We have enjoyed a lot our stay in Akureyri but it is time to leave the North and move towards the West. Tonight we will stay in Hvammstangi on the way to the Westfjords.
We woke earlier than usual and left early as well as we wanted to spend some time in the Botanical Gardens that were within walking distance from our accommodations.
The Botanical Gardens, 50 kms south of the Artic Circle, is the northest botanical garden in the world, is remarkable by its extreme position. The Public Park was opened in 1912 but the Botanic section in 1957. There are about 6600 alien taxa growing in the garden in beds and nursery and around 430 species of the native taxa.
Before we left though, we went to see a exhibition of photography from women in Iceland.
We also sat down and enjoyed a doughnut and very nice coffee at the cafe inside the gardens. We love the coffe in Iceland. The coffee culture is very deep in Icelandic roots and here is a very informative article from the New Yorker. As one sits in Iceland sipping coffee, one realizes how interdependent the world is ... "civilization, one might say, is the thing over there at the corner table, drinking coffee in a cold climate.".
We were also very impressed as a group of young men and worm brought to the garden and cafe a group of older gentlemen and ladies and took care of them perfectly by getting them food, talking to them and wheel them around the garden. Impressive !
We have been very impressive at the amount of young people that work in Iceland. They seem to do all the chores even the most unexpected ones. For example in this case two young ladies attending to the garden.
We entually had to leave this paradise on earth and make our way to Hvammstangi which was two and half hours ways on a direct path but it would take us over 5 hours as we intended to ride around the peninsula all the way to Siglufjordur (where we would have lunch) and then to Saudárkrokur, through Blonduós and finally arrive at Hvammstangi.
The ride to Siglufjordur was very beautiful, we got great weather until Dalvik ...
... And then in typical Icelandic weather it took a turn and the fog came up and a light drizzle. There are two very long tunnels (over 5kms each) before we arrive at Siglufjordur and we stopped in the middle of the two tunnels and learned about a plane tragedy that had happened. I also took the opportunity to put on rain gear.
Siglufjordur is a very beautiful little town and the harbor is as usual very colorful.
The waffle (which we love in Iceland) was very tasty ...
We then got back on the bike and made our way West. As we arrived in Saudárkrokur, the wind picked up tremendously and stayed with us all the way to Hvammstangi. The temperatures also went down and we had to put on all our gear. The views, specially the way the clouds played in the sky was amazing ...
As we arrived at the destination we very were impressed by our room for the night. It turned out to be one of our favorites.
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