern Lights Planetarium Show and more.

THE REYKJAVÍK GRAPEVINE BEST MUSEUM 2019

Perlan – Wonders of Iceland is an enchanting interactive journey through Iceland’s nature, on five floors.

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Restaurant

Rammagerðin Gift Store

perlan.is

HERE AND THERE

Here’s what happening on the hippest island in the North Atlantic this winter.

AROUND ICELAND

January 24 SEYÐISFJÖRÐUR to February 22

Þorrablót (Midwinter Feast) Icelanders toast to the old gods with a midwinter feast of traditional fare. If you’re undaunted by strong flavors, don’t miss the hákarl (Greenland shark) with a swig of chilled Brennivín schnapps, while less daring palates should opt for the smoked lamb and dried fish. You can find Þorrablót menus at Nordicstyle restaurants around the country.

REYKJAVÍK

January 25 to February 1

Dark Music Days Dark Music Days lures Reykjavík out of hibernation and into Harpa Concert Hall’s warm embrace. The festival presents contemporary compositions from Iceland and abroad, with a focus on innovative new sounds. Celebrating its 40 th anniversary in 2020, this year’s edition is set to be extra special. darkmusicdays.is

REYKJAVÍK

February 6–9

Winter Lights Festival The Winter Lights Festival plays with the winter darkness while celebrating the lengthening days. In addition to brightening city architecture with hypnotic projections, the program includes live music and theater, illuminated pool nights, the Northern Lights Run, and Museum Night, where museums open late with special happenings. winterlightsfestival.is

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BY SARAH DEARNE.

February 9–13 and 14–15

Flat Earth Film Festival and List í ljósi On the other side of the country, the picturesque town of Seyðisfjörður also welcomes the returning daylight with the List í ljósi (Art in the Light) festival, which won last year’s Eyrarrósin prize for outstanding cultural programs. Running hand in hand with the Flat Earth Film Festival, List í ljósi gives the winter gloom a festive send-off in the form of light installations, indie film screenings, and various other cultural happenings. flatearthcinema. club, listiljosi.com

March 4–8

Food and Fun Festival Food and Fun Festival matches elite international chefs with Icelandic restaurants, competing to create the best gourmet menu from local ingredients. The festival runs on the premise that glöggt er gests augað (“the guest’s eye sees clearly”); free of preconceptions, visiting chefs identify delicious new possibilities in Icelandic ingredients. You can find participating restaurants on the website. foodandfun.is

AKUREYRI / HÚSAVÍK March 20–22

REYKJAVÍK

March 28

March 1–2

The Annual Icelandic Beer Festival Prohibition in Iceland ended just 31 years ago, and Icelanders have been making up for lost time with a flourishing craft beer scene.

The Annual Icelandic Beer Festival celebrates this new chapter with two days of beer tasting at the spacious KEX Hostel DRINX bar, where you can enjoy your brew accompanied by live music and resplendent views of Mt. Esja. kexbrewing.is/taste-it

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Akureyri n

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REYKJAVÍK

Reykjavík

Iceland Winter Games / Orkugangan With some of Iceland’s finest slopes, the North region hosts a number of winter sports festivals.

In March, don’t miss the Iceland Winter Games in Akureyri, which includes skiing and snowboarding, snowmobiling, snow biking, and various other snow-prefixed events at Hlíðarfjall ski resort. The following week is Orkugangan, a scenic cross-country race in Húsavík, about an hour’s drive from Akureyri. icelandwintergames.com, facebook.com/ orkugangan

Húsavík

Seyðisfjörður n

Left: Akureyri celebrates the peak of the winter sports season with the Iceland Winter Games. Photo by Joshua Reddekopp.

Right: Harpa shines brightly at the Winter Lights Festival in Reykjavík. Photo by Ragnar Th. Sigurðsson / Visit Reykjavík.

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Icelandair Stopover 13

THE “BOLLASTEINN” FOOT-BATH:

WHERE ART FUSES WITH NATURE

BY LISA GAIL SHANNEN. PHOTO BY ROMAN GERASYMENKO. Hidden amongst the Kisuklappir rocks on the shoreline of Grótta in Seltjarnarnes is the low-profile “Bollasteinn” sculpture—a public art installation created by Ólöf Nordal that takes immersive cultural participation to another level. Also known as “Kvika,” “Bollasteinn” is an invigorating foot-bath fashioned inside a large, grey basalt cup stone filled with a continuous supply of natural, mineral-rich geothermal water from a nearby well, which is said to have superb healing properties.

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Fitting seamlessly with the shoreline and blending with the horizon, the artwork invites people to sit around the edge of the cup stone, whatever the weather, and experience the age-old spa traditions of Iceland. With your feet dipped in the temperature-controlled water, you can feel the heat and power of the earth, all the while enjoying unending sea views and seasonal illuminations including glorious summer sunsets or the northern lights blazing across the dark winter skies. The footbath is free and open to the public, just don’t forget to bring your towel.

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Seltjarnarnes

Icelandair Stopover 15

STAY IN AND READ Winter is here, a time for puttering around the house in wooly socks and hibernating on the couch with a mug of tea and a good book. Please allow Björn Halldórsson to set you up with some quality reads for the holiday season.

HEIÐA: A SHEPHERD AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD By Steinunn Sigurðardóttir Here, novelist and poet Steinunn Sigurðardóttir reinvigorates the traditional Icelandic pastoral memoir by telling the story of Heiða, a sheep farmer living on the cusp of the Icelandic Highlands. In her introduction, Steinunn freely admits to taking inspiration from Nobel laureate Svetlana Alexievich’s oral histories. She then performs a skillful disappearing act and allows Heiða to take hold of the narrative and present her somewhat solitary life on Ljótarstaðir, the family farm that she took over at age 23.

In Steinunn’s writing, Heiða becomes vibrantly alive—a

James Herriot for the 21st century. Her voice blisters with anger when she talks about her fight against plans for a power plant near her farm, is tinged with embarrassment when she recounts her brief stint as a model in New York, and has a melancholic edge to it when she speaks of her family history and the people from her past. Even so, the reader gets the sense that here is a woman who chose her path with intent and purpose and who cherishes her solitude and independence.

THE ISLAND By Ragnar Jónasson Readers who fell in love with tenebrous detective Hulda Hermannsdóttir were somewhat dismayed by Ragnar Jónasson’s decision to portray her on the brink of retirement in The Darkness. However, his plan has now become evident as in The Island the series retreats into the past to show us a younger, middle-aged Hulda, keeping her chin up against the misogyny of the Reykjavík Police Force.

A plodding, quiet thriller, the reader is presented with two murders a decade apart, before Hulda enters the scene and begins to interrogate the suspects much like Inspec-

tor Goole. Fitting, as Ragnar is known for his knack of applying the tropes of the English murder mystery to the deadpan delivery of Nordic noir. A prolific translator of Agatha Christie, Ragnar also pays homage to his patroness’s most challenging mystery And Then There Were None in his choice of location: a remote island off the coast of Iceland. Using folklore of witch-burnings and black magic as kindling, Ragnar stokes the flames of dread and paranoia among his characters and gives a sinister edge to their breathtaking surroundings.

THE RECKONING By Yrsa Sigurðardóttir This is the second novel in Yrsa’s series about the Children’s House, a government agency that employs child psychologists who work with the police to interview children who have been subjected to trauma or abuse. After the unfortunate events of the first book, Detective Huldar and child psychologist Freyja have both suffered some professional setbacks. The disgraced Huldar has become the precinct ghost, and despite his valiant efforts to win her over, Freyja still harbors a deep resentment against him. To her dismay, the two are thrust together once more when a school

AUDIO BOOK

time capsule is found to contain a threatening message that predicts several deaths in the year of the capsule’s opening. As bodies begin to pile up, Huldar and Freyja must uncover the long-buried violence that set the events in motion and the failures of the child protection system that allowed hate to blossom and thrive. As before, Huldar and Freyja’s banter and will-they-won’t-they energy counteracts the series’ dark theme of crimes against children and the rage and reckoning of adult survivors.

NJÁL’S SAGA Author Unknown

With their somewhat archaic language and longwinded lists of who begat whom, it can be intimidating for new readers to enter the world of the Icelandic sagas. Still, if you’re willing to take the plunge, I can recommend no better starting point than Njál’s Saga. Set in the early days of Icelandic settlement, we are presented with a decades-long feud between two families that escalates from minor slights into defamations of honor and finally outbreaks of violence and murder. What is so striking is how relatable this story is to our modern tendencies: the

power dynamics of men and women and the troublesome relationship between vulnerable masculinity and violence. The people presented here are neither gods nor mythical beings but everyday folk navigating through a world of rigid social rules where infractions can have dire consequences. Delivered in a terse, economic writing style that contemporary writers might well take note of, Njál’s Saga is possibly the most readable pageturner to come out of the 13th century.

Check out which audio books are available on page 98 and on our in-flight entertainment system.

16 Icelandair Stopover

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Icelandair Stopover 17

En route up Ama Dablam in the Himalayas, in October 2019.

Next page: Vilborg on the summit ridge during the Everest expedition of 2017.

WHEN THE SKY ISN’T THE LIMIT In conversation with our cover girl.

BY BRANDON PRESSER. The first time I met Vilborg Arna Gissurardóttir, she came marching toward me in a Hillary Clinton-esque pantsuit, palm extended and eyes full of intent. The global economy had hiccuped, fracturing the Icelandic króna, and I was scurrying around Iceland rewriting the Lonely Planet guide in the wake of the financial storm. At the time, Vilborg Arna was starting her MBA coursework and working for a regional development agency. She had caught wind of my project and tracked me down to sell me on the merits of the country’s wild Northeast.

Our shared love of the outdoors quickly melted away the business veneer, stoking flames of friendship instead. Vilborg Arna and I have remained in touch ever since, and over the last decade I’ve watched her pack away her high-flying corporate gear and put on her high-performance fleeces and crampons.

After skiing alone across Antarctica, she cemented her reputation as Iceland’s premier expeditionist; she’s also the country’s first woman to summit Everest. And these days when I meet up with Vilborg Arna, I hear her bellowing laugh before I even see her appear.

On Being Kind of a Big Deal The most recent time I see Vilborg Arna, during the summer of 2019, we meet up for dinner at Íslenska Hamborgarafabrikkan in the lobby of a glass tower in central Reykjavík, overlooking the fjord. Among the assortment of sandwiches on the menu is the limited edition Vilborgarinn—the “Vilburger”—spiced with South Asian fixings and dedicated to her successful ascent of Mt. Everest.

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Vilborg Arna tells me about the next mountain on her to-do list—Ama Dablam (22,349 ft; 6,812 m)—and she shows me an email from 2006 in which she reached out to a tour operator to get more details on how to make the ascent. “It’s not one of the highest peaks on the planet, but it’s been on my mind forever because it’s so beautiful. It just catches you,” she explains. “I’ve passed the mountain thousands of times while leading expeditions in the Himalayas. To me it looks like a heart, but if you ask anyone else I’m sure they see something totally different,” she adds with one of her signature laughs.

Vilborg Arna’s mountaineering pursuits have led to a successful career on the motivational speaking circuit, “but in a country with such a small population, everyone’s a little bit famous for something,” she qualifies with another chuckle. The biggest perk of being Iceland’s all-star alpinist? The free burgers.

On Reaching the South Pole It was Christmas Day 2012, Vilborg Arna was on the tail end of her two-month journey to the South Pole, and she spotted a small tent in the distance—one of the other solo expeditionists trying to complete the 720-mile (1,130-km) trip from Hercules Inlet. She glided through the infinite white and up to the shivering shelter yelling “ho, ho, ho!” A man poked his head out of the tent: “Am I dreaming? Is this real?”

“He thought he was hallucinating, but then again, I would have too.” It’s Vilborg Arna’s favorite anecdote from her Antarctic adventure —she prefers to recount it instead of dwelling on any of the more trying moments. She doesn’t speak in aphorisms or bumper stickers; when asked how she completed the transit she simply says: “I just kept going!”

On Climbing the Seven Summits While crossing Antarctica was a test of grit, reaching the roof of each of the seven continents was more about the persistence of spirit. The original plan was to conquer all of the mountains in one calendar year— 2014—saving Everest for last. The first six ascents went off without a hitch, but a devastating avalanche en route to Everest curtailed her plans, killing 16 members of the climbing community. A second attempt in 2015 came to an abrupt end as well, when an earthquake launched another avalanche—this time through Everest Base Camp, taking another 19 souls. “Trying a third time was extremely difficult,” Vilborg Arna explained in an interview to the Icelandic newspaper Morgunblaðið; “but not trying would have been even harder.” She summited Everest with one sherpa guide in May of 2017. The experience radically changed her perspective on mountaineering, and processing unexpected obstacles, grief and defeat have become important components of her motivational oeuvres.

On Creating an Adventure Club For Vilborg Arna, every outing is a “workcation” on her relentless endeavor to make the outdoors less daunting and more accessible to the general population. Two years ago she turned her lecture series into an in-the-field practicum for eager followers, Tindar Travel, and began creating coursework for Icelanders keen on getting acquainted with their backyard and beyond. Weekly hikes around Reykjavík are the stepping stones to more arduous adventures like a yearly 14-day circuit in Nepal, which includes a visit to Everest Base Camp and summiting Island Peak (20,305 ft; 6,189 m). Clients have begun to reach out from all over the world; she’s even been asked to train astronauts prepping for space flight.

Her relatability is the secret sauce that gets newbies motivated; she’ll endorse a Snickers bar for an energy jolt instead of the latest fad diet or vitamin supplement. And her packing essential is a high-quality cuppa joe. “You must always pack a treat for every expedition—I bring my favorite coffee from the Icelandic brand Kaffitár—it’s important to make an enjoyable moment when conditions get super demanding all around you.”

On What’s Next Now that she’s returned from a successful summiting of Ama Dablam, Vilborg Arna has her sights set on what she considers her most nail-biting endeavor yet: starring on Allir geta dansað, Iceland’s version of Dancing with the Stars. “I feel more nervous about this than any of my expeditions,” she explains; “I can climb exposed mountains without even thinking about it, but I feel way more exposed doing this!”

Top: Vilborg (fourth from left) with a Tindar Travel group reaching Annapurna Base Camp, October 2019.

Middle: On an expedition to summit Ama Dablam, Nepal, in October 2019, with fellow climber Erlendur Pálsson.

Bottom: Flags flying at the South Pole, January 2013.

20 Icelandair Stopover

Her dance partner, Javi Fernández Valiño, thinks she’ll be strongest at ballroom dancing because of the precise footwork needed. “For eight years I’ve been carefully getting myself—or leading others—through very difficult terrain,” Vilborg Arna adds; “I’m excited that this will throw me out of my comfort zone and have me thinking about something completely different.”

Knowing Vilborg Arna, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she crushes the competition—but at the very least we can expect one of her bellowing laughs when she tackles the stage.

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Stopover 21

INTO THE UNKNOWN:

THE DISNEY ICELAND EXPERIENCE How Iceland’s landscapes inspired the storytellers behind Frozen II.

BY CAROLYN BAIN. PHOTOS ©DISNEY 2019.

It’s hard to believe it’s been more than six years since we were introduced to Elsa and Anna, Kristoff and Sven, and everyone’s favorite scene-stealer, Olaf the snowman. And since we heard renditions of “Let It Go” at full voice (especially from young girls in blue party dresses) everywhere we went.

Released in November 2013, the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Frozen has become one of the top-grossing animated films of all time, carrying an uplifting message of true love and sisterhood, and of princesses not needing a prince to rescue them.

Top: The Frozen gang hit the road to travel “as north as they can go.”

In November 2019, a sequel was released: Frozen II melts hearts with the return of favorite characters, this time on a quest to understand the origin of Elsa’s icy magical powers. Once again, in their journey through the north the

Bottom: Elsa preparing to cross the Dark Sea to reach Ahtohallan.

Continues on page 24.

22 Icelandair Stopover

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Elsa’s powers part the mist that surrounds the Enchanted Forest.

gang learns the power of love, family, and never giving up. With plenty of catchy songs as a money-spinning soundtrack, of course.

The first Frozen movie was inspired by “The Snow Queen,” a fairytale from the 1840s written by Danish master storyteller, Hans Christian Andersen, with a dash of Norse and Scandinavian mythology thrown into the mix.

The Frozen movies are a veritable smorgasbord of Nordic references: The kingdom of Arendelle is set on a fjord in a landscape inspired by Norway, and Scandi icons including stave churches, reindeer, rune stones, northern lights, and trolls appear. In Frozen II, Norwegian settings again play host to much of the tale, but Disney’s location scouts also looked further afield for inspiration, and found it in the landscapes of Iceland.

In explaining their choices behind the film’s locations, the storytelling team behind Frozen II describes Norway’s fairytale landscape as being particularly well suited to the strong and optimistic nature of Anna. Iceland, on the other hand, feels mythical and extreme—its landscapes match Elsa’s supernatural character.

The team has spoken of their impressions of Iceland, and of feeling the energy and power of nature here, from the mist-making waterfalls to the tectonic wonders. Look out for these inspired-by-Iceland locations on the big screen (contains mild spoilers): Raging Seas and Black Sand: Reynisfjara Elsa’s battle to cross the stormy Dark Sea to reach Ahtohallan begins on a moody blacksand beach, with a rock pillar standing sentinel in the distance. The parallels are obvious with Reynisfjara, the dramatic beach not far from Vík on Iceland’s south coast. It’s backed by an impressive stack of basalt columns, with views to the Reynisdrangar sea stacks. Note

24 Icelandair Stopover

that the roaring waves portrayed in the movie are not too far from reality—visitors to Reynisfjara must pay heed to the warning signs (and not feel inspired to follow Elsa into the ocean).

Icy Vistas and “Water Memory”: Vatnajökull With the help of the mythical water horse Nokk, Elsa travels across the Dark Sea on her quest to reach Ahtohallan, a fabled river told by her mother to contain all explanations of the past. As Elsa reaches Ahtohallan, she realizes the river is in fact a glacier, and she sets about exploring it for answers. The glacier tongues, lagoons and icy peaks of southeast Iceland are an obvious inspiration. The glaciers drip like icing from Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest ice cap, which take up some 8% of Iceland’s land mass and since 2019 has been protected on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the immense Vatnajökull National Park.

Exploration of a Dark Mysterious Cave: Þríhnúkagígur Volcano As Elsa takes her solo journey to Ahtohallan, Anna and Olaf set about on their own quest, and a fraught river journey takes them into a large, dark cavern inspired by Þríhnúkagígur. The name is a mouthful to pronounce (try “threenewga-geega”), but it’s an epic excursion not far outside Reykjavík. Thankfully, the marketers have called the tour “Inside the

Volcano,” and that’s exactly what you get. After walking 2 miles (3 km) across barren lava landscapes, you board a cable lift to descend 400 ft (120 m) to the magma chamber of a dormant volcano, surrounded by ancient rocks and shimmering colors.

Travels in a Scenic Gorge: Fjaðrárgljúfur We’re sorry, it’s another tonguetwisting name! Towards the very end of the movie, as the camera pans from events inside the Enchanted Forest along the fjord towards Arendelle, the sheer rock walls resemble the Insta-worthy canyon off the Ring Road close to the southern Iceland town of Kirkjubæjarklaustur. This spectacular 1.24-mile-long (2-km) canyon was carved by the river Fjaðrá, and a walking path follows its length and offers photogenic vantage points. You may also know the place from Justin Bieber music videos—in fact, among tourists the canyon goes by the easier-to-pronounce nickname “Bieber Canyon.”

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Icelandair Stopover 25

Top: A champion ice climber scales the cliffs at Ouray Ice Festival, Colorado.

Photo by LaGuardia Adventure Photography.

Bottom: Icebergs line the horizon in Disko Bay, Greenland. Photo by Nancy Campbell.

CHASING ICE From cool cocktail bars to polar explorers’ sophisticated ships, take some time this winter to discover the many uses humans have found for this magical mineral.

BY NANCY CAMPBELL. The disappearance of glaciers is making headline news, but the natural wonder of ice can still be experienced in Iceland. For a truly dazzling encounter, take a trip to Breiðamerkursandur (Diamond Beach) at Jökulsárlón on the south coast, where crystal-clear blocks of ice from the outlet glaciers of Vatnajökull sparkle on the black sands. But Iceland isn’t the only Icelandair destination to offer its visitors frozen adventure.

Copenhagen Take a detour on a stroll through Copenhagen to discover a culture on the edge of the ice that is fast disappearing. The quiet galleries of the Danish National Museum house a vast collection of Arctic treasures from the farthest corners of Siberia, across Alaska and Canada to Greenland. These amazing everyday objects reveal the ingenuity of people honing their skills of survival on some of the world’s greatest ice masses.

The fight against the freeze was traditionally won in warm clothes made from animal skins and in homes of snow heated with stone lamps. Look out for sleds designed to speed across miles of land and sea ice, and magic objects created to appease the terrifying forces of nature in places where the cold ruled for at least 10 months of the year.

Continues on page 28.

26 Icelandair Stopover

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On deck inside the Fram Museum, Oslo, where the stormy Arctic seas navigated by early explorers can be experienced by a new generation of polar enthusiasts. Photo by T. Storm Halvorsen.

Oslo Fram Museum (voted Norway’s Best Museum in 2017) is named after the ship in which explorer Fridtjof Nansen was frozen into the Arctic ice in 1893. The museum tells the story of more than a century of pioneering exploration through perilous conditions in the polar regions. The dramatic centerpiece is three original wooden vessels, including Nansen’s Fram. The enormous boats are enhanced by new media, enabling all the family to take a thrilling imaginative journey through sea ice and storms. These epic nautical adventures are accompanied by displays charting the crossing of the Greenland ice cap on skis in 1888, the first flights over the Arctic, and the chance to experience life in an igloo.

Zürich One of the highlights of a trip to Zürich is a stroll up Uetliberg. The city’s own “mountain” reaches 2,848 ft (868 m) above sea level, towering over the city’s stylish rooftops. The summit offers a wonderful panoramic view of the city—and on a clear day, even a dreamlike glimpse of the Alps. Uetliberg is particularly popular among locals in winter and early spring, when its snowy summit rises above the fog that blankets the city, and the walking trails become sledding runs. Meanwhile, down at ground level, the city’s 1,200 water fountains freeze into beautiful ice formations.

28 Icelandair Stopover

London Even on warm days, a cool cocktail is guaranteed at London’s ICE BAR. For over a decade, this stylish Mayfair drinking hole has served its signature drinks—the Bifrost Bite, North Star Martini and Viking Bellini—in unique ice glasses to deliver a sophisticated chill. The bar is decorated with hand-carved ice sculptures that change each spring: The current theme is “Valhalla Calling.” The temperature in ICE BAR never rises above 23°F (-5°C), but visitors are given a cape and gloves to keep them warm. Food is supplied by Yuu Kitchen, which offers delicious Filipino flavors and the Fire Bar—the perfect complement to ice.

Washington D.C. Before refrigeration, ice had to be collected from rivers and lakes in winter and stored in cold underground cellars or “ice houses.” The former US President George Washington had a great enthusiasm for ice, as he and his wife Martha enjoyed the fashionable new dessert known as “ice cream.” A visit to Washington’s historic home at Mount Vernon, where gardens, grounds and even his distillery are preserved, should include the impressive ice house built on the hillside looking over the Potomac River.

New York What could be more invigorating than a spin around an ice rink with Manhattan’s iconic skyline as a backdrop? Skating in Central Park is a classic New York experience, whether the first date of romantic movies or a fun family outing. At the Wollman Rink, located on the east side of Central Park, close to the zoo, the skating season runs through the winter from mid-October until April.

Denver The Ouray Ice Festival is a world-famous celebration of ice climbing, and this year’s 25th anniversary festival promises to be biggest and best so far. From January 23 to 26, the Ouray Ice Park in Colorado will become a mecca for fans of this growing sport. The public park has 200 climbing routes passing though breathtaking mountain scenery. Off the trail, there’ll be opportunities to demo the latest ice tools, apparel and gear, and compare notes over beer with other enthusiasts. During the weekend, hundreds of spectators watch the world’s climbing talent battle for prizes against a dramatic backdrop of ice and rock.

With over 100 interactive and climbing clinics to accommodate every skill level, festival participants are sure to have an experience to remember.

Nancy Campbell is the author of The Library of Ice: Readings from a Cold Climate (Simon and Schuster UK), a travel book about discovering ice in Iceland and elsewhere.

LAND BENEATH US Two private pilots document their thrilling flight and off-piste skiing adventure in Iceland.

BY KEREE SMITH. PHOTOS BY ELLI THOR MAGNUSSON. I first visited Iceland over five years ago and have made a point to return every year since.

The country immediately took hold of me.

From the forgotten fjords of the West to the stark interior of the Highlands, every visit offers a unique experience. This trip, a newfound friend, Lexi duPont, and I looked to explore this beautiful frozen land, combining general aviation with a passion for backcountry skiing.

flew through landscapes young and ancient, where new earth poured forth from steaming volcanic hotspots, forming lava fields thick with moss. All the while, the frozen crumblings off ancient glacial waters warmed, flowing to the sea in a ribbon of runoff. I watched Lexi and Jon’s Super Cub weave in and out of the lands below. Suddenly, the wildest and most remote corners of the earth became accessible, fathomable. We had entered a whimsical dreamscape.

Both Lexi and I recently became private pilots. Though we had never met, I called her up and three weeks later she stood in line at Joe and the Juice in Keflavík’s arrivals terminal.

Simply one of those individuals, Lexi radiates warmth and positivity, and she immediately greeted me as an old friend. In Reykjavík, we met local pilots Haraldur Diego and Jón Ólafsson and our journey began…

As suddenly as we had entered, we came down. We traveled north, seeking to reconnect with the land we had just flown, though this time with skis as our medium. Our team chose an objective on the northernmost coast of Iceland, a mountain nicknamed Finnur. Skis strapped to our packs, we boot-packed, step after step until finally standing on a rigid knife edge. Peering out into the infinity of the ocean below, I breathed deeply... I buckled my boots.

Lexi and I looked at each other and nodded.

My heart rate increased as we accelerated down the runway. The whirr of the prop reached its pinnacle and the plane lifted. We

Lap after lap, our skis glided effortlessly across the snow as we floated to the sea.

My arms spread out from my sides, and I found

30 Icelandair Stopover

myself flying in a whimsical world once again.

We departed the slopes with the last kisses of afternoon warmth, watching the fjords become shrouded in the misty pink glow of evening light. Shadows of deep blues and blacks crept like ominous blue giants, climbing the hillsides until completely blanketing mountain peaks with the blackness of night.

I reflect on my time in Iceland with a nostalgic warmth, one that might accompany awakening from a vivid dream. I feel that humans inherently work to contextualize our worlds, and ourselves within our worlds. The deeper I go, the more frequently I discover that flying through the air or floating down the mountains on my skis elicits the same delightful aesthetic qualities, simply from a different point on this canvas we call life. Who knows what Iceland may hold on my next visit?

I cannot wait to return.

Flip over to page 32 for a map of top ski destinations in Iceland.

If you would like to follow this project, visit landbeneathus.com. Special thanks to our friends and support at Eddie Bauer and The Empire Productions.

Previous page: Lexi and Keree approaching their ski lines on a ridge above the sea in Ólafsfjörður.

Clockwise from top: Jón’s Super Cub scouts Iceland’s interior above ribbons of glacial run-off.

Lexi flying down pristine backcountry slopes in the Tröllaskagi peninsula.

Smiles after the joy of flight.

Icelandair Stopover 31

2 6 3

4 5

7 8 9

1

10

SKI LIKE THERE’S SNOW TOMORROW 1. Reykjavík Two resorts lie less than a half-hour drive from the capital and attract snow-loving city-dwellers: Bláfjöll is the larger option; Skálafell is also popular.

2. Ísafjörður In the far northwest, close to the Westfjords’ major town, lie ski areas Tungudalur and Seljalandsdalur, with ski lifts, cross-country trails and a fun Easter celebration. The region is also popular for backcountry skiing.

3. Sauðárkrókur North of town is the looming mountain Tindastóll, with a ski area suitable for all the family, plus awesome views of Skagafjörður.

4. Tröllaskagi The “Troll Peninsula” is a snow-lover’s dream, with super slopes and three resorts in close proximity, by the towns

32 Icelandair Stopover

BY CAROLYN BAIN. PHOTO BY ELLI THOR MAGNUSSON.

of Siglufjörður, Ólafsfjörður and Dalvík.

There are also snowmobile and snowcat tours, and bumper heli-skiing and skitouring opportunities.

5. Akureyri The king of all the Icelandic resorts is Hlíðarfjall, with full facilities, a ski school, floodlit runs, and cross-country tracks.

6. Grenivík Take a snowcat tour up Kaldbakur (3,848 ft; 1,173 m), the longest ski run in Iceland, then ski, snowboard, sled, walk, or take the snowcat back down. This remote peninsula (unofficially known as Huldulandið) is another favorite for heli-skiing and ski-touring.

7. Mývatn Cross-country skiing and snowshoe walks across frozen lakes and lava fields are a big winter lure in this prime “fire and ice” location.

8. Seyðisfjörður Just 10 minutes outside this perfectly picturesque town is Stafdalur, with one lift plus kids’ lift, plus cross-country and snowmobiling opportunities.

9. Eskifjörður In the “Alps of the East Fjords” sits Oddsskarð, a small resort high above the towns of Eskifjörður and Neskaupstaður, with good backcountry access. Visit during Easter for its snow festival.

10. Hvannadalshnjúkur Iceland’s loftiest peak (6,923 ft; 2,110 m) offers springtime ski mountaineering opportunities for those with plenty of experience.

Above: Private pilot and adventurer Keree Smith using her skis to explore all that Iceland has to offer.

Read more about her travels on the previous spread.

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34 Icelandair Stopover

For decades, Inga Elín has put her heart into her signature cups, shaping them by hand on a potter’s wheel in her harborside studio and hand-painting them with up to 60 different patterns. They are highly sought-after—for example, Kol Restaurant in Reykjavík uses them for serving cocktails—and until recently she wasn’t able to meet demand. “I had almost given up on finding a producer for the cups,” says Kristinn V. Ísaksson, Inga Elín’s son, who is the marketing person in their small family

business. “Then by coincidence I found this factory in Sri Lanka where they were able to meet our standards. They hand-make and hand-paint the cups—there are women there who specialize in my mother!”

Inga Elín studied art at the Icelandic College of Art and Crafts (now Iceland University of the Arts), later specializing in ceramics and glassblowing at the Danish Design School. For her graduation piece in 1988, she received the respected Kunsthandværkerprisen award from Queen Margrethe of Denmark. Inga Elín designs the trophy for the Iceland

Music Awards (announced annually in March), has worked with the Icelandic national team of chefs, and her cups were recently used at an event at the famous Soho House in New York. When Elton John came to Iceland for a concert in 2007, he specifically asked to see Inga Elín and ended up buying a few of her pieces for his collection.

Inga Elín’s cups are available in design stores such as Kaolin, Epal and Hrím in Reykjavík, Hof in Akureyri—and two of them, Blizzard and Mist, also on board Icelandair. Their icy-blue colors suit the season.

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Top: Filming at the exclusive Veiðilækur Lodge in Norðurárdalur, Borgarfjörður, West Iceland.

Bottom: Jeremy Strong as a distraught Kendall Roy, whose stay at the Iceland retreat is cut short.

FROM MANHATTAN TO REYKJAVÍK

Jeremy Strong—Kendall Roy in hit HBO series Succession—talks about his role and shooting the opening scene of Season 2 in Iceland.

BY TINA JØHNK CHRISTENSEN. PHOTO AND STILL BY GRAEME HUNTER / HBO. In New York-based HBO show Succession the Roy siblings—Roman, Shiv, Connor and Kendall—fight to take over their father’s conglomerate Waystar Royco. In the first season, Kendall, portrayed by Jeremy Strong, takes a hit when a dramatic event makes him the subject of his father’s manipulation. He goes to Iceland to recover, though not for long. Jeremy speaks about the show and his experience in Iceland.

Your character Kendall Roy is at a spa in Iceland at the beginning of the second season. Why is he in Iceland in the first place?

I think the idea is that Kendall was at some high-end exclusive wellness or rehabilitation center, which is a kind of “choose your own adventure” kind of place. It’s meant to be a hideaway for him: a clinic of some kind. I think there were discussions about setting it in the Swiss Alps or in Austria, where there are some famous clinics. I think Jesse Armstrong [creator and head writer] chose Iceland for many reasons, one being the natural beauty but also the sort of frozenness of the landscape. [He sees] the desolate quality to these fields of ossified lava rock as somehow being symbolic of where the character is at. The action picks up 24 hours after the end of the last season. For me, that meant sort of being in a state of more or less complete crisis and collapse, and being against the backdrop of this volcanic frozen tundra otherworldly place was very powerful.

So Kendall is in Iceland to recuperate from what happened in the first season?

Yeah. I think he’s there just to get the f*** away from everything and hide out, in a

36 Icelandair Stopover

sense. But then the world and his father need him to come back, I think before he’s ready.

And then he’s sort of just put through a different wringer again.

We see Kendall driving through the landscape of Iceland. What did you manage to see in Iceland while you were there?

I shot there for about a week. I had never been before. I will say that I had blinders on because the work I had to do there weighed quite heavily on me and I did not feel that I was in a place where I could permit myself to enjoy it very much. Because what I felt was so important to capture was an almost catatonic state of shock and inner collapse when we first see the character. I stayed at The Retreat at the Blue Lagoon, which is a really incomparable place. There was something conducive to the kind of emotional state I had to be in, being in this twilit, silica, neon, blue, green lagoon outside the window with these frozen lava fields in the background and then just silence. It felt very conducive to the work I had to do and then when we finished filming, I spent a few days in and around Reykjavík and had a chance to explore a bit. It’s a fantastic place and I cannot wait to get back.

Icelandic actor Ingvar E. Sigurðsson is part of a short scene at the beginning of the second season of Succession.

Yes. He’s clearly a heavyweight actor and I think Brian Cox [who plays Logan Roy, Kendall’s father] had seen him in a production of an Ibsen play many years ago and Brian went to introduce himself afterwards because he had given such a colossal performance.

It’s not easy to come into something like Succession, where all of us have been working together for quite some time. He immediately belonged in a very elemental way

and I loved working with him. I personally don’t like to rehearse much if at all, so we did not interact much before the cameras were on, and I always find that electrifying and slightly dangerous but a very rewarding way of working and meeting your scene partner in the ring.

Even though it’s an opening scene, I believe you went to Iceland and did the scene with Ingvar at the end of the shoot, right?

We didn’t go to Iceland until May. It was many months into the season and it was kind of laid on. It was difficult going back in time in that sense. [Ingvar’s] character was written for that sequence. I guess the idea was that Kendall would’ve been allowed to stay in this clinic and convalesce and recover and find some kind of equilibrium, and as it is he is yanked out before he gets a chance to do that and is thrown from crisis to crisis. The scene between us is when he comes to get me at the clinic and I remember that I had a feeling that we still needed to do some work on it. Oftentimes a scene is like a blueprint and we’ll make discoveries as the actors on the day and sort of crack it open. We messed around quite a bit in terms of dialogue and levels of temperature and extremity, and there were many more versions of that scene than what ended up in the cut. It was wonderful to have a scene partner who was that elastic and free and who was prepared to travel off script and stay completely present the way that he did.

Kendall tries so hard to follow in the footsteps of his father, Logan Roy, but it seems his father is not eager to see him as the successor. Is that so?

When you want things badly, and you set yourself up for a fall and for disappointment and when you’re up against adversity the way

Kendall is, it’s that much more painful to fail, in a sense. So, he overreaches the mark, I think, because he has so much to prove.

He lives in the shadow of his father and is desperately trying to emerge out from underneath that, but he’s kind of spent his life shadowboxing with that. “Do I try and free myself from my father’s legacy and my family’s legacy or do I try and become like my father?”

And I think that conflict is at the crux of the show. But why does he try so hard? I guess there’s some kind of void in him, right?

There’s some kind of deep lack, which he’s trying to fill through power, through his father’s acceptance, through his status and reputation in the world, which is a very modern predicament to be in. And that’s where the addiction also comes into play. I think that’s another thing that’s trying to fill that hole in him.

The show takes place in New York.

You grew up in Boston. Did you grow up with money?

I think my family probably couldn’t be more different than this family. I didn’t grow up around any money. I grew up sort of next to the housing projects in inner-city Boston and was always kind of an outsider with a fire in my belly, which helps you as an actor. And it helps with this character because even though he is to the manor born, I think in a sense he still feels like an outsider because he didn’t earn it all. It’s all just been given to him, and there’s something disempowering about that.

Brian Cox portrays Logan as a very dominating father in Succession.

How is your own father?

Fortunately, I have an incredibly nurturing and loving father and mother. And so, for me, [to portray] that relationship that exists with Logan, I had to draw from other things in my

life. I certainly have figures in my life that I have tried very hard to gain acceptance and approval from, mentors, actors who have been heroes of mine. And that’s what you do, you sort of just cull from your own experience, the bric-a-brac of your own life and funnel it into the writing.

Kendall is an anti-hero. What is people’s reaction to you?

A lot of people, as I’m just crossing the street,

will be like, “What’s up Kendall?”, “Hey Kendall.” So, there’s this wonderful feeling of intimacy, but I think people find these characters quite reprehensible and monstrous, actually. So, I often get into conversations with people where I’m trying to defend what I see as the humanity of these characters.

Because it’s not his fault, it’s not the fault of these characters that they grew up in this way and that they have this baggage and this damage.

Icelandair Stopover 37

MY LOCATION:

STORYTELLING WITH LANDSCAPES The dramatic Icelandic scenery featured in HBO hit series Succession evokes an exciting, cinematic mood, amplifying emotion and enhancing an increasingly dark storyline.

Above: The winding road through Nesjavellir (Nesjavallaleið is closed during the winter).

38 Icelandair Stopover

BY LISA GAIL SHANNEN. PHOTO BY ROMAN GERASYMENKO. Wisps of steam rise from a luxury geothermal spa, warming, but only slightly, the stark, almost monochrome background, where freezing fog settles on the muted yellows of a partially-thawed grassy terrain. This is the opening scenery of the second season of HBO hit drama Succession featuring actor Jeremy Strong, who plays the troubled son of an aging media mogul. Filmed at the exclusive Veiðilækur (“Fish Creek”) Lodge in Norðurárdalur, Borgarfjörður, the scene presents a stark contrast to the series’ core Manhattan locations. Although the setting around the lodge in a way determines the shape of the entire episode—it’s raw, it’s thrilling and it’s bleak—it also augments the internal mindset of Jeremy Strong’s character, Kendall Roy,

and the emotional wasteland he finds himself in at the end of Season 1.

While the scenes shot at the lodge set the overall tone, it’s the sweeping, cinematic aerial shots of Nesjavallaleið in the following scene, as Kendall is driven in a black Chevrolet Suburban, that establish the continued brooding mood and emphasize the character’s vulnerability in an unforgiving, bitterly harsh environment.

Having also been featured in Ben Stiller’s The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Nesjavallaleið—an enchanting stretch of road south of Þingvellir National Park (Route 435) threading through the rising heights and geothermal areas around Hengill—is a familiar star location and one that Einar Sveinn Þórðarson from Pegasus Productions has experience with. Apart from his work on Succession, scenes from his past projects,

including Arctic and the epic fight scene between the Hound and Lady Brienne of Tarth from Game of Thrones, were also filmed in the area.

One of the main concerns when shooting in visually-impressive natural sites such as those around Nesjavallaleið, is maintaining and protecting the environment— filming for Succession with a team of 65 people was challenging, which is why they worked in tandem with the environmental protection agency. The landscapes, although enduring and formidable, can be just as vulnerable as the characters they host.

As Einar says, “We always go in with full respect for nature, and we want to leave a location, if anything, in better shape than we found it.” Which is more than can be said for ill-fated Game of Thrones character The Hound, who Einar says “is still haunting the area, I’m sure.”

Proudly Making Iceland a Hot Destination.

We could talk forever about how interesting our clean energy production at Hellisheidi is. But, instead, let’s see what some of our guests at the Geothermal Exhibition have to say on TripAdvisor: “A must see activity”, “Bucket List”, “... interactive and inspiring”, “Now I’m impressed!”

We hope to welcome you too on your trip to Iceland at the most powerful exhibition in the world.

Only 20 min. drive from Reykjavík.

A perfect stop on your way to or from the city.

The exhibition is open every day from 9-17. Please direct any inquiries to exhibition@on.is Tel: (+354) 591 2880 www.geothermalexhibition.com

Please note that by using the #MyStopover hashtag, you are granting us permission to use your image in our magazine or on our social media channels.

Join us

Thanks to Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, you can share your travel experience with the world.

Check out this selection of recent images from our passengers who tagged their pictures with the #MyStopover tag. Pretty great, right? In upcoming issues, we will feature the best pics by users who include the #MyStopover tag. Happy snapping!

Hidden gems in Iceland, -5° outside️ +40° inside chloeellul I Chloe Ellul

Sometimes the best view can be found on the road less taken. Legend has it that this canyon is named after a female troll called Kola who used to live just near where the bridge is now. maryannegul I Maryanne Gul

This is the captain speaking, we have landed in Iceland once again (the home of all of Erin’s Dreams) erin_rose_sheehy I Erin Sheehy

Crystal blue ice cave shwuni I Ng Shwuni

This place rocks! (Pun intended.) Basalt columns at Reynisfjara beach, Iceland. tamarashea88 I Tamara Kelley

We chased a lot of waterfalls this trip, and I highly recommend it. jannamae I Janna Bradshaw

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A louca dos reflexos ataca novamente. mabigoncalves I Maria Beatriz Goncalves

It has been an hour or more of light fiesta.

We decided to leave home and enjoy it! arwenlynnnorazlina I Arwenlynn Norazlina

Sunsets in Iceland are spectacular. c_to_the_lare I Clare Flynn

Safely made it to Vancouver. Thanks to @audursigvalda & @icelandair djou0501 I Julie Stamenic

When it’s 2:00 am and you happen to look out the window: Northern Lights from our hotel room. @hotelkria with the best views. iamlennice I Lennice Aceves

Autumnal vibes. niklas.james I Niklas Esparza

Really missing the cute and colourful buildings in this ReykjavĂ­k. hello.stacers I Stacy Lim Xin Ying

One of the prettiest Boeing 757s around: @icelandair kjwoerkom I Klaas-Jan van Woerkom

Icelandair Stopover 41

EMOTIONALLY TRAPPED Elva María Birgisdóttir talks about Season 2 of hit Icelandic crime series Trapped and her role as troubled teen Þórhildur.

BY EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR. PHOTOS AND STILLS BY LILJA JÓNSDÓTTIR FOR RVK STUDIOS. A remote Icelandic community closed off from the outside world by a raging blizzard and the locals trapped in town with a ruthless murderer in their midst! Trapped (Ófærð) Season 1 took the world by (snow)storm with fans eagerly awaiting their favorite bearded detective Andri’s return to the screen. In Season 2, Andri—portrayed by the charismatic Ólafur Darri Ólafsson—investigates murders, abuse of foreign labor, environmental crimes, neo-Nazi cells and an old family tragedy, while trying to fix the strained relationship with his teenage daughter Þórhildur, whom Elva María Birgisdóttir plays.

Icelandair Stopover spoke with the young actor about the hit Nordic noir series, her role as Þórhildur and her relationship with her “dad.”

How would you describe Þórhildur?

She’s a teenager going through a lot of things, like her parents’ divorce, which is never easy.

She is kind of caught up in the conflict between them, especially with her mom living in Reykjavík and her dad moving back North where Þórhildur lives with her aunt. When her dad arrives, he is like the pink elephant in the room. Their relationship obviously isn’t good, primarily due to lack of communication, and Þórhildur’s lack of understanding for her dad’s situation. They are both stubborn and neither of them willing to give in, which causes all these arguments; the most

Þórhildur is not pleased when her dad arrives in the North Iceland town where she lives with her aunt.

insignificant things blow up to major issues.

Yet Andri has justifiable concerns for his daughter, who isn’t a child anymore, has a boyfriend and doesn’t come home at night.

What was it like, playing her? Þórhildur and I are very different characters and I don’t relate to her much. She’s taking out all her teen anger, gets totally emotional and makes such a big deal out of everything, which is very unlike my personality. But it was fun to try it, to step so far out of my own self.

Did you and Darri have a good connection on set?

I know him from the first season and it was good to have a friendly face on set, especially during the more difficult scenes. In between we would joke around, which made it easier Continues on page 44.

42 Icelandair Stopover

THE NATURAL CHOICE ICELANDIC LAMB – BEYOND COMPARE True to our tradition of 1,100 years, pure-bred Icelandic Lamb grazes freely, acquiring delicate seasonings of berries and herbs. Its premium quality, texture, and delicious flavour make it the natural choice of leading chefs. Look for the Icelandic Lamb Shield, a guarantee of excellence awarded to Icelandic restaurants. www.icelandiclamb.is

to do the fight scenes and where I had to cry and show that kind of emotion. Like in the eighth episode when something big happens and Þórhildur blames herself—even though it isn’t her fault.

Clockwise from top left: Þórhildur with her liberal aunt (Katla M. Þorgeirsdóttir); Þórhildur gets caught up in a local family tragedy; Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as Andri, devoted detective and concerned father.

You can watch Trapped on board this flight. Check out our selection of films and TV shows on page 98 and on our in-flight entertainment system.

44 Icelandair Stopover

How does Season 2 compare to Season 1?

It’s a sequel and you know the people but you can also start watching without knowing them.

We have a female director now, Ugla Hauksdóttir, which is great. It was important to maintain the big picture yet take a step up.

It can be trying to make another season because there’s a lot of pressure to live up to expectations, but from what I’ve heard, people like this one too.

There’s no snow, though.

No, the snow is gone. In this season, there wasn’t supposed to be any snow, yet it often snowed when we were supposed to shoot outside so we often had to postpone. If it snowed, we either had to postpone or film a different scene inside. At school, I was constantly hitting refresh on the weather forecast website. In one scene—when all the farmers come driving in a procession—everything had been set up and then it snowed, so the road had to be cleared.

But it was cold?

It was so cold. Stormur [Jón Kormákur Baltasarsson, who plays Aron, Þórhildur’s boyfriend] and I wore double woolen underwear and our costumes on top and still we were freezing.

Between scenes we were given huge parkas

and heating pads to warm up. I feel cold just thinking about it. But everyone was so kind and prepared to help.

What is your favorite scene?

There was this scene where Stormur and I got into a fight with a third party, which was a lot of fun but also hard. Stormur took a tough beating, poor thing, but everything was practiced thoroughly beforehand. I’d only seen scenes like this in movies, so it was fun trying it myself. We had to practice and make sure we did it correctly, and an outside professional choreographed it. Even if I was acting, I got an adrenalin kick out of putting myself into these circumstances. The cameraperson and actor had to cooperate closely so that the punches would look real.

The series feels very Icelandic. Why do you think it’s so popular internationally?

Maybe because it feels authentically Icelandic. Iceland is “in” and people like watching Icelandic culture, even though murders don’t happen here every day. People also like to watch family drama and know that people in Iceland are dealing with the same things as people everywhere. It shows how small the world is and that we’re all connected. And everyone enjoys watching a good show, getting hooked on a Scandinavian crime series. It’s a good advertisement for Iceland; there’s a lot of beautiful nature.

Will there be a Season 3?

I’ve heard rumors… I hope so!

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THE GLACIER THAT WAS OK Geologist Oddur Sigurðsson discusses Iceland’s loss of glaciers due to climate change and its significance.

TEXT AND PHOTOS

BY ODDUR SIGURÐSSON. In the fall of 2014, the glacier Okjökull was declared dead ice and, therefore, a glacier no more. Okjökull was well known to the public in Iceland and the largest Icelandic glacier to meet its demise in recent time. In August 2019, a memorial was organized on the site of the former glacier, with members of the Icelandic cabinet, foreign dignitaries, the present and former mayors of Reykjavík, scientists, and a group of young people who recited their poem about nature. A plaque was placed on the site, acknowledging that people knew what was happening in nature and what needed to be done about it to avoid further climate-change impacts. Only future

46 Icelandair Stopover

Main image: Ok in November 1990. The volcano in the center is covered in fresh snow; the glacier is the smooth surface cupola, on the side of the summit crater.

Small image: The remnants of Okjökull in August 2014.

generations will know whether we did what was needed.

worldwide that are already having dire effects on the planet and, thereby, humankind.

Okjökull used to be a beautiful dome on the northern side of the extinct volcano Ok. At the turn of the 20 th century, the glacier’s area was about 5.8 square miles (15 km2). By 1945, the area was 2.7 square miles (7 km2), decreasing to 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2) in 2000, and finally to 0.27 square miles (0.7 km2) in 2012. At that time the glacier was probably already dead ice. Remnants of the glacier ice can still be found on Ok and they can be easily identified from other snow masses by the typical large ice crystals. The demise of a small glacier in Iceland has no grave effect on the surroundings, but it is a sign of enormous changes in nature

Since the height of the Little Ice Age (around 1890 in Iceland), glaciers have been losing ground and about 100 small glaciers have disappeared. The remainder of the glaciers in Iceland, large and small, will disappear within two to three centuries. Not only will majestic glacier scenery wither away, it will also herald the demise of a unique natural phenomenon.

Furthermore, glaciers have, during their existence, recorded the history of climate and volcanic eruptions. This history needs to be accessed, deciphered and written. Otherwise, it will be lost forever.

MÝVATN NATURE BATHS myvatnnaturebaths.is

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Icelandair Stopover 47

SPIRIT OF ICELAND:

From the opening of DesignMarch 2019.

CREATIVE EXPORTS At the annual DesignMarch festival, March 25–29, Reykjavík will be bursting with color and curious events, presenting the latest in Icelandic design.

For five days in March, Reykjavík celebrates all things design, from fashion to architecture, jewelry to product design—just about anything that’s creative and innovative. Now for its 12th year running, DesignMarch is a fixed event on the city’s event calendar—and one of its six official festivals. The 2020 edition is scheduled March 25–29.

what makes it so unique. No one experiences it the same way.” While the official program runs for five days, design events are scheduled through the entire month of March. “It’s gradually becoming recognized how valuable the design way of thinking is—it’s more than just making products,” opines Álfrún. She elaborates that design is an important force in counteracting the current climate crisis; sustainability is highlighted in many of the designs at this year’s festival.

The Power of Design “DesignMarch is the main promotional event for Icelandic design. It’s a unique opportunity to meet the locals and experience the creative juices of Iceland,” says Álfrún Pálsdóttir, head of PR and Communication for DesignMarch. The festival was first held in 2009, during the recession. “When there’s a downturn, we tend to take an inward look, causing an upswing in the creative industries,” explains Álfrún. “The festival survived and has come a long way; it has grown and evolved along with the Icelandic design community.”

Approximately 40,000 people attend the roughly 100 events every year. “The opening party hosts around 1,500 guests and everybody is welcome,” states Álfrún. “The festival is in a way a living, breathing organism. That’s

Alongside Hlín Helga, founder and editor-inchief of FRAME magazine and director of

BY EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR. PHOTO BY EYÞÓR ÁRNASON.

48 Icelandair Stopover

Frame Publishers Robert Thiemann will moderate this year’s DesignTalks. He has consulted and lectured for companies such as Chanel, Kering, Nespresso and Vitra, and sits regularly on juries for design competitions all over the world. The festival’s international element is important to the Icelandic design scene. “It makes the festival stretch beyond the borders of Iceland and create a conversation of design,” states Álfrún.

A Conversation Among Creatives From the beginning, official institutions and private parties have collaborated on DesignMarch, which is produced by Iceland Design Center with the support of the City of Reykjavík, Arion Bank and Promote Iceland. It reflects all design sectors: fashion design, architecture, furniture and interior design, The Importance of Imagination graphic design, product and experience One of the festival’s key events is DesignTalks, design, innovative and digital design. The an international conference held at Harpa festival calls for optimism and a new way of Concert Hall and Conference Centre on March thinking. There are events like Design Diplo26. This year entitled “New World – New Ways,” macy, open to everyone, where foreign ambasthe conference’s established speakers seek to sadors invite designers from their home couninspire fellow designers to help tackle the tries to pair with Icelandic creatives over a colossal global challenges ahead. “Imagination common theme. They organize a series of is important today. The global situation deintimate discussions at their residences, mands that we face it and accept our responoffering guests to meet the designers. At sibility; it demands immediate actions and DesignMatch, local designers are paired with reform but not least new vision for the future; local and international design producers, we’ve got to keep paving the way. That’s what retailers, galleries and provided with a setting the theme is referring to,” explains Hlín Helga for discovering possible mutual interests.

Guðlaugsdóttir, curator of DesignTalks since For more information about the program 2015. of the 2020 edition, visit designmarch.is.

Continues on page 50.

FÓLK (Homeware, Furniture and Lifestyle Design) Founded in 2017, FÓLK is an Icelandic design and lifestyle company making Nordic design for modern sustainable living. FÓLK works with progressive designers on smart homeware, furniture and lifestyle products with a focus on sustainability, responsibility and transparency. With their sleek and elegant designs, they aim to enable and inspire people to lead a more sustainable lifestyle, minimizing negative environmental and social impact. For example, the Nomad Wall Shelf by Jón Helgi Hólmgeirsson was made in Southern Europe from local sustainably harvested forests, and Jón’s Upcycled Side Table was made with upcycled wool textile boards. During DesignMarch, FÓLK welcomes visitors to their downtown showroom at Bankastræti 5. folkreykjavik.com

Genki Instruments (Technology and Innovation) At the 2019 Icelandic Design Awards the main prize went to Genki Instruments for Wave, a ring designed to control sound with motion and improve the workflow of musicians. When writing music, Wave can record automations in a new and accurate way; control multiple, uncorrelated parameters at the same time with one hand only; and the buttons on the ring can be used as a remote for any music software (DAW). Moreover, Wave can be used to build a deeper connection with the audience or create an immersive experience during live performances, for example by controlling effects or even visuals with movements alone. At DesignMarch, Genki Instruments will demonstrate how Wave evolved from an idea to a finished product and invite visitors to try the ring. genkiinstruments.com

Farmers Market – Iceland / Bergþóra Guðnadóttir (Fashion Design) Icelandic design company and clothing brand Farmers Market – Iceland was founded in 2005 by a young artist couple, designer Bergþóra Guðnadóttir and musician Jóel Pálsson. In her designs, Bergþóra draws from Icelandic roots, combining classic Nordic design elements with chic modernity, fusing the past and present, country and city life. Highlighting sustainability, recycling and respect for the environment, the focus is on natural fabrics, including merino and mohair yarns from Italy, waxed cotton fabrics from British Millerain, Indian raw silk, as well as the unique Icelandic wool. The clothing is designed to be stylish, sophisticated and wearable, suitable for outdoor activities and city life. farmersmarket.is

Photos by Ketchup Creative for Genki Instruments.

Guðmundur Úlfarsson (Graphic Design) and Hanna Dís Whitehead (Product Design) At DesignMarch, type designer Guðmundur Úlfarsson and product designer Hanna Dís Whitehead will showcase a collaborative project where they work with their joint interest in the journey between the digital and the handmade. The works they exhibit are based on a visual dialogue between the two artists, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional and vice-versa, which is sometimes misunderstood and has even been distorted along the way. Both Hanna and Guðmundur have a personal approach to their work, which is on the borders of art and design. In his type design, Guðmundur works with the language and text based art, while Hanna weaves materials, colors, forms and history together in her creation of sculptures, household objects, textiles, carpets and other products. hannawhitehead.com; ortype.is Vítahringur by Hanna Dís Whitehead. Photo by the designer.

50 Icelandair Stopover

Lilý Erla Adamsdóttir (Textiles) Textile designer Lilý Erla Adamsdóttir has garnered considerable interest for her diverse and colorful wall art made from wool, cashmere, mohair, linen, cotton, polyester and other textile materials. At DesignMarch she will display works based on layers of patterns that communicate visually with one another. These artworks are made with a tufting gun, which allows Lilý to play around with the notion of depth in her work as well as explore the intersection of art and textiles. Therefore, these fluffy textile landscapes have sound reduction qualities. Her works will be displayed in a joint exhibition at the facilities of Kolaportið flea market in the center of Reykjavík. The exhibition emphasizes playfulness and the interplay between different design genres. lilyerla.com

OUR STORES IN REYKJAVÍK: FARMERS & FRIENDS

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A bird’s-eye view of the northern coastline contrasted against the freshly fallen snow.

THE ICY NORTHERN SHORES Photographer Benjamin Hardman explores the wondrous winter landscape of the sub-Arctic North.

INSTAGRAM: @BENJAMINHARDMAN Known for its distinct winter season, the North makes a great setting for a winter experience in Iceland. With thick snow blanketing the peninsula every winter, adventurers of all types are drawn to the region for the vast range of winter activities on offer.

Last winter I joined two friends for a road trip around Tröllaskagi, known as the “Troll Peninsula” in English, situated high up in the North. This beautiful area takes travelers on a quest through winding fjord roads, mountain passes and dramatic sea cliffs to experience a unique side of Iceland’s winter landscape. In such stark white surrounds, the focus moves from the vivid colors of the summer months to the rugged and dynamic formations in the mountains, visible only by their contours in the snow.

Icelandair Stopover 53

Top: Landmarks such as Hraundrangi peak in Öxnadalur show us how the volcanic landscape and historical glacial coverings can create the most dramatic rocky peaks.

Bottom: Hiking through the winter conditions in search of a higher vantage point over the fjord.

After making our way up from Reykjavík, we chose to make our first stop in Akureyri for a ski session on the slopes of Hlíðarfjall, one of Iceland’s premier ski resorts. Skiing is a popular sport around Tröllaskagi; from backcountry touring to heli-skiing, the options are practically limitless. With an amazing night ski session in the bag, we then spent a few days driving around the west side of the peninsula, passing through the small towns of Dalvík and Ólafsfjörður before reaching Siglufjörður.

Each town has its quirks, from cozy coffeehouses to the local swimming pools, and you’ll gain a true sense of the Icelandic culture in these areas. I remember going for a dip at the local swimming pool in Ólafsfjörður one night; amidst our very relaxing time in the hot pools, we each made a quick jump into their cold plunge pool, which in the middle of winter was exceptionally cold!

Approaching the coast at the northern tip of the peninsula, we were treated to an endless view of the blue Arctic Ocean. Hiking up through the snow to a viewpoint overlooking the water, it was hard to fathom that the next land would be the remote northwestern tip of Greenland and beyond that, the North Pole—a world of Arctic sea ice and polar bears.

With daylight fading, the short days of winter in the North provide a special ambience that is hard to find elsewhere. The combination of sweeping fjords and snow-covered mountain peaks will immerse you in what feels like a distant frozen world, with hues of blue and white in all directions.

Winter conditions can be very unpredictable in Iceland. It’s important to check road.is regularly for local road conditions while you’re traveling to ensure that the roads are passable and safe for driving.

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Av a i l a b l e a t Ke f l a v í k D u t y Fre e i n A r r i v a l s a n d D e p a r t u re s , s e l e c t e d s t o re s , a n d o n l i n e .

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STOPOVER ICELAND:

OUR TOP PICKS With so much you can pack into an Icelandair Stopover, the options can feel overwhelming. So, we keep it simple: Four new themes and four fresh suggestions every issue. Take your pick.

Top: The Arctic Henge in the Northeast is a dramatic vantage point for northern lights.

Photo by Brian Chan.

Bottom: “Uppspretta” in Keflavík is the largest of Iceland’s many murals. Photo by W. van der Beek (CC BY-SA 4.0).

BY SARAH DEARNE.

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Creative: Outdoor Artworks Iceland’s landscape is complemented by murals and sculptures, appearing like visual trinkets to collect along the way.

If you’re passing through the airport town of Keflavík, keep your eyes open for “Uppspretta,” an abandoned water tower turned Iceland’s largest mural. Painted in vivid colors by the Toyist collective, the artwork depicts the travels of Uppspretta, a curious puffin looking for love.

In the East Iceland town of Seyðisfjörður, make the short uphill hike to “Tvísöngur,” a

sound sculpture on the mountainside close to town. Variously compared to mushrooms and igloos, its grey domes are contoured to resonate with traditional Icelandic five-tone harmonies. Also in East Iceland, in the village of Djúpivogur, you’ll find “Eggin í Gleðivík” (“The Eggs at Merry Bay”), a series of 34 granite eggs representing all the nesting birds in the area.

Particularly worth a detour is the Arctic Henge in Raufarhöfn, Iceland’s northernmost mainland village. This graceful monument honors Norse mythology and serves as a giant sundial. Stop here to clear your mind before the next leg of your trip.

Continues on page 58.

YOUR ICELAND P

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grayline.is Live guidance available in multiple languages Contact information: Tel. +354 540 1313 | iceland@grayline.is

GrayLineIceland

Ice caves often appear like waves trapped in time. Photo by Shawn Ang.

At the Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Westfjords. Photo by Giní Cormerais.

Svartifoss (“Black Waterfall”) in the East is one of Iceland’s most distinctive waterfalls.

Photo by Gigi Ling.

Seasonal:

Folklore:

Nature:

Icy Adventures Iceland’s frozen landscape is not only beautiful but also opens up a range of icy activities.

Magical Beings Iceland’s culture is richly threaded with tales of elves, ghosts, witches and trolls. If you’re curious about this fascinating lore, try a guided ghost walk in Reykjavík or an elf tour of the nearby town of Hafnarfjörður, where Hellisgerði park is said to be particularly full of elven hiding spots. The Little Elf Store is also located there, though you’ll need to call ahead during winter.

Basalt Formations Formed during the lava cooling process, columnar basalt is one of Iceland’s most distinctive geological features. While the formations at Reynisfjara beach and Stuðlagil canyon are Instagram-famous, there are many other magnificent examples to explore.

This time of year is ice cave season, when the melting cycle forms crystalline caverns in glaciers such as Mýrdalsjökull and Vatnajökull.

With caves appearing in new locations every winter, finding safe spots to explore requires local expertise, so be sure to book a guided tour.

If you’d like to add a spark of adrenalin to your ice adventure, combine a glacier walk with ice climbing on Sólheimajökull in the South. After traversing a maze of crevasses and glacier-top views, you’ll have the option to scale the ice vertically with the help of your trained guide and trusty crampons.

For a completely different take on the Icelandic winter, plan a trip north for the Mývatn Open – Horses on Ice, where amateur and pro riders race across the frozen Lake Mývatn on March 6–7 (part of the Mývatn Winter Festival running March 6–8). Sure-footed on the ice and donning shaggy winter coats, Icelandic horses are well adapted to these conditions. You can also meet them on winter riding tours all around the country.

58 Icelandair Stopover

If you’re visiting Snæfellsnes, don’t miss Krambúðin in Búðir, an enchanting little store run by two local witches. Here you can buy balms, soaps, amulets, runic carvings and more, all lovingly handmade from foraged herbs and other natural materials. Opening hours are flexible during winter, so message ahead to time your visit.

Iceland also has several museums dedicated to the supernatural realm. A highlight is the Hólmavík Museum of Icelandic Sorcery and Witchcraft in the Westfjords, whose star piece is a realistic replica of 17th-century necropants, every bit as ghoulish as they sound. The Westfjords also has the Sea Monster Museum in Bíldudalur (book ahead in winter), and in the South of Iceland, the Icelandic Wonders Museum in Stokkseyri has exhibitions on elves and ghosts.

If you’re traveling into Snæfellnes, don’t miss a detour to Gerðuberg, just a short turn off Route 54. This 1,640-ft-long (500-m) basalt cliff is so precisely formed that it could be the handiwork of industrious trolls. Further west along the peninsula, the 1.6-mile (2.5-km) coastal hike between Arnarstapi and Hellnar will lead you past gnarled basalt formations, pummeled and pierced by ocean forces. (Rug up well, the coastal winds bite.)

There are also several columnar basalt waterfalls, the most impressive including Svartifoss, Aldeyjarfoss and Stuðlafoss. The most accessible in winter—and arguably the prettiest—is the church-organ-like Svartifoss, located just a short hike from Skaftafell Visitor Center in Vatnajökull National Park.

If you’re architecturally inclined, also keep an eye out for columnar basalt in more urban settings. These graphic shapes inspired state architect Guðjón Samúelsson and are visible in many of his commissions, most notably Hallgrímskirkja church in Reykjavík.

NEW

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OUR DESTINATIONS:

TORONTO’S WINTER WONDERLAND Icelandair employee, Canadian native Lea Kuliczkowski, lists her favorite things about her hometown in the winter.

ICELANDAIR INSIDER

Currently based in Reykjavík and working for Icelandair, I’m a proud Torontonian thrilled to share my tips for a memorable visit. My hometown is a beautiful, multicultural mosaic of people, sports, arts and food. Winter is a charming time—even if it’s -13°F (-25°C)—and an excuse to bundle up in your toque (Canadian term for wool hat) and mitts to see the city. There are so many reasons to love this time of year.

Ice Skating—Canadian Classic As an ex-figure skater, I hold the key to Canada’s favorite winter activity and where to find the coolest rinks. In between sightseeing downtown and shopping at the Eaton Centre, strap on a pair of skates at Nathan Philips Square to perfect your gliding skills beneath the skyscraper landscape. My favorite spot is Natrel Rink at Harbourfront Centre, with remarkable views of Toronto Island to the south and the iconic CN Tower to the north.

You’re bound to find figure skaters jumping and spinning in the middle of it all, so enjoy the show or sashay to your own beat on DJ nights with live music and hot cocoa. Most rinks have skate and helmet rentals, so there’s no excuse to miss out on a truly Toronto experience.

Hockey—Sports Obsession Canadians are proud of their national winter sport and I’m no different. Although the Toronto Maple Leafs haven’t won the National Hockey League championships since 1967, you’ll quickly learn Leafs Nation is the most loyal fan base of the NHL. With the regular season running through April 6, why not join

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the hockey bandwagon on your visit to Toronto? Catch a game at one of the many sports bars, admire the hotly contested Stanley Cup at the Hockey Hall of Fame, try your hand at shinny (a casual game) in High Park, or better yet, score home-game seats at the Scotiabank Arena—if you’re lucky.

Winterlicious—Bite of Culture The city is a food lover’s paradise, warming hearts and bellies in the cold of winter. Whet your appetite for some fine dining during Winterlicious, an annual two-week festival of gastronomy running January 31 to February 13. This delicious event was brought to life by the City of Toronto in 2003, shining a spotlight on the restaurant industry through off-peak season. Thanks to affordable three-course menus, Torontonians flock to 200 participating restaurants to taste cuisine from around the world, including Italian, Chinese and modern Canadian classics. My pick: wine and dine in Yorkville, a glitzy neighborhood where you might find yourself rubbing shoulders with celebrities.

Niagara Falls—Romantic Escape One of the most magical sights of an Ontario winter lies a 1.5-hour drive south of Toronto. Known as a natural wonder of the world, the Niagara Falls are so much more than just a kitsch summer destination. Surrounded by a white blanket of snow and scenery of frozen lampposts and trees, Horseshoe Falls is at its most dreamy—and contrary to popular belief, it never freezes over. The only thing better than seeing the falls by day is viewing them by night with the year-round water and light show, Falls Illumination, highlighting colorful cascades of water as they fall into the Niagara Gorge.

Icelandair flies to Toronto year-round. Traveling from Europe, you have the opportunity to add a Stopover in Iceland at no additional airfare.

Previous page, top left: Horseshoe Falls at its finest in the winter. Photo

by Niagara Parks.

Previous page, center: A mouthwatering meal at Winterlicious. Photo

by City of Toronto.

Top center: Panoramic view of Toronto’s impressive skyline.

Left center: Public transportation by night. Photo by Tourism Toronto.

Center right: If you didn’t grab a selfie with the sign, were you even there?

Photo by Tourism Toronto.

Bottom left: An exciting hockey match at Scotiabank Arena. Photo by Tourism Toronto.

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OUR DESTINATIONS:

HELSINKI—SMARTER THAN AVERAGE

Experience sky-high saunas, sensible and enlightening public spaces and the most sustainable of restaurants in the Finnish capital.

BY CAROLYN BAIN. You’ll usually find Finland close to the top of livability and happiness rankings—in fact, it has topped the World’s Happiness Report for the past two years. Adding to its accolades, it wrapped up the year as 2019 European Capital of Smart Tourism.

who met while working at restaurants across Helsinki. After putting down roots here, they decided to shake up the industry in a sustainable fashion, and they’re now capturing attention for their smart rethinking of food and food waste.

So what makes a city noticeably intelligent?

Smart tourism is defined as excellence in accessibility, sustainability, digitalization, and cultural heritage and creativity. Visit Helsinki to uncover some fundamental Finnish truths, and you’ll probably come away a little smarter.

Their philosophy is simple: “Refuse, reduce, reuse, and only as a last resort, recycle.” There is no trash bin in the restaurant, in fact, the dining room has a discreet composter to turn content into fertilizer, which is then given to the local farmers who supply the restaurant with produce. The owners work with suppliers to rethink and reject packaging; the craft beer is brewed in-house to forgo bottling. Even the business cards are an example of out-of-thebox thinking: they’re made of compostable paper, embedded with poppy seeds.

A Sense of Sustainability In Helsinki, environmental mindfulness is valued and over-consumption discouraged. In such a setting, it’s inspiring to find a restaurant dedicated to creative, high-quality food handin-hand with zero waste.

Restaurant Nolla (“Zero” in Finnish) is a place where every detail matters. It’s owned by a trio of chefs from Spain, Portugal and Serbia,

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Shared Cultural Heritage Sauna is synonymous with Finland: This nation of 5.4 million people warms up in 3 million saunas. Don’t underestimate the equalizing

Previous page: Oodi, Helsinki’s striking new central library. Photo by Kuvio.

Clockwise from top left: The floating pool deck at Allas Sea Pool. Photo courtesy of Allas Sea Pool; Green spaces inside Oodi library. Photo by Maarit Hohteri; Explore sauna culture at Löyly. Photo by Pekka Keränen; Every piece of a fish is used at zero-waste Nolla. Photo by Nikola Tomevski.

effect of chatting about the big issues clad in your birthday suit—honesty and authenticity are almost obligatory in such a setting.

There’s a sauna to suit every taste. Sleek design-forward complexes include seaside Löyly and downtown Allas Sea Pool. Kotiharjun has a wood-burning stove and an old-school vibe, while Kulttuurisauna is a Zen-like retreat.

For a sweet island escape, Lonna lets you combine a boat ride with a sweat and a Baltic Sea dip. Not quirky enough? The Helsinki SkySauna is a ferris wheel with a sauna cabin, for heat with high-elevation panoramas.

Equal Access and Education Oodi is Helsinki’s new central library, and it’s a poster child for how to make a public space welcoming, useful, and creative. City residents were invited to suggest ideas, and the architects listened (as well as paying particular attention to accessibility). Inside, there’s a recording studio, sewing machines, 3D printers, book-sorting robots, and more.

The Finns’ renowned appreciation for silence means there are plentiful reading nooks and workspaces, but also areas dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge and / or fun (gaming room, event spaces, kids’ areas, cinema, cafés). There are living trees among the topfloor bookshelves, and we appreciate the symbolism of the Citizens Balcony, at the same height as the doors to the Parliament House across the square.

It comes as little surprise that Oodi won the award for 2019 Public Library of the Year, for “bridging concepts of equality, participation, citizenship and sustainability.” We can all take a leaf out of Helsinki’s book.

Icelandair flies to Helsinki year-round. Traveling from North America, you have the opportunity to add a Stopover in Iceland at no additional airfare.

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OUR DESTINATIONS:

ZÜRICH—COSMOPOLITAN, COZY AND OUTDOORSY Switzerland’s largest and liveliest city is an excellent place to graze and gaze, with beautiful cafés running the gamut from classic to contemporary to cult and Switzerland’s undisputed arts hub. As a winter destination, Zürich excels in mixing the cosmopolitan and cozy; it’s a manageable, accessible spot with big-city thrills.

BY SALLY O’BRIEN. Start your Zürich jaunt at the excellent Kunsthaus with its works from Old Masters to 21st-century video and a great collection of works by Swiss artists such as Ferdinand Hodler and Alberto Giacometti. Audioguides are free and temporary exhibitions draw rave reviews.

Another choice cultural pick, where you can come to grips with Switzerland itself and indulge your need to mix a neo-fairytale castle with a contemporary statement in concrete is the Landesmuseum, which plays host to some intriguing thematic exhibitions and a huge permanent collection. Its new 80,000square-foot (7,400-m2) annex (designed by Swiss firm Christ & Gantenbein), seemingly growing out of the original “castle,” presents a radical departure from the original building and is worth visiting for the architecture alone.

Landesmuseum is close to the bustling main train station and Platzspitz, an attractive park whose tranquility belies its history as one of the city’s seediest spots in the 1980s.

From top left: Zürich’s Bahnhofstrasse is the place to shop; Hip Bebek marries meze with edgy design in Kreis 8003. Photo by Sally O’Brien; Zürich’s Old Town wears the snow well. Photo courtesy of Zürich Tourism.

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You’ll find it hard to believe that retail is in the doldrums after cruising down the famous Bahnhofstrasse, which is lined with stores and businesses that grow increasingly luxurious (think watches and private banks) as you move further away from the train

station. It practically hums on Saturdays, and even manages to look relatively lively on snoozy Sunday, when shops are closed.

Transformation is a theme here, with Zürich’s formerly gritty neighborhoods reinvigorated by clubs, bars, cafés and cool shops. The Kreis 5 (known as Züri West) neighborhood rewards a stroll to find the city’s hippest fondue at Frau Gerolds Garten, with its winter pavilion amidst the sort of repurposed post-industrial landscape that the city does so well.

The lushly beautiful Co Chin Chin is another happening spot, with enough greenery, great Vietnamese coffee and crusty banh mi to

make you think you’re on holiday in Vietnam.

Head to Im Viadukt before or after to check out the upcycled railway viaduct full of quirky shops and a food market and soak up some more of the Züri West atmosphere.

Booming Kreis 3 gives off plenty of cool, but is also cheap and cheerful: Yard Bird Southern Fried Chicken is hard to beat with its excellent double-fried, buttermilkmarinated Swiss chicken (four or nine pieces) in a choice of flavors (the Nashville Hot and Seoul Style are hard to beat), plus dirty fries and custom cocktails (the Yardbird Mule is a winner). Get in early or make a booking on weekends.

For brunch, Bebek is one of the stars of the scene, with a striking interior that combines imposing concrete slabs, lushly padded harlequin walls, a peek-a-boo window onto a tram depot and dreamy meze and brunches (plus good coffee).

If you’re in the mood to make like an art-world emperor, the cult favorite Kronenhalle is renowned for its stunning art collection (Picasso, Matisse, etc.), classic ambiance, perfectly done traditional food, silky service and an unmatched cocktail menu.

Fans of the outdoors should head to nearby “local mountain” Uetliberg, a convenient train

trip southwest (less than 30 minutes) from the city center, where views over the city and to the Alps will stir the soul. It’s also a great spot for tobogganing (check conditions and get in early to hire a sled), with a 1.9-mile (3.1-km) run that starts out sweet and builds to a more challenging experience the further you go; keep an eye on the charming woodland scenery and your speed as you descend some 1,080 vertical feet (330 m) down to the Triemli neighborhood.

Icelandair flies to Zürich year-round. Traveling from North America, you have the opportunity to add a Stopover in Iceland at no additional airfare.

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Children’s Corner

AN ADVENTURE AT LAKE MÝVATN The Icelandic animals from Treasure Iceland are best buddies. One of the things they love most is traveling to new places in Iceland. This time, Mosi the ram is taking them to his home at Lake Mývatn.

BY SIGRÍÐUR ÁSTA ÁRNADÓTTIR. ILLUSTRATIONS BY ALFREÐ I. A. PÉTURSSON AND KIDZINFLIGHT.

LAKE MÝVATN IS FAMOUS FOR ITS RICH BIRDLIFE. ONE OF THE REASONS THEY ALL LOVE IT THERE IS THAT THERE ARE SO MANY FLIES FOR THEM TO EAT. IN FACT, THE LAKE TAKES ITS NAME FROM THE FLIES—LAKE OF THE MIDGES.

AND DON’T FORGET YOUR WOOLENS. THE WINTER ARRIVES EVEN EARLIER UP NORTH WE’LL CERTAINLY TRY NOT TO FORGET YOU!

WELL, I’M HAPPY IT’S WINTER NOW. I DON’T LIKE FLIES. MOST OF THEM DON’T BITE ANYWAY.

THIS IS CALLED A PSEUDO CRATER. THEY’RE FORMED WHEN HOT LAVA FLOWS OVER WATERY GROUND AND CREATES STEAM EXPLOSIONS.

YOU’RE MORE THAN 2,000 YEARS TOO LATE FOR THAT. LET ME INTRODUCE MYSELF. I’M LOFTUR, ONE OF THE LOCAL LAKE BALLS. WELCOME TO MÝVATN. IN FACT, I’M ON MY WAY TO MAKE DELICIOUS GEOTHERMAL BREAD. CARE TO TAG ALONG? WHAT WAS THAT?

WOW! I’D LOVE TO SEE THAT.

LAKE BALLS ARE EXTREMELY RARE ALGAE GROWING IN THE LAKE.

I’VE HEARD ABOUT THAT BREAD. YOU BAKE IT IN THE WARM GROUND NEXT TO A HOT SPRING!

IT WAS TIME FOR THE GANG TO RETIRE. THEY SAID GOODBYE TO LOFTUR AND HEADED TO BED AFTER AN EXCITING DAY AT MÝVATN.

I’LL DIG THE HOLE!

If you want to play with the animals of Treasure Iceland, check out our on-board kids’ material. If you didn’t get it already, just ask the friendly flight attendant.

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Special Supplement

TRAVEL TIPS

Tröllaskagi, North Iceland. Photo by Benjamin Hardman.

Contributing Writers: Eygló Svala Arnarsdóttir and Carolyn Bain.

Contents: 68 Into the Glacier: Exploring Langjökull, Inside and Out 70 Krauma: Bathing at Europe’s Most Powerful Hot Spring 72 FlyOver Iceland: Reykjavík’s Most Thrilling New Attraction 73 BIOEFFECT Greenhouse Tour: A Behind-the-Scenes Journey 74 DutyFree: Happy Shopping at Keflavík Airport 76 Reykjavík Eats and Treats: A Guide to Dining and Drinking 81 Icelandic Lamb: Unique Wild Flavor 84 Map of Iceland and Domestic Routes 86 Iceland 101: The Basics for Traveling the Country

Icelandair Stopover 67

Special Promotion

INTO AND ABOVE THE GLACIER A combination tour that takes you into a glacier, and snowmobiling on it, is your frosty dream-come-true.

In a country that has built its reputation on fire and ice (among countless other natural features), it’s exciting to find a tour that gives unique insight into one of these elements.

Into the Glacier is a human-made ice cave that tunnels into the Langjökull glacier, and reaching it is half the fun.

Langjökull’s name translates as Long Glacier.

It’s Iceland’s second-largest glacier, and its icy appeal includes being the glacier closest to the capital, plus an ice cave that’s accessible year-round.

There are a few ways to reach Into the Glacier from Reykjavík and the drive is stunning, as the Ring Road weaves through urban areas then skirts along coastline and around mountains. The best way to enjoy the scenery is from a bus, and tour companies offer full-

68 Icelandair Stopover

day excursions from the capital. Hotel pickups from 7:30 am mean that you can watch the late winter sunrise as you travel.

At the Into the Glacier winter base camp, in the small settlement of Húsafell, visitors check in and suit up—the tour company has warm, waterproof suits and boots for people who need them. Our best piece of advice: Wear your warmest socks! Snowmobile riders get the full kit: helmet, gloves and goggles.

From here, things get more adventurous.

Specially modified glacier vehicles (formerly NATO missile launchers!) drive from Húsafell, traversing snow and ice to deposit you at the unassuming “front door” of the glacier, 4,135 ft (1,260 m) above sea level. The drive takes 45–75 scenic minutes, depending on the ice and weather conditions.

The tunnel entrance leads you 82 ft (25 m) below the glacier’s surface, and crampons are provided to wear over your shoes to avoid slipping. The walk through over 1,640 ft (500 m) of glowing, LED-lit tunnels and rooms takes 45–55 minutes, and your guide explains the inner workings of glaciers, plus how the cool tunnels were excavated.

The highlights are viewing the natural moulins and crevasses, and the glistening shades of icy blue that surround you. You can admire the chapel cut from the ice (popular for weddings), and a room with great acoustics that hosts music performances during the Secret Solstice festival. The temperature?

It’s a constant, fresh 32°F / 0°C. If you’ve signed up to snowmobile too, you’ll set off from close to the tunnel entrance after

Langjökull n

some instruction on how to ride (a driving license is essential). The elevated mountain views and adrenalin levels are high!

When icy endeavors are over, it’s time to head back down the mountain, savor the views, and regroup at Húsafell for the return to Reykjavík. The last highlight of the day: a stop for a wander at the beautiful waterfalls of Hraunfossar and Barnafoss. Sensory overload achieved, the trip ends with a scenic, chilledout drive back to your hotel.

Into the Glacier Winter base camp: Húsafell See intotheglacier.is for full tour options.

Bus tours operate from Reykjavík. With your own vehicle, you can begin tours from Húsafell.

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Special Promotion

KRAUMA:

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HOT SPRING HIGHLIGHTS Soak and relax in the West Iceland countryside.

As temperatures drop, Icelanders’ thoughts turn to winter warmers—and naturally to geothermal bathing. A new favorite is Krauma, a stylish spa that opened in late 2017 at the site of the high-volume Deildartunguhver hot spring, about 62 miles (100 km) from Reykjavík.

Beside the hot spring (whose water heats the region’s homes), a sleek black building sits unobtrusively in the landscape and houses a restaurant and well-equipped changing rooms. Outside, black tiles surround a handful of warm-water pools that range in temperature from 99°F (37°C) to 109°F (43°C), and for the brave there’s a small plunge pool (water at a super-refreshing 43°F / 6°C).

Krauma’s water is a mix of cold water originating from Ok, which lost its glacier status in 2019 and was downgraded to a mountain, mixed with hot water from Deildartunguhver.

It’s rich in minerals including iron, aluminum, calcium, magnesium and sulfur.

The complex includes two steam baths and a unique relaxation room, with a central fireplace surrounded by lounges. The evocative scent of wood burning fills the air, adding to the toasty coziness, especially on frigid days. Most visitors are drawn to Krauma’s front pool, where an infinity edge combines with ace mountain views. The pool becomes a prime sunset-viewing spot in cooler months, with bathers delighting in the soft orange glow that can last for hours. As darkness arrives, look out for aurora overhead.

Staff will bring you a drink (beer, wine or soda) to enjoy as you soak, or you can pause your relaxation to address your appetite in style.

Krauma’s dining room has a menu showcasing fresh flavors from local farmers. Neighboring properties supply salad ingredients, plus goat meat and salmon for delicious sharing platters.

Burgers, beets, lamb and cod make for tasty main dishes, but leave room for the locally made Laufey ice cream.

Krauma is a small, cozy, year-round retreat that feels nicely off the well-worn tourist route of Highway 1. Combined with a visit to

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nearby waterfalls Hraunfossar and Barnafoss, or a venture onto (or into) the Langjökull glacier, it makes a fabulous day out from Reykjavík.

Krauma Deildartunguhver 320 Reykholt Open: Aug 20 to Jun 14: 11 am–9 pm, until 11 pm in summer. krauma.is

Reykholt

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Special Promotion

FLYOVER ICELAND:

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Reykjavík

THE ULTIMATE FLYING RIDE Take your seat, buckle up and prepare for the thrill of a lifetime!

In the darkened room, I notice that the railing in front of me is coming down. Then the video on the surround screen flashes on, my seat tilts forward and… I’m flying—from outer space down to the speck of earth called Iceland.

And icy it is. We whoosh towards a glacier, closer and closer, watching the crevasses grow larger until I fear we’re about to crash… but then we propel skywards again and into a different landscape. I hear shrieks of excitement, “wows” and “woohoos,” coming from my fellow “passengers.” So realistic is the experience that when we soar towards a waterfall, we can sense the spray on our faces, as we fly through a narrow, green canyon we can smell the moss, and as we take a dive towards SUVs crossing a river, I have the urge to pull my feet up.

It’s impossible to talk about highlights because the entire journey is one big highlight: the striking colors of Brennisteins-

alda volcano in the southern Highlands, the loose horses cantering along a lake in the summer sun, the climber summiting the eerie Hraundrangi peak and the twinkling lights of Ólafsfjörður in stunning snow-covered surrounds. Not to mention the sensational flight through the hole in the rocky outcrop of Dyrhólaey.

To enhance the experience, a special building was designed for FlyOver Iceland in Reykjavík’s hip Grandi harbor district, right next to the Whales of Iceland museum. Before taking off, visitors are taken into a traditional Icelandic longhouse, where a storyteller sits by the fire and provides some infotainment about the country and its culture. The next stop (and the last before “boarding”) is the Well of Time, where an ancient troll presents Iceland’s geological beginnings, the first settlers and the forces of nature in an immersive video.

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FlyOver Iceland by Pursuit, which opened in September 2019, has proven a massive hit with both Icelanders and tourists. It’s open daily, includes storage for luggage, a cozy café and a gift shop. FlyOver Iceland is Pursuit’s first collection in Europe. Other FlyOver experiences include FlyOver Canada in Vancouver and (coming soon) FlyOver Las Vegas, anticipated in 2021, and FlyOver Canada in Toronto, anticipated in 2022.

FlyOver Iceland Fiskislóð 43, 101 Reykjavík Open: Daily, 10 am–9 pm. flyovericeland.com

Special Promotion

THE SCIENCE OF SKINCARE

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Grindavík

Take a journey behind the scenes of BIOEFFECT’s high-tech hydroponic greenhouse.

In the middle of a lava field between the Blue Lagoon and town of Grindavík stands a lone greenhouse casting a curious orange glow on its otherworldly surroundings. This is where BIOEFFECT grows its bioengineered barley, producing EGF (Epidermal Growth Factors) for cutting-edge skin products. Now, people have the opportunity to learn more about the science behind their favorite skincare products and join a behind-the-scenes tour of the BIOEFFECT greenhouse.

The skincare brand’s history goes back to 2001, when three Icelandic scientists founded ORF Genetics. Inspired by the Nobel Prize-winning discovery of the EGF protein, which stimulates the production of collagen and elastin, they found a way to produce a plant-based replica of human EGF inside barley seeds. BIOEFFECT’s age-defying EGF Serum hit the market in 2010—and as its effects were backed by thorough scientific studies—it became an instant hit. In the past decade, BIOEFFECT has developed numerous other unique skincare products and this year a special anniversary edition of the EGF Serum will be released.

Co-founder Dr. Björn Örvar and the tour guide, food scientist Melrós Dögg Eiríksdóttir, welcome me as I enter the greenhouse on a stormy day. Björn notes, tongue-in-cheek, that one of the reasons for growing the barley inside was so that “we wouldn’t have to chase after the seeds blown away by the wind.” I observe barley plants at various stages of growth, from tiny sprouts to tall green plants to yellow, withered stalks. “They’re not particularly photogenic like this, but this is when we harvest them,” explains Björn. Inside the greenhouse, the seeds are extracted and cleansed and then moved to the company’s factory and headquarters in Reykjavík. The ecologically-engineered greenhouse uses geothermal energy and pure Icelandic water.

The cultivation is hydroponic, meaning that instead of soil, the plants sprout in inert volcanic pumice—2,900-year-old lava from Hekla, Iceland’s most active volcano—to prevent mold and bacteria.

At the end of the tour, Melrós presents the different stages of EGF production, from bioengineered barley seeds to the precious

powder used for BIOEFFECT’s skincare products and to create replicas of human growth factors for stem cell research around the world. I gasp as she points out that one gram of EGF is about 125 times more valuable than one gram of gold—which makes me treasure my take-away tester pouch even more.

BIOEFFECT Greenhouse Grindavíkurvegur (Road 43), 240 Grindavík Open: Guided tours in English every weekday at 1 pm. bioeffect.com/tour

Please note that tours must be booked at least three hours in advance.

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Special Promotion

HAVING FUN WHILE WAITING Make the Duty Free Store your first and last destination in Iceland.

Indulge in the time you have at Keflavík International Airport while waiting for your bags or before boarding your flight at Duty Free Iceland, the Arrival and Departure Stores.

You’ll be amazed at the selection of quality skincare, local beers, spirits and sweets.

What’s the Arrival Store?

So, you’ve arrived in Iceland and are heading down the moving staircase, but instead of going directly to baggage reclaim, you walk into a store. This is the Arrival Store— Icelanders’ favorite store. Watch and learn: They head straight for the booze; here you can buy six units of alcohol at duty free prices. There’s a great selection of quality beers, wines and spirits and the store’s employees are happy to offer their advice.

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Next, check out the skincare and beauty products (including L’Occitane, Bath and Body Works, and popular Icelandic brands BIOEFFECT and Blue Lagoon), as well as chocolates and other sweets. And when you’re done shopping, your bags are probably waiting for you at the conveyor belt. Time well spent!

Browsing at the Departure Store As you bid Iceland farewell, make the most of your last few hours in the country—at Keflavík Airport’s Departure Store. It’s larger than the Arrival Store and has a fantastic selection of high-fashion brands like Giorgio Armani and Chanel, skincare and beauty brands including La Mer and Urban Decay, in addition to Iceland’s most popular natural skincare products. While in Iceland you’ve probably

tried local specialty chocolates, craft beer, unique liqueurs and spirits, as well as natural skin creams. Here you have the chance to prolong your visit by bringing some of your favorite products home with you. Relive your vacation as you explore the selection: Omnom licorice chocolate, BIOEFFECT EGF Serum and Lýsi Omega3 cod-liver oil… the Departure Store has it all. Just consult the store’s employees if you have any questions.

The Duty Free Store is open 24/7, both when you arrive and depart, and has a high service level and offers a comfortable shopping experience. Alipay is now also accepted.

For more information and to check out the selection, go to dutyfree.is.

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GET YOUR OILS RIGHT! Lýsi life is all about providing the highest quality essential omega 3 solutions fitting your personal needs.

As the world leading fish oil producer from Iceland, Lýsi is at the forefront of research and development of fully refined fish oils.

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Reykjavík

REYKJAVÍK EATS AND TREATS With so many restaurants to choose from, it can be hard to find the right place to eat or drink. To help you out, here’s a description of a few restaurants, cafés and bars in the heart of Reykjavík, different in style but all delightful.

BRYGGJAN BRUGGHÚS On sunny days, few places are better for enjoying a cold beer than on the pier at Bryggjan Brugghús, offering a view of the bustling Reykjavík harbor and stunning Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Center. The craft brewery’s distinct IPA, lager and pale ale are always available on tap, alongside seasonal specialties. The beer isn’t only for drinking but is also used in various dishes on the tempting bistro menu, including the hamburgers, chicken, fish & chips, and mussels cultivated in West Iceland. Brikk, the bakery across the street, uses leftover

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mash for baking perfectly delicious bread delivered to Bryggjan Brugghús every morning. The bistro and brewery also collaborates with other locales in the hip Grandi neighborhood; try beer ice cream by Valdís for dessert!

The fish of the day is whatever the fishermen hauled in that morning. Open every day of the year for lunch and dinner, Bryggjan Brugghús also offers drop-in brewery tours and beer tastings every hour from 1 to 10 pm and is the base for Reykjavík Sightseeing’s popular Cheers to Reykjavík! tour. During Reykjavík Culture Night in August, a brewery festival

organized by the Independent Craft Brewers of Iceland is held on Bryggjan Brugghús’s pier.

Grandagarður 8, 101 Reykjavík Open Sun–Thu: 11 am–11 pm, Fri–Sat: 11 am–1 am Happy Hour: 3–7 pm bryggjanbrugghus.is

BURRO TAPAS + STEAKS You know you’re in for a fun evening when the stairway to the restaurant is adorned with parrot wallpaper and a portrait of a winking Virgin Mary. It’s clear that Burro doesn’t take itself too seriously—well, the kitchen output is seriously tasty, and their commitment to sustainable practices is laudable, but they know you’re here for a good time. And they deliver the goods.

In a colorful, relaxed space inhabited by plants and plastic toucans, prime local produce is given an exotic South American spin (with a little more heat than the traditional Icelandic kitchen normally provides): zesty ceviche made from fresh Arctic char is a delicious example, as is grilled beef fillet served with exotic sauces and sides (chimichurri, aji amarillo, queso fresco and more).

Clever set menus make decisions easier: There’s a three-course experience bringing Latin twists to Icelandic classics, while the fivecourse menu lets you taste-test Burro’s best-loved dishes, including the crispy cheese sticks labelled “life-changing” (totally moreish), and the fresh ceviche.

When you’re done, climb one last flight of stairs to hit the late-night, top-floor Pablo Discobar, featuring fun flamboyant design, inventive cocktails, and a guaranteed danceable soundtrack.

Veltusund 1, 101 Reykjavík Open 5 pm–11 pm Happy Hour: 5–7 pm burro.is

Icelandair Stopover 77

Special Promotion

LÆKJARBREKKA New meets old at Lækjarbrekka, a creative Icelandic bistro in a beautiful wooden house in the heart of downtown. Built in 1834, this is where the country’s first bakery was located. The Icelandic Feast set menu is a hit, featuring lobster soup, Icelandic lamb and the most delicious chocolate dessert. Curious bar snacks like smoked lamb chips and popped cod skin are popular, too, and people come specifically to try the fermented shark!

The chefs like to play with traditional Icelandic fare and ingredients—the dessert of rye bread soup will surprise. For live music, check out the program at the opposite Kornhlaðan, the old bakery’s grain barn.

Bankastræti 2, 101 Reykjavík Open 11:30 am-10 pm I Happy Hour: 2–5 pm laekjarbrekka.is; kornhladan.is

THE LOBSTERHOUSE In a city with high restaurant turnover, it’s reassuring to find a downtown place that oozes old-school charm. The house dates from 1838 and is full of cozy appeal, with creaking floorboards and walls (and ceilings!) loaded with artwork. The kitchen philosophy from the chef-owners is French, working magic on high-quality Icelandic produce—local lobster (or langoustine) is found in dishes including a delicious creamy soup, while Maine lobster features in the “shellfish symphony.” Local flavors extend to expertly prepared cod, horse and lamb, but vegans are also looked after. Choose French classics for dessert, or advance the France-meets-Iceland theme by sampling local cheeses.

Amtmannsstígur 1, 101 Reykjavík Open 5–10 pm thelobsterhouse.is

BAN THAI

GRÁI KÖTTURINN

For almost 30 years, Tómas and Dúna Boonchang have treated diners to authentic Thai cuisine, which year after year is hailed by food critics as the “best Thai food in Reykjavík.” The voluminous menu features dishes such as “Tiger Cry”: thinly sliced grilled beef with mint and coriander and a lime and chili dressing; and tofu and vegetables with coconut milk and panang curry. It’s the polar opposite of traditional Icelandic fare, but locals love the variety and explosion of flavors. Tourists are also catching on, as are the rich and famous— even Hollywood stars seek out the humble establishment by Hlemmur Bus Terminal.

There’s a sweet expression in Icelandic for one who lingers: “to hang around like a gray cat” (grái kötturinn). This petite café has lingered long on the Reykjavík scene—its cozy corners and cute retro stylings have been inviting locals to hang out since 1997, surrounded by books and art. The menu of diner favorites was inspired by travels in the USA, and early opening hours (from 7:30 am weekdays, 8 am weekends) make it a perfect spot for fresh-off-the-plane travelers to refuel and get their bearings. Dig into fluffy pancakes, eggs and bacon, bagels and the trademark “Truck” breakfast, a hunger-busting dish that will likely remove any need for lunch.

Laugavegur 130, 105 Reykjavík Open Sun–Thu: 6–10 pm, Fri–Sat: 6–11:30 pm

Hverfisgata 16a, 101 Reykjavík Open Mon–Fri: 7:30 am–2:30 pm, Sat–Sun: 8 am–2:30 pm

banthai.is

graikotturinn.is

78 Icelandair Stopover

CAFÉ LOKI Combining Iceland’s most traditional flavors with a front-row view of its most iconic building is a brilliant sales pitch. Inside Café Loki, windows frame Hallgrímskirkja, Reykjavík’s eye-catching, rocket-like church, while a huge mural depicts aspects of Norse mythology. The menu calls to both the brave and the mildly curious: Dive deeply into unique local flavors with fermented shark and a shot of brennivín (schnapps), or play it safe with fresh fish or warming lamb soup.

Homemade rye bread comes with classic toppings like smoked trout,

or crumbled through the café’s deliciously unique ice cream, topped with cream and rhubarb syrup. Craving more familiar fare? Try bagels, pancakes or traditional pastries.

BÆJARINS BEZTU PYLSUR

AMERICAN BAR

In a city that excels at storytelling, a generous amount of mythology surrounds a downtown hot dog stand. This is no ordinary fast food vendor but a magical place where late-night cravings are sated, queues move fast, prices are reasonable, and flavors are authentically local. The name means “The Town’s Best Hot Dogs” and the menu is simple: pylsa (hot dog), gos (soda). Decisions are made only regarding toppings: with or without ketchup, sweet mustard, fried onion, raw onion and remolaði, a mayonnaise-based sauce with sweet relish.

Order eina með öllu to get one with the works. These guys have been doling out dogs since 1937; they know how it’s done.

From its collection of football helmets to the diner-style menu, American Bar caters to US expats (not least for its screenings of NFL games, among other major Icelandic and international sporting events), curious tourists, and thirsty locals alike. The menu includes juicy burgers, wraps, sandwiches and hot wings to die for. If you’re all in, go for a milkshake, too. You can also sample Icelandic beers or indulge in a colorful cocktail. With live music and DJs on the weekends, go party with the locals till 4:30 am—then come back for a pick-me-up the following day. In sunny weather, be quick to claim your seat on the terrace facing the grassy Austurvöllur square and Iceland’s Parliament.

Tryggvagata, by Kolaportið, 101 Reykjavík Open Sun–Thu: 10 am–2 am, Fri–Sat: 10 am–4:30 am bbp.is

Lokastígur 28, 101 Reykjavík Open Jun–Jul: 7 am–10 pm, Aug–May: 8 am–10 pm loki.is

Austurstræti 8–10, 101 Reykjavík Open Sun–Thu: 11-1 am, Fri–Sat 11-4:30 am Happy Hour: 4–7 pm americanbar.is

Icelandair Stopover 79

Special Promotion

GRANDI MATHÖLL A flavor-filled harborside food hall.

Most travelers agree that sampling local food offers great insight into a destination, so it follows that a food hall is a brilliant way to get a hands-on lesson, offering a smorgasbord of flavors and an easy, fun way to rove from dish to dish, vendor to vendor.

Reykjavík has embraced the food hall concept in recent years, with venues inspired by the food halls of Copenhagen. Still, there’s no denying the unique heritage of Grandi Mathöll —it’s set up inside a refurbished fish factory in Reykjavík’s cool Grandi harbor district.

Grandi Mathöll is home to eight street-food vendors, plus long communal tables enjoying a view of fishing boats through floor-to-ceiling windows. Each of the vendors adheres to the idea of doing something simple, fresh and tasty, and doing it well. They have small kitchens and a need to produce food quickly, so smart menus are key.

From Korean fusion to keto pizzas, plates of tasty chicken to the food hall’s first all-vegan

80 Icelandair Stopover

option, this is the place for casual, affordable dining. Here are four vendors plating up delicious local flavor.

Lax It’s hard to argue with a mission statement of “Seafood and Bubbles.” The word lax is Icelandic for salmon, and it’s the star here, together with other piscatorial pleasures.

Classic hits include creamy seafood soup, mixed seafood platter and king prawn salad, plus waffles with sweet or savory toppings such as duck confit or smoked salmon, or whipped cream, strawberries and chocolate.

Fjárhúsið The rustic “Sheep House” aims to introduce full-flavor Icelandic lamb to everyone, pairing it with locally grown vegetables and herbs.

Beloved dishes include lamb skewers, lamb chops, and the bumper lamb burger. If your curiosity has been piqued, Fjárhúsið is one of the few places in Reykjavík serving svið (sheep head)—it’s not for the faint-hearted!

Gastro Truck The ever-popular Gastro Truck pumps out spicy chicken burgers to a legion of fans, but vegetarians aren’t overlooked—the vegetarian burger has a fine reputation, too, and is suitable for vegans. Both get their kicks from jalapeno mayo.

Frystihúsið A strong proponent of doing what you do well, the “Freezing House” has just two items on its menu: fish and chips made with either fresh haddock or plaice. Fillets are deep fried in crispy orly batter and perfectly paired with chips and a choice of sauces.

Grandagarður 16, 101 Reykjavík Open Sun-Wed: 11 am–9 pm Thu-Sat: 11 am–10 pm Happy hour: 2–6 pm grandimatholl.is

Special Promotion

ICELANDIC LAMB:

ROAMING FREE SINCE 874 The unique savory flavor of Icelandic Lamb is the result of a summer in the wild.

When you drive around Iceland in the summer, you can’t help but notice all the free-roaming sheep grazing in the valleys and mountains.

Since the Settlement of Iceland (officially in AD 874), sheep have been free-range. Today still, they are left to spend the summer in the spectacular rangelands—often in the Highlands but sometimes on islands or down by the seashore—and rounded up in the fall.

All sheep farms in Iceland are small familyowned businesses and every single lamb is cared for. During lambing season, farmers watch over their ewes around the clock and help welcome new life into the world. Bred for meat quality, the Icelandic sheep remains one of the purest and most protected breeds in

the world, without cross-breeding with foreign breeds. Icelandic farmers record their flock, keeping track of where each sheep originates.

The lambs spend their one summer in absolute freedom in a pure environment, without injections of hormones or growth-promoting antibiotics. As a result, the meat is wonderfully lean, flavorful and tender. It has a distinctive herb-infused taste which varies slightly depending on the vegetation the animals feed on, from lush grass to spicy herbs like wild thyme, berries or even seaweed.

All around Iceland, restaurants serve this unique meat in a variety of ways—look out for the Icelandic Lamb plaque to identify our

partners. In Icelandic homes, lamb is the key ingredient of a hearty home-cooked meal, from smoked lamb on Christmas Day, to juicy barbecued lamb chops in the summer and the traditional Sunday roast, lamb is everyone’s favorite.

For more information on Icelandic Lamb, the restaurants that serve it, and mouth-watering recipes, take a look at icelandiclamb.is.

Icelandic Lamb is a marketing agency whose mission it is to raise the awareness and value of this high-quality meat and thereby increase Icelandic farmers’ earnings.

Icelandair Stopover 81

82 Icelandair Stopover

Be Smart Pay Less in Iceland

www.offer.is

FREE - ONE CLICK AWAY

THE ICELANDIC

PENIS MUSEUM It´s all about Dicks

it Laugavegur 116 • 105 Reykjavík Tel.: +354-561-6663 • phallus@phallus.is • www.phallus.is Open: 10-18 • Next to Hlemmur bus station No pornography or offensive material in the museum.

PLACES TO DISCOVER ON YOUR ICELAND STOPOVER

GREENLAND Nerlerit Inaat

From city center to countryside in under an hour Our domestic airport is conveniently located in downtown Reykjavík, and a trip across the country that’s as quick as your average commute means that you can get started in no time. Check out Air Iceland Connect’s route network and journey times.

A rct i c C i rc l e

Ísafjörður

airicelandconnect.com

.

40 m in

Breiðafjörður Stykkishólmur

Snæfellsjökull

GREENLAND Ilulissat Kulusuk Nuuk Narsarsuaq

40

Ljósufjöll

m

. in

Blöndulón

Langjökull

Faxaflói

Geysir Gullfoss Þingvellir

REYKJAVÍK Keflavík

Bláfjöll Blue Lagoon

Hekla

EyjafjallajökullMýrdalsjökull Katla

N o r t h 84 Icelandair Stopover

Vestmannaeyjar

A t l a n t i c

O c e a n

Grímsey

Siglufjörður

Þórshöfn Húsavík

Dettifoss

Akureyri

Vopnafjörður Dimmuborgir Mývatn

Egilsstaðir

Hofsjökull

50

. min

Askja Holuhraun

Djúpivogur

Vatnajökull Höfn

Þórisvatn

Öræfajökull

FAROE ISLANDS Tórshavn

Icelandair Stopover 85

GRÍMSEY

ÞÓRSHÖFN

ÍSAFJÖRÐUR HÚSAVÍK

HÓLMAVÍK

BLÖNDUÓS

AKUREYRI

EGILSSTAÐIR STYKKISHÓLMUR

HOFSJÖKULL LANGJÖKULL

BORGARNES

VATNAJÖKULL HÖFN REYKJAVÍK KEFLAVÍK AIRPORT

THIS IS HIGHWAY 1 VESTMANNAEYJAR

VÍK

ICELAND 101

We call it the Ring Road because, as you can see, it is shaped like a ring around the whole island. Many people like to follow this 821-mile (1,322-km) long route when they want to see a lot of the country, but don’t forget to venture off on other roads so you can explore areas like the Westfjords, Snæfellsnes peninsula and Reykjanes.

Welcome to Iceland! Looking for the basics on Iceland before your Icelandair Stopover? Here are a few essentials about our North Atlantic paradise.

The national language is Icelandic, and while you’ll have no problem getting by using English, we’re grateful anytime a visitor tries to use góðan daginn (good day) or takk (thank you). Find more language tips on page 10.

You are going to land at Keflavík Airport.

When you first step outside the terminal building, take a deep breath and inhale our wonderful clean air. Welcome to the North Atlantic.

Thanks to the Gulf Stream, winter temperatures are milder here than you’ll find in New York or Toronto. When the thermometer creeps above 68°F (20°C) in summer, Icelanders bask in the sun at cafés and beaches.

You probably already know that Iceland is a volcanic land. We also have many glaciers and countless other natural wonders. Remember to stay safe on your travels and check out safetravel.is before you go.

It does not get as cold in winter as you might think, but nevertheless our weather can be quite unpredictable. Bring lots of clothes to wear in layers—even in summer—and a good quality windproof jacket. Most importantly, don’t forget your bathing suit! Visiting our thermal pools is a highlight of most trips (though you can always rent a suit if you forgot yours).

Speaking of our landscapes, you’ll notice that there aren’t many signs, fences or other barriers around our natural wonders. We trust your common sense. So when you see or hear a warning, please heed it: Do not step over ropes that are blocking an area. Hot springs can be dangerously hot. Rocks near waterfalls can be slippery. And the sea can be deceptively calm. Follow local advice.

There aren’t a lot of trees in Iceland. It can be windy here. Remember to hold your car door when you open it. Trust us; your rental company will thank you.

The name of Iceland’s capital, Reykjavík, means “smoky bay.” About two-thirds of our population of 360,000 live in the Capital Region.

Electricity in Iceland is 220 volts, the same as in Europe. If you bring electronics from the US or Canada, you’ll need an adapter for both plugs and current. Iceland is a wired society, and you’ll find Internet hotspots almost everywhere.

Photographers love Iceland for its incredible, ever-changing light. It never gets fully dark between about mid-May and early August, while in December a muted light shines over the island for a few short hours each day.

Many of you will be visiting our country to enjoy our unique nature, of which we are There’s no need to buy bottled water when very proud. Please remember, though, that you’re here. What comes out of the tap is called Iceland’s delicate landscapes can take kranavatn, pure, clean, tasty—and free. You decades, or even centuries, to recover from may notice the hot water has a slightly sulmisuse. Please don’t collect stones, tread on furous smell, but it’s plentiful; we even use it or pick up sensitive moss, or drive off road— to heat our homes! even in what may appear to be barren, sandy territory.

86 Icelandair Stopover

FLYER’S HUB ANCHORAG E

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Icelandair’s route network connects more than 35 destinations on both sides of the Atlantic, from the airline’s hub at Keflavík International Airport.

Contents: 88 Outlining Icelandair’s Green Efforts 90 Icelandair @work: Novelties and News 94 Saga Shop Kitchen: On-Board Menu 95 Map of Keflavík International Airport 98 In-Flight Entertainment

102 Icelandair Travel Experience 104 Our Fleet: Aircraft Types and Names 106 Devices and Wi-Fi 108 Safety Information 110 Guide to Customs Forms

KI

We’re on our way.

Come and join us.

Small steps can lead to big change. At Icelandair, we are committed to reducing the environmental impact of air travel.

We have started on a path towards more sustainable flying, and we invite our passengers to join us.

CO2

Carbon Offsetting From September 2019, Icelandair and Air Iceland Connect passengers can offset the carbon footprint of their air travel. Our new carbon calculator makes it easy to calculate the carbon footprint associated with each flight, and the contribution necessary to offset it.

Working with experts, we have determined the average flight emissions for each of our flight routes. Contributions from passengers made through our carbon calculator are being used by the Iceland Carbon Fund to cultivate forests in Iceland.

Learn more online at icelandair. com/carbon-calculator

IATA

On-Board Efforts We are on a path to implementing more eco-friendly on-board products and minimizing plastic in our aircraft cabins. Among a number of initiatives, we have recently introduced: n

biodegradable cutlery for onboard meals—the cutlery and its packaging are made of cornstarch

n

plastic stirrers replaced with wooden stirrers on board

n

amenity kits inspired by Icelandic nature and made from a combination of ecofriendly and sustainable materials

n

biodegradable plastic security seals used across a wide range of applications

n

a range of eco-conscious products in our Saga Shop Collection

n

and much more…

Operational Maneuvers In recent years, many changes have been made to Icelandair’s operations to reduce CO2 emissions.

These include: n

implementation of winglets on aircraft to reduce drag and save fuel

n

efforts to reduce fuel consumption during descent and landing and an active fuelmonitoring program aimed at reducing CO2 emissions

n

training of pilots in flying techniques that result in less noise pollution and reduced fuel consumption

Environmental Certification The IATA Environmental Assessment (IEnvA) program is an evaluation and management system developed by IATA for airlines, which Icelandair applies to adopt the best practices in the industry.

Icelandair completed the first of two stages in 2015 alongside some other prominent international carriers, being the fourth airline to reach Stage 2 of the IEnvA Program.

From IATA: “IEnvA Stage 2 Standards represent the highest level of IEnvA compliance and requires an airline to demonstrate ongoing environmental performance improvement.”

NEWS:

ICELANDAIR @WORK

COMPILED BY EYGLÓ SVALA ARNARSDÓTTIR.

From working towards gender balance, carbon offsetting flights and talking climate challenges, to flying special children to dream destinations, ballplayers to matches, and fans to festivals, Icelandair means business.

Icelandair Sets New Gender Equality Goals Icelandair signed a gender equality pledge at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) conference in Berlin on November 19, along with 24 other airlines. Simultaneously, Icelandair submitted the same pledge at the Reykjavík Global Forum of Women Leaders (of which the airline is a sponsor). “As an airline named after our home country, it’s important we can live up to such an important value as equality is for Icelanders. There are many opportunities for improvement, for instance by reducing the focus on gender stereotypes and showing our great diverse role models that already work at Icelandair,” said Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair.

Icelandair has set the following goals to be met by 2025: n to

ensure a gender balance in the company’s executive positions— never less than 40% of either gender in management positions n to n

increase the number of female pilot positions by 25%

to increase the number of male cabin crew positions by 25%

n to

increase the number of female aircraft maintenance technicians by promoting the job and education to girls Icelandair has made considerable improvements in recent years. For instance, in 2008 there were only men on the company’s Board of Directors and within the Executive Management. Today, women represent 40% of the Board of Directors and 33% of the Executive Management. In other management positions, the ratio is close to even. A decade ago, the proportion of male cabin crew and female pilots was respectively 5.3% and 6.5%. Today, it’s at 9% and 12%—Icelandair has one of the highest proportions of female pilots in the world. Notably, in 2019 Icelandair received equal pay certification.

Offsetting Flights by Planting Trees Icelandair signed a collaborative agreement with Klappir Green Solutions and Kolviður last year, stating that Icelandair can now offer their passengers the opportunity to carbon offset their flights using Klappir digital solutions.

The Klappir software monitors the whole process and keeps track of the number and the location of the plants. A team of specialists from Kolviður carefully chooses the plant species and the type of fertilizers best suited for the fund’s plantations in South Iceland. The basic criterion is to have 2,500 living plants per one hectare of land, which then have up to 60 years to sequester the estimated amount of CO2. The planting is done from May through October.

Established by the Icelandic Forestry Association and the Icelandic Environment Association in 2006—and backed by the Icelandic government —Kolviður aims to sequester carbon in plants and soil to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. The fund operates under the surveillance of the Icelandic National Audit Office and the carbon offset is measured by the Icelandic Forestry Inventory, which collects all mandatory data on the sequestration of carbon in the forest according to the criteria laid out by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

Klappir Green Solutions is a pioneering Icelandic software solutions company that helps companies of all sizes to take up smart environmental management and minimize their footprint on land, sea, and in the air.

Currently expanding internationally, Klappir is working with more than 200 companies in Iceland, across 10 different industries.

Learn more online at icelandair.com/carbon-calculator.

90 Icelandair Stopover

www.aurorar

Where your Northern Lights adventure begins

Aurora Reykjavík is your first stop in the search for the Northern Lights!

Explore science and folklore, witness spectacular 360° VR Auroras and relax in our Northern Lights theater.

Set up your camera for the Aurora chase and learn all the secrets to make your Northern Lights adventure a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

Info and booking:

open every day

www.aurorareykjavik.is

09:00-21:00

Grandagarður 2 | 101 Reykjavík It’s only a 10-minute walk from the city center

Climate Challenges, Music and Free Haircuts The annual Arctic Circle Assembly was held was shown to thousands on the monster-sized in Reykjavík in October, attracting about 2,000 screen in New York City’s Time Square (above)!

Other memorable acts include Canada’s cool attendees from over 50 countries. Former boy Mac DeMarco, who brought the crowds to President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, Reykjavík’s packed-out Art Museum, homewho chairs the assembly, gave the opening grown Hatari’s electric mix of techno, first-time address. Other speakers included Prime festival performers and indie-rock duo Whitney Minister of Iceland Katrín Jakobsdóttir, Prime and Norwegian singer-songwriter Marie Ulven, Minister of Finland Antti Rinne, Premier of better known as Girl in Red. More than 130 Greenland Kim Kielsen, Victoria, Crown bands performed in more than 30 venues, with Princess of Sweden and US Secretary of more than 8,000 in attendance.

Energy Rick Perry. At the assembly, issues facing the Arctic in a warmer climate were Icelandair introduced a popular novelty this discussed in 188 sessions. year, called Hairwaves, inviting festival guests to get free haircuts at a pop-up salon on NovIn November, the 21st edition of Iceland Airember 6–9 while listening to live music. During waves was celebrated in Reykjavík. Iceland’s the three nights of opening, more than one own multi-platinum artists, Of Monsters and hundred music fans dropped by for the chance Men, wrapped up a star-studded lineup at to look extra-sharp. We loved turning bad hair Valshöllin on the final night of the festival. As days into headbanging hairdos! well as being streamed on the official Facebook account of Icelandair, their performance Icelandair is a sponsor of all three events.

Aron Pálmarsson of the Icelandic men’s handball team. Photo by Björgvin Franz Björgvinsson / HSÍ.

Keeping the Ball Rolling The Icelandic national team in men’s football missed out on a spot at the 2020 Euros after the qualifying matches last autumn but will get one last chance to qualify through the playoffs. Iceland will play Romania in a home game on March 26 and away against either Bulgaria or Hungary on March 31.

Meanwhile, the Icelandic national team in women’s football remains hopeful for the 2021 Euros after their 6–0 victory away against Latvia in October. Their next match will be against Hungary in April.

In other sports, the Icelandic national team in women’s basketball played two qualifying matches for EuroBasket 2021 in November, losing against both Bulgaria and Greece. The qualifiers continue late this year. The men’s national team will participate in the qualifiers for the 2023 World Cup, starting in February.

Dream Vacation for Icelandair’s Special Children In October, 20 families received a grant from Icelandair’s Special Children Travel Fund, which enables children with long-term illnesses and children who live in difficult circumstances in Iceland and other countries to go on their dream vacation. The fund is financed through Icelandair’s founding contribution; donations by members of the Icelandair Saga Club, who can donate a certain number of frequent flyer miles annually; surplus change that passengers place in envelopes provided in the seat pockets of Icelandair aircraft, which are collected by flight attendants at the end of each flight; and by passengers buying the Special Angel teddy bear from Icelandair’s Saga Shop Collection. Since its establishment in 2003, the Special Children Travel Fund has sponsored 697 children. Allocations are made twice a year.

92 Icelandair Stopover

The Icelandic national team in men’s handball is gearing up for the 2020 Euros, which kick off in Malmö, Sweden, this January.

Iceland’s manager Guðmundur Guðmundsson —under whose lead Iceland won the silver at the 2008 Olympics and Denmark the gold at the 2016 Olympics—commented that Iceland’s opponents, Russia, Denmark and Hungary, will be tough to beat. The women’s team is currently trying to qualify for the 2020 Euros.

Icelandair sponsors the Icelandic national teams.

A truly unique taste of

Iceland

Available on board Icelandair Stopover 93

IS FLYING MAKING YOU FAMISHED?

SAGA SHOP KITCHEN No problem. Our new Economy menu has never been more appetizing and varied. Just fish it out of the seat pocket in front of you and order what your heart desires.

VEGAN

GLUTEN FREE

Gourmet falafel salad Falafel, cherry tomatoes, chickpeas, fresh salad leaves, red cabbage, sweet potatoes, roasted pumpkin seeds and a hummus dressing.

Turkey pretzel triangle Honey-roasted turkey, barbecue mayonnaise, fresh salad and red bell peppers in a freshly baked crispy butter pretzel triangle.

Travel Experience

Tapas snack box Serrano ham, mini fuet, grissini, bruschetta dip and matured Iberico cheese.

Tapas snack box + olives + wine.

WARM

VEGETARIAN

Pizza Margherita Pizza with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese, served with one of the world’s best olive oils straight from Italy. Choose between basil or chili flavor.

Product not available when departing from YVR.

We welcome your feedback on the dining experience on board.

Please drop us a line at kitchen@icelandair.is with any comments.

Verði þér að góðu! Bon appétit!

SECOND MAIN B

FIRST FLOOR CHECK-IN AND ARRIVALS S SE ER RV VI CI CE ES S

BAGGAGE SERVICES

3.3. Tax TaxRefund Refund 4.4. Car Rentals Car Rentals 5.5. Airport Parking Airport Parking 6.6. Bus Ticket Terminal Bus Ticket Terminal 7.7. Customs Customs 8.8. Currency Exchange Currency Exchange

22

ODD SIZE

FOOD & BEVERAGES 1. Joe & The Juice 2. 10-11 (supermarket)

A SHOPPING

ARRIVALS

6

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CHECK-IN

CHECK-IN

ARRIVALS EXIT

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CHECK-IN

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1.

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Duty Free Iceland Optical Studio (optic Elko (electronics) Penninn Eymundsson (bookshop) 5. Rammagerðin (Icelan

SELF-SERVICE BAG DROP

77

B

6. 66° North (outdoor clothing) 7. Blue Lagoon (skin car 8. Pure food (delicatess 9. Airport Fashion

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33

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44

SELFSERVICE CHECK-IN FOOD & BEVERAG AREA

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EXIT EXIT

10.

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12.

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C TO GATES

TAXI

FIRST FLOOR

GATE AREA D 15-36

Joe & The Juice Segafredo Loksins Bar Mathús (restaurant) Nord (restaurant)

SERVICES 15. Currency Exchange

D 31-36 SHOPPING 1.

2.

Duty Free Iceland Rammagerðin (Icelandic

3. 66°North (outdoor clothing) 4. Penninn Eymundsson (bookshop) FOOD & BEVERAGES

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5. Mathús (restaurant) 6. Loksins Bar 7. Joe & The Juice BASEMENT 8. Play area Seating area S E AT I N G A R E A

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F LO O R COND FLOOR MAIN BUILDING L D ISNE G A 1-2

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Duty Free Iceland Optical Studio (optician) Elko (electronics) Penninn Eymundsson (bookshop) 5. Rammagerðin (Icelandic 6. 66° North (outdoor clothing) 7. Blue Lagoon (skin care) 8. Pure food (delicatessen) 9. Airport Fashion

96 Icelandair Stopover

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FOOD & BEVERAGES 10.

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Joe & The Juice Segafredo Loksins Bar Mathús (restaurant) Nord (restaurant)

SERVICES 15. Currency Exchange

SECOND FLOOR

GATE AREA C21 - 36

BORDER CONTROL D E PA RT U R E S

BORDER CONTROL A R R I VA L S

C G AT E S

C G AT E S

SHOPPING

FOOD & BEVERAGES

SERVICES

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2. Hjá Höllu (pizzeria) 3. Kvikk Café

4. Icelandair Saga Lounge

Duty Free Iceland

Play area (near C gates)

Icelandair Stopover 97

OUR IN-FLIGHT ENTERTAINMENT Dear Passenger, On this flight you have access to a personal in-flight entertainment system, and these pages offer a sneak peek into our selection. Since we always aim to offer interesting and relevant material on board our flights, we update our selection regularly. Have a browse through the content on the screen in front of you to see everything we offer this time around.

NEW

The selection is quite varied, and we try to offer the latest Hollywood blockbusters of the season. We’ve also dedicated a category to All-Time Classics, where some of the carefully selected films are available for a whole year, allowing you to revisit some of your favorites each time you fly with us.

AUDIO BOOKS

Language: Icelandic and / or English

Svikarinn Novel I 6:42 hr.

DNA Crime I 12:32 hr.

Ég gefst aldrei upp Ekki gleyma mér Biography I 8:49 hr. Biography I 9:48 hr.

ÓFÆRÐ 2 / TRAPPED – SEASON 2 I When a man immolates himself and a government minister outside Parliament, police chief Andri Ólafsson takes on the investigation along with his former colleague, Hinrika. I 50 min.

TV PROGRAMS

Language: English (with Icelandic subtitles)

Family Guy s16 e1–4 I PG-13 I Comedy I 30 min.

All American s1 e1–3 I PG-13 I Drama I 60 min.

Modern Family s8 e9–12 I PG-13 I Comedy I 30 min.

The Big Bang Theory s11 e1–4 I PG-13 I Comedy I 30 min.

Mind Over Matter PG-13 I Documentary, Biography, Music I 93 min.

Official Secrets R I Biography, Drama, Romance I 112 min.

HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTERS Language: English (with Icelandic subtitles)

Ad Astra PG-13 I Adventure, Drama, Mystery I 122 min.

98 Icelandair Stopover

Hustlers R I Comedy, Crime, Drama I 110 min.

SHORTS & DOCS

RECOMMENDED WHEN VISITING ICELAND

Language: English / Icelandic (with English subtitles)

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’T MIS ON THIS ICELANDIC DOCUMENTARY

Did you forget your headphones?

We sell quality headphones that you can use on this flight and anywhere else.

Læknirinn í eldhúsinu / The Doctor in the Kitchen I G I e1–6 I Documentary I 20 min.

SHORTS & DOCS

Language: Icelandic (with English subtitles)

IC CUISINE

nt to do the tried and tested, in is your spot. This modestestaurant serves excellently resh fish and meat. They also ne selection of cheeses and d marinated delicacies.

Unique Iceland I A holiday destination of extremes. An entertaining and informative series about Iceland, both city and country, so you can feel prepared for your Icelandair Stopover.

690 Vopnafjörður G I Documentary I 57 min.

In Touch G I Documentary I 61 min.

'T MIS ON THIS ICELANDIC DOCUMENTARY

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'T MIS ON THIS ICELANDIC SHORT FILM

Tvíliðaleikur / Playing with Balls R I Short Film I 9 min.

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past few years, Iceland’s scene has taken huge leaps With more selection than ore, it should be easy to staurant somewhere in the hat tickles your fancy.

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KAF / DIVE: Rituals of Water G I Documentary I 72 min.

OUR FAVOURITE URANTS IN REYKJAVÍK

ICELANDIC TV PROGRAMS

ICELANDIC FILMS

Language: Icelandic (with English subtitles)

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Óþekkti hermaðurinn / Unknown Soldier R I Drama, War I 135 min.

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Vesalings elskendur / Pity the Lovers G I Comedy, Drama I 105 min.

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ou with your search for the are in Iceland, we’ve compiled escription of some noteworthy n the Dining Advisor brochure at pocket in front of you.

ICELANDIC TV SERIES

Ófærð 2 / Trapped – Season 2 PG-13 I s2 e1–10 I Drama, Detective I 50 min.

Venjulegt fólk / Ordinary People G I s1 e1–6 I Comedy I 22 min.

Tom and Jerry G I Comedy, Action I 30 min.

Bugs Bunny & Friends G I Animation, Comedy I 30 min.

CHILDREN’S PROGRAMS

Language: Icelandic / English

Louie s1 e1–12 I G I Animation I 30 min.

Teletubbles s4 e79–82 I G I Family, Fantasy, Musical I 30 min.

Please note that you have many more audio books, films and TV programs to choose from on the in-flight entertainment system. The films and TV programs listed here are only a small selection.

Ratings are provided according to the US system but may vary from country to country.

Icelandair Stopover 99

WE MAKE A POINT OF REWARDING CUSTOMERS FOR LOYALTY Did you know that members of Icelandair Saga Club earn Saga Points for all Icelandair flights, for their purchases on board and with our partners around the world?

These little points pack a lot of punch.

Joining is easy—you can use our on-board Wi-Fi on your mobile device or computer and join right now. It is free to visit icelandair.com.

By joining Icelandair Saga Club you can: Book flights with Saga Points partly or for the whole airfare

Buy products and refreshments on board with your Points

Acquire Saga Silver or Saga Gold status with increased benefits by flying regularly with Icelandair

Earn Saga Points through Booking.com and Rentalcars.com

Upgrade with Points and enjoy your next flight in a better seat

Use your Points to book a hotel or rent a car

+ icelandair.com 100 Icelandair Stopover

Tenerife

all year round

with VITA & Icelandair

Spring Hotel Bitacora Centrally located family hotel in Playa de las Americas offering a fantastic pool area with a waterslide and amazing children‘s adventure park.

Spacious rooms and daily entertainment.

Spring Hotel Vulcano This popular hotel is internationally renowned for its incomparable facilities and magnificent gardens, an oasis in the heart of Playa de las Americas.

Relish a spot of afternoon tea in the sunshine and many refreshing seaside walks.

Spring Arona Gran Hotel & Spa An adults only hotel located on the seafront overlooking Los Cristianos bay. Modern design, friendly atmosphere and a relaxing Thalasso spa.

The perfect getaway for couples and friends.

Tenerife is an island of volcanic sandy beaches where you can enjoy the sun and comfortable climate all year around. You‘ll find variety of attractions and fun activity.

All of its fantastic hotels, amusement parks, shops, restaurants and bars make Tenerife the perfect holiday destination.

Book your dream holiday on vita.is

DISCOVERING ICELAND IN THE SKY Icelandair’s travel experience introduces you to our special country.

Whether you’re flying with us today en route to or from Iceland, or between Europe and North America with a short airport stopover, we’d like you to feel as if you’ve learned a little bit about our country during the flight.

We’re very proud of our Icelandic heritage and culture and hope we’re able to share that enthusiasm with you. Take a look around you now. You should spot several little glimpses of Iceland, but if you want to catch them all, here’s our cheat sheet: The music as you boarded was composed and performed by Icelandic artists. Like it?

It’s from our Icelandair Spotify playlist. You can check out the playlist in our in-flight entertainment system.

Our menu selection features Icelandic ingredients and snacks like hjónabandssæla (an oat-and-jam square, whose name translates as “happy marriage”) and awardwinning lager.

102 Icelandair Stopover

We are very proud of our ancient language.

You’ll see some samples of Icelandic, which is a North Germanic language, throughout the cabin. Some headrests show Icelandic translations of some common phrases in English, while pillow covers show a popular traditional lullaby both in Icelandic and in translation. The paper cups list the different words used in Icelandic for cups, and the napkins tell you about Iceland’s first settlers.

Our in-flight entertainment system features numerous Icelandic films, documentaries and television programs, as well as an exclusive documentary called Unique Iceland, which will introduce you to some of the country’s highlights for visitors.

We’re so proud of our volcanoes, glaciers and other natural wonders, that we’ve even named our aircraft after them. After all, Iceland is famous for its spectacular landscapes. Each one bears the moniker of an Icelandic attraction, including the famously

unpronounceable Eyjafjallajökull volcano— which actually doubles as a glacier; Vatna­ jökull, Europe’s largest glacier; Látrabjarg, Europe’s largest bird cliff; and now also Þingvellir, the rift valley where our parliament was founded in A.D. 930.

At the risk of being immodest, we think our water is the best tasting water in the world. Try it for yourself on this flight. We serve refreshing Icelandic Glacial water throughout the trip.

On some lucky aircraft you’ll find mood lighting, like on Vatnajökull: The blue LED lighting in the cabin creates the illusion of being inside an ice cave, while on Hekla Aurora it feels as if you’re watching the northern lights dancing in the Icelandic winter sky.

We hope you enjoy your flight with us.

THE PERFECT ARTISAN GOURMET SOUVENIR TO TAKE HOME FROM ICELAND our gourmet herbal salts, teas, syrups and crackers are produced with icelandic ingredients and handpacked by a family business in iceland in small batches www.urta.is - @urtafamily

LET ICELANDAIR SAGA CLUB WORK FOR YOU WHILE YOU TRAVEL n n n n

Earn Saga Points on all hotel bookings Save up to 50% on your booking 24/7 support Book now, pay later

Powered by

hotels.icelandair.com

ICELANDAIR FLEET Number of passenger seats: 262 Seating arrangement: 2-3-2 in Economy, 2-1-2 in Saga Premium n Length: 180 ft 3 in / 54.9 m n Wingspan: 166 ft 11 in / 50.9 m n Cruising speed: Mach 0.80 / 461 kn / 531 mph / 854 km/h n Maximum range: 5,988 NM / 6,890 mi / 11,090 km n Maximum takeoff weight: 412,000 lb / 186,900 kg n Engines: 2 x General Electric CF6-80C2B6F n n

BOEING 767-300

Number of passenger seats: 225 Seating arrangement: 3-3 in Economy, 2-2 in Saga Premium n Length: 178 ft 7 in / 54.5 m n Wingspan: 134 ft 7 in / 41.0 m n Cruising speed: Mach 0.80 / 461 kn / 531 mph / 854 km/h n Maximum range: 3,200 NM / 3,682 mi / 5,926 km n Maximum takeoff weight: 273,000 lb / 123,800 kg n Engines: 2 x Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4-B n n

BOEING 757-300

Number of passenger seats: 183 Seating arrangement: 3-3 in Economy, 2-2 in Saga Premium n Length: 155 ft 3 in / 47.3 m n Wingspan: 134 ft 7 in / 41.0 m n Cruising speed: Mach 0.80 / 461 kn / 531 mph / 854 km/h n Maximum range: 3,915 NM / 4,505 mi / 7,250 km n Maximum takeoff weight: 250,000 lb / 113,400 kg n Engines: 2 x Rolls-Royce RB211-535E4 n Maximum range based on full passenger load n n

BOEING 757-200

Number of passenger seats: 160 Seating arrangement: 3-3 in Economy, 2-2 in Saga Premium n Length: 129 ft 6 in / 39.5 m n Wingspan: 117 ft 10 in / 35.9 m n Cruising speed: Mach 0.79 / 453 kn / 521 mph / 839 km/h n Maximum range: 3,515 NM / 4,045 mi / 6,510 km n Maximum takeoff weight: 181,200 lb / 82,200 kg n Engines: 2 x CFM International LEAP-1B n n

BOEING 737 MAX 8*

104 Icelandair Stopover

*Temporarily suspended from operations at the time of publishing.

GLACIAL GEMS Each of Icelandair’s aircraft is named after a magnificent natural phenomenon.

For this issue, we have chosen to highlight three Icelandic glaciers: Vatnajökull, Snæfellsjökull, and Eyjafjallajökull. More than 10% of Iceland is covered by glaciers, some of which are formed on top of active volcanoes. And did you know that they are the reason for the white part of the Icelandic flag?

VATNAJÖKULL [VAT-NA-YUH-KUTL] I BOEING 757-200 I Covering 8% of its landmass, Vatnajökull is the largest ice cap in Iceland and the largest glacier in Europe. To celebrate Icelandair’s 80th anniversary, we created a livery plane in its honor—the coolest plane in the world!

SNÆFELLSJÖKULL [SNEY-fetls-yuh-kutl] I BOEING 757-200 I Located in West Iceland, it contains an extinct stratovolcano under its surface. It’s considered a place of paranormal activity and, according to literary legends, its top is the entrance to the center of the earth.

EYJAFJALLAJÖKULL [AY-YA-FYAT-LA-YEU-KUTL] I BOEING 757-200 I The glacier with the impossible name is an ice cap covering a volcano that has erupted frequently since the last glacial period. In 2010, it wreaked havoc across the globe by halting all air transportation.

Read more about our aircraft and their names at icelandair.com/about/our-fleet.

767-300

Eldgjá TF-ISP Gullborg TF-ISW Hlöðufell TF-ISO Svörtuborgir TF-ISN

757-300

Hengill TF-FIX Þingvellir TF-ISX

757-200

Bláfjall TF-FIK Dyngjufjöll TF-ISS Eldborg TF-FIN Eldfell TF-ISK Eyjafjallajökull TF-FII Grábrók TF-ISV Grímsvötn TF-FIS Hekla Aurora TF-FIU Helgafell TF-FIT Herðubreið TF-FIA Katla TF-FIV

Keilir TF-ISJ Ketildyngja TF-ISR Krafla TF-FIO Laki TF-ISF Magni TF-FIC Öræfajökull TF-ISL Skjaldbreiður TF-LLX Snæfell TF-FIP Snæfellsjökull TF-ISD Surtsey TF-FIJ Torfajökull TF-ISY Vatnajökull TF-FIR

MAX 8*

Dyrhólaey TF-ICU Jökulsárlón TF-ICE Látrabjarg TF-ICY

Icelandair Stopover 105

PORTABLE ELECTRONIC DEVICES

WI-FI ON BOARD

WHAT ELECTRONIC DEVICES CAN I USE ON BOARD THE AIRCRAFT?

How do I connect to the Wi-Fi network?

1. Make sure your mobile device is set to flight mode during all phases of flight. Then activate Wi-Fi on your device.

2. Choose the “Icelandair Internet Access” network.

Always permitted

Hearing Aid

Permitted at gate and above 10,000 feet*

Pacemaker

DVD Player

3. Open your browser of choice. You should be directed to the Icelandair Wi-Fi portal, or enter wifi.icelandairwifi.com.

Laptop / Tablet

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Wi-Fi is available from the moment you board until you leave the aircraft.

Always permitted*

Tablet

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E-reader

Smart-phone (in-flight mode)

What can I expect? n Connection speed is similar to 3G. Keep in mind that the on-board Wi-Fi is not as fast as home connection, and the number of users can affect connection speed.

Camera (digital, film, video)

NoiseCanceling Headphones (power ON)

CD Player

Media Player

Handheld Game

Portable Electronic Devices, or PEDs, may be used provided that flight mode is enabled before departure.

Any PED that transmits or receives radio signals but does not have flight mode must be switched off for the duration of the flight.

Larger PEDs (more than 1 kg) such as laptops must be securely stowed in overhead compartments or under the seat before takeoff and landing.

Small, lightweight PEDs (1 kg or less) must be secured during takeoff and landing. Passengers must either hold their PED or securely place it in the seat pocket.

We ask passengers to remove their headphones and pay attention to the safety briefing.

What can I do when connected?

Once connected, you have access to web browsing, email, social networks, news, and texting.

What kind of device can I use?

You can use a smartphone, tablet or laptop. The connection will be activated on the same device you use to purchase or validate your access.

How do I pay?

See our Wi-Fi portal for pricing information.

You pay with a credit card, voucher or Saga Points using the Wi-Fi portal.

Icelandair Saga Club members can pay using Saga Points.

Icelandair Saga Gold members and booked Saga Premium passengers get complimentary Wi-Fi access for two devices.

More information More information can be found in the Wi-Fi portal.

Contact us via email at wifi@icelandair.is.

A peaceful cabin for everyone To keep the cabin peaceful, please use headphones when listening to music or other material and place computer games and such on silent or very low volume.

Precaution If your mobile phone or tablet gets caught in the seat, please inform the cabin crew and they will assist you. If a battery operated device overheats during the flight, inform the cabin crew immediately.

106 Icelandair Stopover

Power outlets are located in all Saga Premium seats. USB outlets provide power to charge small PEDs, such as smartphones and cameras.

Aircraft B757-200 I Aircraft B757-300 Plug

Rows 1–14

USB

All rows

NOTE: PEDs must be disconnected from any in-seat electrical power supply during taxiing, t akeoff, approach, landing and during abnormal or emergency conditions.

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SAFETY FIRST Iceland’s vast nature is spectacular, unique—and unpredictable. Sunny and calm periods can transform into windstorms, blizzards and plummeting temperatures in a matter of hours. If you are planning to travel to a more isolated area, please leave a copy of your itinerary with the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue at safetravel.is, and, for all excursions, observe these tips: DRIVING When driving, keep your full attention on the road, especially on areas where tarmac turns to gravel. Blind hills should be approached with caution. It is illegal to operate a vehicle after consuming alcohol.

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On single-lane bridges, the car closer to the bridge has the right of way, but it is always wise to stop and assess the situation.

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Only take Highland roads if you have a 4x4 jeep, and make sure you have the experience necessary to operate these vehicles in tough conditions.

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Roads can be quite slippery during winter, especially after frost in the early morning. All Highland roads are closed during winter.

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Off-road driving is illegal.

HIKING When you are hiking, be prepared for sudden weather changes, stick to your travel plan, and dress appropriately, with water- and wind-resistant clothing, gloves and hats.

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Do not get too close to cliff edges or hot springs. When waves are big, stay far from the water’s edge; be especially vigilant along the south coast, which is open to the Atlantic Ocean.

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If you get lost, call 112, the emergency service line. Stay where you are and wait for rescue services to find you.

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The search and rescue association also offers a free emergency app, downloadable from their website. Your coordinates will be sent to the emergency response crews should you use the app. There is more information on safe travel in Iceland on our in-flight entertainment system.

Visit safetravel.is for equipment lists, travel plans and the latest traveling conditions.

108 Icelandair Stopover

KNOW YOUR EMERGENCY NUMBER ICELAND / EUROPE ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 112 USA AND CANADA ������������������������������������������������������������������������ 911 UK ������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 999 / 112 icesar.com Emergency calls are free to make from mobile phones. If you’re on the other side of the Atlantic, or in Iceland from North America, don’t forget to check on arrival if yours is working. Some phones operate on a different bandwidth and will not work in foreign countries.

ICELANDIC SEARCH AND RESCUE:

OUR COUNTRY’S BRAVE VOLUNTEERS If you get lost on a mountain, can’t find your way at sea, or encounter virtually any other difficulty in Iceland’s outdoors, the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue (ICE-SAR) is there to help. In a country with no military and only a few coast guard vessels and helicopters, ICE-SAR’s 3,000 highly-trained volunteers command deserved respect from both locals and visitors.

Their teams deal with thousands of calls annually and are available 24 hours a day, on land or at sea. So while the vast majority of trips to Iceland will be without incident, you can rest easy that, should the need arise, the nation’s most experienced people will be prepared to save lives and prevent accidents under even the harshest conditions.

Remember too that rescue operations are expensive to launch: Advanced equipment is used and volunteers take time off from their jobs to take part. ICE-SAR relies entirely on donations to finance itself; you can contribute via their website, icesar.com.

SAFETY ON BOARD We put safety first on all of our flights. The in-flight safety video gives a good overview of what you need to know for a safe journey.

Please follow the instructions carefully and check out the safety card in your seat pocket.

The cabin crew is there to assist and keep you safe at all times so please follow their guidance and suggestions.

All electronic devices (mobile phones, tablets, e-readers) have to be switched off or in flight mode during the flight. Of course, this does not extend to heart pacemakers, hearing aids and other devices needed for medical reasons.

If your mobile phone or tablet gets caught in the seat, please inform the cabin crew and they will assist you. If a battery operated device overheats during the flight, inform the cabin crew immediately.

Whenever the seatbelt signs are on please: n

Stow devices larger than 10.5 in (27 cm) and / or more than 2.2 lb (1 kg) in the overhead compartment.

Please note that your life jacket may be located under your seat, above your seat, or in the armrest.

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Hold devices smaller than 10.5 in (27 cm) and lighter than 2.2 lb (1 kg) or stow them in the overhead compartment or seat pocket.

To keep the cabin peaceful please use headphones when listening to music or other material and place computer games and such on silent or very low volume.

luggage in the overhead compartments or place it under the seat in front of you. Be careful when opening the compartments as luggage may have shifted. When space is limited we might need to store some hand luggage the luggage hold.

Smoking is prohibited on all Icelandair flights.

This includes vaping.

For your safety and comfort we recommend that you keep your seatbelt fastened and visible throughout the flight. Store your hand

ICELANDAIR ALLERGY POLICY Icelandair cannot guarantee an allergen-free environment on board its aircraft. Therefore, we strongly encourage passengers with severe allergies that can result in anaphylaxis to bring an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPenÂŽ) and any other medications they may need.

The meals offered on Icelandair flights do not contain peanuts or peanut products, such as peanut butter, although trace elements from peanuts may be found in meals.

In addition, tree nuts (e.g. almonds) may be found in meals on board, and fish and shellfish are sometimes on offer in Saga Premium.

Unfortunately, it is not possible to remove tree nuts, fish or shellfish from the cabin.

In the case of severe nut allergy, our cabin crew can make an allergy announcement on board, asking other passengers on the flight not to consume foods that contain nuts.

Please contact Icelandair Customer support

at +354 50 50 100 at least two business days before departure to request an allergy announcement.

We do, however, wish to stress that Icelandair can in no way restrict other passengers from bringing or consuming their own food on the aircraft that may contain nuts or other allergens. For that reason, it is possible to find traces of nuts on seat cushions, arm rests, tray tables, or elsewhere in the cabin.

Icelandair Stopover 109

VISA WAIVER PROGRAM – VWP – FOR TRAVEL TO USA Samningur um undanþágu frá vegabréfsáritun til Bandaríkjanna (Visa Waiver Program) gerir ríkisborgurum tiltekinna landa kleift að ferðast til Bandaríkjanna í skemmti- eða viðskipta­ferð í allt að 90 sólarhringa án þess að sækja um og fá sérstaka vegabréfs­á ritun. Ferðamönnum, sem þessi samningur tekur til, er eftir sem áður heimilt að sækja um vegabréfs­á ritun ef þeir kjósa svo. Aðeins tiltekinn fjöldi ríkja eru aðilar að þessum samningi (VWP) og ekki er öllum ferðamönnum frá ríkjum, sem eru aðilar að samningnum, heimilt að nýta sér undanþáguna. Öllum ferðamönnum frá löndum, sem eru aðilar að VWP, er skylt að sækja um rafræna ferða­ heimild á vef bandarískra innflytjendayfirvalda (Electronic System for Travel Authorization—

ESTA). Þegar komið er til Bandaríkjanna verður starfsmaður innflytjendayfirvalda á

flugvellinum að staðfesta að viðkomandi ferðamaður hafi undanþágu skv. VWP og ferðamaðurinn er þá skráður í US-VISIT kerfið.

Lönd sem eru aðilar að samningnum um undanþágu frá vegabréfsáritun til Bandaríkjanna Countries participating in the Visa Waiver Program n Singapore n Andorra n France n Lithuania n Slovakia n Australia n Germany n Luxembourg n Slovenia n Austria n Greece n Malta n South Korea n Belgium n Hungary n Monaco n Spain n Brunei n Iceland n The Netherlands n Sweden n Chile n Ireland n New Zealand n Switzerland n Czech Republic n Italy n Norway n Taiwan n Denmark n Japan n Poland n United Kingdom n Estonia n Latvia n Portugal n

Finland

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Liechtenstein

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VISA WAIVER PROGRAM The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) allows most nationals of participating countries to travel to the USA for tourism or business for up to 90 days without a visa. VWP travelers must have a valid Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) approval prior to travel and meet all requirements explained at cbp.gov/esta.

San Marino

US CUSTOMS DECLARATION FORM EN

Before arriving in the US, each traveler or head of family is required to fill this form out and present to US Customs.

IS

Hver komufarþegi eða forráða­ maður í fjölskyldu skal gefa eftirfar­andi upplýsingar (fyrir hverja fjölskyldu dugar EIN yfirlýsing).

DE

Vor der Einreise in den U.S.A müssen Sie eine Zollerklärung ausfüllen. Ein Formular pro Familie ist erfordert.

1. Eftirnafn, skírnarnafn, miðnafn

1. Familienname, Vorname, Zweiter Vorname

2. Fæðingardagur dagur / mánuður / ár

2. Geburtsdatum / Tag / Monat / Jahr

3. Fjöldi fjölskyldumeðlima sem ferðast saman

3. Anzahl der mit Ihnen reisenden Familienmitglieder

4. a) Heimilisfang í Bandaríkjunum (nafn hótels / áfangastaðar) b) Borg c) Fylki

4. (a) Adresse/genaue Anschrift in den USA (Name des Hotels / Reiseziel) (b) Stadt (c) Staat

Avant d’arriver aux États-Unis, il vous sera demandé de remplir un formulaire de déclaration en douane. Un formulaire par famille suffit.

1. Nom, Prénom, Initiale du deuxième prénom.

2. Date de naissance Jour / Mois / Année.

3. Nombre de personnes voyageant avec vous.

4. Adresse aux États-Unis a) Destination ou nom de l’hôtel. b) Ville. c) Etat.

5. Útgáfustaður vegabréfs (land)

5. Pass ausgestellt von (Land)

6. Númer vegabréfs

6. Passnummer

7. Land búsetu

7. Ständiger Wohnsitz (Land)

8. Lönd sem var farið til í þessari ferð, fyrir lendingu í Bandaríkjunum

8. Auf dieser Reise besuchte Länder vor Ihrer Ankunft in den USA

7. Pays de résidence.

9. Flugfélag / Númer flugs eða heiti flugvélar

9. Fluggesellschaft/Flugnummer oder Name des Schiffes

8. Pays visités pendant ce voyage avant l’arrivée aux Etats-Unis.

10. Markmið þessarar ferðar er viðskiptalegs eðlis JÁ / NEI 11. Ég hef (við höfum) meðferðis: a) ávexti, jurtir, mat, skordýr: b) kjöt, dýr, dýraafurðir c) smitefni, frumuræktir, snigla d) mold eða hef/höfum dvalist á bónda­ bæ /mjólkurbúi / beitilandi JÁ/NEI 12. Ég hef (við höfum) verið í snertingu eða meðhöndlað lifandi dýr JÁ / NEI 13. Ég hef (við höfum) meðferðis peninga / gjaldmiðil eða aðra fjármuni að jafngildi hærri upphæð en USD 10.000. (sjá skilgreiningu á fjármun-um á bakhlið seðilsins) JÁ / NEI

10. Der Hauptanlass dieser Reise ist geschäftlich.

Ja/nein 11. Ich (wir) führen folgende Waren ein: (a) Früchte, Pflanzen, Lebensmittel, Insekten. (b) Fleisch, Tiere, Tier- oder Wildprodukte. (c) Krankheitserreger, Zellkulturen, Schnecken. (d) Erde, oder waren Sie auf einem Bauernhof/einer Ranch/Weide. Ja/ nein 12. Ich war (wir waren) in unmittelbarer Nähe von Vieh/Nutztieren (z.B. Anfassen oder Umgang damit). Ja/nein

14. Ég hef (við höfum) meðferðis varning (til sölu eða sem ég hef (við höfum) keypt eða fengið erlendis, sem ekki teljast til persónulegra eigna) JÁ / NEI

13. Ich führe (wir führen) mehr als $US 10,000 in Bargeld oder Zahlungsmitteln oder den Gegenwert in anderen ausländischen Währungen mit.

15. Búsettir í Bandaríkjunum – andvirði varnings sem ég hef (við höfum) keypt eða fengið erlendis (einnig gjafir fyrir aðra) er:

Ekki búsettir í Bandaríkjunum – andvirði alls varnings sem verður eftir í Bandaríkjunum:

(Siehe die Definition von Zahlungsmitteln auf der Rückseite). Ja/nein

14. Ich führe (wir führen) kommerzielle Waren mit. (Verkaufsware, Muster zur Werbung von Aufträgen oder Artikel, die nicht als Gegenstände zum persönlichen Gebrauch gelten) Ja/nein 15. Ansässige – der Gesamtwert aller Waren, einschliesslich der kommerziellern Waren, die ich (wir) im Ausland gekauft oder erworben habe(n) - (einschließlich Geschenke an Dritte, jedoch ausschließlich Gegenstände, die per Post in die USA gesendet wurden) und in die USA einführe(n).

110 Icelandair Stopover

FR

Besucher – der Gesamtwert aller Waren, die in den USA verbleiben werden, einschließlich der kommerziellen Waren, beträgt.

5. Lieu de délivrance du passeport (nom du pays).

6. Numéro de passeport.

9. Ligne aérienne / et numéro du vol / Nom de vaisseau.

10. Vous voyagez pour raison d’affaires.

OUI /NON 11. Je suis / nous sommes porteurs de a) fruits, plantes, produits alimentaires, insectes. b) viandes, animaux, produits provenant d’animaux ou d’animaux sauvages c) agents pouvant causer des maladies, cultures cellulaires, escargots d) terre. J’ai / Nous avons visité une exploitation agricole en dehors des Etats-Unis, OUI / NON 12. J’ai / nous avons touché ou traité du bétail. OUI/NON 13. Je suis / nous sommes porteurs d’espèces ou d’instruments monétaires d’une valeur équivalente en monnaie des États Unis ou de tout autre pays (Voir définition d’instruments monétaire au verso) à plus de 10 000$ US. OUI / NON 14. Je suis / nous sommes en possession de marchandises commerciales (articles des tinés à la vente, échantillon de démonstra tion ou tout autre article autresque des effets personnels). OUI/NON 15. Résidents : La valeur totale de tous les arti cles (y compris les marchandises commer ciales) que j’ai / nous avons acheté ou acquis à l’étranger et que j’apporte / nous apportons (y compris cadeaux, mais qui excluent les effets affranchis vers les États-Unis) aux ÉtatsUnis. Visiteurs : La valeur totale de tous les articles qui resteront aux États-Unis (y compris les marchan dises commerciales).

S H O P. D I N E .

S T A Y . P L A Y. P L A N YO U R T R I P, F I N D D I S C O U N T S + M O R E I N F O AT M A L L O FA M E R I C A . C O M / V I S I T With over 520 stores that have no sales tax on clothing or shoes, 50+ dining options, 16 attractions and a JW Marriott (booking code ZJL) + Radisson Blu (booking code TCATER) conveniently connected to the Mall, it's all here.

/MALLOFAMERICA

@MALLOFAMERICA

@MALLOFAMERICA

MALLOFAMERICAUSA

112 Icelandair Stopover

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Make the most of your last hours in Iceland.

We are your one stop shop for Icelandic design, souvenirs and traditional food. Browse wheninkef.is to see our selection and offers.

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STOPOVER MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 2020

Winter Magazine 2020

#MyStopover

STOPOVER

Blua lagoon augl. baksíða

SPIRIT OF ICELAND STOPOVER MAGAZINE ISSUE 1 2020

Expeditioner Vilborg Arna on Everest and the South Pole page 18 Animation: Frozen II’s Icelandic Inspirations page 22

Adventure: Backcountry Skiing and Flying Across Iceland page 30

Interview: Jeremy Strong on Iceland and Succession page 36

Photo Essay: Benjamin Hardman’s Winter in the North page 52