Visit Iceland

Travel & Leisure writer Shane Mitchell issued her Shane’s Must Do list for the December 2009 magazine. Under “Must Drink” was this listing: Austrian rum–spiked hot chocolate by the lobby fireplace at 101 Hotel, Reykjavík, Iceland. Drinks for two $20. See it here:

http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/hottest-new-city-hotels-december-2009/1

“Julia Hechtman spent her summer photographing Iceland. She didn’t want to just shoot the majestic landscape; she wanted to make images that were not postcard-perfect but integrated her experience there. Hechtman also took 10 of her favorite movies with her to Iceland, to divide, she says in her artist’s statement, summer days that never ended. The photos are beautiful, with an Iceland summer’s diamond gleam.

“Hechtman’s ‘Harold and Maude’ quotes a familiar shot of two figures, side by side, seen from behind, here humbled against the backdrop of a forever sky. ‘Lost in Translation’ presents an enormous leap, from the Tokyo streetscapes where that film was set to a mossy Icelandic hummock upon which a man sprawls in his parka. These films are a common currency; they bring something familiar to the stark, unfamiliar Icelandic landscape and help us find our place there, alongside the artist.”

– Cate McQuaid, The Boston Globe, Dec. 16

“No other society, it seems to me, has been quite so reflective about the crisis, so ready to turn popular resentment into something constructive. And I don’t just mean that Iceland has become one of the few countries without a McDonald’s (though there is something pleasing about watching the kids now queue at the Reykjavik bus station for kjammi og kok – flattened sheep’s head with Coke).”

– Roger Boyes, WashingtonPost.com, Dec. 16

“Face as smooth as silk, I gingerly swam a few more yards to the edge of the Blue Lagoon to gaze at the seemingly alien landscape: raw, jet black, treeless with rising clouds of steam emerging from the earth. The silica scooped from wooden buckets at the sides to make my very own facepack (creating) that newborn sensation – and those pools, bubbling up from the ground, made for the ultimate in relaxation. “It was also a chance to shed the bobble hat, gloves and warm clothing which is, of course, a must. If you can get used to that – and the fact it can be pitch-black up to 9 a.m. off-season – there’s plenty to enjoy in Iceland.

– Graeme Currie, Liverpool (UK) Echo, Dec. 15