Iceland
The Place
From an isolated agricultural society that many people thought had scarcely progressed beyond the Middle Ages, Iceland emerged in the 20th-century as a high-tech welfare state with one of the highest standards of living in the world. Yet the country has a mere 283,000 inhabitants - the same as an average English town or suburb in a US city - and this scarcity of population leaves it with some of the greatest, most spectacular wilderness areas in Europe.
In fact, Iceland may be the ultimate nature trip. It has virtually no pollution from industry (most people live, one way or another, from fishing) and all energy is either geothermal or hydro-electric. Drinking water comes from pure glaciers; fish, the staple food, is caught in unpolluted seas and rivers; even the lamb and cattle graze in fields untouched by fertiliser. The majority of Icelanders now live in and around the capital, Reykjavík, leaving huge swathes of the volcanically active island - one of the most recently formed on earth - quite deserted. Dotted by steaming lava fields, icecaps, glaciers, hot pools and geysers, the Icelandic landscape has an elemental rawness that nobody who sees it can easily forget.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the people who live on this extraordinary island are an eccentric breed. Speaking of Europe's oldest language, little changed since the days of the Vikings, accustomed to the endless light of summer and Stygian gloom of the long winters, the Icelanders can be as extreme as their homeland. Characteristically rather shy, they are rarely the first to talk to strangers. But once their traditional reserve is broken through, they can be among the most friendly and hospitable people in Europe.
This may all help explain why Iceland exerts such a powerful hold over travellers - even those who have visited for only a few days - compelling them to return again and again.
