Charlotte:
Today we woke up at five in the morning to go to Westmann Islands. There I did some cool stuff, like I went to a swimming pool and played at a park. Then I ate fish and chips for lunch.
After that, we went to an aquarium when I got to see a puffin up close and a baby guillemot, too. I got to pet the guillemot but not the puffin because then its raincoat would get off and it would be sad because it wouldn’t be able to go in the water.
We left the aquarium and walked around. I got ice cream that looked like a clown. I liked it so much – it had gummy eyes, nose, and teeth and it had chocolate dip hair. It was so delicious!
Then we went hiking. We went to a museum, but it was closed – only today! We saw this cool little house that had dirt and rocks inside of it because it was buried by a volcano! 🌋 Then we hiked up the volcano that erupted. It was very steep. We got about halfway. It was hard, but we handled it.
Sam:
After we left the island, we went to a big waterfall – it was 31m high. Mom said it’s called Gullfoss. It’s the strongest waterfall in Iceland.
We also went to Geysir. It was a big geyser that shoots out water every five to eight minutes (boiling water). At Geysir, we also saw the real “Geysir” that is sleeping.
We went to a shop there and got some cool things to remember our trip. We almost had dinner there, but we decided to make a late night pizza at home instead.
Mom and Dad:
After booking tickets to an 8am ferry to Westmann Islands last night (spur of the moment), we set our alarms for the unhuman hour of 4:30am. We wanted to leave by 5:30 at the latest to account for the 1h45min drive and the long weekend traffic we were warned about. Luckily, we managed to be out of the house by about 5:20. And it was a good thing, too! 😋
We stopped en route to admire a lovely and strong waterfall off the beaten path, as we had a little extra time. It is called Urridafoss.
We arrived on time for our extremely busy (no joke this time) ferry. The ride to Heimaey (the largest and only inhabited island) was a quick 30 minutes.
We disembarked and followed the crowd of college-aged kids laden down with backpacks, tents, and cases of beer up the main street. They were all headed to Iceland’s largest music festival that began in the island today. They expect around 20 000 people (mostly young) to invade to the quiet little town over the weekend!
We passed the aquarium, only to find that its hours were shortened to only 2 hours in the afternoon because of the festival. Then we decided to start with the pool, so we trekked several blocks, only to find it was closed, too! We had an hour to kill before it opened, so we hiked over to check out the festival venue (a huge open area between the golf course and massive mountains). Then we let the kids play in a school park while we rested and planned.
We made our way back to the pool and enjoyed the hot tubs and slides. Both Sam and Charlotte really enjoyed the rock-climbing wall in the pool. The trampoline waterslide was a pretty interesting experience, too!
We decided upon Fiskibarinn for our lunch spot. It has a great reputation as an affordable and delicious place to get fresh fish (which Dad was particularly excited about). Well, wouldn’t you know it – the festival caused a big change for the restaurant, too! It has temporarily changed its name to Discobarrin as its a holiday weekend for fishermen and the only fish option was fish and chips. Haha! It worked out well for Mom, at least. She enjoyed a lovely $28 beef soup – with a roll!
Now a little less hangry after lunch, we scooted back over to the aquarium in order not to miss our brief window. The staff were fantastic and taught us all a lot about puffins and some other seabirds. We all loved meeting Toti the puffin, a six-year old who has been at the aquarium since he was a baby. He had so much personality! The baby guillemot was hilarious. He loved looking at his reflection and “screaming” loudly.
Once we’d admired the birds for quite awhile and checked out the rest of the displays, we decided to head to the Eldheimer – a museum dedicated to the memory of the 1973 volcanic eruption that last five months, caused the evacuation of all the islands residents, and buried 300 homes under lava. We were very interested to learn more about the volcano’s history and get the chance to see inside an excavated home. But… Surprise, surprise! The museum was closed when we got there. This time it had no opening hours at all today! Such a different experience than in Canada, where tourist attractions tend to have extended hours in the summer and on holidays!
Fortunately for us, there was one little house outside of the museum that was filled with lava for us to get an idea of the destruction. There were also fantastic hiking trails leading up the side of the volcano! We followed the trails until we had to make our way back to the ferry port. We got about halfway up, which was better than we thought we’d be able to achieve.
You’d think that would be enough adventure for one day, but not for this family! We paused at a tasty mini-donut truck on the way to our car at the ferry parking once we were back on the mainland, and then hopped in the car, aiming for our next destination.
A mere ninety minutes later, we pulled into the parking lot for Gullfoss, a huge and beautiful waterfall that produces a rainbow every time the sun is out. Even though most of our day had been cloudy, the sun popped out to make a brief appearance just for our visit at one of Iceland’s most popular spots! Yay, us!
Our final stop for the day was Geysir. We weren’t expecting much. I’m not sure why, but both of us thought it would be kind of a letdown. Boy, were we wrong! What a cool place! The water shot out of the Earth with so much power – it was just so neat to see! Also, it didn’t stink of sulphur to nearly the same extent as the mud pits did a few days ago. We were worried that it would be nauseating. Happy surprise!
Sam and Charlotte take on the world! 
LOVED this blog today! I am learning so much from your experiences… thanks for sharing!
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