We left Philadelphia on July 25th evening and after a short flight of 5 hours, landed at 6 am on July 26th in Keflavik International Airport. This airport is about 45 minutes from the capital city, Reykjavik. We signed the pledge at the airport to keep Iceland beautiful, not to litter and to recycle as much as we could. Icelanders are very environmentally conscious people.
After picking up rental car from Blue Car Rental, we started the 2.5 to 3 hr drive towards Stykkisholmur. This city has been voted the most green city in Europe. Stykkishólmur is located by Breiðafjörður Bay on the north of Snæfellsnes peninsula, which is considered as a mini-iceland, since it has all the different features which makes Iceland such a popular destination- mountains, volcanoes, lava fields, glaciers, waterfalls etc. We were going to spend the next 2 days exploring Snaefellsnes peninsula and getting over jet lag.
We had to pull over and catch a nap during the drive, due to the jet lag and sleeping barely 2-3 hours on the flight. Once we did that, we stopped at a bakery ( Geirabakari Bakery and Café) on the way to have some breakfast. They had wonderful views, chocolate covered rolls and bread.
We took Route 54 towards Snaefellsness Peninsula and stopped at Gerduberg - these are a large wall of naturally formed basalt columns. It reminded me of the hexagonal basalt columns at Giant's Causaway in Northern Ireland.
The length and width of the basalt columns was impressive
Getting closer to the Basalt column wall. This was a 10-12 min walk from the parking lot
Can see the parking lot far below. It wasn't crowded at all. We can see a crater in the distance
View at the top. It was rocky and very windy.
The views from there was amazing with the clouds and the craters far away
We got back in the car and drove towards Stykkisholmur and made another stop on route 56.
The views on the drive were stunning
A small church
Kids refused to come near, saying we were trespassing
We next stopped at a scenic pullout on Route 56
Volcanic mountain with so many colors and a lava field in the front
Another tourist told us about a secret hidden waterfall
You could go stand behind this waterfall !
So cool to stand behind a waterfall
Neel drank water from the waterfall
This waterfall was one of our favorites. It was so unexpected to find it, since we could not hear or see it. It was a cool experience to go stand behind it ! And there were no other tourists.
Finally we made it to our guesthouse where we were given 2 rooms. The bathroom was shared and so was the living room, kitchen etc. It was very comfortable, cosy guesthouse.
We ate lunch, rested a bit and headed out to see the Berserkjahraun (which translate to “mad-man’s lava field”) moss lava field.
The views on the way were stunning.
The clouds add so much magic and mystery to the vast desolate landscape.
This lava field is some 4000 years old. This place was really neat and there was no one there but us.
The lava formations were massive ! Alex is goofing off here, trying to hug the lava rocks !
It was a neat experience to walk through this large lava fields. It was quiet, desolate yet not scary and we felt one with nature.
Since there seems to be rain in the forecast for tomorrow, we decided to visit the most iconic mountain in Iceland- Kirkjufell (Church Mountain).
The views on the drive were so scenic !
The sun kept peeking in and out of the clouds.
We reached the mountain close to 8 pm. There was a decent sized crowd and parking was hard to find but somehow we managed to find a spot to park. We walked up to the waterfalls.
The view from the top of the waterfall
Kirkjufellsfoss- this is the most photographed view of the mountain
Getting kids to pose for a picture is very challenging !
Alex sat down to enjoy the view.
We drove back to the guesthouse. We picked up some groceries from Bonus behind the guesthouse and Neel cooked us a yummy pasta dinner with lot of veggies.
A nice way to end Day 1. Kids relaxed with a game of chess. This was now past 11 pm and it was still light out.
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