Day 5 – August 5, 2025 – Akureyri [until 7 pm 8/5/25]
Today is our second day in Akureyri and we plan to sightsee in the city. After breakfast and catching up/posting on the trip blog we headed out into the city at 10 am.
We walked to the city square and then up Hafnarstraeti which is lined with stores and cafes. At the big red heart (I love Akureyri)
we made the decision to continue along the same street, which took us into the old section of town and some brightly painted buildings.
Instead of continuing on after 0.5 mile along Hafnarstraeti, we climbed the steps which became a passageway through a wooded area up to Eyrarlandsvegur street where we exited onto the street just beyond the Akureyri Church.
Continuing along Eyrarlandsvegur, we passed the small St. Peter’s Catholic church,
and the Akureyri Junior College before arriving at the East Gate to the Botanical Gardens, which were begun in 1911.
It is the world’s most northern Botanical Gardens and a lovely place to visit to see flowers and plants unique to arctic and alpine regions in the world. Surrounding an old working fountain were gorgeous “Blue Himalayan Poppies” and other very pretty flowers.
A lot of the alpine flowers were past their summer bloom, and I imagine these were quite pretty during their blooming period. The gardens contained a very pretty coffee house.
After leaving the gardens, we wondered back to the main shopping area and did some shopping before walking back to the ship. Once aboard, we decided to eat lunch on the Retreat Sundeck on deck 16 and enjoy this gorgeous, Icelandic summer day.
The water in the fjord was very still and we had a great view of the city nestled along the fjord coastline.
Dinner this evening was exquisite beef short ribs and a coconut cloud crème.
This was followed by the evening theater show Life, which consisted of acrobatic, music, and light show entertainment.
We set sail for Isafjordur at 7 pm and had some pretty views.
Tomorrow we will tender to Isafjordur in the western fjord area of Iceland.

It looks like such a quaint city and a beautiful day. Glad the food is excellent and the retreat is relaxing!
ReplyDeleteI love the heart and the interesting colored buildings. The big acrobat shows are the best. So fun!
ReplyDeleteThe blue poppies and botanical gardens flowers are all so beautiful and unique!
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