Medinaceli, Spain: Millions across Spain and Portugal watch the start of the countries’ first total solar eclipse in over a century.
The eclipse begins around sunset, when the sun, moon and Earth align, briefly bringing parts of the Iberian Peninsula – plus slivers of Greenland and Iceland – into darkness.
The event is expected to draw at least an additional half a million visitors, Spanish authorities say.
Against the backdrop of scorching summer temperatures and wildfires, officials have rolled out a large public safety campaign ahead of the much-anticipated eclipse, with totality – when the moon completely covers the sun’s light – expected to last less than 2 1/2 minutes.
Spain’s Interior Ministry said 350 official viewing sites have been set up across the country’s sparsely populated interior, an area often referred to as “Empty Spain.” Authorities have limited or restricted access to another 123 sites because of environmental conditions or obstacles that could hinder an evacuation in the event of a wildfire.
Anticipation builds
Rooms in Reykjavík, Iceland’s capital, were averaging more than $1,000 for Wednesday night as Icelanders prepared for their first total solar eclipse since 1954 and the first visible from the capital since June 1433. Prices were roughly double 2025 rates, according to data group Lighthouse Intelligence.
Authorities in the country of fewer than 400,000 people expect up to 20,000 additional overseas visitors for the eclipse, which comes during an already busy peak tourist period.
In Spain, hotel demand along the eclipse’s path of totality – including in the northern Spanish cities of A Coruña, Bilbao and Santiago de Compostela – has soared.
The 70-room Hotel Keflavík in Iceland’s Reykjanesbaer municipality was fully booked with guests hoping to see around one minute and 45 seconds of totality – weather permitting.
“Eclipse time, of course, has been very demanding, and many people came to us early, like last year,” says hotel owner and manager Steinþór Jónsson.
Jónsson said he had seen nothing like it since 1986, the year the hotel opened and U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev held their summit in Reykjavík.
“When I opened the hotel, we had Reagan and Gorbachev meeting. It was very hectic here,” he said with a smile. “Besides Reagan and Gorbachev, the eclipse is the biggest.”