After a nice breakfast at the hotel
we sent off to explore Akureyi.
The city is located at the end of the fjord Eyjafkorour and is surrounded by mountains. Akureyi has a population of about 18,000. It is an important port and fishing centre and enjoys an ice free harbor. A cruise ship had arrived during the night so the town was filled with sightseers.
Transportation was by foot, and the terrain was quite hilly. I wasn't fond of walking on rocks and uneven ground in previous days, but pavement and concrete isn't the best either. A nearby attraction was the Akureyi Botanical Gardens.
It is a free public park and is nicely laid out with lots of interesting nooks and crannies. Some of the plants were greenhouse grown but most of them are indigenous to the area. It was surprising to recognize so many of the same plants as we have at home.
Nearby was “old town”, an area with
homes of some of the first settlers in the area. The design of the buildings
was traditional Icelandic. I especially enjoyed the windows which frequently have
beautiful lace curtains. Some of the homes were quite colorful and the wooden trim
was beautiful.
The road led me to the main shopping
area downtown where I browsed for awhile. I also stopped in at an art gallery
which had a most interesting display of life sized wooden characters made from
lumber scraps and found things. I especially enjoyed “Mr. Abacus Hat”.
The agenda for the rest of the day
was the drive back to Reykjavik which was a 5 and a half hour one. The scenery in
Iceland is really quite amazing – rugged, sparsely populated and truly
beautiful.
We had a late supper in the restaurant
attached to our hotel. I ordered the Arctic char again and it was prepared in a
much different way this time – minced on top of miniature sliced potatoes on
top of bread, garnished with green apple pieces. Yum!
