Follow our journey on this map.

Day 20 found tied up alongside the pier in Akureyri. It’s the fifth-largest municipality in Iceland and the largest outside of the Capital Region. It was settled in the 9th century by Vikings but didn’t get a municipal charter until 1786.

We have returned to “normal” Icelandic weather: cold, windy, rainy, forever. We had decided previously to just walk around the town and see what we could see. So we did.

Icelandic people really seem happy all the time. In Akureyri they have a method of reminding people to smile: heart-shaped traffic lights.

They have a really good history museum not far from the cruise port. One whole room is dedicated to maps of Iceland that were donated by a collector. Some of them dated to the 1500s. Iceland has quite a musical heritage and one room was dedicated to instruments, costumes and photographs. The museum included three other buildings: the church, an interesting children’s museum and the home of a famous Icelandic author (Nonni).

There was an interesting art piece in the garden that arose out of nowhere. I’ve also included a shot of Mae next to a cannon (we do it every time we come across one). And of course there was a troll.

Tomorrow we head out for Husavik.