A gorgeous day in Iceland. Today was sunny with blue skies so especially beautiful. We headed west to Vik. We left the apartment about 9am and drove for about 90 minutes through rather unremarkable landscapes. Then…wow!!! Seljalandsfoss! We have finally caught up to the crowds and the parking lot was jamming! But somehow here, and everywhere, we went, we got excellent parking spots right away. I think Buzz was looking out for us. A short walk up to the waterfall enhanced the noise of the thundering water. Man, if you got hit by that…you were a goner!! Then you get to actually walk up and behind the waterfall. My favorite part was the side view where you could see the water and the lush grasses, mosses, and lichens. The color green was glowing!!!

The next waterfall looked beautiful from a distance but not as special as the previous one so Paul and I took this opportunity to have a picnic lunch while Jackie walked to the falls. The opportunity was provided to walk to the top of the falls but it was hundreds of short stairs and Jackie decided not to try it. 

On to Dyrholaey Lighthouse. You could see it off in the distance on top of a promontory at the waters edge. A steep climb in the car and a parking spot right in front!!! This place was amazing. (I know, I know, all of Iceland was amazing…right, Kim! Well, it actually was!!!) The lighthouse was fine, no biggie. But the surrounding cliffs and sea views were outstanding. On the one side, we noticed puggins flying around so we hung out (and hung on) to watch them. I say hung on because the winds were significant. At one point, I felt like I was in a tornado, literally bending forward and “swimming’ through the wind to get to a different iron stake to grab onto!!! But the views were worth the effort. 

On to Reynisfjara Black Sand Beach. We were told that most beaches in Iceland are black because they are ground lava. Higher up on the beach were the tumbled smooth rocks and then it gradually turned into sand. Here the water is turbulent and is known for its “sneaker” waves. We saw one couple get soaked, lucky enough not to get knocked down. The basalt columns are magnificent. A few weeks ago, the sea came in and kind of wiped out some of the rocks but there were enough left to be impressive.

The town of Vik was a little surprising; we expected more of a town with more of a commercial center. There was basically nothing there! We ate at Black Crust Pizzeria where they add activated charcoal to the pizza dough to give it the color of cooling lava. I am not that big of a pizza fan but it was good (langostino, crema, arugula, cambria chiles, etc). Two 12” pizzas, 2 sodas, and a small glass of Prosecco was over $100. We didn’t feel that the rest of Iceland was overly expensive but the Reykjavik area is crazy expensive. 

We did some shopping at Ice Wear which is a very popular brand in Iceland. We had tickets for the 5:00 Lava Show and as I sat in the little theater waiting for the show to start I was thinking it was going to be a rinky dink production. I could not have been more wrong!!

A small theater, it probably held only 50 people and the only thing in the room besides a video screen was  a “ramp” lined with what turned out to be black sand or ground lava. Videos of a couple of the biggest eruption on Iceland were shown and then they opened a door at the top of the ramp.

The temperature in the room rose very quickly. We all had on safety glasses as a precaution. I could feel the heat on my face, like a sunburn. The best way to understand this whole thing is to watch the video I made:

Then we headed back to Reykjavik to pack up and head home tomorrow. I will have one more blog post with random thoughts and pics that didn’t fit anywhere else.