Exploring Akureyri and the Culinary Coastline Tour


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Europe » Iceland » North » Akureyri
August 6th 2018
Published: August 11th 2018
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This morning the ship docked in Akureyri at 7am and I needed to be ready to head off on my tour, Taste of Akureyri, at 8am so I ordered breakfast to be delivered to my room whilst I got ready.

Today we disembarked onto a dock, which was something new! It was cold and raining in Akureyri but we were quickly moved onto our bus for the tour. Our guide was a local person and was very knowledgeable but also hilarious! As we drove along the Fjord he explained to us what life was like living in Iceland and in particular, this very northwestern part of the island. We stopped off at a village that was at the end of the fjord so that we could take photos looking back towards Akureyri. Stunning!

We then drive onto another town where we were going to catch a ferry to the island of Hrisey. Our guide is from this island and he can tell us stories of his great grandparents and what they did to build their house and raise their families on this island. The house of his ancestors was almost like walking into a museum - it had many photos and instruments from past eras everywhere. We then sat down at a table to try some of the local food. We had a piece of cod, a baked potato, home made rye bread, garlic sauce and a serve of Plokkfiskur, which is a bit like tuna mornay but with cod. All of it was very delicious! They use a lot of butter in Iceland and they even said that the thickness of the butter you spread into the rye bread has to be the same as the piece of bread!

After eating this lovely food we went for a walk through the town - which took about 5 minutes! This is only a small town but very picturesque. We then boarded the ferry for the trip back to the mainland. From here we travelled along the coast to another spot to try an Icelandic delicacy and to meet 'the king'! I think he is the king of sharks which we were about to find out. Turns out the delicacy is fermented shark - ewwww. Several people tried it but going by the look on their faces, I decided to pass. Many of them said they wished they hadn't tried it. We watched the king fillet a fish and explain what they do with all the pieces. He then showed us a shark head he had fermenting - it was a Greenland shark and must have been huge, going by the size of this head. Afterwards he took us into his restaurant and served us each a bowl of fish stew - that was delicious. He had used the salted cod and it was a tomato base with a few veggies too. Perfect for a cold winters day.

Our next stop on the tour was the micro-brewery of Kaldi. It was really interesting to hear the story of why they started this micro-brewery and how they get the hops and barley they need to make it. We forst got to try their pilsner and then went for a walk through the building to see how they produce the beer. We then got to try another beer by putting our glass under the hose straight from the tank! There were another 2 types of beer to taste but I preferred the pilsner best of all and the best part was we got to keep the glass!

Back onto the bus and we made our way back to Akureyri. It was a fantastic tour and kept us busy for 6 hours. After we got back I decided to go for a walk into the town to explore further. I walked through the main Street and then up to a church. From here I followed some signs to the botanic gardens, which were very beautiful. I then started to head back to the ship, as we needed to be back on board at 4:30pm. One of the best things about this cruise is getting to visit places I would never have know about and therefore would never have experienced. Just fabulous!

At 5pm the ship set sail for our next stop, Īsafjödur. I popped into the Explorer Lounge to catch Uli's presentation on Plankton - the fascinating view of a floating world. Uli is one of the best presenters on this ship and you always know it will be entertaining! Then it was time to get ready for our Farewell Cocktail party, hosted by the Captain Vincent Taillard. Everyone got a little dressed up and the best part about it was that all the crew - in every capacity - got to parade into the Explorer Lounge and stand on stage! The crew have been absolutely fantastic and you could tell how much they were loved by all the passengers when they got a standing ovation.

After the cocktail party I met up with Barbara from Florida and we headed to The Restaurant together. We also noticed the other Barbara (from Massachusetts) sitting on her own so we invited her to sit with us for dinner. We had a lovely meal and great conversations.


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