Sun., 8/1/10 - Akureyri, Iceland
This morning we docked at Akureyri, which is the main seaport of northern Iceland and second largest city in Iceland. It sits at the south end of the 36 mile long Eyja Fjord. Because of the Gulf Stream and the geothermal activity here, the port is free of ice all year.
After breakfast we walked into town to see the sights. Since it is Sunday, the only stores open were souvenir and sweater shops. We walked to the town square and found that a festival celebration was in preparation stages for later today.
Approaching Akureyri
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Akureyri |
Akureyri
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Akureyri |
Akureyri - town square
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Akureyri - beautiful flowers |
Gale and friendly trolls
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We walked up the 112 steps to Akureyrarkirkja – the Lutheran Church of Akureyri. The church is unique because the stained glass windows came from a catholic church in Coventry, England, which was badly ruined during the blitzkrieg of WWII.
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Akureyrarkirkja
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Akureyrarkirkja |
More modest little church
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We spent a long time strolling through the world's northernmost botanical gardens (Lystigarour). Two housewives started the garden as a peaceful place to walk or relax. It has grown in size over the years and now experiments with what flowers can survive in this climate and soil and has a seed bank and seed swap program. The flowers were beautiful and the colors were very bright. The columbine we saw was the pink variety and was flowering three feet tall! |
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Map of the gardens
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The bee enjoyed the flowers as much as we did!
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Typical campground - everyone gathered in an open field in the middle of town |
We sailed at 5 PM and saw the neat summer homes of people who live in Reykjavik, which is 160 miles away. There are some farms along the gentle slopes of the fjord and we saw more "marshmallows for the trolls." These are the white plastic wrapped hay bales! Because of the Norwegian influence on the Icelandic culture, there are trolls everywhere here!
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Countryside
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Countryside - small town |
Countryside - small town
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"Marshmallow" bales of hay |
Neptune Ceremony - Crossing the Arctic Circle
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You might want to compare the attire of the participants with what of the spectators!
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King Neptune |
Mon., 8/2/10 - At Sea north of the Arctic Circle (66° 34')
Today was a long day at sea. We had a lengthy breakfast in the dining room. Our tablemates ate very slowly and never stopped talking. In the afternoon we sailed past the west coast of Jan Mayen Island, a volcanic island that now belongs to Norway. In the 1800's it was used by whaling fleets and then abandoned until it became a strategic communications base during WWII. It is still used to watch what is going on in the North Sea. It was apparently an unusual treat to even be able to see it because of its typically cloudy weather. Barren is the word that comes to mind when seeing it for the first time.
Jan Mayen Island
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Jan Mayen Island - with sunlight breaking through the cloud cover inland |
Jan Mayen Island |
The Arctic Ocean - unusually calm
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Tonight is another formal dinner and the Captain's ball. The environmental officer and his wife joined us at dinner. This means more free wine and he gave us each a HAL souvenir shot glass after dinner. We learned that all food scraps are ground up and put overboard twelve miles or more from land to feed the fish. They desalinate seawater or buy water in port, whichever is cheaper. Wastewater is sanitized and put over board.
We have been amazed at how calm the ocean has been and hope it remains this calm!
Tues., 8/3/10 - Another day at Sea
Today we ate, slept, read, and attended a couple of lectures: one on coal mines in Spitsbergen, one on what we might see in the next three days, and one on making cinnamon rolls (with samples!). We walked two miles and saw some whales playing and that's about all. Days at sea can be rather dull.
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