Akureyri, Iceland

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I woke up this morning and the drapes were open to the most beautiful view of Iceland. We arranged a private tour with Sagatravel, we found them on the internet. Private tours are cheaper than the ones offered by the cruise. Another advantage of Sagatravel is they have smaller vans that seat 14 instead of tours on a large bus. In Akureyri the only bathroom stops are gas stations which have one stall. When you are on a bus with 30 people a bathroom stop can take 40 minutes. Also the small bus can go down dirt roads that the large busses cannot go down. There are no restaurants on the tours in Akureyri, the food stop is a gas station. We brought an orange and a banana from breakfast plus we always carry oat bars when we travel so we are never starving. The bus stopped for food at 2:00 which is too late for us to eat so we were glad we came prepared. Iceland is cold so come prepared, if it is not freezing you can leave your jacket on the bus.

Akureyri is 60 miles from the Arctic Circle. The small city is surrounded by snow-capped mountains. There is nothing to do in the city so you must take a tour to visit the beautiful waterfalls, lakes, mud pools and natural hot baths. Gooafoss waterfall is where Chieftain Thorgeir was born in 1,000 A.D. After declaring Christianity the nations's official religion, he tossed all his pagan idols into the thunderous water fall. Icelanders were Pagans but they realized that if they wanted to trade with Christian Europe they needed to declare themselves Christian. People were allowed to continue worshipping their pagan gods in private but soon most people were practicing Christians. After hiking up the waterfall we visited Lake Myvatn, which is a beautiful lake. A visit to the mud pools found pools of hot mud bubbling up. Our last stop was to the Myvatn Nature Baths. There are four large baths. They have changing rooms and a small cafe. We came prepared with our bathing suits, towels and the robe from our room. The lifeguards also act as waiters and we enjoyed a beer while relaxing in the baths. Our first day in Iceland was very enjoyable.

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