Akureyuri is the gateway to the famous "Land of Fire and Ice," Iceland's dramatic landscape of volcanic craters, extinct lava lakes and majestic waterfalls. Although Akureyri lies just below the Arctic Circle, the climate is temperate: flower boxes fill the windows of houses, and trees line the neat, well-tended avenues. Thanks to that mild climate, Akureyri's Botanical Gardens provides a home for over 2,000 species of flora from around the world - all surviving without greenhouses.