Cacheing in on Akureryi!

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I'm greeted by another sunny day in Iceland, my last day in the north of the country. I sort out my stuff, check out of the hostel and set off to do a bit of geocaching and exploring in the older parts of Akureyri. I remember to take a photo of one of the traffic lights. They are so cute - the red lights are in the shape of hearts! For my first geocache hunt I'm taken near to the Hof building (where I'd caught the bus to Husavik from) and see another cool sculpture by the waters' edge; this time a silvery fish tail is pointing skywards. The sculpture is by a guy called Petur Bjarnasson and is called Farið or 'the flight'. I don't get to find the geocache but I do see some more eider ducks swimming around the harbour. Part of the Hof building it seems is a fitness centre and I see many cyclists getting precisely nowhere on their exercise bikes! At least they have a cracking good view. As I get to the Hof Cultural Centre I see posters advertising some events. It has to be said the performers all look a bit dodgy, the kind of artists you might expect to see on a night out in Royston Vasey! I'm pleased to find that the next geocache hunt takes me to Akureyri's iconic church, also designed by the same architect that created the Hallsgrimkirkja in Reykjavik. There's the same reference to basalt rock columns. After a bit of a climb up a terraced walkway from the street below I find myself ferreting around in the wall surrounding the church and eventually find my pot, sign the log and replace before someone sees me. Luckily the only eyes on me are those on a cute painted stone guy in a nearby garden. He's smiling as he shares my geocache secret!

On my way to my next geocache I pass the impressive 3 storey building Menntaskólinn which it turns out is the Akureyri Junior College. This college has been sited in various places in the north of Iceland since it was founded in 1130, making it one of the oldest in the country. One college tradition involves students singing for the headmaster. If they do well enough they are granted permission to skip the next lesson and sing in the auditorium instead.

The cache I'm looking for is hidden in the Botanical Gardens a little further along the road from the College. With a fresh smattering of snow I'm not able to really appreciate the gardens as such but there is a likely looking statue and yes, that's where the geocache is hidden. Photo taken with Jon Rognvaldsson (supposedly the first person to be executed for scorcery in Iceland - all he was doing was writing in runes and having a sick boy point his finger at him as the one who'd made him ill - though it has to be said this is pretty conclusive evidence - obviously guilty!) and I tick off another geocache find.

As I wind my way down the hillside I come to the oldest house in town again Laxdalshus (the one I'd briefly stopped at on my tour with Oskar while waiting for the rest of the group to fly in from Reykjavik a couple of days previously). This time I can have a proper look and see the old photos of the original harbour position and some of the previous inhabitants of this little wooden house. Now I've got more time to enjoy in this area of Akureyri I find lots of beautiful old wooden building painted in different colours from pale blues and yellows to on lurid bright custard yellow one. Outside one house I see a pram and wonder if the baby is inside it. I've heard that Icelandic babies are toughened up to the cold by being left outside in their prams - obviously wrapped up warm! It does seem odd seeing a pram outside the house like this. These houses are all looking out over a few lakes where there's a lone oyster catcher dabbling in the muddy edges. I also see a whooper swan, some more eider ducks and a few mallards. There's a pretty little wood and glass sculpture near one of the lakes, the glass appearing as if ice inside a hole in the wood. I get to shake the hand of Jon Sveinsson the author of the Nonni books - which having had a quick google seem to be along similar lines to the Arthur Ransome Swallows and Amazons stories with children being free to roam around the countryside having fun and exciting adventures with no annoying adults to get in the way.

As I've plenty of time until my flight I decide to walk to the airport along the pedestrian/cycle path along the fjord and enjoy the snowy scenery bathed in glorious sunshine.

Finally it's time to say goodbye to Akureyri and my little adventure to the north of Iceland. This time the skies are much clearer and after a hairy take off (we have to quickly swerve to the left to avoid the mountains that come zooming into view at the end of the runway) I am able to see much of the countryside of the central highlands that we are flying over - basically mile upon mile of snowy mountains with not a single sign of human beings or wildlife to be seen!

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