The View From My Beer
Today I enjoyed a glass of Boli Premium outside a bar in downtown Akureyri. Even though it is pretty cold in Iceland, it is always enjoyable to sit outside and enjoy the fresh air and observe both the locals and us cruise-folk. You can learn a lot by comparing the differences between the two groups.
Akureyri
The fifth stop on my 14-day cruise to Norway & Iceland, and second stop in Iceland was Akureyri – Capital of North Iceland. Akureyri is an important port and fishing centre. The area where Akureyri is located was first settled in the 9th century by Norse Viking – Helgi magri (the slim) Eyvindarson.
My Walk
By now I have established a nice workable schedule for land-days. After a 90-minute session in the gym, I undertake the three “s”s (shit, shower, and shave) before heading to the buffet area for breakfast. I usually aim to get off the ship between 11am and noon after the rush of those eager to get off early. I usually then have until around 5:30 pm to be back on board the ship, by which time I am usually sitting at the poolside bar to reflect on the day with the barmen and fellow passengers. The routine may be the same, but the days are each very different. This was the appeal of taking cruises… to be able to get up each day and take a walk somewhere completely different.
I adjusted my schedule a little today on account of two things. (1) I had an excursion organized at 2:00pm; and (2) I was up until 2am the ‘night’ before and so I didn’t get off the ship until noon.
Akureyri
Today’s walk was somewhat random. It worked out as I only had about 90-minutes before I needed to check-in for my excursion. The city was not too big and there was plenty to fill in the time, including a quick beer for today’s view from my beer.
Goðafoss Waterfalls
I only booked one excursion for all of Iceland. My research suggested to me that Goðafoss falls was probably the one thing I needed to do that was beyond walking distance from our ports of call. It was a 30-minute trip by bus that included a 9.5 km drive through Iceland’s longest tunnel. We had about an hour at the falls, and they were definitely well wroth the trip. Iceland (and Norway) have 100s of waterfalls that are much higher than these, but these falls were visually stunning because of the width of the falls, their complexity, and the volume of water that was rushing downstream. I found three separate viewpoints that offered different perspectives of the falls.
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