We woke up this morning in Akureyri. It is a much larger village than yesterday but only 20,000 inhabitants.
From our balcony, we could see the church.
We were in a fjord 30 miles from the sea surrounded by glaciers.
The Caribbean Princess looks photoshopped with the mountains behind the ship.
We traveled about 45 minutes to the falls. Along the way, we took in the stunning landscape. It’s stark. It’s cold. But something about it touches the soul. A land uninhabited but for a few.
Our tour guide shared with us that there are few trees in Iceland. They have been planting trees and have continuing projects to bring in more trees. So much of the land is very barren.
The rock in the mountains appears layered because it is. Layers of volcanic ash.
We saw Icelandic horses grazing in a field. These horses have been around since the 10th century. They are smaller than other horses(pony size) but are hardy and healthy. Many of these horses died during a massive volcanic eruption in 1780. The Icelandic Horse Society was created in 1904 and many of these horses are transported around the world.
We finally made it to Godafoss waterfalls. It was a little walk up the path. Here are some shots I took at different viewpoints.
We stopped to do our usual selfie. We were quite cold. Temperatures were around 52 degrees with gusts of wind and cloudy.
The lava rocks were all around and they looked like etchings in the wall of the falls.
The river was glacial water and scraped rock and sand giving the river a bluish color.
Bruce without a canon!
After the falls we went to a botanical garden. It’s amazing anything grows in this frigid weather. Here are a few of the flowers in bloom.
It was a great day. Tomorrow we were supposed to go to another port but it was canceled due to rough seas. I had booked a trip to a thermal spa. Oh well. Next time. They are everywhere.
The Icelandic people don’t need hot water heaters because they get hot water piped into their homes.
The stop lights are very interesting in Akureyri. Can you see why?
At dinner, Bruce saw a whales tail out the window. He has incredible vision. We ran to get a better look and sure enough the whale had his tail out. I ran to get my camera and guess what? This was it? Bummer!
I really enjoyed Iceland and I definitely would like to come back.
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