There is a ski resort here in Akureyri with 2 chairlifts, that our guide works at during the winter. There are actually 7 ski resorts on

Iceland. Our guide was very entertaining supplying little bits of information which I am sharing with all of you.

All red (stop) lights are now hearts ♥️’s since the crash of 2008/9. They were trying to lift peoples spirits.

It’s 12C today and bright with no rain…. Yeah!.

25% more babies have been born this year because of COVID.

93% homes are heated with geothermal energy… the roads are heated as well so that the snow is melted. The temperature of the steam is 100 F or 40 C.

2-3 times per month they have storms with winds of over 80 mph

They built a tunnel that is 7.5 Kms long. Most people especially tourists travel the old highway in the summer, not the tunnel cuz the views are better but the tunnel is used more in winter when there is lots of snow. Actually though, they had fresh snow just last week.

There are 2000 more sheep than people on Iceland.

The raise mostly dairy cattle here, not beef. The cheese that is made in Iceland is eaten along with jam. That’s strange for most of us.

There are no street lights on the highways so they have poles or sticks along the sides of the roads…… 1 stripe on right, 2 on left so can tell if you are still on the road.

No daylight til 10am in winter.

Iceland has a 3000 sq km glacier… biggest in Europe

Godafoss waterfall… waterfall of the gods

The average temperature is 16-20 C in summer…at 23C, businesses sent people home from work cuz it was too hot… lol!

Lake Myvatn

OMG there are lots of midges. They drive you crazy flying into your face and hair. But heh… they don’t bite!

Dimmuborgir is a 1700 sq kms in area…is a lava field of ”trolls”….lava columns. You can see the faces of the trolls.

Sea campion… (pinky mauve and white flowers

2010 eruption that disrupted air traffic caused problems because it erupted under a glacier that consequently caused steam and ash to form.

Next we went to the absolutely amazing boiling mud pots. Everywhere there is steam escaping from the earth but oh my goodness did it stink of sulphur.

Value added tax of Iceland is 24%… wow!

On our return to our ship we had a pit stop where there were a herd of Icelandic horses…. Beauties! Did you know that if a horse was taken off the island that they can never return. That’s to protect them from disease.

There are only few Muslims here in Iceland besides the predominate Lutherans and to a lesser degree Catholics. Our guide told it is a little difficult for the muslims when Ramadan is in the summer because they are only allowed to eat, drink and make love from sundown to sun-up. That only gives them about a half hour.

Tonight we cross the Arctic Circle.