Iceland 7: Akureyri to Myvatn

A lazy start to the morning, not waking up until 7:45.  Most impressively, there was a big, hot bright thing in the sky - something we hadn't seen for quite a while. Amazingly the sun was shining!  After checking out we headed across the fjord and stopped at a viewpoint to look back on the very beautiful town of Akureyri.  Unfortunately the viewpoint area was packed with coaches full of Germans, along with several other cars.  I took a deep breath, and then pushed to the front to take some pictures.  Coaches - presumably as a result of the cruise ships in the harbour - and, more specifically, coaches full of Germans, were going to be par for the course during the day.

This is the view we were all looking at: Akureyri in all its splendour.  This particular panorama really does look quite silly in blog format, so a video is the only real way of taking in the scene.

Next stop was Laufas, a museum set in an old rectory and farm associated with a church on the shore of the fjord.  It turned out to be "free museum" day, so we didn't need to pay to get in.  There was no objection to me using a tripod either.  The houses are set into a hillside and - apart from the front - the walls are made of turf.  Wood was (and still is) in short supply in Iceland, given the lack of trees; in fact, according to the custodian, most of the wood used inside the buildings came from shipwrecks.

The church turned out to be worth a visit too.

As did the cafe, where we stopped for "a little something".

We then took a gravel road on the grounds that the coaches wouldn't.

Later we stopped at Godafoss to look at the impressive waterfall, and found that - unsurprisingly - it was full of coaches.  Areas around the waterfall were roped off, presumably for safety reasons, but it was noticeable that certain nationalities (in this case, Italian and German) completely ignored them.  Not easy to take pictures here, as there were too many people and the light was too bright (yes, the sun was still shining).

We stopped at a convenience store, not far from Myvatn, to stock up on biscuits etc.  On second attempt I managed to find some Mjolk which was milk rather than yogurt: Muu (yellow), for future reference.   As we headed into the hills towards Myvatn, however, the clouds came over.  We stopped at a lava field, just before the lake, and went for a walk towards a volcanic cone.  Lots of birds to see there, including Black-tailed Godwit, Golden Plover and (my favourite) the Whimbrel.  I also saw some small wasps which were actively building a paper nest just below a piece of lava.

It was getting cold and very windy, so we headed into Reykjahlid and checked into the hotel.  After dinner we headed off to a nearby geo-thermal area, but you'll have to wait until the next installment for that.

Iceland 6: An Evening in Akureyri

Being in a large(ish) metropolis (Akureyri has a population of almost 18,000) we noticed that fire hydrants started to sprout up again.  This one was more helpful than the previous specimen, giving not only a date (1988) but also a Maker's name (Mueller) and location of origin (Albertville Alabama).

The skies were leaden when we walked around, and the ground was still very wet from the afternoon's drenching.  Even so, it soon became clear that Akureyri was rather different to Reykjavik: much smaller for a start, but also much more stylish.  The building below is the city's high school.

The hotel was very close to the Botanic Gardens, so we dropped in to have a look around.  Remarkably colourful compared to the surrounding countryside, but I was pleased to see a bed of the obligatory purple lupins.

Akureyri is just South of the Arctic Circle, and is built on one side of a long fjord with relatively steep sides.  As a result it's an excellent natural harbour, and acts as a magnet for large cruise ships.  At midsummer the sun almost sets while also shining its light straight down the length of the fjord; and - depending on the weather - this can be truly spectacular (apparently).  Sadly we were there a couple of weeks too late, and also the sun was in short supply...

The flight of steps down into the town from the Cathedral up on the hill.

Harriet perusing the menu of a rather wonderful Kaffi, which did us proud for dinner.  Excellent, simple, home-cooked food; and (by Icelandic standards) not outrageously expensive.

The main street was completely different to anywhere I'd been before.  The buildings were still clad in the standard corrugated metal sheets, but the architecture was attractive and the colours cheerful.  I'm pleased to see that "Grocer's Apostrophe" is alive and well outside the UK too.

We kept encountering rather wonderful wooden sculptures/carvings, although I never discovered who the artist was.  The skier with goggles was inside the hotel we were staying, and the remainder were in a gallery (which was sadly, closed, owing to the fact it was almost 23:00 when we discovered it).  Of course, being Icelend in July, there was still plenty of light around.

I particularly liked the sheep, but couldn't fit one in my suitcase...

Iceland 5: Grundarfjordur to Akureyri

The storm had blown itself out overnight, and it was calm but grey when we woke up.  Breakfast was the same as yesterday, but set us up well for the mammoth drive to Akureyri (375km).  Before setting off, however, we went along the quay in Grundarfjordur one last time to look at the birds.  There weren't too many to see, but we did spot someone walking a (fluffy) dog in a highly efficient Icelandic manner!

In the morning we stopped at a few places to take pictures while the weather was reasonable, but it soon started to cloud over.  This wasn't really an issue since the scenery became gradually less dramatic as we headed away from the Snaefellsnes peninsula.  

Much of the journey was made up of relatively flat lava fields which were either bare pumice or, as in the case below, covered in a blanket of thick moss.

The "dirt track" below is actually a main road.  In fact, almost half the roads we drove on in Iceland were unmetalled.  Sadly, not having hired a 4x4 vehicle, we weren't allowed on the truly adventurous "F" roads...

North West Iceland is much more open than other parts, being flatter and more agricultural.  Nothing like as spectacular as the previous couple of days, so we just drove until about 12:00 when we stopped to look in a wool shop and buy some food for lunch.  A bit of a one horse town (if that) but we also managed to negotiate the self-service automatic filling station and put some diesel in the car.

Question: when is milk not milk?  Answer: when it's "ab" milk, which actually turned out to be a form of natural yogurt instead.  Very good, as it happens, but not the easiest of things to drink with one's lunch...

There was lots more driving in the afternoon, sometimes on dirt roads, sometimes on metalled roads, and we eventually hit "Route 1" which is the main road from Reykjavik to Akureyri.  This was quite busy compared to others we had been on, so we pulled off to have lunch by a quiet church.  We got out of the car in bright sunshine, but since it was windy we moved behind the church for a bit of shelter.  Guess what?  Within two minutes the heavens opened, so we had to make a run for the car.

Then back on the road again, heading for a textile museum which Harriet wanted to visit.  This particular location was probably no more than a half-horse town, famous only for housing Iceland's oldest ever inhabitant. The guidebook reckoned that she got so old because nothing ever happened there, with the inevitable conclusion that she eventually died of boredom.

During the journey we met a rather unexpected hold-up: several people herding lots of horses from one field to another along the road.  They are such beautiful animals: about the size of a pony (although the Icelanders insist that they're definitely "horses"), and all possessing that characteristic comb-over.

The Textile Museum was in a modern building; and - thankfully - it proved rather more interesting than the rest of the town.  It was also a challenge photographically, as the majority of the exhibits were either white or black.  Interestingly, black appears to be the national dress colour for Iceland; strange in a land where, for half the year, they hardly see the sun.

I was rather taken with some of the traditional blankets, presumably made from undyed wool.

We then had another couple of hours driving ahead of us, so we set off into the rapidly deteriorating weather.  The scenery got more spectacular, with snow clearly visible at quite low levels.  We went through several heavy rain storms, as well as up hill and down dale on at least three occasions, into a steep gorge where we stopped to take some pictures (in the dry).  Needless to say, within five minutes of arriving, the heavens opened again and we had to make yet another dash for the car.

The first two pictures show the kind of sheep from whose wool the blankets had been made.  Truly hardy souls to survive in the Icelandic climate.

Finally, a view which was now becoming rather familiar during our travels...

Eventually we arrived in Akureyri, so look out for the next thrilling installment as we went for a wander around Iceland's second city.