Exploring Akureyri, Iceland – aviation museum and much more
This is blog post #16 from our tour of northern Europe. At 10 pm on Wednesday, July 9th, we docked at the Akureyri cruise ship dock that was built in 2019 to encourage more visits. We had been scheduled to arrive at 08:00 on July 10th, but we were only 3 hours away at Húsavik so the captain decided to dock early. We had no plans for July 10th, but I ended up having a very full day, starting at the aviation museum and a few other places with Cathy, then just exploring the town on my own.
Approaching Akureyri in beautiful evening light at 9:15 pm.
Entering the harbour at 9:30 pm. There are always interesting vessels – while some are familiar designs, many are new to me.
Although I had thought about going for a walk in town at midnight just because I could, that didn’t happen. Being just below the Arctic Circle at 65.4° North Latitude, official sunset was 1 minute before midnight, and the sun rose again at 02:30.
The next morning, I was up early at my blogging station as usual, watching the world and the ship wake up 🙂
The next photo was shot at 08:00. We were in no big hurry to get off, with breakfast then time at the spa being our normal start to the days.
Breakfast – yum! It felt like a buckwheat pancakes morning at the little Club Orange dining room.
On our walk back to our cabin from the spa, to get ready to leave, here’s a look at the room where country and rock-and-roll music happens. The huge pillars block the view of the stage from many tables, so it’s not a great space, but some excellent music happens there.
Flugsafn Íslands – the Icelandic Aviation Museum. It’s a little less than 4 km from the cruise ship dock – Cathy and I took a taxi, but later in the day I walked back to the airport.
What a great view as you walk in the door 🙂
There’s a lot of incorrect information about the museum online. It’s housed in a single hangar, with one aircraft outside, and the entrance fee is currently 1800 ISD (Icelandic krona), which is $20.20 Canadian dollars. I shot 134 photos so I can do a proper report when I get home, but I’ll just give you a brief overview here.
The logical path to start begins with historical photos about significant aircraft, people, and events in Iceland’s aviation history. This Junkers F.13 was operated by Flugfelag Islands (Air Iceland), the country’s first airline. This plane and crew were leased from Germany.
Iceland’s early aviation history has strong connections to Canada. Sigurdur Olafsson earned his pilot’s licence at a school in Winnipeg in 1941, then he served with the Royal Canadian Air Force for two years before returning home with a Stinson SR-8 Reliant that he started an airline with. This photo shows him in his RCAF uniform in 1943. Most information in the museum is in both Icelandic and English.
In 1950, a DC-3 pilot landed on Iceland’s Vatnajokull Glacier, attempting to rescue the crew of a Loftleider DC-4 that had crash-landed. The DC-3 was unable to take off and it was eventually abandoned. Eight months later, Alfred Eliasonn, Kristinn Olson and a crew from Loftleider spent a month digging the plane out of the snow then dragged it down the mountain. To everyone’s surprise, the engines started up as if they had been shut down overnight. It was sold to a Spanish airline.
Looking out a back window, I saw the steel mats used during World War II to build runways in difficult places all over the world. There’s no signage – was that the original Akureyri airport?
This Stinson SR-8-CM Reliant is very similar to the original TF-AZX that was brought over from Canada in 1943. This one was bought in the USA in 1987.
The cockpit of TF-SYN, a Fokker F-27-200 Friendship fitted out as it was when it served with the Icelandic Coast Guard for search and maritime surveillance. She was retired in 2009. You can walk through the entire aircraft.
TF-ÖRN is a 1937 Waco YKS-7.
TF-NPK, built as a C-47A Skytrain in 1943, and has operated in Iceland since that time. Iceland Airways (Flugfélag Íslands) purchased it in 1946 registered it as TF-ISH. Now TF-NPK, it is still airworthy and active, so isn’t always on display here.
The final photo from the aviation museum is of TF-SIF, an Aerospatiale SA.365N Dauphin 2 that was delivered new to the Icelandic Coast Guard in November 1985. It flew over 7,056 hours before being retired after being damaged in an offshore training exercise in 2007.
When it was time to move on, we asked a staff member to call a taxi, and when he came, we asked to be dropped off at Akureyrarkirkja – the Akureyri church. It is a Lutheran church that was designed by Gudjon Samuelsson and was consecrated in 1940.
There is some wonderful stained glass – I would sure like to know the stories behind images such as this.
The organ loft has some wonderful carvings.
The taxi driver had asked if we wanted to be dropped off at the top of the stairs – yes! I counted 111 steps down.
Right below Akureyrarkirkja is Hafnarstaeti, a quaint street full of cafes and souvenir shops – and the “I Love Akureyri” sign. But I never did find a tshirt design I liked 🙁
Speaking of hearts, check out the stop lights in Akureyri! Yes, they’re all like that. Our second taxi driver said that the Highways people wanted to go back to normal lights, and the residents said no way. How awesome is that? 🙂
The public square (which is round) at the east end of Hafnarstaeti may be called Rádhústorg. It seems to be popular with locals as well as tourists. There another “selfie” photo stop there – a large yellow picture frame.
Our next stop was the round Hof Cultural and Conference Centre, just for a look.
I went back to the ship with Cathy, then decided I wanted to put some miles on, so headed out on my own, destination unknown. Finding a beautiful 1963 Cadillac Coupe de Ville in a small town in Iceland was a surprise.
Waterfront walks are usually my first choice. A current project to beautify this one has resulted in some nice work, including some large photographs. This sculpture predates this project.
Samkomuhúsid, built by a fraternal lodge in 1906, is the home of the Akureyri Theater Company, the only professional theater in the country outside of the Reykjavík area.
Memorial benches are common along walks such as this, but I don’t recall ever seeing them all crafted from marble before. I expect they’re very expensive.
Folks in Akureyri seem to enjoy the water in many ways. The harbour is ice-free year round.
Walking and cycling paths have just been built along Route 1, which crosses the fjord just before its muddy end.
After seeing police and hearing sirens constantly in Paris, they have both been a rarity since. Hearing this ambulance was quite a shock.
This pond was attracting a large number of geese and ducks, which were making quite a mess of the walking path.
The Motorcycle Museum of Iceland must be well funded, judging from their building. I was almost out of time, so visiting wasn’t an option.
The airport became my destination – I was very curious about what it might look like.
TF-NLD is a de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by Norlandair, the primary airline at Akureyri.
I had watched this corporate jet land earlier in the day. G-FOMO is a Bombardier BD-700-1A10 Global 6000 operated by Luxaviation UK (London Executive Aviation).
I was almost at the airport when I heard an odd “ding” from my phone. When I looked at it, there was a popup saying something about a Medical Emergency contact! When clicking the Contact button got “No Contact Available,” I turned around and started back to towards the ship as fast as I could walk. Then I texted Cathy – she was okay, and we could make no sense of what the popup was about. So I turned back toward the airport, with a higher than normal heartbeat.
The Akureyri airport.
A cool sculpture along the entrance road.
What a wonderful little airport, they way they looked in North America decades ago, with no security anywhere!
The Arrivals/Departures board 🙂
I was now out of time, and didn’t dawdle getting back to the ship. Well, the “Sailing Naked” boat did distract me for a minute 🙂
“All aboard” was 5:30, and I was back at the ship 40 minutes early, but when I got back to our cabin, Guest Services had just called Cathy to see if she knew where I was. She knew exactly, as she watches my wanders on the “Life 360” app.
My solo walk had been 9.16 km, as well as what Cathy and I had walked, so I had a very quiet evening. The light had gone flat, so this was the only photo I shot before going to bed.
The next day, July 11th, we would be docked at Isafjordur, where we had another waterfall excursion booked, but this one much shorter than the one at Husavik so we could see the town as well.
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Hi Murray and Cathy,
I love your travels! Murray, your blogs are amazing reads. I’ve been following your adventures for years and I enjoyed every one of them! This Northern European trip looks fabulous and a wonderful way to spend your anniversary.
P.S.: I love your loyalty to Canada!
Brenda from Alberta
Thank you, Brenda – it’s great to hear from you. The last few days in Greenland were crazy busy and just plain incredible, but we’re at sea and I’m catching up now. We’re heading back to Iceland, right to the area where the new volcanic activity is happening – could be an interesting couple of days!