Since we still had the car for another day, Kris and I drove around the Snæfellsnes peninsula, outlined in blue on the map below. The weather wasn't the greatest, but it didn't take away from the beautiful scenery. we got up super early and left before 6am! We drove straight to the peninsula, to our first stop at Staðastaður. Our guide book said that there was lots of mineral water here to drink, but we couldn't find it! We didn't want to traipse all over someone's lawn looking for running water, so we left.
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Our route
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| Staðastaður |
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| The wind was so strong that it was blowing water back up the waterfall! |
Our next stop was at Lýsuhöll, where there is a hot mineral water pool. However, this was closed for the winter, so we were let down again!
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| peek-a-boo |
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| Swinging in the middle of a lava field |
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| yay! |
Next, we went to Buðahraun. Here we found an adorable little black church, which I've seen in lots of pictures. It was right in the middle of a lava field, but we didn't get out and explore too much, since it was raining quite hard.
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| Kris at the black church |
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| Lave fields |
Our next stop was Arnarstapi. This gave us a spectacular view of many jagged cliffs sticking straight out of the water. There were some caves that we didn't get to go to, since they were in the water! The highlight of this spot was finding the natural lava arch.
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| Cute archway |
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| waves waves waves |
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| Snæfellsjökull |
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| :) |
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| Cliffs in the middle of nowhere! |
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| Jagged lava formations everywhere |
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| Natural lava arch |
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| Loads of seaweed! |
Our next stop was at the beaches in Lóndrangar and Malarrif. Here there were two pillars: the larger, the pillar of Christianity, and the smaller, the heathen pillar. There were a few black stone/sand beaches here, with powerful waves crashing onto the shore.
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| Two pillars |
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| Crashing waves |
Next we went to Öndverðarnes, along a long twisty road to reach a pretty, bright yellow lighthouse. ON our way back along the curvy road, we stopped at Skarðsvík, where there was a yellow beach! This was absolutely beautiful, with black sand making pretty designs in the yellow sand.
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| Yellow lighthouse! |
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| The yellow sand beach |
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| It was so pretty |
Following these wonderful stops, we drove through Grundarfjörður, looking for the elf house. Apparently, there is a stone between houses 82 and 86 - the elf lives at 84. However, not many of the houses had numbers, so we could not find it.
Our final, terrifying stop, was at Helgafell. This "holy mountain" is supposed to grant three wished to someone who has never climber it before, provided some conditions are followed: You cannot look back or speak while you are climbing, you much face east while making your wishes, and the wishes must be of good intent. We were excited to give it a go, but the wind was so strong that we did not get the chance! I made it about two thirds of the way up the hill before giving up: as I picked up my foot to take a step, it was getting blown way over the other one, making walking nearly impossible. I'm not usually scared of heights at all, but I guess that changes when there is a legit chance of being blown off!
