I vote we send all our candidates there to campaign...in the middle of
winter...without clothing...and wet them down periodically.

No one who seeks power should be trusted with it.

JMO

Mike

If I sound bitter, I'm not.  But I am fairly disgusted.  And I thought of
this while looking at my van.  RVC.

----- Original Message -----
From: Bjorn Ratjen <Bjorn@IGLIDE.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Friday, December 01, 2000 5:54 PM
Subject: Re: Vanagon Happening on Iceland in 2002?

> Hallo Helmut,
>
> Iceland? Sounds like a great idea. It is just somwhat cimbersome to get
> there from here (Canadian West Coast). I have been there in 1980 with my
78
> Bulli (VW-Bus alias "loaf") who is now standing right here in my back yard
> here. So it is possible to go from there to here.
>
> >From Europe there is only one passenger/car ferry which travels from
> Scotland via the Faroe Islands to Iceland then to Norwa, Denmark and back
> to Scotland etc. The VW dealership in Iceland also services Land Rovers.
>
> For those of you who do not know Iceland - and there seem to be many
> according to the latest flurry of comments - it is a very interesting
place
> to visit. There are for example no trees to speak of on the Island mainly
> because the Vikings used all of them for their ships. Erosion and the
> everchaning weather did the rest.
>
> The whole city of Rejkjavik is geothermally heated. In other words when
you
> dig you come up with warm water. This is used to power and heat some
> greenhouses where indeed amongst other things bananas are grown.
>
> There are some other curiosities. The telephone book is organized by first
> names because all the last names are so similar: Gunnarson, Jakobson, etc.
> (the son of Gunnar, Jakob, etc). Like new Zealand there are more sheep
than
> inhabitants. Before the winter all farmers get together and bring home the
> all sheep jointly. Farmers know their sheep and they sort them by their
> faces (beats my skills).
>
> Driving in Iceland is sinfully expensive. There is only one road around
the
> country and two across. The inland routes are not passable in winter and
> all rivers have to be forded. My 2WD Van did quite well there. I remember
> though that water had entered my transmission because of water depth and
it
> made expensive repairs necessary after the trip.
>
> There are some freighters going to Iceland. It would be possible to ship
> from the East coast of North America and maybe fly with Icelandair.
>
> For our dear US neighbours I could include some interesting comments on
how
> democracy works in Iceland, where all party leaders usually travel
together
> on a tourbus and hold joint elections events in the small settlements. No
> lawyers are involved....
>
> I could go on, but I think this enough for my Friday afternoon lecture.
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Bj�rn
>
>
>
> Bj�rn Ratjen
> Mill Bay, B.C.
>
> 1987 Vanagon Syncro est alia (self camperized, TDI wannabe)
> 1978 VW Bulli (self camperized)
> 1995 Passat TD Wagon (hers)
> 1970 VW Beetle (son's)
> 1991 Jetta TD (ours)
>