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I’ve been to Iceland more than once, but the longest I spent there was in October 1994. I explored Reykjavik for several days, and since I had been there on a stopover in 1993, perhaps I could say I was almost an expert on that small, pleasant city.

North to Akureyri

Tony
2004-01-28 10:18:59

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would be rather rough. It’s the main road, and it’s clear most of the year, but during some of the horrible wind and snow storms that Iceland can experience with no warning whatsoever, even this road becomes impassable. Usually though, it’s cleared rather quickly.

Once we were away from Reykjavik, the traffic became practically non-existent, which makes sense since there are only 275,000 Icelanders, half of whom live within a few miles of the capital. On our trip north, we would pass through less than half a dozen towns, none having populations of more than a few thousand. The destination, Akureyri, is the third largest town in the country, with a population of about 14,000. It’s called the “capital of the north”, since it’s the bigtime for the whole northern part of Iceland.

I first learned about Akureyri, as well as about Iceland, from the geography books I would bring home by the stack from the Newport Public Library. All the books about Iceland featured pictures of Akureyri, usually highlighting the distinctive church there. In sixth grade, we were told by Sister Mary Clarita, that Iceland was almost exactly the same size as our own state of Kentucky, and there in our geography book, was a picture of the Akureyri church. I think I always knew I’d go there one day. Iceland is one of those places that captivates people, and as I was learning, when Iceland gets hold of you, it’s almost a religious experience. It’s that special.

My thoughts were wandering as we headed north, stopping briefly in a town called Borgarnes, reached via a long a beautiful bridge across a glass-like fjord. It would be hard to miss the snowy mountains that were visible just a few miles away, whole ranges of mountains.

After leaving Borgarnes, we got into much more rugged terrain, and were heading into higher elevations. And soon, it started to snow. We passed one of Iceland’s famous ...