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!

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! 

Saturday - day 9 - almost Djúpivogur, Iceland

On Saturday, we were supposed to visit Djúpivogur (Dyoo-pi-voh-gur), which was a little bit of a backtrack from our route around the north side of Iceland (I started making a travel map here: https://journeyinamazinggrace.travelmap.net/2026-travels but it only shows straight lines between ports so it looks like we're going overland... we are not!). We were supposed to arrive at 7am, and we got to the area where we were to anchor out by 7am. But the captain came on to announce that the waves were 4-6', the wind was blowing strongly from the northwest -- which would be perpendicular to the route that the tender boats would need to traverse to get us in to port. So, for the safety of the passengers and crew, the captain decided that we should not make the stop in Djúpivogur, but rather continue on toward our next port of call, Akureyri. Thus, we had a "bonus" sea day.

I ran up onto deck to try to take a picture of the town -- I don't know whether the ship had already moved far enough away or the town was very small (it did have very few residents), or that it was far enough down within athefjord and I couldn't see it, but this was the best picture I got! I think that the town is somewhere along the middle of that picture.

I did see some crop land along the fjord as we were moving away.

What was very fascinating was how quickly the crew turned around and prepared a sea-day's set of activities for us -- 

....updating the schedule online as well as providing a new printed calendar of events.

Even a letter from the captain was printed and provided to each cabin!

One of the added activities for the day was a lecture from a fellow from England, Tony Lee Moral, who had worked on David Attenborough's staff -- he had been scheduled to do this lecture later in the cruise, but he did it on our unexpected sea day instead. (He has other lectures that he will be doing later on the cruise.) We had honestly never known David Attenborough's name before (we are obvious uneducated rubes) but when we heard snippets of his shows, we recognized his voice.

Travel guide Gage did a presentation on "The World Up Close: The Wizard of Wireless" about Marconi and advances in communication with the use of wireless.

Another guest presenter, David Perry, presented on "Paddlewheels, Steam, and Speed" about the evolution of boat travel and amazing advances made during the 1800s.

One of the slides he shared told of a ship that crossed the international date line and equator at precisely midnight on December 31, 1899, thereby having different parts of the ship in two different days, two different months, two different years, two different seasons, and two different centuries, all at the same time! (He also said that it was possible that the ship wasn't in the exact location at the exact correct time, but it would be at least theoretically possible.)

There were a couple of venues that were scheduled to play country music on Saturday evening, so we went to listen... at one of them, I joined some other folks doing a line dance, and Carl and I danced to one song. (We're both fighting colds so we weren't feeling like being too energetic.)

Later in the evening, cellist Darius Uhl was back on the World Stage, so we enjoyed listening to his music.

Our ship was to cross for a short time into the Arctic Circle on this part of our journey. Because the ship had started on it way to Akureyri earlier than anticipated, the captain let us know that we'd be crossing into the Arctic Circle at about sunset, 10:05pm. We looked out off of our balcony at that time, and we didn't see any blue (or any other color) line, but the next day, we both...

... got certificates recognizing our accomplishment!

Aren't you impressed?!?!?

We have certificates from our cruise last year for crossing the International Date Line and the equator; one more certificate to add to our collection!