Husavik and whale watching in the north

Before we left the northern region, we went to the charming coastal town of Husavik.  The views of the fjord along the way are beautiful and we were lucky to take a few pictures of horses posed in front of snow covered mountains.  How in the world do they get them to do that?  They just stand in the wind, facing one direction...

Husavik is a cute fishing village with a booming whale watching business because of its protective cove with a lot of nutrients that attracts the whales in the summer months...we took a 3 hour tour with North Sailing.  This time of year we were able to just walk up and get tickets on the boat, but reserve in season and there's a discount if you book on line, but note, sailing is always subject to weather 

conditions and whale sightings aren't guaranteed.   We were also lucky to see some Arctic dolphins and a humpback whale which we watched for an hour and generously showed its fluke 4 times.  Bah, we were also happy to see puffins floating on the sea and flying, but not the perfect close up view we were hoping for.   North Sailing has refurbished wooden boats, and we were all wrapped up as if we would be out to sea for days in an horrific storm, and even though it was early in the season and we didn't see other types of whales, it was a fun experience and it never rained.  We walked around the harbor which includes a whale museum and some cute boats and houses.  We had lunch in a restored house, turned popular restaurant, Naustid and had a yummy fish stew (and more bread and icelandic butter...do you think I may need an intervention?)

Along our northern travels we enjoyed Godafoss, waterfall of the Gods.  At some point, you do begin not to notice these amazing waterfalls because you've seen so many, I am sorry to say because they are all magnificent and the thunderous roar you hear and all the mist makes it so much more than a visual experience.

Good weather for whale watching, bad weather for our journey west and then south to Snaefellsness Peninsula.  First we passed through the coastal town of Akureyri which is situated at the end of a beautiful fjord and we had our first long-awaited Icelandic hot dog.  It was Sunday and many of the stores were closed, but we had a chance to wander through the town and pick up some Icelandic wool hats.  Its actually a big city for Iceland with an airport and we hear they have some good restaurants, more whale watching tours, museums and cruise boat dockage.

with the works, fried and raw onion, mustard, remoulade and Chad added red cabbage...they are  primarily lamb and for a hot dog, taste pretty good, about $6, and served at every gas station in Iceland like a national treasure.

If the weather had been better, we would have considered a coastal detour to the fishing village of Sigiujordur and the Hofsos basalt columns which we heard was gorgeous, and we heard about the Fosshaug natural springs in the region and horseback riding is also an option here, but the weather doesn't always cooperate and we had a fairly long ride ahead of us, so we continued on to our next stop, Snaefellsness Peninsula (and we pretended it wasn't raining and windy and were glad it was only a travel day...did I mention the wind started to pick up too?)