3 July 2021 - Iceland - Akureyri, Godafoss Falls, Lake Myrvaten

 Saturday 3 July 2021 - Iceland

Visited "elegant city" Akureyri close to Arctic Circle, tucked away in Eyjafjorour fjord; blue waters, bronze mountain ash and bright colored houses.  Akureyrarkirka church a feature of the town, botanical garden and Icelandic flora. Akureyri is the "Capitol of the North" in Iceland.  Population of Iceland is 360,000 and there are 240,000 in the capital city of Reykjavik where we started and ended our tour.

Salmon season in June and expensive to buy a license.  In the "olden days" servants could not be given salmon to eat more than 5 days a week.  

Education - most kids were in boarding schools until recently but with better roads they now have schools.  Attendance for 6-16 year olds is 10 years and then choose junior and senior colleges.  In 1987 the University of Akureyri was established.

The "cabin" we had was fine in spite of being about 19 meter squared which converts to 204 square feet or 10ft x 20ft.  Figure that out.  It was pretty skinny and only one of us could pass between the end of the bed and the TV to the balcony.

We had the best wait staff and "Tim" from the Phillipines got to know us the first night and from then on called us Sir Ross and Mama Dee.  He was 37 years old, 2 kids in the Phillipines along with other family and in the pandemic he was out of work for 10 months so was very happy to be back but is gone from home for many months but happy to have a job.  He paid for his brother's education as a container ship engineer and also the 2nd brother who works with ships.

This is one of the most beautiful views of the port in Akureyri.

And our small ship at the port - room for 184 passengers and 118 crew and I think we had less than 150 passengers (69 from our tour and the rest from France).

During the conversion from paganism to Christianity  in the year 1000 the wooden pagan statues were thrown into this falls and that's why it is Waterfall of the Gods - pagan gods.

Godafoss means "Waterfall of the Gods" and it was indeed beautiful and we did hike the long path on this perfect day.

Next stop - botanical garden and it was certainly in bloom!  I love the Icelandic poppy and when we have them in Minnesota I didn't really think about the origin!

This was of course on my "list" and not a visit on the tour but we had free time  and it was 112 steps to the top but when we got there it was not open.  Nice view though:)

The landmark of Akureyri is Akureyarkirja - the Church of Akureyri - with 112 steps to the top of the hill, consecrated in 1940.was back then the biggest church in Iceland.

Nice gift shop so of course in addition to our magnet addiction (cheap, easy to pack) I buy Christmas ornaments and there were 13 sons in a family and they "terrorized" the town on certain days so mine was December 16 and the name on the bottom is Pot Licker.

Every lunch and dinner on the "boat" was different and it was a French chef and always lots of good choices.  This is one sample menu: