Traveling the Ring Road in Iceland: Visit Akureyi, the "capital" of Northern Iceland

Halfway around the ring road is the bustling city of Akureyi, a welcomed stop along the way.

As we continued our clockwise trip around the Ring Road, we left headed for the major city of the north.  Akureyi sits at the end  of Eyhafjordur, a beautiful fjord with magical sites and simmering waters.  The sun was on our side as we took a break from driving and walked the "capital" of Northern Iceland.

Akureyi is a great day stop or a place to center your travels around.  It's easily walkable with plenty of shopping and parking.  The planes fly directly through the center of the fjord to land, which is a lot of fun to watch during the day.

There are a few stops to make along the way.  We headed to the Akureyi church.  A central landmark, the church of Iceland sits above the town.   The church has beautiful stain glass and incredible design.  It's worth the stop.

If you walk just a little ways further, you'll find the Catholic Church.  This we found to be the most interesting in Iceland.  Typically in Europe, the Catholic Churches are the largest and the center of town.  In Iceland, we found the Catholic Church to be a small building on the corner.  It was quiet, peaceful, and incredibly different than most of our finds.  Well worth the stop.

We were trying to make time to our next destination, so we weren't able to make the gardens.  They are highly recommended, if you do have the time.  We choose to walk around the town and found the first of many rainbow paths in Iceland!  (We're still rocking the hiking shoes.  Click HERE for the BEST) (We are Amazon affiliates and we do make a small compensation at no cost to you on qualifying purchases.)

After a few stops for shopping we decided to head out of town and find a pull off for lunch.  Overlooking the town of Akureyi below, we were able to cook our own food and enjoy the coming and going of the town below.  

We packed up and headed on our way.  We were excited.  We were headed to Husavik, our reason for heading to Northern Iceland....

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