Discover Iceland ... in Manitoba
Iceland has been an increasingly popular travel destination in the past several years, but it’s far away from almost everything, windy, cold and expensive.
There’s a small town an hour north of Winnipeg that prides itself on its Icelandic heritage and will serve as the perfect slice of Nordic culture without crossing half of the Atlantic, Kevin Wagar writes on his travel blog Wandering Wagars.
Gimli, with a population of less than 7,000, is on the shore of Lake Winnipeg and features all the Viking goodness you can handle. There’s even a 4.5-metre-tall statue of a Viking standing in a park, complete with horned helmet. It’s just a coincidence that the town shares its name with a Lord of the Rings character.
But why does this small town in the middle of Canada care so much about Iceland?
In the mid-1800s, a staggering number of Icelandic people immigrated to Canada to escape a famine caused by the eruption of the volcano Askja. The area surrounding the lake is even known as New Iceland.
The Icelandic Festival of Manitoba has been held annually in Gimli since 1932.
It features a Viking village, food and drink, rides, a fashion show and a film festival. The 2020 festival is scheduled for July 31 to Aug. 3.
Along the lake, there is the boardwalk and seawall. Murals stretch as far as the eye can see, covering the wall and telling stories from both Icelandic culture and the surrounding Indigenous peoples’ history.