Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
5
designed to keep the heat in. Incidentally, when Nonni lived here the fjord stretched
right up to his front door - the area east of the house, where the main road now runs,
is all reclaimed land.
Minjasafnið á Akureyri
Aðalstræti 58 • June to mid-Sept daily 10am-5pm • 600kr •
W
akmus.is
A few strides past Nonnahús is the
Minjasafnið á Akureyri
(Akureyri Museum), set back
a little from the street behind a well-tended garden. The upper floor has a good
assortment of farming and fishing items from Akureyri and Eyjafjörður's past, plus a
spectacular wooden
pulpit
from 1768, which once proudly stood in the church at
nearby Kaupangur, hand-painted in subtle greens and blues and bedecked with painted
flowers by local Jón Hallgrímsson. However, it's the
skeletons
of a middle-aged man
with a horse and dog, found in a boat grave at nearby Dalvík, that really impresses.
Dating from around the year 1000, this man was one of the first settlers in the
Eyjafjörður region.
Downstairs
, an exhibition detailing how the town has developed
from the 1700s to the present day contains a glorious jumble of household items
including a mangle, cash till and even a sleigh.
Kjarnaskógur
Not content with the trees that line most of Akureyri's streets, locals have now planted
an entire
forest
on former farmland south of the town, the first stage in a much more
ambitious plan to encircle Akureyri with woodland. An easy one-hour walk south of
the museums along Drottningarbraut and past the airport,
Kjarnaskógur
is a favourite
recreational spot at weekends and on summer evenings, when the air is heavy with the
scent of pine. Although birch and larch predominate, there are over fifty species of
shrubs and trees here, some of which have grown to over 12m in height, quite a feat for
a country where trees rarely reach little more than waist height - hence the long-
standing Icelandic joke about what to do when you get lost in an Icelandic forest
(answer: you stand up). Within the forest there are easy walking paths complete with
picnic sites, a jogging track that doubles as a skiing trail in winter, plus a children's play
area. Camping is not permitted here.
ARRIVAL AND DEPARTURE
AKUREYRI
By plane
The airport is stunningly located on a spit of land
in the middle of the fjord, 3km south of town. It's possible
to walk in from here to the centre in around 30min
following the highway, Drottningarbraut, northwards as it
runs parallel to the fjord; alternatively, taxis (1500kr) are
available outside the terminal building. Note that there are
no buses to and from the airport.
Destinations
Grímsey (3-7 weekly; 25min); Reykjavík
(7 daily; 50min); Vopnafjörður (5 weekly; 45min); Þórshöfn
(5 weekly; 40min).
By bus
Long-distance buses terminate in the station
at the southern end of Hafnarstræti, the town's main
street.
Destinations
Árskógssandur (Mon-Fri 3 daily; 25min);
Blönduós (2 daily; 2hr); Dalvík (Mon-Fri 3 daily; 45min);
Egilsstaðir (1 daily; 3hr 30min); Húsavík (4 daily; 1hr
15min); Mývatn (1 daily; 2hr); Ólafsfjörður (Mon-Fri
3 daily; 1hr); Reykjavík (2 daily; 6hr); Siglufjörður (2 daily
Mon-Fri; 1hr 20min); Varmahlíð (2 daily; 1hr 20min).
INFORMATION AND TOURS
Tourist information
The o
ce is in the new
Mennigarhús cultural centre at Strandgata 12 (mid-June
to Aug daily 8am-7pm; mid-May to mid-June & Sept
Mon-Fri 8am-5pm, Sat 8am-4pm; Oct to mid-May
Mon-Fri 8am-4pm;
T
450 1050,
W
visitakureyri.is).
Services
There's wi-fi at the tourist office (free) and at
the library
(Mon-Fri 10am-7pm; plus mid-Sept to
mid-May Sat 11am-4pm), which is a veritable haven on
rainy afternoons with numerous books in English about
Iceland.
Horseriding tours
Riding tours are a great way to
explore the countryside around Akureyri. Several
companies offer excursions from their bases close to the
town; the closest is Hestaleigan Kátur (
T
695 7218,
