Things To Do in Akureyri
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Akureyri Attractions
The City Center
Akureyri maintains museums in the former homes of Davíð Stefánsson (1895-1964), a novelist, playwright, and poet laureate, and Matthías Jochumsson (1835-1920), a poet, playwright, and translator. These museums -- Daviðshús and Sigurhæðir -- do an admirable job of preserving their legacies, but most information is presented in Icelandic, and neither writer has anything in print in English.
Botanical Gardens & Nearby
The riveting 1901 sculpture The Outlaw (Útlaginn) -- easy to miss amid the greenery in the traffic island formed by Eyrarlandsvegur and Hrafnagilsstræti -- established the reputation of Iceland's best-known sculptor, Einar Jónsson. A wild-looking outlaw dressed in skins carries his dead wife over his back, a spade in one hand and his little boy asleep on his other arm. He wants to bury her in consecrated ground, but would be put to death if captured, so he comes secretly at night. This cast metal version conveys tension and detail lacking in the plaster model at the Einar Jónsson Museum in Reykjavík.
- Religious Site
Akureyri Church
A long stairway extends from the city center up to this bravura concrete church, whose Art Deco twin spires have drawn mixed critical responses but rarely fail to make a durable impression. The hilltop location, face-forward design, and beckoning, outstretched spires lend the frontal… - Park/Garden
Botanical Garden (Lystigarður Akureyrar)
This is Iceland's best outdoor botanical garden, with remarkable variety and efflorescence for such a northerly latitude, but for most visitors it's not what they came all this way for. - Religious Site
Catholic Church (Kaþólska Kirkjan)
This inviting church near the botanical garden holds mass in English, Icelandic, and Polish on Saturdays at 6pm and Sundays at 11am. After Sunday mass, attendees are invited downstairs for coffee with Father Patrick Breen, from Ireland, and the Carmelite order of nuns. - Historic Site
Nonnahús (Nonni's House)
This museum is squeezed inside the tiny childhood home of Jón Sveinsson (1857-1944), author of a semi-autobiographical children's book series famous throughout Iceland and Germany. ("Nonni" applies to Jón and his fictional boy-hero.) Jón studied abroad and became a Jesuit priest and…
Akureyri Shopping
Most Akureyri shopping can be quickly scanned by perusing Hafnarstræti (especially the northern, pedestrian-only stretch), Skipagata, and Ráðhústorg Square, where the two streets meet. North of the center, along Glerárgata just north of the Glerá River, is Glerártorg Mall (tel. 461-5770; Mon-Fri 10am-6:30pm; Sat 10am-5pm; Sun 1-5pm), with a bank, two restaurants, a supermarket, and 18 stores; the trendy Icelandic outerwear company 66° North is across the street.
Akureyri Nightlife
Most nights in summer, nighttime activities are not limited to loud bars and nightclubs; the Listasumar brochure delineates everything from Thursday night jazz sets to choral concerts and evening "history sailing" in the fjord. Akureyri's bars and nightclubs are within 10 minutes' walk of each other, so do as Icelanders do and roam until you find a scene to your liking. Only live music commands a cover charge, and you'll never be pressured to buy drinks. As elsewhere in Iceland, Akureyri's young people work hard, and work even harder at partying. On Friday and Saturday nights teenagers drive around town at a crawl, dressed as if they're in a Miami convertible, honking and gabbing at each other out the car windows.
The main nightspots are Café Amour, Ráðhústorg 9 (tel. 461-3030), which has a wine bar downstairs and small DJ room upstairs with holographic bordello wallpaper; Capone/1929 (aka Oddvitinn), Strandgata 53 (tel. 462-6020), two clubs in one historic harborside building, with occasional live music; Græni Hatturinn, Hafnarstræti 96 (tel. 461-4646), a pub inside one of Akureyri's oldest houses, sometimes with live music; Kaffi Akureyri, Strandgata 7 (tel. 461-3999), whose back room is turned over to DJs on weekends; Karolína, Kaupvangsstræti 23 (tel. 461-2755), a bar for the knowingly cool and sophisticated; and Sjallinn, Geislagata 14 (tel. 462-2770), loud, raucous, and packed.
