BROADWAY LIGHTS AND NORTHERN LIGHTS DAY #8 “Off To Akureyri in Search of the Northern Lights”

Today is a travel day and we leave Reykjavik and fly to the northern city of Akureyri in search of the Northern Lights.  We have been told that it is much easier to see the natural phenomena the further north you go and away from the lights of the city.  Unfortunately the weather forecast calls for rain and cloud cover which would make seeing the natural wonder an impossibility.   That is no surprise since as I previously mentioned we were unsuccessful in our attempt to see Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro and the total eclipse of the sun in Nashville due to fog and cloud cover.  Our friend, Mary, a reader of this blog, reminded me that we also missed out on a very special volcano in Costa Rica due to weather conditions.  We are getting use to hearing from tour guides, “If you had only been here yesterday”.  If we hear that again this trip I might be detained by Icelandic police.

We are currently sitting in the Reykjavik domestic airport (as opposed to KEF International Airport from which we arrived).  This place makes Santa Monica Airport look spacious.  For a 33 second tour (that would be a complete tour) see this video: https://youtu.be/tXyaModCIeQ

One interesting aspect of the airport is that it seems like everyone is speaking Icelandic.  Everywhere else we have been we have heard predominantly English spoken with occasional sprinkles of Icelandic.  Here I have heard zero English thus far.  It is a bit unnerving because the airport announcements that are in English are very hard to understand.  I hope I don’t have a similar situation as I did years ago when I was traveling alone in Spain.  I spoke to a ticket agent and grabbed my ticket then darted out of the station thinking I only had minutes to catch my train.  As I got to the train I saw it was empty.  I turned and saw the ticket agent running after me to explain that I was at the wrong train and I needed to wait about another hour for my train to leave.  My Icelandic is not nearly as good as my Spanish so who knows what will happen today.   I know what the reader is saying right now, “That is why he travels with Patrice”.

Signing off for now.  The next time you will hear from me we will be in Akureyri (I hope).

Back with you again.  We arrived in Akureyri after an uneventful flight.  Unfortunately upon arrival we were greeted with a thick cloud cover.  Prospects look dim for seeing the Northern Lights.  This morning we met some Canadians who were leaving for home today without accomplishing their goal of seeing the Northern Lights.  Misery might love company but it didn’t make me feel any better.

Akureyri is a lovely little town and I do mean little.  We decided to spend an hour or two  strolling around the town.  After about 20 minutes we were done.  We saw a number a restaurants and gift shops.  There wasn’t much activity at any of the stores except for one.  We saw what we thought must be a grocery store because there was a tremendous amount of foot traffic.  We decided to take a closer look and it turned out to be a liquor store.  We were told that Icelanders like to drink on weekends.  From the look of the activity in this store the people of Akureyri like to get an early start on the weekend.

Tomorrow night we are supposed to go on our Northern Lights tour.  If the chance of seeing the Northern Lights is slim, the trip will be canceled.  If that is the case Patrice and I will go to a local tavern and watch the locals partake in the Icelandic Saturday night drinking custom.  Possibly, we might even join in.

Please pray for clear skies for tomorrow night.  If the skies are not clear, you will have one sad correspondent writing home to you.