Iceland 13: Godafoss (Truly the Waterfall of the Gods!!), Akureyri & Wondrous Colors

 Just when we thought we wouldn't see another waterfall that could possibly impress us more than the ones we had seen,...well, we were wrong!!  Godafoss (waterfall of the gods) appeared through the fog and I just couldn't believe it!! First, we saw this fast flowing river of the most beautiful aquamarine water! (glacial water, of course).

From a distance, we were already in disbelief of such beauty.

The water thundered and roared between the rocks and was totally mesmerizing.

And then this! So beautiful. So magnificent.

"This is my favorite waterfall" I thought to myself.

A bridge allowed you to cross over and see the river and waterfall from all angles.

Lovely little flowers growing in the mist.

 As the river narrowed, the river got more intense, which much whitewater.

As with all beauty in Iceland, we never had enough time to just sit and meditate on the beauty.  Next stop Akureyri, the fourth largest municipality in Iceland.  We knew we would love the city when we saw its traffic lights!

We saw very few flowers throughout Iceland (it was October, after all). But in Akureyi, there was a botanical garden so had to stop in there. It was very small but the colors lit up the day.

Another large church with stunning architecture in the city.  Although there are 350 Lutheran churches in Iceland, there are only a handful of "large" churches.

Most are the small ones built by the farmers on farm land seating about 50 people at most.

Iceland 12: Northern Iceland- Sheep, spas, museums

We toodled about Husavik before and after our whale watching expedition.

Always enjoy the beautiful buildings 

A larger and more elaborate church than most.

These larger churches often host musical concerts.

On our way to the northern coast, I was captivated by the sheep.

Love the black and white mixtures

We skipped the famous Blue Lagoon but wanted to take a hot bath soak somewhere.

We stumbled across this brand new spa (GeoSpa) which had literally opened one week ago. It faced the inland sea and was just a wonderful experience!

Icelanders are very strict about keeping their spas clean (this is natural water and they use no chlorine),so there is a mutual area shower (men ad women are separate) where one must strip naked, swimsuits off as well. Since this was a brand new spa, there was no attendant to monitor but we heard stories that most Icelandic spas have a matron who sits there and makes sure you take everything off! Having done the Japanese ofuro, this was not a problem for us, but I did feel fortunate that I had the place to myself!!

Such a beautiful location! It was a cold day and the soak was well appreciated.

It was a cloudy, dreary day so we spent the rest of the day at local museums. One was the Herring Museum where the history of catching and preserving herring was featured.  Apparently, large numbers of women were employed to do this tedious, smelly, back breaking work. You had to lean over and push the herring into the barrels.

Very informative museum.  Learned a lot!!

They showed what the dormitories of the women looked like,

complete with undies hanging on the line!! 😂😂😂

We saw a lot of folk art on the buildings, many, many trolls.

Stopped in a very small museum and asked about "..polar bears in Iceland???". It seems that every year, one or two polar bears swim over from Greenland.  Not on purpose, mind you! In Iceland, they can't find the food they need and are usually killed to protect the people. 😓 But this little museum keeps the memory of this guy alive and well.