We are now in Akureyri, in the middle of the north of Iceland at the end of a long fjord. It was a bit of a drive to get here, but we had to see if anything was any different. With a population of about 18000 it is Iceland’s second largest city. We arrived late enough, and car weary enough, that we haven’t seen a lot of the city. There was a huge cruise ship in the port, but it has already gone. We are in a small hotel high on the hill across the fjord from the city, off the end of the paved road.
The mountains are just as rugged here, and the valleys are a bit smaller. There are more trees – small Alberta sized trees anyway, and some signs of deliberate forest planting. There seems to be more land undet agriculture, mainly growing hay. It is all done up in the plastic wrapped cylindrical bundles all over the fields and stacked by barns. It is presumably winter feed for the animals.
There are surprisingly few cows to be seen, reflected, I suppose, in the ratio of beef to lamb on the menus. The sheep are everywhere – not in large flocks, but in twos and threes scattered on the hillsides, in the fields and in the ditches. They are heavy with wool at this time of year. And the horses – there are a lot of beautiful horses in the fields. Some are used for herding sheep, I expect, but there are far too many for that. Are they pets?
The weather was mostly intermittent rain with a low cloud ceiling. – low enough to be fog at times. I’m sure there is a lot of mountain up there we didn’t see. We will be doing the reverse trip tomorrow to see if the weather improves.
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