In the last two days we have seen so much.

MONDAY

On Monday we took off from Blöndúos and set out toward Húsavík for a two night stay. On our way we stopped in Siglufjörður which, in addition to being a beautiful town, has a famous herring museum. Garett and I love small museums, especially ones that are really specific. We were not disappointed.

Herring was very important to Iceland–sometimes the money from selling herring was more than half their GDP! And Siglufjörður was pretty much the center of it. First we went into the replica of the houses where the men and women who harvested herring lived. Even the drawers and cabinets were filled with things from the time period.

Over 8000 people would travel to the town for herring season. Here are some pictures of the herring harvesting in its heyday. Look at all those barrels! Plus, the heyday happened to coincide with WWII and immediately after, so these herring were an important supply of food for the allies.

First Britain, then the US occupied Iceland in the 40s during the war so that Hitler wouldn’t get his hands on it. The city of Siglufjörður was so strategically important that the allies disguised oil tanks as homes because they thought the Germans would bomb the city.

The next building of the museum was all the old machinery.

The final building were all the ships used to fish. I’m not sure many of you know this, but Garett loves boats and boat museums. If you can board the boat and go below deck, even better. This was perfect for him.

After the museum we went to Akureyri, the second largest city in Iceland. It has a deep harbor, so a lot of cruise ships come through the city. There were two while we were there and the streets were packed! We spent our time at the lovely (and free) botanical garden.

Our final stop before the arrival in Húsavík was at the Safnasafnið, a small art museum that focuses on Icelandic artists of all sorts. The curator, who was running the desk, scouts all around Iceland to find art. Some of our favorites are the embroidered pictures done early in the 20th century. If you zoom in on the picture, you can see that the landscape has been sewn in.

There also were fun statues and carvings as well as a whole room filled with bird art. Overall, the museum was awesome.

 

TUESDAY

Tuesday we took a boat out of Húsavík’s harbor to see whales and puffins. We had to put on bright coveralls to protect us from the cold, the wind, and the water. Iceland is the windiest place that I have ever been. We have to hold the car doors when we open them so that they won’t blow off their hinges.

First, we went to Puffin Island. There are 100,000+ puffins breeding here right now. They are adorable and amazing. They can flap their wings 400x per minute!

I tried hard to take good pictures of them, but I don’t have a super camera and they are very fast, so this is all I’ve got. If you click on the left picture, you’ll be able to see more clearly their huge numbers and the right picture is a zoomed-in photo of a puffin flying over the water.

We also saw at least 6 different Humpbacked Whales and some super rare Northern Bottlenose Whales. I have video, but it is very boring. It’s one of those things that is really amazing to see in person and really terrible to watch on a screen.

The Whales and Puffins Voyage was my most-looked-forward-to activity and it was amazing!

Next, we took the hour trip to Mývatn, which is famous for its craters, geothermal activity, and baths.

We hiked up to the top of Hverfjall Crater; it’s about a half a kilometer on a steep incline to a crater that’s about 3 km all the way around. It was so windy! Check out the crater and the views from the top.

After our hike we went to the Mývatn Nature Baths, which are heated through geothermal power. The wind that day was insane, so the water was a bit colder and we got a discount. I generally think taking pictures at baths is a bit weird, so I didn’t take any while we were in the water, but here’s a picture of the front. The water was this crazy milky blue. This was our third geothermal baths in Iceland–I’ve gotten Garett hooked–but these were pretty unique.

Iceland is all about dramatic skies and epic landscapes. I feel like we were compelled to stop every five minutes because of all the impossible beauty. Here are a few of our favorite landscape photos.

These next two photos are just from a place we stopped at off the side of the road.

Off the coast of Húsavík.

The town of Siglufjörður where the herring museum is.

Again, off the coast of Húsavík.