It is almost with sadness that we left the welcoming town of Akureyri behind us, starting with the chidren who had an amazing time in the wonderful pool of mineral water heated at 30 degrees, with tobbogans and hot tubes at 43 degrees. The children discovered with delight that whilst being a rather cold country, Iceland had plenty of hot water everywhere and water was what to look for and so do they….look for tools everywhere we stop.
Akureyri is the vibrant second biggest city in Iceland and is very proud of its cathedral, museum and botanic garden which surprised us by its size and diversity. Akureyri is also the home town of Jon ‘Nonni’ Sveinsson, a Jesuit priest, who wrote 12 novels for young readers, translated in more than 40 languages, with millions of copies sold all over the world. We have been looking (with no luck yet) for one of his best titles ‘adventure in the Arctic’ to which we believe the kids may be able to relate….
Icelanders are very literate and proud of the richness of their literature, poetry, folk music and mythology (sagas). This is a country where the literacy rate is the highest in the world, the natality rate the highest in Europe and the life expectancy the longest in the world. A lot of great records for this small nation of only 325,000 people. There are more French people in London than Icelanders in the world. As we walked along the small roads of Akureyri, the coffee-bookshops were full of young people, cellists were playing in the streets and artists were painting on the walls.
We had the pleasure of the visit of Siggi on board Boreal. Siggi is a new friend of Guillaume, whom he met through he met through the London Arctic club’s connection. Siggi is a bit of a legend in Akureyri and at the London Arctic club as he used to be an Icelandair chief pilot flying expeditions from Iceland to Greenland, landing on glaciers with his Twin Otter through the seasons.
As we left Akurery, we sailed down the magnificient and ever ending Eyjafjordur, surronded on either side by a sloping wall of snow-capped mountains. Although touristic shipping companies proudly state that there is a 100 percent chance to spot whales in the fjord, we did not see any to everyone’s disapointment. In the Spitzberg last year, we had to wait until our last day to see polar bears, let us hope that we won’t have to wait so long here to see whales.
As the weather was wet and cold we decided to stop at Hrisey, a flat, green island towards the top of Eyjafjordur. After a good night sleep, we went for a walk around the island. The landscape over the sea and fjord was simply magificient and peaceful. The island is a bird protected area which means that we walked at the sound of the dozens of birds tweeting and twirling around us. There was a special place for relaxation and search for inner peacefulness and energy, which I would have liked to enjoy, but the kids had spotted another 30 degrees local pool and were running to the boat to get their swimming costumes.
Another swimming time later, we were off for Siglfjordur, the biggest northerer town of Iceland, at the top left end of the fjord. We were religiously looking for whales as we sailed ahead with no luck. After a while and ad we get bord watching for whales, Guillaume spotted sholls with plenty of agitation. We stopped by and took out the fishing rod. 2 minites later Guillaume caught a 2.5 kg cod (30 euros the kilo in Paris my mother said!) which took us a while to keep still. Any further details would not be particularly pleasant so we will stop there!
Siglufjordur is well known for having being a huge international herring fishing center in the fifties….we had a phantomatic arrival at the small harbour under the fog and between the drizzle drops to discover a tiny colourful village at the bottom of a mountain. A dazzling giant cross is looking after the village graveyard and the life is organised around tourism and fishing. The herring museum (I would not have thought I would have ever visited such a museum) is worthwhile an hour or two as it shows how the life used to be here between 1939 and 1955 with a huge herring fishing and processing industry.