Day 26–Akureyri, Iceland

We woke up to an amazingly beautiful day after passing through (and back through) the Artic Circle overnight. Akureyri is at about 66° north, and it was already well into the 60’s when we arrived. Crazy.

View from the balcony – day 26

We were glad to see we were docked today, as tendering was a possibility, and we got going around 10 AM. It was windy. My hat blew off and flew about 50 feet before I caught it, but once we got into town, the buildings blocked the worst of it and I was walking around in a t-shirt. Seriously, we’re this far north and it’s this nice?
Town was small and we went through most of the shops quickly enough but not before I was attacked by a polar bear.

Polar bear dinner of Dork

We had a drink and decided to walk up to the mall as opposed to the Artic Botanical Gardens. Neesh seems to be getting stronger walking-wise, and we made the walk quickly through a pleasant neighborhood.

Walking to the mall

The mall passed the time, and we found a store with household stuff including a bargain bin with a pair of prescription glasses and a hard case for 10 Kr. That’s 8 cents, the best bargain in an otherwise expensive country. We eyed a Subway and a Quiznos on the way out, but settled for the Greifinn restaurant, with a pretty good pizza, except the pepperoni was about 3/8 of an inch around. Weird, but just as tasty.
We took a shortcut through another neighborhood to the ship when a little boy said something, then yelled it again, making it clear he was speaking to us. I said, sorry, I don’t speak Icelandic. He says “oh” and after a pause, “good morning!” We bade him a cheery good morning (despite that it was 2 PM) and had a good laugh. Everyone knows English here, don’t bother asking.
It was 75° when we got back. Wow. Up to the Crow’s Nest to watch us leave, and it was not disappointing.

The mouth of the fjord

It was with a bit of sadness to say goodbye to Iceland,  much as Norway. It’s an amazing place, and perhaps someday we can return. We went up to the Crow’s Nest at 9:00 to see the sun still up, and by the time we left at 10:15, it was still up. I poked my head through the curtains at midnight to still see an orange glow in the clouds on the horizon. Two seas days now to get over (hopefully!) to Greenland.