Huffin' and Puffin

July 17th

Gail and I split up again Sunday morning.  She went on a harbor cruise.  I took another bike ride.  The main purpose of the boat trip was to see the puffins.  An estimated 10 million live in Iceland.  A large colony stays on an island in Rykjavik's harbor.  Puffins are cute.  Unless you're a fish.  Puffins can eat 12 fish at a time when they're hungry.  The Atlantic puffins were endangered 100 years ago and remain a protected species.  Hunting and habitat destruction nearly did them in.  These days the puffins are thriving.  Gail was able to see thousands as the boat sailed by the shore line.

Gail and I hiked around town in the afternoon.  We toured the parks and enjoyed the eclectic artwork.  Along the way we stopped at the National Museum.  Some of the artifacts went back 1,000 years.  Most of the exhibits were recreations though.  Iceland's soil is acidic.  Very little has survived intact.  Careful records document the country's past.  It was possible to recreate a lot of the history.  But most of Iceland's ancient treasures are lost.

The museum's modern section includes a section on Iceland's experience in World War Two.  The country still was affiliated with Denmark and insisted on remaining neutral.  The United Kingdom insisted otherwise after Germany invaded Norway, threatening its shipping lanes.  The U.K. invaded in late 1940.   Control was transferred to the United States in 1941.  Before Pearl Harbor.  Americans poured into Iceland.  An airport was built.  Construction began on roads, barracks, buildings, and whatever else was needed.  Jobs were created.  New skills were learned.  Modern technologies arrived.  Iceland quickly transformed into a fast growing industrial economy.

The combination of beautiful Icelandic women and American soldiers created "The Situation."  The local government concluded it wasn't a deal breaker.  The Americans were laying the groundwork for an explosive increase in living standards.  GDP growth outpaced the rest of the world for the next 60 years.  The American presence also facilitated Iceland's formal independence in 1944.  The Nazis could have tried to claim Iceland as part of its Denmark conquest.  That didn't happen with the Americans there.

The museum didn't talk about recent events.  Well, it did have the ball used by the Icelandic soccer team when it beat England in the recent European Championship.  But there was nothing about the 2008 financial crash or the Panama Papers.  You needed to take a bike ride to get those stories!