Iceland II 2011

We were up early the next morning and set off north. We went to Akureyri  which is Iceland’s second city. It was about 5 hours drive away (just shy of 400km) the weather was incredibly rainy on the drive and got a bit snowy in patches but nothing too serious. We went through their new tunnel which reduces the journey quite considerably, the tunnel is quite amazing, incredibly long with a big hill in it, to the extent that it has a crawler lane and corners – not sure what went wrong in the planning that they ended up with corners in a tunnel! 

Once we hit Akureyri we kept going to Lake Myvatn stopping by a waterfall (Godafoss) on the way past. I’d really recommend a visit to Lake Myvatn this might have been our favourite day although I loved every single day it is really hard to chose. 

We saw the pseudo craters, a park of natural lava sculptures and the bubbling mud and steam vents – can’t remember what this place is called but it was amazing and we had the place to ourselves. On the way back we went to the baths I think this was my favourite of the swimming experiences. We got here when the light was just dying so we got to see the landscape and then the darkness descended. It was also very quiet so we could just float around the baths finding hot bits or moving off to cold bits when it got too much. Bizarre being outside in your swimming costume when there is snow not 6 feet away and being TOO hot.

We’d hoped to see the northern lights on the drive back to Akureyri and we did see something strange in the sky but we weren’t convinced it was northern lights. I spent the drive back looking at the stars, which were amazing. So beautiful and there seemed to be three times as many as we see in Scotland.  Once in Akureryi we checked into our hotel and then went for a walk around Akureyi with their heart shaped red traffic lights. 

(all photos by O or me)