Category: Vestmannaeyjar archipelago

I always take a day or two off from the blog on a trip. Nice to relax. That was yesterday, now back at it.

Yesterday was a steady wind day which reminded us of a previous windy day in Greece. Unfortunately this wind was much cooler than the Greek experience, fortunately we were ready for it. It did however change our plans for touring the Golden Circle. Our guide Magnús Thoroddsen did a great job taking us on back routes to see the island more like a local. The cool wind however did make us not linger in scenic spots as long as we wanted plus we decided to skip the great hike off down off the North American continent at Þingvellir. Magnús however is great at improvising and gave us more time at the Laugarvatn Fontana, a lakefront spa with natural steam baths, and a stop at  Efstidalur II Icecream Barn, a farm that is entertaining travelers with the best ice cream we have had in a while. I sense a growing tourist business there… He also showed us a pool where Christianity was helped to take root in Iceland. A very beautiful place, unassuming and for that reason I will not name it. The wind did calm down a bit which made our stops at the Geysir Hot Spring and Gullfoss or Golden Waterfall a bit more pleasant.

This was our second visit to the Golden Circle in little over a year and we noted that there were more visitors at Þingvellir than last year. Magnús told us it was much more crowded last year and the number of visitors to Iceland is down this year due to prices have gone up a bit he thinks. A victim of its own success?

Today we took a ferry over to the Vestmannaeyjar (Western Islands), an archipelago off Iceland’s south coast. Formed by underwater volcanic eruptions, some events here fascinated me when I was young and I am gland to have had the chance to come here. The first was the creation of the youngest island, Surtsey which was formed in 1963. I was too young to know of this event when it occurred but my Dad was a subscriber to National Geographic which covered the island’s formation. I found the idea of new land from the ocean very fascinating. The second event was the eruption of Eldfell in 1973 which I do remember reading about when it occurred. The eruption went on from January to July in 1973 and caused a major crisis for the island. The islanders fought back and were able to keep the damage to Heimaey Town manageable and protect the harbor which if blocked would have made the island difficult to live on.  Magnús told us he remembers the eruption and enjoyed it as a child because it caused schools  throughout Iceland to be closed to accommodate evacuees. The island did recover from the eruption and even took advantage of it by tapping into the newly available heat for heating homes and recently creating the Eldheimar Museum which has detained exhibits on the Eldfell eruption and Surtsey. If you can make it here I recommend the museum.We also had took some time to observe puffins in their natural habitat but as true with any natural creature they were less interested in us and kept to their daily schedule which meant they were either flying or hiding. It was a great sight to see but did not lend itself to great photography.  We enjoyed it but you will have to use your imagination.

Never gets that dark here this time of year, easy to fool us folks from farther south.

Hi Helena!