June 22, 2019 - Husavik to Blönduós, Iceland

Another couple from Germany checked in to the guesthouse last night after we had gone to dinner. It was a bit weird this morning since they used BOTH bathrooms and kind of took over the kitchen while we were trying to fix breakfast. Oh well, that’s part of the whole experience, I guess!

It was drizzly and cloudy as we headed over to North Sailing Iceland for our Whale and Puffin Tour this morning. We parked behind the church and walked over to the office.

After checking in we walked down to the boat to suit up for the 3 hour boat trip.

It was pretty chilly and windy. We headed over to a puffin nesting island. On our way we spotted a few dolphins which was pretty fun.

There were thousands of puffins in the water and flying around the island. We didn’t get that close to the island, but seeing so many puffins at one time was amazing.

From there we headed out to the North Atlantic in search of whales. Grimsey Island is on the Arctic Circle and on a clear day we could have seen it even though we were about 30 miles south of it. Yep, 30 miles south of the Artic Circle is cold in June!

We finally spotted one humpback whale and watched it spout and surface a few times before the boat went back to the harbor at Husavik.

As far as whale watching trips, this was disappointing. The puffins were the best part of the trip! We did get hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls on the way back, so that was a bonus.

Back on shore we headed off to Blondous. We stopped at Godafoss, the “waterfalls of the gods.” The name Godafoss was given after Porgeir threw his idols into the waterfall after a ruling at the Pingvellir assembly that Iceland should adopt Christianity, signifying that he had taken up the faith himself. While Godafoss is only 12 meters high, it was beautiful and had such clear, blue water.

Much of the countryside we traversed today reminded us of Colorado – minus the fjords! The mountains were beautiful and we climbed many passes.

Akureyri (pronounced ah-koo-rare-ee) is Iceland's second largest city. It only has 18,600 residents, but it was really beautiful as we drove through. There were two cruise ships in the harbor and there was an air show going on as we drove into town. We watched two small planes doing loops and aerial stunts before proceeding on our way!

 We saw this stoplight in town. I loved the red heart for the stop symbol!

We had dinner at the Blanda Hotel tonight and the food was very good. Tobey and Wendy both had the Blue Ling catch of the day and I had the chicken/bacon/mushroom pasta.

Our Airbnb tonight is not at all like the pictures we saw when we booked. It was also very difficult to get checked in. We are supposed to have WIFI, but don’t – another thing that was misleading in the description! I will post when I can.