Off to Iceland, Day 14b, 08/16/26 Heimaey, Westman Islands, Iceland

Heimaey, Westman Islands, Iceland;
Blue Sky, Hi 55
Sunrise 5:30, Sunset 9:40

The Westman Islands are an archipelago of islands off the south coast of Iceland.
They got their name when a group of Irish slaves (westmen) murdered a chieftain who had been abusing them.
They fled to these islands where the chieftain’s warriors hunted them down and killed them.

Heimaey is on the only populated island in the chain.

However many of the other islands have ‘hunting cabins’ where men go every spring to gather eggs.
This practice is changing however.
The prize eggs were Puffin eggs for their significant amounts of protein and their long shelf life.
In an effort to stabilize the Puffin population officials have made it illegal to gather Puffin eggs.
So now the men just use the cabins for drinking – or so our Guide says.
But I’m getting ahead of ourselves.

We had an afternoon excursion so we slept in, exercised, breakfasted, and I started packing while Cheryl took a nap.

During lunch we arrived at our anchorage and we took the opportunity to capture a few images from the ship.

We arrived at the dock a little early so we wandered a bit.

Back at the meeting point we boarded our bus and our guide Gunnar informed us that we were not going to get the ‘standard tour’.
He then explained that this is fledgling season for the Pufflings (young Puffins) and when the fledge they are programmed to head toward the moon shining on the sea. However they tend to get confused by the lights of the town so the locals have a habit of checking every morning for misguided Pufflings and returning them to the sea. This morning his daughter picked up a Puffling and he prevailed on her to bring it for us to see.

Then we started our tour.

The major recent even in the town’s history is the eruption of Mt. Edfell (translates: Hill of Fire) just south of town.

There was only one death but 1/3 of the town was buried.
We saw several areas impacted by the flow of lava and he talked about how the town was changed by the event.

Then he told us about rope swinging.
When he was 6 his father brought him out to the training area so he could begin to learn this local hunting technique.
He described the process of gathering eggs but wanted us to see the process so he recruited one of the local boys to spend some time practicing as we drove by.

With practice they will learn how to set their swing so they can hit the wall right at a nest and pick the egg before swinging back.

Our tour continued as we passed the golf course

checked out a pair of sod huts

and ended up at a concert venue

Every year they host a weekend music festival that has grown to the point that this year there were over 20,000 people in attendance.

Continuing on we drove past a subdivision that has been built to replace the houses lost in the eruption.

We also drove past the town’s rainbow.

And Gunnar pointed out the newest Island in the chain – Surtsey – that emerged from the ocean in 1963.

The last stop on the tour was the museum dedicated to the eruption and vulcanism in general.
We know something about volcanoes.

So we were interested when Gunnar explained that because this is a Viking included excursion he is limited in what he can show us. But he has this friend. And this friend has a business. And that’s his van across the parking lot. (He pointed to a professionally labeled van). And for a small fee he will take us to the Puffin colony and return us to the museum, where we can spend whatever time we want before taking the (free) city bus directly back to the port.

We were paid and on the van faster than you can say PUFFINS!

True to his word he drove us there (you’ve seen the pictures) and we had a far beyond exceptional experience.

As it turns out there were so many of us who took the tour that they had to send a bus to get us all back to the museum. And before the city bus arrived, they loaded those of us who were ready to go onto the van and hauled us back to the port. Now THAT’s service.

Early on I talked about the collapse of Iceland’s economy, and how one of the main drivers of their recovery (and now the largest component of their economy – even surpassing fishing) was tourism.
We were told that Icelanders understand the role we are playing in their economy and we should expect to be welcomed. This is an example of that.

So they dropped us at the dock where we waited for the next tender to arrive.

We were back on board in good time for the last lecture of the voyage.

Lee started out by asking; “What is a dragon?”
The answer, of course is; “It depends.”
He talked about different views and descriptions of dragons across the world.

And presented reasons why it is likely that something like dragons existed in the past, as well as arguments refuting those claims.
It was a great lecture. We had heard it when he gave it on the World Cruise, but he has updated it since then.

Then it was a quick dinner and off to pack.

We finished well in time to have our suitcases out in the hall by 10:00 and I sat down to knock this out while Cheryl took a muscle relaxer (to make sure she gets some sleep) and headed for bed.

We’re up at 5:00 tomorrow and off the ship at 6:00 when they will schlep us to the airport and fly us to Bergen to begin the next phase of our trip.
I’m not sure when I’ll be able to post updates for the next few days but I’ll post what and when I can.

till then,
R