FLYING TO ICELAND: A GEOGRAPHY LESSON

Luna Avnon
Mar 5, 2023
3 min read

Arriving in Keflavik Airport, Iceland, the distance from Copenhagen is 2145 km; 3.5 hours flying time.

What do you do when you fly?

I often read a book or two depending on how far I fly. I have long legs so as a rule I prefer to sit in the middle to stretch my legs. But this time flying to Iceland they had given me the middle of three seats and My Dear the window seat. I do not remember if I ever sat in the window seat; so, I took over the window seat together with my camera, to see what I may catch on the way. I did not expect much because flying to Iceland, what can be? The ocean and the clouds of the sky.

You are absolutely forbidden to open a window at 10+km height, so the photos here are taken through the window and therefore not as clear as I could have wished for.

We started from Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup, which is one of the first civilian airports, it has been active since 20th April 1925; in two years it will celebrate a century of active duty! In the beginning the runways were of made of grass and to keep the grass short, they kept sheep to eat the grass, and a shepherd to remove them when a plane had to take off or for landings.

On the fence of the runways, a field without cows, because they do not give much milk if they are exposed to noise pollution.

The airport is located on Amager, where King Christian II in 1521 settled a group of Dutch farmers to grow vegetables for the royal family. In history lessons in school we were told the king was so impressed with the Dutch farmers industrious and effective farming that he wanted to teach the lazy Danes a lesson. The Dutch had special rights like not paying taxes, but were not allowed to marry a Dane for 300 years.

Do you see the Bridge in the back?

The first thing that you notice when you fly in the right direction is the Bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö constructed between 1995 to 1999 and officially open 1st July 2000, creating an integrated area of southern Sweden (Skåne) and Denmark. Skåne since the Vikings Era was part of the Danish kingdom, being a point of historical disagreements and wars, it was lost to the Swedish in 1720. Today the cable-stayed Bridge has made the two areas closer than ever. The height of the two pylons is 204 meters, the length is almost 8 km, in a car it takes 10 minutes to cross it. The bridge has a motor way and a railway, there is an artificial island, Peperholmen and a long tunnel.

The Bridge is an impressive architectural beauty; I am very sorry they do not prepare to have a spot in the middle of the Bridge to stop the car and enjoy the breath-taking views.

North Sjælland with Fure Søen in the middle.

Læsø, the biggest island in Kattegat, perhaps not a very clear photo, but on this the island I was born. The name is from the old Norse mythology: the Isle of Hler or the Island of the god of the seas. This god had nine daughters personified as waves of the sea. These nine daughters were considered witches and unpredictable, they would go berserk and attack men; they did that to Thor.

The top of North Jylland with its pixie hat, not really part of the Jutland Peninsula because Limfjorden separates the northern part from the Peninsula. In Norse mythology this fjord was said to have been dug out by a big pig (Limgrim), that is why it has an irregular outline.

Windmills in Jutland; in 2019 more than 47% of Denmark’s total electricity consumption was provided by windmills. Some of these windmill forests are located in the sea off shore.

Our route

Southern Norway

Clouds

In the North Sea, I see two ships and some light

The light was an oilrig; since 1966 the North Sea have seen 184 oil rigs placed to harvest the oil and gas fields. Stavanger is called the Oil Capital of Norway. We flew over but it was cloudy.

Clouds

On Iceland’s eastern side probably from the Vatnajökull National Park; it looks like an island of ice and snow. I see a mountain in the middle; I wonder which mountain.