Snaefellsnes Peninsula

June 18, 2026

Wednesday was WINDY like gusts up to 40 mph, sustained 18-20 mph. We had to be careful which direction we parked our car, you could really dent your neighbor's car if the wind grabs the door!

We had a full agenda today. We started with Kirkjufell mountain.

We had pulled into the parking lot before we realized it was a pay lot. By "pay lot" I really mean "pay a lot"! Lesson learned, $11.00 and 15 minutes later. Ugh.

Next stop was a quickie -Bugsfoss. Here you can start to get an idea of the wind. The wind is blowing the water up in the waterfall!

Next stop Olafsvik. We saw the cool, triangular church. It looks like a ship from the front and a salted cod fish from above.

This waterfall was right outside of town. Baejarfoss.

We saw lots of art in Hellissandur.

This is Skipid. It is by the same artist who did the Sun Voyager in Reykjavik.

This was on the side of the school.

Another pretty mural of a Puffin

It was a nice town, we took a short walk along the coast.

We climbed up to the top of Sexholl Crater but the pictures don't look like anything and it is impossible to get a picture of the wind we endured climbing up. I guess you had to be there.

Next up Djupalonssandur. This black sand beach was accessed by a small hike thru a canyon of lava.

These are the Strength Testing Stones. The lightest "useless" at 50lbs was for boys. For generations these stones were used as a final exam before allowing a man into a fishing crew. The heaviest "full-strong" weighs 339lbs.

I did pick up the 50lbs one but of course Carsten got there too late for a photo.

The coast was beautiful.

We walked a bit farther to Dritvik Bay.

Next stop, Arnarstapi. This town is here for the tourists. It is cute with restaurants, ice cream and coffee shops. There is a lovely path along the coast with some scenic rock formations and lots of birds nesting.

The little fishing harbor:

Gatklettur

Sculpture of Bardir Snaefellisad, guardian Spirit of Mt. Snaefell:

We found a nice German to take our picture.

By now we are tired. The wind has just about done us in. But, we persist! Raudfeldar Canyon must be investigated.

This was a little slot canyon. A good uphill hike to the mouth of the canyon then a quick peak inside was sufficient for today.

Finally, we found a grocery store that is open and has working registers. We bought iced tea, coke zero and a roll of paper towels. I know you are asking yourself how this is interesting enough for the blog. Well, for $7.29 we bought this:

We have 26 days left in Iceland to use this bad boy up!

Thursday we got up slowly after talking about what to do with our day. We thought there was a thermal pool nearby but none of them looked very interesting. Instead we decided to drive to Stykkisholmur. On the way we took a little detour through a lava field called Berserkjahraun. It was a bit like driving on another planet.

Returning to the paved road we went on to Stykkisholmur, it is a cute town! We climbed up to the Sugandisey Lighthouse in the wind (did I mention it is super windy again today!!!).

I'm honestly underwhelmed... They just brought electricity to this lighthouse in 1995 - what were they waiting for?!?!