Iceland Road Trip – 4

Back on the road, and the first stop is Goðafoss. This is a spectacular waterfall and legendarily associated with Iceland’s conversion to Christianity (it’s not a true story, but pretty cool anyway). The powerful waterfall flows unfettered despite the cold and surrounding ice. Tourist walk along the marked paths and take photos. I try to take as many photos as possible. I didn’t see this place for ten years. And I’m not certain when I’ll see this place again.

We have lunch at the near by gift store/cafe and then move on. You can reach Akureyri either through a tunnel or another stretch of highway. We pay the toll, and roll through the mountain until we’re on the other side of the bay from Akureyri.

Akureyri is the capital of the north and the second largest town, after Reykjavík. It has a decent art gallery, which used to be dairy, but you wouldn’t know it from its bauhaus deco design. Our hotel is basically across the road and appears to have been founded in the same year as the Republic. Also nearby is Akureyri’s prominent church, Akureyrarkirkja. It was designed by architect Guðjón Samúelsson, whose final work was Reykjavík’s Hallgrímskirkja. Access to the church and up Akureyri’s hills are tricky, with many of the footpaths icy from the recent cold weather. Tradesman are building a temporary cover to the stairs to prevent ice forming for the people who needed the stairs to attend mass.

The hotel has a coiling spiral staircase that serves as its spine and its interiors are somewhere between stately mid-century modern and nouveau revival.

The art gallery has four floors, each with a show. A curated selection of illustration invites patrons to write or draw on blackboards
{more on this later}

The town is relatively quiet. The murals which I photographed in 2014 were still there. There was some new street art pieces here and there.

Dinner was at a restaurant in what looked like a house from the 1800s. Most of the diners were couples or friends at the lounge for a drink. After that it was a precarious walk up the hill to take photographs of the church while it was lit up at night.

Hofsstaðir
After a stop for some supplies from the local Krónan, we went further north through Dalvik and Ólafsfjörður for a brief stop in Siglufjörður for lunch. We stretch our legs to watch around the quiet town. I take some photos and then sit down at a fish and chip place.

The road is covered in snow. There are snow ploughs rolling around in the morning and throughout the day, clearing what they can. The etiquette was to drive in the middle of the road, towards the side that was scraped by the plough, only migrating back to the appropriate side of the road to give way to oncoming traffic. The road curves past Útsýnispallur and begins heading south. This place is remote, no towns, but vast farms and distant homesteads. We don’t stop to take in any sights. Reaching our destination is more important. Our lodgings is the Hofsstaðir Guesthouse, a farm hotel. We get a decently-sized cabin. And we spend some time relaxing for a couple of hours before dinner at the guesthouse’s restaurant. I took a couple of photos around the grounds in the snow, before retreating inside as my camera began to show condensation.

I chose the horse and it was a damn delicious meal. That steak was cooked perfectly.