Two Quaint Icelandic Villages

 Wednesday, July 24, 2024

Tuesday morning we docked in Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. Like yesterday, when we opened our cabin's drapes we looked out on  spectacular scenery. Most of the mountains are covered in green vegetation and if you look carefully at times we can see blue artic lupines in bloom. One of our guides told us that erosion is a major problem in the mountains so the government had small planes fly close to the bottoms of the mountains, literally throwing large quantities of artic lupine seed out of the plane. Where the lupines have taken hold they help control the erosion as well as look good.  We can also see many small streams flowing down the mountains created by the melting snow that is also in view. 

The first of our two stops on our excursion in Akureyri was to a botanical garden. We were a bit unsure of how nice the garden could be in such a northern climate, but it turns out the gulf stream flows along the west coast of Ireland moderating the climate. The garden was beautiful with abundant  flowers in bloom.  Many of the flowers we recognized such as foxgloves and dahlias. The foxgloves were particular impressive with several varieties we've not seen before.  We saw several other flowers we really  liked and noted their names so we can research them at home as to whether they will grow in our flower zone.

Once back on the bus we went up the mountain to a large ski resort that contained 17 different ski runs. The sole purpose of this stop was for us to get out of the bus and admire the scenry  from the top of the mountain as opposed to the bottom. It was every bit as spectacular from the top as it is from the bottom.

Akureyri is only 62 miles from the artic circle.  During dinner as we were sailing towards our next port of call, we were informed that we had actually crossed over into the artic circle. We will receive official certificates as proof of this accomplishment.

It is Wednesday as I (Tim) sit on our veranda writing this blog posting.  It is taking some time to write because I can't stop looking up the mountains along the fjord. As much as we love the setting of our house with the beautiful flower beds we've created and the woods and meadow surrounding us, it will look pretty boring compared to this.  We are docked in Seydisfjordur, a tiny village of 700 people. Despite its diminutive size it has several claims to fame.  Many, many years ago it was one of the three finalists for the honor of becoming the capitol of Iceland. In the 1800's a very wealth entrepreneur built a dam across the river in the village that allowed Seydisfjordur to become the first village in Iceland with electricity.  The same gentleman also paid for the first telephone cable that was laid between Europe and Iceland. Unfortunately, most of the excursions offered were too physically demanding  for us, so we opted for the walk around the village with a tour guide that ended with a very professional concert by a male and female vocalist. He did not tell us much more then what we have already related to you in the blog  (!!!) Just thought of an interesting fact that is applicable to all the small towns in which we've have been .  Most of the houses in these towns were built in Norway, dismantled and shipped to Iceland and rebuilt here.  This is because there are very few trees in Iceland.

We will be back in a couple of days for the conclusion of our trip.