We woke up to heavy rain and high winds. It was not looking good for travel today so we took our time over breakfast waiting to see if the weather might change.
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| The view from our deck this morning |
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| Look at the the cloud cover |
Eventually we decided to go whatever the weather and chose to visit the Snaefellsbaer Peninsular and National Park in Western Iceland, and boy were we glad that we did?
First though we decided to visit a nearby church near the water's edge down on the bay.
Hallgrímskirkja, (the church of Hallgrímur), also known as Saurbæjarkirkja, is a church local to where we are. The church was consecrated on 28 July 1957 and is dedicated to Hallgrímur Pétursson, who was the pastor of the local parish between 1651 and 1669.
The church was designed by architects Sigurður Guðmundsson and Eiríkur Einarsson, although Guðjón Samúelsson was the first to draw a model of the church and it was according to his design that the foundations were cast. In 1953, Sigurður and Eiríkur came together to design the current concrete church, with its brick interiors, copper roof and 20 metre high tower. The frescoes around the altar are the work of Finnish artist Lennart Segerstråle and the crucifix on the altar itself dates back to the 16th century.
From here we headed back along the 47 and joined Route 1 and headed north. As we approached the signs for Borgarnes we turned to the west and crossed the Borgarfjarðarbrú, which is the second longest bridge in Iceland At the western side of the bridge we entered Borgarnes, located on the shore of the Borgarfjörður.
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| Borgarfjarðarbrú, the second longest bridge in Iceland |
After a stop at Borgarnes for Coffee we headed west along the south shore of the peninsular until we entered the Snaefellabaer National Park which is the first national park in Iceland, the boundaries of which reach out into the sea. The views were spectacular, towering mountains, cascading waterfalls, quaint hillside houses. It was hard to take it all in as we continued our journey.
Our next stop was at Arnastapi where we stopped for lunch at a really nice but very expensive restaurant.
Arnarstapi or Stapi as it is often known is a small fishing village at the foot of Mt. Stapafell between Hellnar village and Breiðavík farms on the southern side of Snæfellsnes.
Today Arnarstapi is a popular destination for tourists in summer. it is a thriving centre for local tourism activities where there are a variety of natural and culinary attractions as well as a cluster of second homes located in and around the village.
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| Spectacular coastal views |
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| Rugged coastline |
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| Intriguing caves |
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| Abi looking very cold |
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| Me feeling very cold with Kevin. Plenty of layers on! |
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| Looking from Arnastapi up to the glacier |
Snæfellsjökull, or snow-fell glacier is a 700,000-year-old glacier-capped Stratovolcano in the Snaefellsbaer National Park. The name of the mountain is actually Snæfell, but it is normally called "Snæfellsjökull" to distinguish it from two other mountains with this name. It is situated on the most western part of the Snæfellsnes peninsula.
The mountain is one of the most famous sites in Iceland, primarily due to the novel, 'Journey to the Center of the Earth' by Jules Verne, in which the protagonists find the entrance to a passage leading to the center of the earth on Snæfellsjökull.
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| The glacier from a distanc |
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| And closer up |
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| From another angle |
Carrying on around the peninsular we headed for Grundarfjordur where we stopped for another short brake, This was a charming coastal port with fishing boats and colourful houses and cottages that seemed really Scandinavian to us.
We then headed for home via Stykkisholmur, taking in more of the magnificent scenery.
On the way home we stopped at a quaint hotel/restaurant for an enjoyable meal before finally arriving home for the evening.
The cloud cover was such that there would be no chance of seeing the Northern Lights this evening.
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