Today I got to pet a puffin and that wasn't even the best part of my day. Geysir and all the waterfalls have been incredible but Iceland continues to out do itself. When I first saw Hawaii I thought "here on these islands is where God put the best of His creation". I think that the same is true of Iceland, every sight is more wonderful than the last and this place might be even more beautiful than Hawaii. (Although maybe I should go back there, just to check...)
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| Lupines covering the mountain |
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| Helgafell (the old volcano cone) seen from Eldfell (the new one) |
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| South side of the island |
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| David and Will at the top of a volcano |
Today we went out to the Westman Islands, a little archipelago of the Southern coast of Iceland. We took a ferry to the main island, which has at least two volcanoes one of which went off in the 70s and destroyed the town. The ferry ride was short and we passed many beautiful small islands. But the entrance to the harbor took our breath away. Huge cliffs towered above us, green and black and stunning. And there were white birds nesting on the cliff side and wheeling above the water.
Our first goal once we were on the island was to find lunch. The town is very small but between the one way streets and some construction we ended up driving back and forth until we finally found a place to park. We went into the first restaurant we saw which was called Gott. It was a cute little place with doors as tables and couches instead of chairs. The food was excellent. I a huge piece of chicken with a crunchy mushroom coating and covered in a wild muchroom sauce. It was heavenly.
After lunch we visited a playground so the boys could run and then headed over to the town aquarium. The Saeheimar aquarium was small but a cool experience. Within a few minutes of our arrival an employee brought out a puffin for us to pet. Toti the puffin had been born much later than all the other pufflings (cutest name ever for a baby animal) and had been abandoned. The aquarium had rescued him and cared for him during the summer. When Toti was finally old enough to fly the other puffins had already moved on for the winter and by the time they came back in the spring Toti was fully domesticated.
I think I loved petting Toti even more than the boys did and I had to see him again before we left. He has his own pool area in a back room but for a lot of the day he hangs out in the office of the aquarium and greets people when they come in. He is so friendly and soft! Quite a lot of puffins spend the summer on the island and in late August as it gets dark the pufflings are drawn to the lights of the town. They can't really fly but they can glide down the hill from their burrows to the streets and yards where kids collect them and keep them safe from cars and cats. In the morning the children take the puffins down to the sea and release them. And I thought catching fireflies was a cool way to spend a summer evening.
The aquarium also had a room of fish tanks and a little touch tank where the boys got to touch some starfish and some crabs. Will's favorite room though was full of stuffed birds and fish. He loves natural history museums. We were also able to see and pet a baby starling that had fallen from his nest and was being cared for by the aquarium. He was cute but loud and apparently always hungry. The island kids bring him food throughout the day.
After saying goodbye to Toti we left to climb Eldfell, a volcano that had erupted in the 1970s and destroyed half the town. We were trying to find the hiking trail and talking about different ways of getting up there when David said, "I know how to climb mountains, I've played Skyrim. You just find the right angle and jump repeatedly." That really made me laugh.
The hike up wasn't too bad, there was only one part when it was really steep. But the whole side of the mountain was like a giant rock pile so it was hard to find very solid footing. Will, Jon, and David ran up ahead but Christian wanted to build towers out of stone so he kept stopping on the trail. Eventually though we all reached the top which provided us with a beautiful view of the entire island. Christian wanted to slide down into the crater of the volcano (which was half open to old lava fields beyond) so we kept a tight hold on his hand.
The very top ridge of Eldfell was narrow with one side sloping down into the crater and the other dropping steeply down to a lawn by the ocean. It was very windy too but there was a rock formation at the top where Jon found a place to sit out of the wind. The kids all had a snack while the adults marveled at the view and took pictures. James said in wonder, "What do you call walking on a knife edge ridge on top of a volcano situated on a small island off the coast of Iceland? Monday." We are truly and incredibly blessed.
I need a thesaurus because I am using stunning, incredible, fantastic, and amazing far too often. The view from Eldfell was all these things and the experience of being on top of a volcano was very cool. Finally though we slipped and slid our way down. The bottom half of the mountain was covered in Lupines and Jon took numerous pictures of them. Once again we all thought of my dad who would have spent hours here in photography heaven.
Our time on the island was flying by but we weren't quite done. We drove down to the Southern tip of the Island and walked along the cliffs where the wild puffins live. We held tight to the boys hands because on one side of the narrow trail was the cliff and on the other side were the puffin burrows where the little pufflings hatch. We did see wild puffins but they are small birds and it was hard to see them since they were so far away. I wish we'd had binoculars! There were a couple large groups of puffins just floating in the sea.
The view from the puffin breeding ground was also spectacular but there is only so much awe the mind can take. It is exhausting! At some point you can't take anymore. So after our walk on the cliff we went to relax on a black sand beach whose high sides hid the rest of the island from view. It was low tide and the beach had some debris that had washed up so we just sat and rested.
We had planned on eating a nice dinner in town but the seven hours we were here just flew by. We only had time for a quick drive to admire the cliffs around the harbor and then it was time to get back on the boat. It was almost 10 when we started on the hour and a half drive home and the sun was setting for hours. David, James, and I were having a great conversation but every few minutes we'd interrupt each other with "Wow, look at that sky!"
We were 2 minutes from home when we had to stop to enjoy the end of the sunset. A horse was grazing on a nearby hillside as the sun sank behind the mountains and the scene was just perfect. As we watched we started talking about God and faith and our conversation was so good that we didn't want to get back in the car. We stood on the side of the road and talked and talked for forty five minutes until we finally got back in and drove the last small stretch to home.
Today was a perfect but exhausting day. Iceland continues to amaze but I don't see how it can top the beauty of today.
Goodnight!
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| Will reads to his brothers on the ferry |
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| One of the many small islands |
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| Another small island |
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| Christian, Mommy, and Jon on the ferry |
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| David and Jon on the ferry |
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| Coming into the harbor |
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| A cave in the harbor |
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| Jon and Christian enjoying the view |
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| One of the many Westman Island cliffs |
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| David hanging out on a volcano |
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| David walking across the pool |
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| The boys loved these stepping sto |
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| Meeting Toti the Puffin |
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| Toti |
I think I loved petting Toti even more than the boys did and I had to see him again before we left. He has his own pool area in a back room but for a lot of the day he hangs out in the office of the aquarium and greets people when they come in. He is so friendly and soft! Quite a lot of puffins spend the summer on the island and in late August as it gets dark the pufflings are drawn to the lights of the town. They can't really fly but they can glide down the hill from their burrows to the streets and yards where kids collect them and keep them safe from cars and cats. In the morning the children take the puffins down to the sea and release them. And I thought catching fireflies was a cool way to spend a summer evening.
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| Toti hangs out in the office |
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| Baby starling |
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| Jon pets the hungry starling |
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| Jon's picture of a crab |
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| Wolfish |
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| The boys in a patch of lupine on the mountain |
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| David and James climbing the mountain |
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| James and Christian hiking |
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| Will and Christian with the town below them |
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| Christian runs up the trail |
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| James gets the shot |
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| The Eldfell crater and lava field |
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| The ridge of Eldfell |
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| David strikes a heroic pose at the top of Eldfell |
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| Christian stops to build a tower |
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| Christian building |
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| Will and Jon building a tower |
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| The steep climb |
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| Christian wants to run down into the crater |
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| Me and Christian on the trail |
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| David with Helgafell in the background |
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| The town below the volc |
The very top ridge of Eldfell was narrow with one side sloping down into the crater and the other dropping steeply down to a lawn by the ocean. It was very windy too but there was a rock formation at the top where Jon found a place to sit out of the wind. The kids all had a snack while the adults marveled at the view and took pictures. James said in wonder, "What do you call walking on a knife edge ridge on top of a volcano situated on a small island off the coast of Iceland? Monday." We are truly and incredibly blessed.
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| Christian takes a nap at the top of Eldfell |
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| Will walks the ridge |
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| View from the top |
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| Seaside view from Eldfell |
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| Our family |
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| Jon leaps off the mountain |
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| Will jumps off a rock formation |
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| Christian in the air |
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| Jon in a lupine patch getting his perfect shot |
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| Jon's picture of lupines |
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| Jon's picture of lupines |
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| Lupine field under the mountain |
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| Jon's picture of lupine tops |
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| resting halfway down the mountain |
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| My handsome brother |
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| Christian and Uncle David hanging out |
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| Running down the mountain |
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| Together on the South side of the island |
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| Crossing a stile on the trail. There are sheep all over Iceland |
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| Evening sky |
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| James walking up from the cliff side |
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| One of the many little lambs |
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| Jon's picture of a puffin |
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| Iceland mountains in the background |
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| View from the South side |
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| View of Eldfell and Helgafell from the south |
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| Walking the puffin breeding grounds |
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| walking down the mountain |
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| Black sand beach |
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| Jon's picture of pink seaweed |
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| Jon's picture of a fish skeleton |
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| David's ice cream |
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| Christian loves his icecream |
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| Will's ice cream |
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| Boats speeding into the harbor |
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| ferry boat coming in |
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| Leaving the Westman Islands |
We were 2 minutes from home when we had to stop to enjoy the end of the sunset. A horse was grazing on a nearby hillside as the sun sank behind the mountains and the scene was just perfect. As we watched we started talking about God and faith and our conversation was so good that we didn't want to get back in the car. We stood on the side of the road and talked and talked for forty five minutes until we finally got back in and drove the last small stretch to home.
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| Iceland sunset |
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| Jon's picture of creepy horses |
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| Jon's picture of the sunset |
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| Horse and foal under the setting sun |
Goodnight!
