July 24/14

While having breakfast at the B&B in Ólafsfjörður, we saw some great pics of Northern lights mounted on the wall, which were done by a local photographer. The B&B owner would have sold us one of the mounted ones, but we wanted to talk to the artist to see if it was possible to have one sent home, to avoid possible damage in transport. The fellow has many pictures on his website, so it's going to be hard to decide which one to order. He came to the coffee shop at the B&B and we chatted about various ways to get a print. In the end we decided to check out his prints on line from home and have him send us one, just as we had done with a volcano print from Hawaii.

Drove to Akureyri, which is the second largest city in Iceland. Saw a church which was designed by the same architect that did the modern one in Reykjavík. This one is tall and narrow, and is meant to look like basalt columns. Inside there was a model ship hanging from the ceiling and stained glass windows from Coventry Cathedral in England. We did some shopping on the Main Street and then headed off to Lake Mývatn. This lake has a road 36 km around it, with gorgeous scenery, particularly on the east side. We saw pseudo craters, mountains, lakes and lava rocks in very interesting formations. The Lonely Planet guide said that this was the Iceland we had probably imagined, and I think it was right. There was also a geothermal area amidst some multicoloured mountains, but because of the industry there it wasn't very scenic.

The whole area around the lake is supposed to be plagued with tiny bugs that are attracted by carbon dioxide, and thus make a nuisance of themselves by swarming around your face. The store sells netting that you can put over your head for protection, but we didn't need it because it was a windy day, and the bugs aren't bad under those conditions.

Lastly we headed up the the B&B in Húsavík, which is on the northern part of the peninsula. This is a busy town, as it's the most popular spot for whale watching tours. It was hard finding a restaurant that wasn't full, but we found a good one. I tried reindeer pate, and it was delicious! Michael had a cheese plate for dessert, as he was interested to try some Icelandic cheeses. It was very good as well, as was his salted cod, which he's had and enjoyed a couple of times on this trip.