After a nice lie in and breakfast we set off to explore Akureyri. The main road leads from the harbour up a hill. As you walk up the hill a road to the left leads to the bus station and tourist office. To the right is the main shopping area, beyond which was our hotel. Further up the main road an impressive flight of stairs leads to the church.
Climbing the stairs was a nice bit of exercise to start the day
The church dominates the town; you can see the fjord in the background
These stained class windows came from Coventry Cathedral, destroyed by German bombing in World War 2
Having explored the church we walked on to the splendid town museum. We arrived almost in time to avoid the slight drizzle that started to fall. The museum is split across two floors. The upper level covers the geology of the surrounding area and the early history of the district. The bottom floor of the museum concentrates on the last hundred years of development of Akureyri.
An illuminated manuscript of a whale being butchered. He doesn't look too happy!
After the museum we headed back towards the town to visit the botanical gardens. As we walked up the hill to the gardens we could see that a cruise ship had arrived in the fjord. It was too large to get in the harbour but the passengers were taken ashore in the ships lifeboats
The botanical gardens were founded in 1912 and have a very impressive collection of trees, shrubs and plants. Different sections hold most of the flora found in Iceland. In late July when we where there the flowers were amazing.
A great place to sit and have lunch - so we did
Blooming lovely!
After the gardens we visited the art gallery. They were holding a display by twelve local artists whose talents ranged from mediocre to quite good. On the way back to the hotel I bought some postcards, wrote them back at the hotel and popped them in post as we went out to dinner.