We must have pretty good luck because the weather was beautiful again today in the
Westman Islands. Found a bakari with fresh bread. I haven’t had much luck finding pastries I like, but Joe discovered fresh pizza at the bakari today and got enough to eat all day long.
We had hoped to bike around the island, but Ruth said she didn’t have bikes and there were no tours being run today. Therefore, we set off on foot to see the island. Our first stop was to the lava fields that buried the eastern part of Heimaey in 1973 and expanded the coastline of the island. The volcano Eldfell started erupting in January that year forcing the evacuation of the entire town in the middle of the night. The volcano continued to send meters of ash on the houses of Heimaey until July 1973. The area we were in today is called Pompeii of the north because there have been some attempts to label streets and excavate some houses buried below. Plaques among the lava indicate that certain buildings once stood on this spot some buried 16-40 meters below where we were standing. It was crazy to think that part of the town was so far below us. Down near the shore we read about how there was often a water shortage on the islands until a pipeline from the mainland was constructed.
We followed the lava fields uphill, and continued climbing up through loose volcanic rocks of varying color up the side of Eldfell (205m) for a view of the island. At the top we could see a little steam rising from the ground, and the ground was lukewarm to the touch. Ruth appeared at the top of the volcano with the German couple staying at the guesthouse. We’re wondering if she couldn’t offer us any tours today because she was already giving a private German tour today…or she just didn’t want to give us a tour. Oh well, we managed without her. She probably wouldn’t have approved of Chris’ slide down the side of the volcano to retrieve the Lonely Planet guide he dropped!
Ruth suggested we look for puffins at the end of the island past the airport so that was our next destination. We just didn’t realize how tricky it would be to get there. Our maps showed walking trails out near the cliffs but none were labeled. In the end, we climbed over several barb-wire fences to walk through the fields, we then had to go around the islands airport runway and avoid the protective seagulls in the cliff as they thought we were coming for their nests. We had to cross by fields of farm animals and after making sure we did not get rammed by any sheep, we got an up close encounter with 4 true Icelandic horses. We fed them for a few minutes and got some great pictures. We were essentially the only people out in the field (and maybe the only ones they horses had seen all day!) The hassle was worth it, though, when we got to an incredibly windy part of the island where we were just a few feet away from puffins on the cliffs. It was pretty cool to see these birds so close! Apparently the puffins are not as numerous here as they once were because they haven’t been able to find enough food and consequently have stopped nesting. We spent the rest of the afternoon walking along the cliffs of the island back towards Heimaey looking for puffins. Saw a few more close enough to photograph on the cliffs, but most were swimming in the water below. Crossed a golf course on the way back to town. After 7 hrs of walking, we made it back to the hotel exhausted, but we’re pretty sure we saw just about all sides of the island.
It was difficult to find a souvenir shop or another restaurant. We ended up back at Café Maria for more soup and sandwiches…a safe bet. One thing I’ve learned here is that
Iceland has mastered the art of how to make soup sell. They simply make a cream of broth and then insert vegetable of the day. We’ve had cream of mushroom, peppers, and broccoli so far. Lucky for me, I like cream of soups (which are lighter than at home) with bread because that’s about all I’ve eaten here. When we first headed out to the
Westman Islands, the boys were talking about was how they were going to eat puffin. Now after hearing of the plight of the puffin colony and how puffin hunting has been banned in the island chain, they quickly changed their minds.
After dinner, we decided to see the volcano show to learn more about the 1973 eruption. Ruth appeared here as well because she apparently runs the movie theater in town, too. The movie was a bit old and featured lots of live footage from the 70s, but it was interesting. Joe and I took one last trip to the lava field afterwards in search of
Pompeii. We had seen signs earlier in the day, but didn’t think we had reached the exact spot we read about in the guidebooks. Unfortunately, we came up empty handed. However, we did catch the only sunset we’ve seen here!
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