Iceland SnæfellsnesPeninsula

We woke up a little before the alarm at 7:30 AM. Emily was up, but a little groggy today. We were still adjusting from the 2 hr time difference from Bergen. Emily went downstairs to make her oatmeal and chatted with a German couple also staying at the guesthouse. We headed out around 8:15 AM with the first stop being the famous mountain and waterfall just outside of town, Kirkjufellsfoss. This scene is a famous scene in Iceland and is used in a lot of the country’s marketing. The clouds were low and there weren’t many people there when we arrived so the photos turned out well with long exposures on the tripod! A tour bus pulled in as we headed out. We headed up the road that goes around the peninsula and then turn off into the road that goes through the national park that is at the very tip. The overcast clouds from earlier in the morning were starting to breakup but there was still a cloud covering the top of the main volcano. We did a pull off or two including one that got us overlooking the ocean called Útsýni. There a guided hiking group was about to venture out so we eavesdropped and listen to the guide for a few minutes describe the area. Having some time to kill before the lava tube / cave tour we checked out the visitor center at the Gestastofa farm and the Malarrif Lighthouse. We saw the museum they had there, but ran out of time to go see the lighthouse. We then headed and did the lava tube tour at Vatnshellir Cave. Since the day was so pretty, there was just us and one other guy on the tour, but the guide was great and it was really neat to see! The tour started at 11 AM lasted about 45 minutes.

We then continued to the town of Arnarstapi where we checked out all of the sea birds on the cliffs, its stone arch ‘bridge’, and ate fish and chips from a food trailer along with a waffle for desert from the neighboring trailer. The clouds were pretty much gone now and it was a beautiful sunny day on the peninsula, so lucky on the weather again! We then drove up to check out another little town of Hellnar and all of its wonderful cliff views. Next, we started driving up the peninsula with the goal of reaching Búðir with the black church but stopped a look out for Snæfellsjökull along the road, which was spectacular! Next, we went to the Bjarnarfoss waterfall and did the short hike just up the bridge over it. My toe was still bothering me so we didn’t go further. After checking out the waterfall, we finally got to Búðir with the black church. The church was built in 1847 and was famous as being once of the black painted churches in Iceland.

We took the main peninsula road, which was 54, back across the peninsula. Part of this drive was on dirt, but the road was in great shape. Since it wasn’t that late in the day, we turned left back down the peninsula to explore some more instead of heading right and back to the AirBnB at Grundarfjörður. Using Google, we found the water fall Svödufoss not too far on the north side of the peninsula. There was a look out for it, which we walked to, that lined the fall right up with the mountain. There were a few trails that went toward the waterfall itself and we saw a few people walking on them, but in the interest in time and the fact I wasn’t too mobile still, we continued on. I took over driving so Emily could enjoy more. We continued driving back through the national park, making another loop to take in the sights. We stopped at a pull off we missed the first time around, Londrangar. Londrangar is a massive volcanic tower at the edge of the sea and was spectacular (though the lighting was bad for it). It was another great spot bird watchers as well!

After driving fully around the peninsula for the second time, we decided to take 570 back to the other side. 570 used to be an F road, but isn’t classified that way anymore, though still was on google maps. It was still steep and narrow, but our Suzuki handled it well (it was F road rated after all). We took the road with the knowledge that was can always turn around if needed, but the road was in fine shape! It was a very very pretty drive around the east side of the volcano and the height the road got was outstanding! We got up pretty near to the glacier on top of Snæfellsjökull.

We dropped back down the north side of the peninsula and headed back to our guesthouse arriving back at 6:30 PM. We then headed to the same local diner for dinner as the night before just before 7 PMto get the happy hour beer deal again. Emily got fish pie and I got a meat pizza. All was good and we then headed back to the guesthouse, showered and called it a night by 10 PM.

Safe Travels,
B&E

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