Lögberg-Heimskringla - 25.09.1992, Blaðsíða 1

Lögberg]
neimsKringia
The lcelandic Weekly
Lögberg Stofnaö 14. janúar 1888 Heimskringla Stofnaö 9. september 1886
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Inside this week:
Fjallkona's speech..................................3 & 9
A love of books..........................................6
Viking Golf Classic......................................7
lceland's First Airline.............................10-11
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106. Árgangur Föstudagur 25. september 1992
106th Year Publications Mail Registration No. 1667 Friday, 25 September 1992
lcelandic
Númer 33
Number 33
News
An Old Landmark:
An old landmark in Reykjavík, best
known in latter years as Geysis Flús is to
be restored to its original look and used
as an Information centre. The house has
a long history, built in 1855 and com-
prised of two buildings, namely
Aðalstræti 2 and Vesturgata 1. Before
the well known Geysir Ltd. moved into
the buildings in the 50's, it had housed
Ingólfs Apotek, H.P. Duus store and ear-
lier the business operations of Waldimar
Fischer. The houses were built by
Robert Tærgesen, whose son Hans P.
Tergesen built before the turn of the
century the well-known landmark at
Centre St. and 1st Ave. in Gimlí,
Manítoba, that still houses the family
operation, H.P. Tergesen & Sons.
Reduction in fish
exports:
First seven months of this yeaFs sale of
fresh cod to foreign markets has suf-
fered a 23% reduction compared with
the same period tast year, or from
10400 tons down to 8000 tons.
Haddock sales have gone from 7600
tons to 4600 tons or 39% reduction.
Sale of Saithe has suffered a 20% reduc-
tion, but Redfish sales are about the
same as last year.
Bessy on the driver's
licence:
Steini Guðmundsson, seen here milking
the "HomeCow" at his farm Laxárdalur
in Þistilfjörður so liked this picture that
he requested that he be allowed to use
it on his driver's licence. The good
authorities granted him his wísh. The
term Home-Cow refers, in this instance,
to the only cow on the farm being used
for home milk consumption.
V
Translated from Morgunblaðið

The Þresident’s residence at Bessastaðir stands on a peninsula only 15 Km. from Reykjavík, while the President’s
offices are situated in the heart of the city, on the far side of the bay. The tower of Hallgrímskirkja rises out of a
sea of roofs, against the backdrop of Reykjavík’s own Mt. Esja, once likened by a local poet to “mauve-tinted
dreams on spring evenings.” The people of Reykjavik have a special relationship with Esja, which is a favourite place for
walks in good weather.
Postcard from lceland
By Betty Jane Wylle
Like the promised land, glaciers
are bettcr viewed from a distance. Up
close, the vision is spoiled by the
detritus of a behemoth in (slow)
motion. Thc great fat lip of this dirty
monopode curls up and back from the
pool of water melting under its
weight, leaving a dismal gravel bed
that makes landfill look attractive.
Years ago when I first viewed the
Columbia Glacier in the Canadian
Rockies, I dubbed it the Columbia
Gravel Pit. I decided that Icelandic
glaciers also look like the rcar end of
thc world. No wonder it’s called ter-.
minal moraine.
Better to view a glacier from afar
— gleaming white, pristine, — or
maybe really close by climbing onto
its groaning, noisy body and slip-slid-
ing over the blinding surface, but
carefully linked with others lest the
trip end in a terminal crevasse.
The best way, and the best glacicr
to see the best way, is by boat around
the ice-blue waters at the foot of
Iceland’s Vatnajökull, the largest glac-
ier in Europe. Chips off thc big block
calve like icebergs in microcosm —
pretty macro for micro. Our pilot kept
careful distance from these bcautiful,
surrcal palaces, floating lazily and
lethally on thcir subaqueous razors.
We slid past ice sculptures of white
and ancient snow with blue shards of
sky and crystallinc air bubbles fast
frozen in their exotic, eroded, convo-
luted mint-green and sapphire depths.
My eyes felt as liquid and cold as the
water holding all that beauty; when I
turned my gaze to the horizon and
the approaching car park, I was total-
ly disoriented, an alien coming reluc-
tantly to earth.
I have seen more of Iceland than
my maternal grandparcnts ever did in
their short time in the land of their
birth. In 1887 they left for Canada
separately, my grandfather from the
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