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It was difficult to imagine as we strolled the streets of the quiet fishing town on Heimaey what it must have been like to suddenly be awakened  that January 23 morning of 1973 at 2 a.m. with a violent shaking of the earth and realize that hot lava was beginning to flow. A lot of good happened along with the bad in the days to follow.

The earthquake that startled the town awake caused a mile long fissure in the earth. With lava spewing into the air, the townspeople gathered in the harbor. Luckily all the fishing boats were there because of a storm that had them heading for the harbor the previous day. Evacuation began. Some planes were used as well to take out the elderly and infirm throughout the night. Even many of the sheep on the island were evacuated. In all about 5,000 islanders were safely removed and a small contingent of brave souls left behind to observe and address the situation that threatened to destroy their town and harbor.

Within a week, the town was buried under 12-15 feet of ash. When we think of ash, we think of soft bits of charred material that float in the air. Not so with volcanic ash. It is made of small cinders that rain down like hail as you can see in the pictures of the area we visited that is now being made into an outdoor museum. But the ash was only half the problem. Hot lava buried 70 homes and another 41 were set on fire by the lava.

It was apparent that as the volcano continued to flow the harbor would be eventually be destroyed unless there was something they could do to stop the lava. Having observed the new little mouse island, Surtsey, that was formed in the 1960's, geologists considered the effect of the cool salt water on the hot lava and concluded that there might be a chance of stopping the lava flow if they could pour enough water on it. Eventually 19 miles of pipes and 43 pumps sprayed over eight million cubic yards of cooling sea water onto the lava flow for over five months saving the harbor and much of the town.

Still, 360 homes were destroyed. Many homes were literally dug out of the tons of ash covering them. As I said, there was some good news. The best was that no one was killed. And while there was a great deal of work to dig out many of the homes that were buried, the ash was a great base upon which they rebuilt the airport's runways and paved many new streets. The island had increased in size a little over a square mile adding new vistas to an already spectacular view.

Most everyone returned to the island helping one another to dig out and rebuild. The process was long and hard but I had the sense that this was truly an example of community. People helping people. You find that often when disasters take place especially in communities that have learned the importance of dependence on each other.

For a greater look into this amazing event, click on the link to the USGS report  on the Heimaey eruption. Even if you don't read through it all, there are some amazing pictures to see.

Off the coast of Iceland is what's known as the Vestmannaeyjar archipelago, a group of islands formed from volcanic action. The largest and only inhabited one is Heimaey. This was our next stop and, wonder of wonders, the weather was sunny and clear again. The Crystal Serenity anchored just outside the hook of land that reached around and protected the harbor of the town.

While the town is small, there was no lack of tourist transportation. At least a half dozen buses awaited our arrival and we boarded the one for our tour.  The morning was fresh, as our captain always liked to say. Our first sight as we exited the dock area was one of the local teens swinging from a rope secured into the top of a cliff area. He would swing across the face of the cliff from side to side. Our guide said it was one of the new sports their teens had invented.

Fantastic vistas passed by the windows of our bus. Like mainland Iceland, there were few trees outside of the small ones planted near homes as a part of the landscaping. This island especially showed off its volcanic origins--but more of that in another post. What everyone really wanted to see were those ever elusive puffins. As our ship's information said, "The Icelandic Puffin calls Heimaey home. That would be six to eight million of them." Since there had been no puffin sightings in our Reykjavik stop, it wasn't long before the question was out, "Will we see puffins today?"

In her most apologetic tone, our tour guide told us that it was highly unlikely. You see to have this wonderful weather meant we would have to abandon the hope of a puffin sighting. The puffins were known to go out into deep waters to feed when the weather was nice making the seas calm. You could feel the air of disappointment in the bus after that.

Still it was hard to be disappointed in the views we were about to see from Stórhöfði, said to be the windiest place in Iceland--except for the day we visited; which is why there were no puffins around. this was the spot where there should have been the largest colony. Instead we contented ourselves with the sheep and lambs and a few Icelandic horses we saw. The Icelandic horses are said to be unusual in that they have a special gait not found in any other breed. The gait allows for one hoof to always be on the ground giving the rider a smooth ride. The breed is fiercely protected.

Looking out toward a small island in the distance, we could see a single dwelling on the top of the cliffs that surrounded it. Our guide explained that there were several islands like that where a small house is built for the comfort of scientists studying the puffins. Or, as she suggested with a chuckle, for husbands who need to get away from home for a while.

In another direction, we could see Eyjafjallajokull, the volcano on Iceland's main island that erupted in 2010 and shut down air travel for weeks in Europe. The problem it seems was the ash. It wasn't like ash from a fire you might burn in your backyard. This ash was made up of cinders that could cause havoc with the planes as well as cut down on vision. Life goes on as normally as possible in Iceland even though they sit on several volcanoes. The most likely to erupt next is Katla which is overdue according to every Icelander who spoke with us. I believe it is also the largest and is said to be most dangerous. But then there is also Hekla which erupts about every 10 years. Snow capped Eyjafjallajokull and Katla could be seen in the distance from our vantage point high on the hill at Stórhöfði.

On our way back into town, our guide pointed to the mouse shaped island we could from the highway. It is Iceland's newest island and was formed in the 1960's by underwater volcanic action that eventually built up on the floor of the ocean to create the island. Geography is constantly changing in Iceland witnessed by our guide who as a child remembered visiting her grandmother on Heimaey before the eruption of Eldfell which added a square mile of land to the island. As we drove on the new section she said, "This land was not here when I was a child." Amazing to consider it.

The eruption on the island of Heimaey was also significant in many other ways. But more on that in my next post.

Our afternoon in the port of Reykjavik promised to be every bit as beautiful as the morning. Originally we thought we would go to the famous Blue Lagoon but the tour was expensive and only got us to the Lagoon and back and the rest of the time would be spent soaking in the steaming waters. We wanted to see more of the countryside so when the opportunity arose to join Vacation Vignettes for an afternoon tour, we snatched it up quickly.

On several other cruises, we have participated in a special tour sponsored by Vacation Vignettes, a part of Vacation.com, a network of over 6,000 travel agents. If your travel agent is a part of the organization and there is a host on board your ship, there will be an organized tour available at one of your ports and you will be invited to join. Our tour began shortly after lunch and once aboard our small bus, we headed out into the countryside.

Our drive took us through a small fishing village and up to the peaceful Kleifarvtn Lake. The view of the volcanic landscape was spectacular. Below our lookout point, we could see a smooth black sand beach much like the beaches in Hawaii. But I doubt there is a lot of swimming from this beach. My guess is the water, not being from a steam vent, was very cold.

In 2001, geologists found a crevice created by an earthquake in the summer of that year. It literally became a drain and about 1/3 of an inch of water drained each day from the lake. Eventually the crevice filled in again and the lake returned to its pre-earthquake levels. It was only one of many changes in the landscape that Icelanders have learned to live with. The volcanoes on this island nation are constantly creating changes in the landscape.

The next stop was the famed Krysuvik geothermal area with its amazing solfataras (volcanic vents emitting sulfur fumes), boiling mud pits, blowing steam vents and amazing colored mineral deposits. Once you got past the rotten egg smell, it was a fascinating area to explore. We followed the board walk and wound our way past the mud pits that spit every so often and past the steam pits that belched the rotten egg smell. Higher up was a much larger steam vent that we opted not to climb up to see.

The terrain was covered in Icelandic moss where it had the opportunity to grow undisturbed. There are few trees in Iceland. Most of them are in the populated areas and planted as landscaping. The moss reminded me of the tundra area of Alaska. It was that same carpeting but not as thick.

Our lungs full of whatever healing qualities the sulfur springs may have given, we left for our last stop in the fishing village of Eyrarbakki. We arrived at a large restaurant, Rauda Husid, that was obviously a favorite stop of tour buses. Our afternoon snack consisted of a wonderful lobster soup--almost like a bisque but not creamy white. To our delight, those around us didn't want to sample it. Their loss. It was delicious and had lots of chunks of lobster in the bottom. Great home baked bread and some olive and hummus spreads completed our snack. It would tide us over until we could get back to the ship.

The room that we ate in had a ledge built around it up by the ceiling and was full of stuffed birds found in the area. The puffin stood out among all of the others. We were anxious to see one but were no where near their nests on this tour.


 During our drive to Eyrarbakki, we had seen glimpses of Eyjafjallajokull (try saying that--just once). It was snow capped and beautiful and not looking at all like the problem child of the European airways as it was in 2010 when it erupted. I really wanted a good shot of it and asked the guide if there was a chance we could stop along the way back. No deal. He had a schedule to keep and besides, he told me, we would be on the archipelago the next day and have good views from there. Yes, but would the weather be as clear and sunny and perfect? I hoped so.