Ireland, Greenland, Iceland and
Norwegian Fjords
30th June 2008 - 18th July 2008
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12th July Akureyri (Iceland)

A genuine ‘Midnight Sun’ destination, Akureyi cruise port is a charming Icelandic town with a stunning location on the country's longest fjord - Eyjafjordur. There are several interesting museums and churches but the most amazing feature of Akureyi is its botanical garden - not surprisingly, the most northerly in the world. That this glorious display of flowers and plants thrives is a tribute to the local microclimate which is remarkably mild for somewhere so close to the Arctic Circle.

Less surprising is the range of tours to appeal to nature-lovers from whale watching (18 species from minkes to killers have been spotted) to the spectacular ‘Waterfall of the Gods’ at Godafoss.

Along the way, you will also see age-old glaciers, beautiful lakes, bubbling sulphur mud-pits, hidden caves and coves, dormant volcanoes and lava which has turned into bizarre-shaped sculptures.
 

Photo Gallery:
 
Sailing past some spectacular scenery on our route through Eyjafjordur to reach the northern Icelandic town of Akureyri.
 
 I know most people would think if you need to wear winter walking gear on a summer holiday then you've made a bad choice of destination. Being the outdoor people that we are, this type place suites us down to the ground, and although we do tend to alternate trips north with somewhere like the Mediterranean, we generally enjoy places like this the best.
A bit of blue sky would have been welcomed though. But, I suppose that's the chance you take when you head up here.
 
 
 
 
 
I wondered why everyone was looking at the water behind the ship, then I saw these guys on jet skis having a great time jumping over the ships wake.
 
 
 
 
 
 It looked like great fun, but the water must have been freezing.
 
This was just one of the small communities we could see from the ship. Just a bit too isolated for my liking.
 
A few people (obviously didn't live anywhere near the countryside) were asking what the "white things" were. Someone suggested that they were headstones !! They are in fact hay bales or maybe silage.
 
An ideal house for those who like to play music full blast.
 
We had a couple of wet hours in town when we first arrived, which was a bit disappointing really. What we had intended to do was to walk out of the town and follow a track / path which we'd enquired about when we were here last (in 2003). By all accounts the track leads up to one of the smaller hills on the edge of the town. We'd have had plenty of time to get there and back during our stay, but as this was not a walking holiday at all, we had no intentions of setting off into the unknown in these conditions with no equipment or local knowledge.
If you leave the ship independently (not on an organised tour) it does not wait for you, and they always leave bang on time.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
It was looking a bit brighter now and the rain was easing off a little, so we decided to head back to the ship, have something (MORE) to eat, drop off the things we'd bought and then have another walk out later on.
 
 Looking down to the end of the Fjord. We almost made it to the end on our walk, but started to run out of time.
 
 Known as the 'Capital and Jewel of the north'; Akureuri lies at the head of the longest and narrowest inlet in this region, the Eyjarfjordur. Fifteen miles wide at its mouth, the fjord narrows to just over a mile by Akureyri and runs for nearly 40 miles from north to south.
 
 A trading post for over 400 years, Akureyri has developed into a thriving centre of communications and commerce with a freezing plant and the largest shipyard in Iceland. This development has been quite recent: in 1785 there were ten inhabitants, all Danish. nearly 100 years later there were only 286.
 
Reflections.
 
 
 
 Then Jennifer spotted a wedding and she was off like a shot.
 
 One for the ladies.
 
 
 
 
 
 A close up of the airstrip seen from the top deck of the ship. The bit running across the the picture in front of the runway is a road used to get traffic from one side of the fjord to the other.
 
 Leaving Acureyri.
This picture was taken from the promenade deck, which, if you do 3.2 circuits of equals one mile. This was a popular morning activity for those wanting to walk off some of the weight gained on the cruise. They reckon the average is 1lb a day. I thought it would be more than this, but then again not everyone eats as much as I do!
 
 
 
 Having been suitably fed and watered again, we decided to spend the rest of the evening out on deck taking in the views and enjoying the sail back out of the fjord. Anyone who's been on this type of cruise will know there's more choices for entertainment than you can shake a stick at. As Jennifer said though "what's the point of coming somewhere as nice as this and sitting in a bar, cinema, restaurant, theatre or such like". There's plenty of time for all that when you're at sea.