Day 11 - Vik, Iceland - September 10, 2025

Today is a chill day with only one excursion planned, and thank goodness because the weather was absolutely awful! We stopped at the well known Skool Beans Cafe, which is a little coffee shop in a school bus! I got a white chocolate hot chocolate and a Nutella bagel, Taylor got a hot apple pie shake and a peanut butter bagel. Then we were off to find the Super Jeep for our tour.

Exploring Katla Volcano, Iceland

Today's excursion was a hike into the Katla Ice Cave. There were about 12 people in our group, including a lovely retired teacher from New York and a geologist from Ohio! We had to drive off road for about 40 minutes to get to the cave. At one point we did stop and our guide asked if anyone recognized this scenery and of course I knew! It was the set for the planet Lah'mu in Rogue One: A Star Wars Series. Here is an image from the movie vs. me standing there! Our guide also mentioned that he got to meet Christopher Nolan because they were filming The Odyssey last month at this location.

The tour was really cool and a little freaky. On the drive there our guide was telling us about how massive ice chunks have fallen off in the past few weeks and how the volcano the cave is inside of typically erupts every 40 years for the last century, however it hasn’t erupted in 80 years so it’s overdue. We got the spikes on our shoes since it was was all slick ice we were walking on! Our guide's name was Pablo and funny enough he worked on Disney Cruise Line for 3 years!

Famous Pizza from Vik, Iceland

It was POURING down rain so we decided to call ahead and pick up from the famous black crust pizza restaurant, and yes it’s volcanic ash that makes the crust that color. Taylor got a cheese pizza with red currant jelly and I opted for the more local pizza, a duck and cashew pizza. They were pretty good, but it was hard with Taylor quacking at me like a duck while trying to eat.

We're off to chase Iceland's most famous waterfalls tomorrow!

Ben :)