Iceland Day 5 - June 29, 2011

We got another beautiful day today.  It was sunny and warm making it the perfect day for hiking.  The trails were a little hard to follow at first because they had few signs in places, but we eventually got the hang of looking for the colored stakes and cairns.  The first hour of the hike had beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, and brought us to the next lodge at Langidalur.  We took in the scenery and sun for a bit on the grassy knoll overlooking the streams.  A guide recommended that we hike to the top of Valahnjukur, so we took her advice and climbed up the steep trail that went up for 45min.  It was well worth the challenging climb for the panoramic view of the whole area including Eyjafjallajokull.  It was pretty cool to be having a small picnic right in the shadows of a major volcano.  Coming down was just as challenging.  Joe and I were thankful we brought hiking poles.  They definitely saved our knees!  Laur and Chris headed for Basar while we hiked an hour back to Husadalur.  Indulged in an expensive Magnum ice cream bar and Viking beer for Joe while we waited for the bus. 

Took the 4pm bus out of Porsmork on the same bumpy path we came in on to our car.  We had a few minutes to walk around the Seljalandsfoss waterfall before leaving for the port of L for the ferry to Vestmannaeyjar (Westman Islands).  We had hoped to take our car, but the car lots onboard we full so we ended up carrying our luggage onboard.  The ferry ride was only about 35 min. to Heimaey.  We were on a beautiful ship that had two movie theaters, kids’ napping bunks, a cafeteria, and plenty of seating.  The only down side was that you couldn’t be outside on the front of the boat.  Got some great views of the tall cliffs of the Westman Islands as we came into the harbor at Heimaey.  Guesthouse Hreidrid was only a short walk from the ferry.  Ruth and her Islandic sheepdog run a cute place here.  We each had our own room with a shared bath and kitchen down the hall.  Puffins are everywhere inside: stenciled on the walls of the rooms, on the curtains, on the bathroom tiles and kitchen oven mitts, and in photos all around the hallways. Ruth framed tons of photos she took including ones of the island children catching and releasing the puffins, island festivals and wildlife, and pictures of her with Keiko, the Icelandic-born whale in Free Willy who lived in the Westman Islands at one time. 

Most of Heimaey seems to be residential so there were only a few restaurants to choose from for dinner.  The soup bar and meat/fish at Café Maria did the trick, but the prices were ridiculously expensive.  Not much we could do though because we needed to eat something.  After dinner we walked around town of Heimaey with its volcanoes looming above and took some pictures while the lighting was still good.