Day 33 – 11 August 2023 – Saudarkrokur to Siglufjordur, Iceland

After an average breakfast this morning after two busloads had cleaned up most of the food we headed back up the mountain range we had crossed yesterday afternoon & drove towards Blonduos. The drive next across to Varmahlid was picturesque, lots of lush green farms, lots of newly baled hay in fields with farmers working picking up & transporting bales then stacking them neatly. The last few days we have been passing farms that have lots of Icelandic ponies, many with young foals at foot, we don’t know what the farmers do with so many of them. (Google says that they export them overseas as riding horses).

We continue on to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland, stopping a couple of times to stretch our legs & admire the view. Akureyri has a beautiful backdrop of snow topped mountains along the fjord & is bustling with tourists, a cruise ship is in port & there are groups of people with maps in hand looking puzzled, all this reminds us of us just about 2 weeks ago. We take the opportunity to refuel both the car & ourselves, then find out that we can wash the car for free at the fuel station. Our car is filthy with layers of red & brown dust from the multitude of dirt roads we have travelled since we arrived, so I took the opportunity to wash it. The windows are now clean & we don’t get dirty clothes when we brush against the car. It was nice washing the car in beautiful sunshine. An interesting thing Tereza noticed, in Akureyri, the red traffic lights are heart shaped, we have not noticed this anywhere else.

A short drive south of Akureyri is Hrafnagil that boasts a Christmas house & we spent a bit of time in the underground shop marvelling at the Icelandic Christmas items. Instead of Santa there are 13 Yule Lads that have Trolls for parents & a pet black cat that is pure evil. Expensive to shop there though, so we left disappointed & empty handed. They also have a farmers market selling tomatoes, capsicum & cucumber. Plus a souvenir shop & café, all unbelievably expensive.

Did I mention how wonderful the landscape looks, the mountains are steep & huge, the farms look picture perfect. Some farms have churches built on the land, there are lots & lots of farms in Iceland with their very own church. The town of Dalvik, north of Akureyri, is buzzing with people & so many campers, it is packed to the rafters. Tomorrow is a fish festival with music & other entertainment, it should be even busier.

After that we came to the tunnels, the first is a one way tunnel & we have to give way to trucks & cars a number of times along the 5 km tunnel. The next tunnel is 7 km & is two way then we only just pop out of that for a short drive & then another 4 km two way tunnel. The town of Siglufjordur comes into view, our stop for the night. It looks beautiful, with colourful houses, mountains, harbour & fishing boats. We drive through town before turning & heading back to the Herring Museum, supposedly the best museum in Iceland. Siglufjordur was a booming herring fishing town during the 20^th century & was the busiest port in all of Iceland. After the herring were overfished by Iceland, Denmark & Russia & the fish stock collapsed, the fishing industry died & most of the fish factories closed. The museum is spread over a number of buildings & has a lot of the original equipment used in the processing of herring. In the first shed a variety of herring fishing boats are on display in a mock wharf area inside. It is all very well done.

Time to find our accommodation, Mr Google shows us the way & it is only 3 minutes to drive. The Herring House is a private residence with four rooms for accommodation downstairs plus a shared bathroom & kitchen. The owners live upstairs. The house is very modern inside, tastefully decorated, has a lovely garden, very comfortable & clean, the bathroom is spacious & roomy, so beautifully set up.  Guests are asked to leave our shoes in the corridor, we are set for this, we brought light slippers just for this, Ron’s cousin forewarned us that this is the custom here. Our room looks out over the church & town with views of the majestic mountains across the fjord, beautiful.

Our host showed us where the four restaurants in town are & made a suggestion of the seafood café. We walked the relatively short distance there along the wharf front & enjoyed the food of the Harbour Café, seafood soup plus oven baked cod, both delicious. The beer is locally made on the wharf area as well, a craft beer called Segull, also delicious. Outside the café is a signpost with some different cities of the world plus the distance to them. To our surprise Canberra is on there & is 16,494 km away. It was starting to cool down as we walked back to the Herring House, the sun had gone behind one of the giant mountains surround the town. It is after 10 pm & it is still light outside. Another good day.