REYKIR TO AKUREYRI

We woke up early, around 7:30am, and were on the road by 8:30am. Our first stop was the rock fortress of Borgarvirki. Like many other sites in Iceland, it wasn’t marked on our maps. Similarly, our instructions simply stated “Turn onto road 716 to Borgarvirki.” It was easy to spot the turn-off to road 716, however the road was little more than a dirt track that passed several farms. At one point we had to cross a cattle barrier and we thought we might be driving up to someone’s house. However, the road went past the farm house and up into the hills. We kept driving and eventually found the parking area at the base of the rock fortress. Again, Simone and I climbed to the top of the fortress while Mom stopped short about half-way up. This was understandable since it really was a rock fortress, and the footing was treacherous.

Looking up at Borgarvirki:


View from half-way up Borgarvirki:


All of this is mine:


After visiting the rock fortress we drove back to the main highway and headed north. Not long afterwards we followed the instructions in the Hostelling Iceland tour and turned off to Thingeyrar, the site of early government assemblies and an historic monastery and library. The old buildings are all gone now but there is a lovely 100-year-old church standing on the original site.

The church at Thingeyrar:


Inside the church, looking up at the amazing ceiling:


Ancient stone tablet from the original settlement:


From there we drove to Blonduos, where we stopped for a snack/early lunch at the gas station. It’s true what the guidebooks say: the best and cheapest meals are available at gas stations. There we met a cyclist from Britain who we’d passed no less than three times throughout the morning. Every time we made a detour to an historic site he’d get ahead of us. Shortly after we got back on the main highway we’d pass him. He was quite tickled that we’d been tracking him throughout the morning.

Our next stop was Vithimyrarkirkja, a 150-year-old church with a traditional turf roof. As we walked up to the church Simone spied a cat on the turf roof and sprinted off to meet it. Mom and I followed at a more leisurely non-crazy-cat-lady pace. When I caught up to Simone she was coaxing the cat, which was actually just a kitten, to come down the roof to her. It was too busy chasing bugs to pay attention. I started taking pictures of the kitten and it heard the shutter on my camera and came chase-assing down the roof to check things out. That’s when the kitten cuteness overload occurred and Simone stopped speaking in complete sentences.

The best view of the turf was at the back of the church:


Scot the kitten on the roof of the church:


We paid the entrance fee to see the inside of the church, and it was absolutely gorgeous in a minimalist way. It smelled of wood and sea air inside. The fellow who was collecting entrance fees explained that the church was built from driftwood from Siberia. Apparently it takes 3 years for the driftwood to get to Iceland. After it’s collected it takes 3 years to be cured before it can be used for building materials. I had the most amazing picture in my head of the locals dragging huge driftwood logs up the shore.

Simone couldn't resist a snuggle:


Our final tourist stop for the day was Glaumbaer, which the Hostelling Iceland tour described as an open-air folk museum. There was a small modern church and some turf buildings. Inside one of the turf buildings you could pay $6 to see a short video of how early Icelanders lived, but the cheese factor was so high that we passed. We headed back to the car and hit the road for the final leg to Akureyri.

The drive to Akureyri was amazing. The road passed through a long river valley, on a raised laneway above the meandering river bed. The mountains rose on either side, green with scrubby grasses and spotted with the typical small, tough Icelandic sheep. Every few kilometers was another clean and orderly Icelandic farm with bales of hay covered in white plastic, which made it look like the land where marshmallows are grown. In some cases we could see square plots of farmed trees, mostly pine. We have no idea what they will be used for. Our best guess at the moment is that they are Christmas tree farms.

We also travelled through an amazing mountain pass, hundreds of kilometers above sea level, before descending down into Akureyri, which lies on the eastern edge of the Eyjafjordur fjord. Simone was responsible for choosing our route into Akureyri and for navigating to our hotel. She did a terrific job, but for the fact that she was directing me to the wrong road for the Hotel. It was an issue of Icelandic names, poor maps, and a bit of dyslexia – Hrafnagilstraeti and Hafnarstraeti look awfully similar and both have lots of hotels on them. We eventually sorted ourselves out and found our hotel.

After settling into our room we went for a walk. We explored the Akureyrarkirkja church, which sits at the top of a hill in the center of town. Afterwards we followed the signs to the Lystigarthur Botanical Gardens, where we had fun playing with the macro settings on our cameras. On the way back into town we checked out some side streets and scoped out restaurants for dinner.

We had a wee rest before heading out at 6:30pm for dinner. We chose the Bautinn because it’s just down the street and the price is reasonable. The food wasn’t anything to write home about, but it was filling and tasty. Simone had her first Icelandic pizza (verdict: blah), I had spaghetti Bolognese (verdict: passable), and Mom had curried seafood pasta (verdict: yummy). Now we’re all back at the hotel and getting ready for bed. We’ll be driving 350+ kilometers tomorrow, with stops at a lot of important sites, so we’re planning an early start.