Vik, Iceland

The forecast did not improve overnight, so we ruled out our plans to go hiking along the Fjaðrárgljúfur canyon. We had breakfast and then researched indoor options near Vik. We landed on a couple small museums and going to see the Lava Show, all in the historic part of Vik.

Unfortunately both the Skaftfellingur Museum and Hafnleysa Maritime museum were closed on Mondays & Tuesdays :( We had some time to kill before our 1pm booking at the Lava Show, so drove over to see the Dyrhólaey Lighthouse, about 20 minutes west of Vik.

The Dyrhólaey Lighthouse sits atop a cliff overlooking the ocean. Google maps said the road was closed, but the gates were open so we drove up. It was extremely windy at the top, so much so that we were afraid of getting thrown off the cliff. Visibility was really poor too, so we just decided to stay in the car and drive back to Vik.

The Lava Show seemed like it might be cheesy, but it was one of the few indoor things open today. We booked the tickets for the 1pm show online after breakfast. We arrived a bit early at 12:30pm, so browsed the gift shop. I ended up buying a small piece of obsidian-like lava glass for our souvenir shelf. The show seats about 50 and is general admission, so we chatted up the staff about the best seats.

The show was sold out, with an Icelandic school group taking up about 40 seats. It started promptly at 1pm with an intro spiel about the volcano and the safety awareness of all residents. Katla, which overlooks Vik, is overdue for an eruption, so every household has an emergency bag packed. Each home also has a large poster-sized sign they leave in their window after vacating, so emergency personnel know not to bother searching the house. Everyone then heads to the church on the hill, the nearest high point, to escape from the main danger of flooding.

Anyways back to the lava. After a short educational and historical video, the main event: molten lava is poured down a ramp. We could feel the heat from our seats.

The host then described and showed how the lava solidifies into different forms, including silica hair and glass. It was way more interesting than I had imagined! The whole show took about 45 minutes.

We grabbed lunch at the Soup Company which shares the building with the Lava Show folks. We both had the traditional lamb soup. It’s unlimited servings but we could barely finish one bowl each :)

The rain and wind seemed to have dissipated, so we went to check out the basalt columns on Reynisfjara beach. Paid for parking using the Parka app (much easier and faster than the booths), and walked 100m down the black sand to Hálsanefshellir Cave, which houses the basalt columns. The beach has rogue waves so we had timed this for low tide (I had looked up the tide tables earlier this morning). The basalt columns were cool to see, and the rain and wind wasn’t too bad.

So overall it was a pretty good day for a rain day. If it was nice weather I’d suggest seeing the natural wonders in Iceland rather than a lava show, but it was cool that it was an option for today.