We are safely back from our week in Iceland. I’m quite tired right now, so will have to tell the tale in two or maybe three installments. I think a photo essay format will work best, so here are our first 2 1/2 days told in images:


Day 1 we landed at 6:30 am at Keflavik Airport and were in Reykjavik about an hour later. It was cold and rainy and it took us another hour to track down a cup of coffee. We explored a little, but it was a bank holiday and nothing was open.


Around 1:30 that afternoon we headed over to the local airport to catch a flight down to the Westman Islands for our 2-night stay on Heimaey. There were only four other people on the plane.


We walked around the town a bit that evening and explored the harbor.


Will made friends with a sheep.

That night we began Reading: I read Njall’s Saga, a prose epic detailing adventures in medieval Iceland; Will read Atom Station, by Halldor Laxness, Iceland’s only Nobel Prize-winning writer. We shared plots and impressions.


The next day we climbed up a steep ridge to go watch the birds.


Just beyond my feet is a sheer 500-foot drop to the water.


Puffins and fulmars loafed on the rocks nearby.


We had a great view of the town and the famous lava flow that nearly closed the entrance of the harbor during the island’s 7-month-long eruption in 1973.


On Wednesday morning, we had our first taste of sunshine as we boarded the ferry back to the mainland. It looks calm here, but large swells rocked the boat for most of the 3-hour ride. I had to breathe deeply and stare at the horizon the whole time. Will parted ways with his breakfast.

Tomorrow: the trip to Borgarnes and further driving along the Snaefellsnes Peninsula.