fjord - ilivetotravel's travel log

Iceland’s Northern Town – Akureyri

Akureyri is the largest town in northern Iceland and it sits pretty deep in the Eyjafjörður fjord. It is exactly at 12 o’clock if the island of Iceland were a clock (which it is not – in case you are wondering). The town sits tight against the mountains behind it, almost being on the verge of being thrown into the water.

Where we stayed in Akureryi… or across from it

Through airbnb we found a phenomenal house sitting on a hillside directly across the fjord from the town so we got to look at it at night. Er, in the evening hours in the daylight, since we were down there, er, up there, at the peak of summer when the sun did set, but not deep enough where it got dark (see the last two pictures in the sequence below).

Akureyri, Iceland, fjord, mountains, beauty, nature, travel, photo, Olympus

The main “window” of the house we stayed at!

Looking from inside the “main window” across the fjord towards Akureyri – who cleans this window?

Akureyri, Iceland, fjord, mountains, beauty, nature, travel, photo, Samsung Galaxy

“Front” of the house I stayed at – and our nice rental vehicle

Our house looking towards the end of the fjord; see the bridge to town on the right

Late night in Akureyri in late June

My friends’ young girls loved running on the deck of the house and the field around it while we enjoyed sitting out there, soaking the view, with a beverage in hand (perhaps…).

In any case, I digress. The town is small and is quite charming but is large enough to have a small airport for those who do not want to drive there from Reykjavik – which would be a crime if you skip the drive on the ring road!

Akureyri was a site for Allied forces in WW II which seems quite interesting given it is still a town of under 20,000 yet one that was first settled in the ninth century! Something must have been right about it to be picked by the Allies during WW II given how far it is from Reykjavík. You’d think they would have picked somewhere easier to get to. In fact, Keflavík, where the modern Reykjavík international airport is located, was a U.S. air force base in WW II.

But I digress. One night, we were wanting to be sure to have a good bottle of wine to have at the house so we rushed into town after we looked online where to buy some. We knew we were tight on time as we had learned that liquor sales ended soon that day (I think maybe it was at 7PM but can’t recall) so we rushed out with a map on the phone marking where we needed to go (thanks wifi!). The drive over was nothing short of spectacular, rushing downhill, crossing the end of the fjord via the short bridge and then driving into town trying to find our way to the store (without wifi or GPS!). We made it on time, like 10 minutes before it closed. My friend ran in to get the wine while I stayed in the car – no time to find parking. I sat there and watched people literally running into the store to make sure they could get their alcohol before liquor sales ended for the day. People are people no matter what country you are in!!!

So what does Akureyri look like up close?

Alright, here are some images of this very northern town to close up this post…

Akureyri, Iceland, fjord, mountains, beauty, nature, travel, photo, Canon EOS Rebel

Hof Cultural and Conference Center by the waterfront

Akureyrarkirkja (church)

Akureyri Junior College

The town from the house I stayed at

“Downtown”

Sculpture in the image of a ship

Of pylsur, ice cream and pastries…

And of course, a post here cannot leave out a mention of something food… Icelanders love their hot dogs or “pylsur”. They are everywhere.

Akureyri, Iceland, fjord, mountains, beauty, nature, travel, photo, Samsung Galaxy, hot dog, pylsur

They love their hot dogs (“pylsur”)in Iceland!

And, when in Iceland, well, have ice cream! Brynja is one of the national brands. We indulged.

Akureyri, Iceland, fjord, mountains, beauty, nature, travel, photo, Samsung Galaxy, Brynja, ice crea,

After the liquor store, we found the ice cream store. Priorities.

And, when everything else fails, go pastries!

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Pastries at a local bakery

Akureyri is definitely a place far away but, having spent three days staying there, it is like any other place on earth: food and drinks matter and, where there are good views and you are in good company, it is all perfect! Even if my family is only with me on a photo 🙂

My family always travels with me…

——– More on Iceland ——–

My itinerary for my week visit to Iceland

A stroll around Reykjavik

Hallgrímskirkja Church in Reykjavik

Þingvellir: Where History and Nature Meet in Iceland!

The Blue Lagoon

Goðafoss: The Waterfalls of the Gods

Whale Watching in Iceland

Iceland’s South Shore: The Dyrhólaey Peninsula and Vik

Postcards from Iceland: Dalvík

Experiencing Majestic Fiordland

A Question

For some reason, fjords here in New Zealand are fiords. No time to google it. Just sharing… In any event, I left Queenstown early in the morning to see the wonderful site that is Milford Sound in the southwest corner of the south island of New Zealand. As the bird flies, this should have taken, I don’t know, an hour or two. However, there is no direct route so we had to drive all around the lake by Queenstown – a VERY long lake – and backtrack to get to Milford Sound. This took about 5 hrs or so (I am guesstimating, my memory begins to confuse the segments’ durations…). I wondered why they would not just build a more direct route since Queenstown is such a popular destination in NZ for skiing and adventure (the adventure capital of the world, or is it of the southern hemisphere??), and Milford Sound is high on the list of must-sees in NZ.

The Answer? (Or My Theory of It)

Well, the question answered itself along the way. The trek to get to Milford Sound is the most beautiful of all the road scenery I had seen in the trip. You are, the last part of the way, driving on a road flanked on either side by a mountain range with snow-capped peaks. But I am not talking about far in the distance you see some mountains. No, they are right next to you!

The drive, needless to say, was spectacular. We passed a few mountains (Mt. Christina which in my mind was spelled Mt. Cristina as it made me think of my cousins named Cristina, all 3 of them; and Mt. Talbott where Sir Edmund Hillary trained for his eventual climb to Mt. Everest). Right by Mt. Talbott we entered a tunnel where ice stalactites had formed due to water seepage and some of these would fall on the roof of the bus as we passed – quite loud and it took us all by surprise!

The well-named Mirror Lake

The zone was beginning to show the effects of the arrival of winter. The contrast between how the zone looks in winter vs. how it looks in summer must be incredible to see. (Mental note: I need to go back in late spring or summer.)

Winter begins

During this drive, we passed the divide of the south island and the vegetation clearly became more rainforest-like as we went west over the divide. It was neat to see the contrast.

One interesting note is that, in this area, tree avalanches are possible. The trees along these mountains can’t develop a root system (if I recall correctly) that goes deep enough onto the mountain sides so the trees’ roots intermingle not only underground but above ground. If a tree dies, the overall root system weakens. With enough of this and high winds and entire group of trees can fall and it becomes a cascade of trees all the way down from wherever the avalanche started. We saw a couple of such avalanche sites and basically you can see, just like with a mudslide, the entire section where the trees rolled down. We were told one time it took 2 weeks to re-open the road below!

The Sound

Milford Sound is a fiord that takes about 45 minutes to traverse in one direction until it hits the open seas (this would depend on boat speed). One can go in one of the boats that take tourists or kayak some of the way. The former was the way I did it and I enjoyed taking in the views, seeing the waterfalls that dot the very vertical faces of the mountains along the fiord (I still want to spell it fjord; Norway on my mind?). The Mitre mountain is the one typically shown on pictures of Milford Sound. It is called “Mitre” because it resembles the hat of the same name worn by bishops/cardinals. Unlike some fiords elsewhere, these are part of a national park and there is no development or habitants in the fiord.

Heading out on the boat

Along the cruise we took, we saw seals and dolphins, the latter quite playful, following the boat, turning on the side as they swam with us, etc. The place had a peacefulness to it that made me want to kayak it on my own, just looking around and enjoying this wonderful corner of earth called Fiordland.

The playful dolphins of the sound

Milford Sound, as far as I understand, is just one corner of the Fiordland region. Now I want to come back and spend the same amount of time I spent in the south island in the Fiorland region! So much to see and do, so little time…