Sunday - day 10 - Akureyri, Iceland - part 1

Because of our "bonus" sea day, we arrived in Akureyri (AH-koo-rey-ree) earlier than expected. This is the only "docked" port we will visit on the north coast of Iceland (all the others will use tenders) -- it is much more convenient to just be able to walk off the ship anytime we want.

Views off our balcony as we were coming in down the fjord

Another view from our balcony

We were not on the pier side of the ship, so this was our view of the town once we were docked...

... continuation of our view of the town -- the rounded grey building housed the tourist information center.

A pilot boat and straight ahead is the runway for the airport

We met up with Joe and Pat at breakfast, and decided to meet up on the pier at about 9:45am. 

We had gotten a note in our room that they would be cleaning our balconies during this port day -- when we got back to our room to get our outer wear (coats), we found that the separators between the balconies were open so we went out to look -- this is looking toward the stern (back) of the ship...

... and looking forward toward the bow... we are pretty close to the front of the ship (which means we get more motion in our cabin).

Another view of the port from our balcony 

When we got off, there was a helpful map on the pier -- I like taking a picture so we can refer back if needed while we are onshore.

We were headed toward the Botanical Gardens -- and to get there, we would be walking by the church. I had already checked and this church would not be having services in their building on this Sunday; they were joining with another congregation.

There were neat "frames" in the downtown area of Akureyri -- we used this one to frame us and the church beyond...

... and to get a picture of a kiss -- on our 6.5 anniversary day! (78 months!)

Pat and Joe also got their picture in the heart

We headed up the steps toward the church...

Along the way, we saw the art museum and another mural...

This was the artwork on the front of the art museum -- we decided that the title should be "5 cats observing with disdain a food dish in which they can see the bottom"!

Our ship (with the black bottom) -- there was also an Arctic Explorer ship and an MSC ship in port with us.

Another view of the church from the other side.

An informational display...

The other side of the informational display

More in a subsequent post!