Yesterday we took a day-long tour to visit Dettifoss, which is said to be the most powerful waterfall in Europe. On the way there we were able to see some other sights as well. The weather was beautiful again. We’ve been really lucky with the weather so far.
The tour started from Akureyri, where our ship was docked. Akureyri is the largest city in the north of Iceland. It even has its own international airport. It sits at the end of a very long fjord. It’s a very pretty town from what we’ve seen. You can see their church in the far distance in the photo below:
Our first stop on the tour was the rustic fishing village of Húsavík. It’s a tiny, tidy little spot that features an old church and whale watching expeditions. Here are a few photos in Húsavík:
Our next stop was brunch/lunch at a little roadside restaurant. We had a delicious pumpkin soup and a great piece of salmon. Both were delicious. Here’s a photo of the soup before I devoured it:
Our next stop was Hljóðaklettar, which means Echo Rocks. This is a valley carved by a glacial river that is famous for its massive columns in very distinctive shapes. We viewed the rocks from a cliff above the valley, making it a bit difficult to convey how massive these rocks are:
Next we were off to the main event, the Dettifoss waterfall. This waterfall is absolutely massive.
Photo by Richard Dorran on Unsplash
For perspective, look how tiny the people are on the other side of the waterfall.
Bill at Dettifoss
After we marveled at Dettifoss for a while, we visited a lake called Lake Myvatn (we were told the name translates to “Midge Lake”) to see some small volcanic craters. To be honest, the craters weren’t that interesting, and there were midges (tiny flying insects) everywhere. The lake is nutrient rich, famous for birdlife and home to more species of ducks than almost anywhere else in the world. There was a small group of Icelandic horses munching on grass and whisking midges off with their tails. So that was fun to see. There are lots of Icelandic horses in this part of the country and they have quicky become my favorite breed of horse.
Leaving the midges behind, our bus whisked us back to the ship just in time for departure for our next port of call, Seyðisfjörður. We had dinner in our usual spot. The seas were quite a bit rougher than anything we’d experienced on this voyage, but the ship’s stablilizer system was working overtime to keep things more or less on an even keel.
So ended another great day on our trip. While in Seyðisfjörður we plan to go on a puffin tour, so we will hope that the puffins cooperate and make an appearance. Thanks for following along and don’t hesitate to leave a comment below. Thanks to those who post a comment. I don’t know why it even matters, but it’s nice to know that people are reading all this drivel. Until tomorrow!