Tag 289: Westmanislands

Today we took the earliest ferry - 8:15 - to the Westman Islands. Since we drove onto the ferry with my car, it was relatively easy to get around the island.

First we went to the rocky coast to see puffins. After a while we saw a few, but not in their typical colors because they were not fully grown yet.

Afterwards we went to the National Museum next to the town hall, but it was relatively boring and a lot of the information there was only in Icelandic.

After a stop at a burger place, we walked towards Eldfell (one of the volcanoes), but my mother and I were still pretty exhausted from the last few days and I didn't have proper hiking boots on, so we split up. Astrid went up the volcano and my mother and I went first to an old stave church and then to one of the oldest houses on the island.

Afterwards, the two of us went to the Beluga Whale Sanctuary. It is really interesting. In addition to a few aquariums, the main story is told about two Beluga whales that were rescued from China (?) and now live in one of the islands' bays. Unfortunately, they could not be released into the wild. There is a kind of baby camera in the bay where they live and the video is shown on a screen in the museum, so you really think you are watching the two of them in an aquarium.

While we were at the Beluga Whale Sanctuary, Astrid visited the Eldfell Museum. We went there, but since I was already there, I sat with Astrid in the museum bistro while my mother looked around the museum.

After the museum, we decided to take a little detour to the south side of the island. We didn't stay there long, though, as it started to rain again.

Then we went back to the ferry, which was due to leave in twenty minutes. We got there just in time and they closed the car hatch behind us.

My mother and Astrid were of course invited to dinner, but since it was the weekend, there were about 14 of us in total. We spent the evening together, since my mother and Astrid wanted to drive on with their camper the next day.

See you then

Julie