Iceland Day 8, September 17

We had an early morning--right after breakfast we were driven to Akuereyri airport for our flight to Rejkjavik. Our first stop in Rejkjavik was Perlan, a museum and exhibition hall. We had a wonderful immersive experience that put us inside an erupting volcano! There were many exhibits including geothermal forces, glaciers and fauna. And we attended an IMAX format presentation on the Northern lights.

We ate lunch at a local restaurant, and then had a wlking tour of Rejkjavik. The rest of the day we were on our own.

Iceland Day 7, September 16

Right after breakfast we drove to Dalvik, a commercial fishing port. We were issued survival suits and then boarded a restored fishing boat for our whale watching tour.

We had an able captain and a marine life expert to help us in our endeavor.

We were fortunate enough to come upon a female humpback whale.

We ate lunch at a cafeteria in Dalvik, and then headed back to Akuereyri. Linda led us on a walking tour of the city and then we were on our own.

Iceland Day 6, September 15

We drove through one of the oldest streets in Akuereyri, seeing the oldest existing homes in the city. A local woman knitted covers for the trash receptacles on this street.

Our first stop of the day was Godafoss, in English: Waterfall of the Gods. It was said to have been named this when one of the early parliament leaders threw his statues of Norse gods over the edge of the waterfall in the year 1000 when Christianity became the official religion of Iceland.

We spent some time at Skutustadir, an area of pseudo craters which were formed by steam under the flowing lava. This area is on the shores of Lake Myvatn, and we hiked around this lovely area.

We had a great demonstration of the local breadmaking process at Dimmuborgir. The dough is mixed in vats and then baked in natural steam chambers underground. We had the warm bread with our soup for lunch.

After lunch we walked around the "black castle" lava formations of Dimmulborgir., where a lonely troll is said to have lived. We imagined trolls among the lava formations, and then stopped to sample Icelandic liquor at a stone throne. The couple to our right are Kathy and Bill Nachtrab, the friends who invited us on this tour.

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It was a real treat to stop at another open spot on the tectonic plates. There Linda took our photo with half of us on the Eurasian plate and the other half on the North American plate.

We drove to Namafjall to walk among the bubbling hot mud pools and steaming fumeroles. This is such a diverse and incredible landscape!

We were split into two groups for a home-hosted dinner in the homes of local Icelanders.

 

Iceland Day 5, September 14

Today we arrived in Akuereyri, the capital of the norrth of Iceland. It was a long drive, and we are now 37 miles from the arctic circle.

Our frst stop on this long drive was Kolugljufur waterfall and gorge, named after a troll of course. Her burial mound is said to be where the danger sign is located.

We stopped again to look at a sheep sorting corral. They herd all the sheep down from the mountains in late September and sort them according to their ear tags. Then each farmer retrieves his own sheep to house in barns for the winter.

Linda prepared our lunch at the Search and Rescue barn, where we had a very interesting presentation by Hafdis. She is a teacher as well as a volunteer. The entire operation is self   funded and run by volunteers. We helped them out by purchasing key chains and tee shirts.

We had a quick stop at Glaumbaer museum and church. There are many small  churches like this throughout Iceland. They are all of the Lutheran denomination. the official religion of Iceland. The sod houses are some of the few remaining of their kind. Icelanders lived in these houses until well into the 20th century.

After checking into our hotel some of us walked iwth Linda to the most northern botanical garden in the world!