Day Eight - Exploring North Iceland

Where we explore the wonderful town of Akureyri in North Iceland, drive around the Trollaskagi Peninsula, visit Asheimur, a pagan temple before stopping for the night at Hvammstangi.

For more about what we did in Akureyri, see my post on How to Spend a Few Hours in Akureyri

Before we left Akureyri, we made ourselves some lunch - mac and cheese, falafels and some salad!

Trollaskagi Peninsula; Again, because of recommendations we saw on the internet, we decided to drive around the Trollaskagi (Troll) peninsula. This is a northern peninsula with several tunnels through what are clearly some very dangerous mountain passes. There is interesting scenery courtesy of being flanked by, at its northern tip, the northern atlantic on one side, and mountains on the other, and small towns line the highway.

In our original itinerary, I had planned a stay on the south-western edge of the peninsula, in a town called Hjaltyeri, which would have given us a reason to drive around the peninsula; due to weather, however, I had cancelled that stay as we'd stayed an extra day in Egilstaddir.

Comparing the Trollaskagi Peninsula on an early-April drive to other drives I've done, including our very own Cabot trail here in eastern Canada, I don't believe the drive was worth it. I think we could have bypassed the peninsula, especially as we didn't have any planned stops on it. Aman had to drive quite carefully due to the weather conditions - while it was a bright sunny day, there was quite a bit of snow along the narrow highway.

Asheimur Temple: I became interested in the resurgence of pagan worship in Iceland and its history on the island. Iceland became Christianized around 1000 AD as the religion began to make inroads in what had predominantly been pagan through the worship of Norse gods such as Thor and Odin. The Scandinavian pagan faith is known as Asatru and has become Iceland's faster growing religion. It was recognized in Iceland in 1973 and since then, many temples have been revived, and others planned for construction.

We visited on April 16th, which is an auspicious time in the Hindu and Sikh traditions. Notably, April 14th is celebrated as New Year widely over a large part of South and Southeast Asia, including in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam as well as among Hindus across India, including in Tamil Nadu, and in Kerala, where it is called Vishu. In Sikhism, the auspicious day is called Vaisakhi. In fact, history suggests that 'April Fools Day' was created as a way to disparage those who celebrated New Years in April, as the new calendar had shifted it to January 1st. In fact, there is some evidence that Vikings too may have celebrated New Years in mid-April. Naturally, I figured it would be cool to visit a pagan temple in Iceland on our trip especially as the trip fell on such an auspicious time, and the Asheimur temple seemed perfectly located for a visit.

Unfortunately, I couldn't connect over email with anyone involved with the temple before hand, and so we couldn't do much beyond driving to the area, walking and taking some pictures. It was definitely cool to see it though. The temple is located in the Hjaltadalur Valley, near the end of the Trollaskagi peninsula (or the start of it if you are driving up from the other side) and it was a fairly straightforward drive, off the Ring Road, on an unpaved gravel road. The place, unfortunately, was deserted, so we had it to ourselves.

Hvammstangi Hill Homes: I had to book a last-minute stay at the Hvammstangi Hill Homes because when we arrived at Blonduous campsite, we realized it was poorly maintained: the washrooms weren’t clean and there was only one other campervan there, very different from any of the other campsites we'd had the pleasure of staying at on our trip so far –Luckily, I found an availability at Hvammstangi Hill Homes which was a lovely place overlooking Midfjordur. I’d only recommend them in the winter months , because they are located at a height and with large windows facing the fjord, a greenhouse effect forms in the apartment – it was very hot inside, despite it being winter; I can imagine it would be uncomfortable in the summer. people must open the windows a lot, as we found two dead bugs on the floor when we came in (the only bugs we saw on the island!); other than that, the stay was wonderful and the kitchen came well equipped.

After dinner, we decided to take a drove around the area to spot the northern lights. We did very briefly spot the green shimmer with our naked eyes; however, it soon started to become increasingly cloudy and we realized it was futile. We turned in for the night.