Pam,
You are absolutely correct. Iceland is a beautiful country and there is quite a bit of green to be seen there. Temperatures are not as frigid as some people seem to think. While I was stationed there we had temperatures in the 50's at times. You can actually go swimming all year round because of the natural hot springs that are there. Don't get me wrong, the winters there are pretty bone chilling cold, but even then I saw more rain probably than snow. The biggest problems that we had were the high winds, white outs, and black ice.
I had to fly over Greenland to get to Iceland. From the air, Greenland looks like a solid sheet of ice. So, yes, Greenland should have been called Iceland, and Iceland should have been called Greenland. The names were switched at one time for startegic purposes. Even to this day, a lot of the older generation Icelanders do not appreciate the Western culture trying to take over the old Nordic traditions. A lot of older folks I found will not even try to speak with you or help you if you do not know Icelandic.
All in all, it is a beautiful place and well worth the visit some day. If you remember the whale from the movies "Free Willy", he was actually brought back to Iceland and set free there. Also, while I was stationed there, Good Morning America did a special on life in Iceland. I also understand that there is a new LDS chapel there now.
As a bit of history, as far as anyone could tell at the time of my ordination, I was the first American to be ordained to the Melchizedek Priesthood in Iceland.
By the way, the picture above was taken at the NATO command that I was a part of in Keflavik Iceland. This was on the occcasion of the ending of 16 years of active duty service and reenlisting for my final 4 years of service to make a total of 20 years of active duty military service.
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Originally Posted by pam
Correct me if I'm wrong. I have been led to understand that Iceland is really quite green where as Greenland is really quite icy. This was done to confuse the enemy at one time. I am probably totally off on this but it's what I learned years ago.
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