Sunday - day 10 - Akureyri, Iceland - part 4 - finishing up the day

Previous posts: part 1: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-1.html

part 2: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-2.html

part 3: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-3.html

We were tired of walking, and although there was a free city bus, its schedule did not seem to match to our needs, so we walked back toward the downtown area.

One of the buildings on the pedestrian street in downtown - clean and neat!

Pedestrian street in downtown Akureyri

The Icelandic hotdogs were something we had been told not to miss...

There were lots of options on how to prepare the hot dog (toppings) - we asked for "traditional Icelandic" and I think we got "Everything!" They put the "toppings" on the bottom though, which was smart for eating without losing the toppings. One of the toppings that I really liked was fried onion strings (like French's fried onions). Since I usually treat hot dogs as "mustard-delivery-vehicles", having lots of toppings was a unique experience for me.

We were looking for a drug store / pharmacy / apothecary -- it was a bit of a walk to an indoor mall where we found one that was open. All of us (Joe, Pat, Carl, Patti) are fighting colds with coughs and we were looking for drugs! Carl and I had already looked in London and Norway for something like Sudafed, but they only sell decongestants in nose spray form. We got one kind of cough syrup before we left London, and got a second kind here in Akureyri. Thank goodness for Google Lens translate to help us decipher what we were buying! (The lady at the pharmacy counter was also very nice and helpful.)

One thing we had been told to look for was the special way Akureyri has red lights on their traffic signals...

... they are all hearts!

While we knew that these had been here before we arrived, we figured they put them up just to celebrate our 6.5 year anniversary!

Our tired feet were glad to make it back to the ship...

... a selfie before re-boarding.

In the evening, we went to the Magic Show by Yollin Lee...

He did some card tricks... 

... and some mind reading involving members of the audience.

All-in-all a long exhausting but very enjoyable day!  

Sunday - day 10 - Akureyri, Iceland - part 3 - Akureyri Museum

Parts 1 and 2 from Akureyri can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-1.html and here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-2.html

We walked from the Botanical Gardens on our way to the Akureyri Museum.

As we walked, we saw these creatively covered trash cans!

And another one...

... this one tried to bite off Carl's arm -- Joe barely saved him from certain dismemberment!

I found this information from Google:

The trash monsters in Akureyri are ten playful, waste-eating outdoor sculptures created by local artist Jonna (Jónborg Sigurðardóttir) to encourage proper litter disposal with humor. First appearing around town, these figures are refreshed each spring to stand guard during the summer. 

Key Details: 

Total count: 10 different sculptures 

Creator: Local artist Jonna Jónborg Sigurðardóttir 

Purpose: Encourage people to put trash in its place 

Season: Placed outdoors for the summer season after spring touch-ups

Just to give you an appreciation of what these trash cans look like in other places...

...this one really looks the worse for wear -- the trash monsters are quite an improvement!

 We were heading for Akureyri Museum...

There was a church on the museum grounds...

Information about the church (it kinda seems like the English description might be less complete than the Icelandic description?)

Inside the church -- the blue and cream are peaceful colors.

From Google Lens: The painting is a traditional Icelandic altarpiece, showing a scene of the Last Supper, a common theme for Icelandic altar pieces.

Inside the museum...

A re-creation of a turf house

I was reading the description below about Ash Wednesday... got about halfway through the first paragraph...

"...the ritual of beating a cat out of a barrel..." What?!?!? 

Google provided some additional information:

The ritual of "beating the cat out of the barrel" (slå katten af tønden) is an old Scandinavian tradition practiced during Öskudagur (Ash Wednesday) in Iceland.

Today, the event is a harmless, festive holiday for children, very similar to hitting a piñata. A wooden candy-filled barrel, usually decorated with pictures of black cats, is hung up.  Children dress up in costumes and take turns hitting the barrel with a wooden bat. The child who knocks the bottom out to release the candy is crowned the Cat Queen. The child who breaks the very last wooden plank off the rope is crowned the Cat King.

The Dark History -- While it is lighthearted today, the historical ritual was literal and grim. In the Middle Ages and up into the 1800s, black cats were associated with evil spirits, witchcraft, and the plague. A live black cat was locked inside a wooden barrel. Adults or children would beat the barrel with clubs until it splintered apart. The goal was to "beat the evil out" before Lent. Historically, the terrified cat would leap out and flee, which superstitious townspeople viewed as chasing evil away from the village.

The tradition originated with Dutch immigrants in Denmark during the 1500s. Because Iceland was under Danish rule for centuries, the custom spread to Iceland, finding a strong foothold in the northern town of Akureyri around 1915 before becoming a nationwide Ash Wednesday staple.

There was this interesting photograph of children dressed up for Ash Wednesday.

Iceland's Independence Day was June 17, 1944.

Information about their celebrations and the path to independence. It is interesting that they voted for independence from Denmark when Denmark was under occupation by the Third Reich.

On another floor of the museum, there was a display about the UK and American occupation of Iceland during WWII. There was a display about Quonset huts (including a re-creation of one) that reminded me of Dwayne's and my search for a specific Quonset hut near Port au Choix in Newfoundland back in August, 2016 (https://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2016/08/getting-repairs-made-thursday-18august.html).

When we left the museum, we found a photo opportunity with cutout faces on those two children in their Ash Wednesday attire. Pat and I tried them out!

This was right outside Nonnahús (Nonni's house).

"Nonni's House is a museum in the Akureyri municipality in Iceland. The small wooden house, built around 1850, is one of the oldest houses in Akureyri. It was the home of the well known children's author and Jesuit priest Jón Sveinsson; also known as "Nonni"."

There was a room with many, many books that Nonni had written.

In another room were books about Nonni.

It was a tiny house, but interesting to view.

The museum admission allowed us to visit other museums in Akureyri, but we only visited one more (the Toy Museum) as we were getting tired! 

Sunday - day 10 - Akureyri, Iceland - part 2 - Botanic Gardens

Part 1 can be found here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.blogspot.com/2026/08/sunday-day-10-akureyri-iceland-part-1.html

We continued walking in Akureyri to the Botanic Gardens.

Map of the gardens as we entered -- there was no "you are here" marker, but we entered at the east gate near the top right.

There were signs pointing the way to different parts of the garden.

I asked Carl to take pictures of anything he thought was pretty... and he thought that a LOT of the flowers, particularly purple ones, in the garden were pretty! I'm getting the identifications of the flowers via Google Lens, so accuracy is not guaranteed...

Giant Bellflower

Hardy Geranium - do you see the bee just right of the center of the picture?

Jerusalem sage or sage-leaf mullein -- in the mint family

Clustered Bellflower

"This plant is identified as Betonica macrantha, a species of flowering plant in the mint family Lamiaceae, also known as big betony."

Giant Bellflower 

Austrian Speedwell, a hardy perennial valued for its intense, Gentian blue flowers

Bellflowers

"The plant is identified as a type of Ligularia, commonly known as a Leopard Plant or Golden Ray."

"Liguria plant, likely the popular cultivar known as 'The Rocket'" 

Siberian Iris - "... characterized by its slender, tall stems and intricate blue petals. The plant thrives in moist soil, often positioned near water features like ponds in garden settings. It typically features bluish-green, strap-like leaves and can grow between 2 and 4 feet tall." 

A "stolen" kiss on the bridge over the garden pond...

Joe encouraged a non-stolen kiss!

Foxglove - "Digitalis purpurea, known for its tall spikes of tubular, bell-shaped flowers. The flowers in the image are a deep pink-purple hue with characteristic speckled markings inside the blooms. Foxgloves are popular in cottage gardens but are highly toxic if ingested, though they are also the original source of the heart medication digoxin." I love the speckles inside the blooms. These were right next to the greenhouse in the gardens.

Another foxglove

Delphiniums, also known as larkspur

Another Delphinium

Yet another Delphinium

And yet more Delphiniums 

I was thinking (but could not remember) a poem about "Delphinium (blue)", so I looked it up after we got back on ship. Google told me:

The famous poem featuring "delphiniums (blue)" is "The Dormouse and the Doctor" by A.A. Milne, first published in his 1924 collection When We Were Very Young.

Opening Lines of the Poem

There once was a Dormouse who lived in a bed
Of delphiniums (blue) and geraniums (red),
And all the day long he'd a wonderful view
Of geraniums (red) and delphiniums (blue).

We had When We Were Very Young when I was a child (maybe we still have it somewhere!). 

"This flower bed features a mix of Marguerite Daisies and Pansies or Violas. The border includes vibrant Petunias in shads of pink and purple. Osteospermum (African Daisy) can also be seen, known for its long blooming season."

California poppies -- the bees were having a field day in these flowers, rooting around within the bloom and emerging appearing drunk with pollen!

'Petite Jenny', commonly known as Ragged Robin

A pretty mound of flowers

Probably more flower pictures than anyone wants to look at -- but when you consider that we were not far south of the Arctic Circle, it is wonderful that this garden exists!

More from Akureyri in another post!