Culture,  Food,  Travel

Vestmannaeyjar, Iceland

August 7, 2019 /

Our morning started when we entered the waters of Vestmannaeyjar (the Westman Islands) and watched as its stunning, lush, green islands came into view. Within an hour, we were anchored offshore from Heimaey, the only inhabited island, and I was watching a whale playing near the ship. Absolutely amazing. The ship was too large to enter the harbour, so instead we took one of tenders into the marina.

Our tour leader, a lovely man with an unpronounceable name who usually works at the library, led us on a steep walk from the harbour up to the Elheimar Volcano Museum where we spent around an hour. The island’s volcano had been dormant for 5000 years before it erupted in 1973 and almost destroyed the town. The officials used pumps to spray 1.5 billion gallons of seawater onto the leading edge of the lava flow, which saved the harbour from being blocked. The most amazing thing about the eruption was that all of the town’s fishing boats were in the marina that night because there had been bad storms the previous day. This meant that almost the entire population of 5300 people was able to be evacuated from the island within hours of the disaster.

We then hiked to the Eldfell volcano, before heading back down to the town to visit a church which was an exact replica of a Norwegian church from the year 1000. It was then on to the library for traditional Icelandic snacks. Most of them were delicious, but the hákarl  smelled so bad that I couldn’t even attempt a bite. The smell was indescribable, which isn’t surprising given the dish is shark that has been cured in a fermentation process and then hung to dry for 4 – 5 months.

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