“Thar she blows!” I finally got to yell today. It was the day I had been happily anticipating. It was whale watching day and we did indeed see whales. With nature you just never know if she is going to be generous or not. Today she decided to be kind. I was most humbly grateful.
We got an early start because we had to drive 40 minutes from Akureyri through tunnels to the small fishing village of Dalvik. We had driven through the small village the other day when driving to Akureyri. It may be small but it is doing well. I think whale watching is helping their economy a great deal.
The trip went quickly and in a blink of an eye we were pulling into the location of our whale watching company. Last time they had being doing their business from an old gas station. Business must have been good the last eight years because they built a new building. However, the boat was the same herring trawler named the Máni. They also had new coveralls for us to wear. Eight years ago they had been blue and rather threadbare. This time they were red and a bit newer. They seemed to be more comfortable, too. I didn’t feel so much like the Michelin Man in this one. I shoved my camera and monocular in my two pockets and headed outside. It was getting warm inside the building with the coverall on.
It didn’t take long before we were walking down the pier to board our boat. Doug and I headed up the stairs as soon as we got onboard and went to the bow of the ships. Most people wanted to stay down on the main section which was fine with us.
This little jaunt was not leaving the fjord but it was a big fjord that whales routinely come into. The captain told us that we would motor out for around 45 minutes to get close to the mouth of the fjord. Long experience has taught us that you just never know about animals so we kept a weathered eye out as we motored away from the jetty. Just as we were pulling away from the dock, I swear I saw something duck under the water behind us. It didn’t come back up so it wasn’t a bird. I have a sneaking suspicion that it was a harbor seal. They do have them here.
The weather was overcast but at least it wasn’t raining as we headed out into deeper water. The wind was blowing but I was too excited to be cold. I had a cap on and gloves as well as light jacket under the coveralls. I was okay. I didn’t care about the cold. I wanted to see some sea life.
One young man was on the microphone sharing information. He talked about the animals we could possible see today. Of course the main one was the humpback whale. However, they did occasionally see white-beaked dolphins as well. In fact they had been seeing them during the previous week. But like all animals, you just never know when they are going to leave the area. I wanted to see them but wasn’t holding my breath. I’ve learned that lesson the hard way too many times 🙂
However, today was my lucky day. Doug who has superior long vision pointed and shouted, “I see dolphins!” They were still in the fjord! We were all so excited even though they were way in the distance. We could just see little dots . However, the dolphins allowed us to get closer. There was a baby dolphin that was jumping all of the way out of the water. He/she was super fast. The older dolphins only showed us their back and pectoral fin. Then Doug looked down in the water beneath the front of the ship. A few dolphins were swimming right at the prow. They were underwater but you could see them pretty well, especially the white stripe on their bodies. The group of us up there were all so excited. These dolphins were literal just beneath us. What a special moment. This was something I had never experienced before. I felt beyond blessed.
The dolphins hung around for several minutes then swam away. We soon saw them again in the distance. At this point I was happy. If we didn’t see any whales, it would be okay. I had seen white-beaked dolphins swimming right beneath me. That was more than enough. Shoot, it was more than enough just to see them.
However, our adventure on the water wasn’t over yet. It was really just starting. It seemed like it was no time after the dolphins that Doug, once again, spotted our first whale spouting off in the distance. The captain spotted it too and we were on the hunt.
The whale we found wasn’t particularly large but nobody cared. We were all just excited to be watching a humpback whale out in the fjord. Just as we got close enough to see him fairly well, he went under. We knew he could be down for up to twenty minutes. However, most likely it would be six or seven. The time ticked by slowly as we constantly scanned the area we had last seen him in. Of course the odds of him coming back up there were slim to none but really you have no clue as to where they will surface next.
The captain spotted him seven minutes later and turned the boat and headed towards him. Being in the front, we had the best seats in the house. We watched the whale come up and breath five or six times. If you’ve seen enough humpbacks, you get a sense of when they are going to do a deep dive. We knew this guy was fixing to go down and expose his tail. He did and we got beautiful flukes. One of our guys was yelling “I got it! I got it! I got it!” Everybody was thrilled. One young girl, I believe from China, was in tears. It was her first whale.
We weren’t done though. We waited another seven minutes and he came back up again. We counted each time he exhaled through his blow hole, and he was loud. On the sixth or seventh exhale, we knew the tail was coming. It was no less exciting than the first time. Altogether we watch this young whale dive down four or five times. None of us got tired of it. And off in the distance near the shore on the other side of the fjords, we could still see the dolphins.
Finally the crew member on the microphone announced that we were going to head further out to see if we could find anything bigger. We motored nearly into the mouth of the fjord. Although the scenery was gorgeous as always, that was all we saw. The large humpbacks had not come to play with us today.
We started heading back towards the little guy and took a break for more dolphin antics. None of us had expected them to hang around this long. There must have been something good to eat in the fjord that held their attention. They flitted around the fjord the entire time we were out.
It’s impossible to know for sure but I think we saw two more whales. We know one for sure as we saw two at the same time. Just as we saw them, one went down and then the other one went down. We saw one come back up but not the second one.
The captain stayed with it and we saw several more dives with flukes. Sometimes we were in a good position to see them and sometimes not. I was surprised we had had as many good viewings as we had. Usually I end up being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Not today which made me a happy whale watcher.
Finally our time was up and the captain turned toward Dalvik. The crew had cookies and hot chocolate for everybody but Doug and I stayed on the bow. I didn’t care about the snack. I was more interested in keeping an eye our for aquatic antics. Although I kept a careful lookout, I didn’t spot anything. I didn’t really expect to but you just never know.
Back on land we walked to the main office and divested ourselves of our coveralls. It was time to head to lunch. And after a morning on the water, I was more than ready to eat. Neil had a special place all picked out for us—Nordur. It was where the locals eat. It was just a small place with a buffet. There wasn’t a great lot of choice but what there was was good. It was not fancy. The local workers didn’t want fancy, just tasty and filling.
We managed to squeeze into the few empty tables. We wove our way around tables filled with working men and loaded up on fish, soup, and home-made bread. As I was getting water, I saw some men scraping their leftover bits into a trash can near a cart where they put their dirty dishes. I was glad to know what we were suppose to do. As quickly as the place has filled up, it emptied out. The men all had to get back to work. Eventually we were the only ones left.
I have to admit that if I have the choice between a fancy restaurant and a place where the locals eat, I chose the latter every time. I just want to eat good food. I’m not picky about presentation and ambiance. It’s nice but not necessary. I’m just not a fancy person 🙂
Now today we had a pinch hitter. Our normal bus driver Jón had been asked to be a driver/guide for a tour off of a cruise ship. Neil had given him the okay since all we were doing was driving to and from Dalvik. Our substitute was Graham who was from England. I think we knew more Icelandic than he did but that’s alright. It isn’t an easy language and I wouldn’t know as much as I do except for Neil’s tutelage. Anyway, Graham pulled up the small bus we were in and we headed back to Akureyri.
Neil entertained us with Icelandic sayings as we made the 40 minute drive back to the town. If you have a stroke of good luck you say, “That’s a beached whale!” Sounds bad, I know but it harkens back to the old days when a beached whale meant the village could eat for a month. In that context, it isn’t so bad.
Another interesting one was “That’s a packed assembly.” Icelanders say that any time there is a big crowd. It goes back to the days of the Althing and the crowds there.
Of course since our morning had been devoted to whales, Neil spoke a bit about the whaling industry in Iceland. The first whalers were actually the Basque. They came here for whales back in the 1700s. Then the Norwegians came and for them it was big business with processing ships and the whole nine yards. Only one fishing company in Iceland goes after whales. They have done it for generations. We saw a documentary with the owner in it before we left home. He never planned to stop. His company ran into trouble, however, when videos surfaced of whales they had hunted taking hours and hours to die. One took six hours. There was a huge outcry. Since then the government has put a temporary ban on whaling. Really, they can make enough from whale watching. I don’t see why they have to kill whales.
When we got back to the hotel we had twenty minutes to get our large bags ready to load on the bus. Once he was finished driver/guiding Jón was driving the bus along with our bags to Reykjavik. We were flying there tomorrow and this would make the process much easier. I had gotten most of it done last night but there were a few things I tossed in before locking it all up.
Bags deposited, we stepped out with Neil on a walking tour of the Akureyri. The town really is a pretty place. All of the houses are well maintained. No junky cars in the yards. No ramshackle shacks. No litter either. Iceland is such a clean country. Occasional you will see trash but not very often. It really is refreshing.
The first place Neil took us was a little park. Inside it was a statue he wanted to share with us. It was called The Outlaw. It was beautifully done but so sad. It showed a man carrying his son in front of him. The child was wrapped in sheep skin. Draped across his back was his dead wife. He was bringing her home to be buried in consecrated ground. The look in his eyes was haunting. The child looked afraid; even the dog looked afraid. As an outlaw, at any minute he could be killed with no questions asked. What a powerful piece. I loved it and was depressed by it all at the same time.
Further down Heart Attack Hill, we came to the cathedral. Strangely enough the big church designed by Samuelsson wasn’t the cathedral. This small white church with red trim was. I immediately loved the exterior. It was nothing fancy. I just liked its simplicity.
Further along the road Neil pointed out a baby pram parked outside in the garden of a home. There wasn’t an adult in sight. Parents do that all of the time so the baby can get some fresh air. The people don’t worry about somebody snatching their child here. That’s difficult for me to imagine.
Slowly we had wended our way down the steep hill to the entrance of the botanical garden that was the brainchild of a Danish woman, Margreths Schiöth. She purchased the land and began planting it. It flourished and expanded. They do some experimental plantings here to see what will work in the environment and what won’t. Considering how far north we are at this point, it always shocks me at how verdant the place is. The gardens were vibrant with green growth. Brilliant colors splashed across the landscape. It was a lovely spot to spend some time.
I’m not good at plants so I never know the names of anything but I did take lots of pictures of beautiful blooms. From the ornamental cabbages (somebody told me what they were) to stems heavy with purple, pink, white, and yellow blossoms, the gardens were alive with color. It was a beautiful oasis and a lovely place to catch our breath before we headed down to the iconic building which was the symbol of Akureyri.
If it’s Iceland that has to be a church. This was WAS designed by Samuelsson. It, too, was modern in scope with basalt columns shooting up into the sky much like the hexagonal basalt columns we had seen along the cliffs on Snaefelsnes. I can’t say that it was pretty but it was commanding. It caught your eye from all around the city. The church was completed in 1940 and contains an extremely large 3200-pipe organ.
Inside we were all surprised to discover that this Lutheran Church had stain glass windows. Usually they don’t have much in the way of ornamentation. That was against Luther’s doctrine. This church, however, had lovely stain glass. They were simple but beautiful. There were five stain glass windows behind the alter. It had been whispered that one of the windows had actually come from the church in Coventry that had been bombed during the war. The people of the church had removed the windows and hidden them in order to safe keep them so they weren’t in the church when it was bombed. An expert came to the here and did testing. He decreed that this window was not one of the original Coventry windows but may have been one that had replaced the original. Either way, the people of the Akureyri church heaved a sign of relief as they wouldn’t have to send it back to England.
I liked how the bottom portion of the windows on the sides had things germane to the history of the church in Iceland. One of my favorites was a picture of the man Neil called the Shakespeare of Iceland. He was a reverend who wrote poetry. His name was Hallgrímur Pétursson. The big church—the Hallgrímskirkja in Reykjavik—was dedicated to him. There was also a picture depicting Thorgeir Thorkelsson with his icons of the old Norse gods. These are the ones he threw into Godafoss.
One of the sections in the windows was of another poet. This one requires some background knowledge. Back in 1874 the Icelandic people finally won a concession from the king of Denmark to have their own constitution. After winning the concession, the government of Iceland decided they needed a national anthem so they held a contest. It was won by a pastor in Akureyri by the name of Matthías Jochumsson. The tune was composed by Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson. He was the first Icelander to make a living by making music. I tried to get Neil to sing their anthem for us but he said it is a very difficult piece to sing. The music didn’t officially become the anthem, however, until 1944 when Iceland truly got its independence.
From the church we started heading back up the hill. We did make a small detour to see the garden of an artist. This young man makes fairy tale characters from recycled materials. He has decorated his garden with them and opened it to the public for free.
The garden itself was lovingly maintained. Even without the artwork it would have been a wonderful place to spend some time. The artwork though was amazing. He had Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. He had Little Red Riding Hood. There was the Shepard Boy from a famous Icelandic poem. He had his sheep and dog. Sleeping Beauty reclined on a bed with Prince Phillip kneeling beside her. I particularly enjoyed the lady troll. She had three watches on each wrist and her skirt and shirt were decorated with toothbrushes. It was so clever. All of his pieces were clever.
We wandered around the garden for several minutes admiring this young artist’s labor. It truly was wonderful. Hopefully opening his garden up to the public will get him noticed and give his career a boost.
Once we left the fairy tale garden, Doug and I parted ways with the rest of the group. We slogged uphill to the hotel and enjoyed Happy Hour while the others explored a bookstore before slowly climbing up the hill. If I’d known they were going to a bookstore, I would have stuck with them.
For dinner Doug and I headed back down Heart Attack Hill to a pizza place we had seen when driving into Akureyri. Pizza just sounded good. The rest of the group had decided to eat at the hotel. Although our pizza was quite tasty and we got it quickly, I worry about the place. We were the only people in there. I would have thought it would have been hopping with business. It didn’t look good for them. We did enjoy our meal though.
I didn’t enjoy the climb back up the steep, steep hill. It required some ice cream before tackling. We got some at a little shop on the pedestrian area. It was fine but not very flavorful. None of the ice cream here has wowed me with its taste. I’ve enjoyed it all. It just hasn’t been great. Tonight though it did give me the sugar push I needed to climb this hill one more time.
Although I’m loathe to leave the north country with its peace and tranquility, Reykjavik calls and I must go. We are coming into the last three days of the main trip. I don’t like thinking about it because I’m not ready to go home yet. I’m not ready to leave this endlessly fascinating and beautiful country.
Tales from the Trail 