Iceland, which claims the oldest parliament in the world, was a Danish dependency until the early Twentieth Century and still maintains a Swiss style neutrality, unless it is fighting over fish. 

It is also a country which will appeal to walkers searching for lonely windswept, expansive places, where the vistas stretch over volcanic plateaux to high ice caps which merge into the sky. It is a landscape, of snowy fells resembling those of Britain, to desert plateau studded with lakes where you could almost be in Tibet.

Weather changes so fast that it refreshes the mind, there are resplendent waterfalls which refract rainbows overhead, hot springs to bathe in and geysers which spit out the lump of snow that you have just thrown in. Reykjavik is the smallest and strangest capital city in Europe; many buildings are made of corrugated metal (even the McDonalds!) the modern Cathedral is built like a huge concrete icicle. Our backpacking tour in the Torfajokull glacial region, crosses rivers, climbs fells and stays at various huts en route, enjoying camp cuisine and group company.