Exploring Reykjavik's Old Harbor

July 24, 2025

We had intended to start the day with a helicopter tour of the erupting volcano on the Reykjanes Peninsula. However, it was too windy and our flight was canceled. Instead we explored the Old Harbor area near our hotel.

We kept with the volcano mindset and began with the Lava Show, a unique experience where they heat up real lava to 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. It flows down a tube and the experts demonstrate its different properties.

The man in the silver suit heats the lava and controls its flow down the tube.

It began with a history of volcanoes in Iceland and the inspiration for the Lava Show - when the owners witnessed their first volcano and wanted to share the experience. It showed the Reykjanes peninsula where the current eruption is taking place.

Then the lava began to flow down the tube.

As the lava came in contact with the block of ice, it began to bubble as the cooling lava turned to steam.

The lava show trainee picked up globs of lava with a long pole.

She also demonstrated how to lift the flow of lava to show its viscosity. For example syrup is more viscous than water so it flows more slowly.

As it cooled off, it became hard and brittle like glass. They showed how it was initially still hot in the center and beneath the shell of brittle cooling lava, was still the pool of hot liquid lava.

After the lava show, we went to the whale museum where they had life-size sculptures of different whales and dolphins, as well as an interesting documentary movie about studying the ingenuity of whales around the world.

On the way back to the hotel, we explored the area, admiring the ships and a creative bike rack in the shape of bikes.

A lesser black-backed gull flew overhead and dropped a bag it had stolen from some unwitting bakery customer. It was initially scared off by people walking through, but it soon returned to its now accessible (but very squished) muffin.

There was a brief skirmish when a second gull appeared, but it flew off a ways with the bag, leaving some muffin crumbs for the interloper.

We saw a family of common eiders, large sea ducks who are great at diving for shellfish. I was startled at first when the baby first dove down. It kept diving at the edge of the dock and then returned to its family. However, they were all forced to change direction when a whale watching boat returned from its tour chasing them back into the dock area.