First, apologies to those who have been reading these real time. Every large trip I start by blogging live and have given up about halfway. Sometimes I never finish. I really wanted to make sure I got everything this trip and had been writing every night after the kids (and Josh) go to bed. On his bday that set me back so I started writing in the morning while we drove. Yesterday got super messed up. After not having a migraine (aura) for almost 4 months, today decided to be return day. I should be celebrating that long of a spurt healthy. Those who don't know, I've struggled since dehabilitating migraines since I was 10. About 4 years ago they became so bad I almost wasn't able to function during the flare up times. One January I had 26 in one month and then took drastic changes to my medicine treatment. So I tell you that to both explain and to provide hope. My major triggers are change in pressure (rain and flying), stress and hormones. All of these seem to be a perfect storm for traveling but I've done pretty well at conquering.
WITHOUT FURTHER DELAY
We woke up from our cabin, not entirely rested. I mentioned in the last post it was our worst sleep. There was no reason to linger, or try to shower while standing over the toilet (they seemed to be all in one) so we packed and got on the road before 8am.
SNUFFLEUPAGUS PENINSULA (SNAEFELLSNESS PENINSULA)
Neither of us could actually pronounce the name of this peninsula so we just called it Snuffleipagus like the Sesame Street character. That seemed to work. I admittedly did no planning for this day other than to book an Airbnb. The last few days of our trip were more decide as we go. We didn't want to be locked into too much. It would be about a 2-2.5 hrs drive to get to our stopping point on the backside of the Peninsula. We had read that this area was one of the best parts of Iceland and often gets missed from the Ring Road furry. I'm so glad we had an extra day to do this. Other than the dogsledding, this was my single favorite day. I'm sure we could have spent three days here. And for anyone who has seen the movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, this is where they filmed all the Greenland, Iceland and Himalayan mountain scenes.
STYKKISHOLMUR
I didn't realize it at the time, but this town is where all that filming was done. I loved the place and its surroundings so much that we downloaded it on our iPad and watched it after the kids were asleep. We had driven awhile and hadn't found breakfast until now. As we drove into Stykkisholmur we found the Nesbraud bakery. It was hard to miss with the giant bakery sign up top. We walked in and the kids were overcome with the sweetness of bread. We might have eaten one (or two) of everything. The caramel doughnuts were a favorite with the kids. The adults were split betwee. The ham and cheese pastry and the monster chocolate pastry. No clue what it was but it was wrapped with that hard chocolate shell. After round one, the kids asked for yet more sweets. So we bought even more. Thank goodness they had some coffee for me. Now that we were full, and all human again, we headed out to explore the village. The first place we went was down to the harbour. We got a tad confused and tried to drive backwards onto the ferry, but then saw the stone bridge to cross over instead. I had been obsessed with the bright orange and coral colored lighthouses we had seen throughout the trip scattering the shorelines. Here, at the top of the hill was a tall one, beckoning me to come visit it. We parked and all four of us climbed the stairs up the hill of Sugandisey. It was actually a tiny island made of basalt columns. As we got to the top, the wind started roaring. Our kids were holding onto each other for dear life and I was holding onto them for fear that we'd all blow off. I could barely hold on to my iPhone to get one quick picture before we returned to the lower level and explored a bit more. The views from up there were great. You could see the crazy church Stykkisholmskirja in the distance. It looked like something George Jetson would have designed. We drove around the small streets in circles trying to figure out if the Library of Water was open. We could see, but couldn't figure out how to get to it. It has an art installation along the tall windows made out of pillars of water from Icelandic glaciers. The water reflects and refracts with the light to make an art show. Unfortunately, we were limited to what we could see up the hill and through the window. Oh, well. We finished meandering through the quaint streets and headed back onto the road.
GRUNDARFJORDUR
Has anyone noticed that these names are getting harder the further into the trip we get. And if you are wondering, yes, I type with the guide book in my lap. I'd be clueless otherwise. Ok, back to the trip. The big deal about this area is Kirkjufell. It is a big mountain that doesn't look too much different than all the other extreme mountains in Iceland. However, my guidebook (and number of likes from Instagram) told me that it is one of the most photographed spots in Iceland. If that is true, we must get the shot. And not just any shot, I wanted the shot. So bring in the photography PDF and we were out to search for Kirkjufellssfoss and figure out how to get down at the level of the waterfalls to get the perfect shot. The waterfalls were described as "little", but they weren't. They were just spread out in two levels and to make things difficult, the spacing of the rocks in the landing underneath the last falls were just far enough apart that you had to hike up the whole side, cross a bridge at the top and come back down the other side to get the shots of the mountain with the waterfalls in the foreground. Of course. So I hope you really enjoy this shot. It was a lot of work. And our family highly enjoyed this stop. Josh and the kids played a game where they threw rocks at the bottom waterfall and tried to hit icicles off. Anything to do with water and rocks and our kids are set. This mountain can be seen from several angles in Walter Mitty. Once in Iceland, once in Greenland scenes.
THAT CHURCH
If you follow my Instagram, you've seen my new love of churches in picturesque places. I love them. And I take pictures of them. This church in Olafsvik had the most unique church made out of all triangular pieces. I wonder how the heck that happened in such a rural town in Iceland. I made up a story in my head that two men (because only men would do this) were out getting a drink. One of them was bragging about the magnificent new church he had built. The other guy was like "Oh yeah? Well, watch what I can do! I can build a church with only triangle pieces." Something like that. Either way, the lines were gorgeous.
SNAEFELLSJOKULL NATIONAL PARK
I couldn't believe how fast the day was flying. I thought that we had gotten a really early start and imagined we would be getting to our house that night pretty early. But I hadn't anticipated how much really great stuff we would see along the way today. And I also had no clue that national park would be this incredible. Soon we were passing through the gates that read we were in the national park. Most of the western portion of the peninsula falls within the park. I had read that the variation in the topography throughout this area made it like a mini Iceland itself. It also makes for a very adventurous and fun day, no matter what you like. I haven't read Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth but I'm sure that if I had, I would have realized how fitting this is as a setting for that book. I'm sure. But since I hadn't read it, we ventured on ourselves.
ONDVERDARNES
I'm always puzzled with how Lonely Planet determines what is worthy of different amount of page space in their books. Pages about something that seems mundane and boring. But here, probably my favorite part of the trip (or at least one of them) and the guide book gives it a measly 1/4 of a page real estate. That's why you shouldn't judge a place by how much has been written about it. Very quickly, the road was bumpy and gravel and really made us finally glad we had splurged for a tough looking car. We drove through the lava fields and I stopped to take pictures. The moss growing along the black lava rock was quite pretty. The land was flat so we could see where we were going but we had to wind through to get there. All of a sudden the rocky cliffs descending to the beach opened up before us. There was a golden beach that let you walk down to the cliffs for a closer look but we stopped about a 1/4 mile before because we liked the view there. We opted not to park and walk to the nearby volcanic crater of Vatnsborg. Our daylight was quickly dwindling and we didn't want to miss the next stops in the park. We made our way to the Svortuloft cliffs. Here was another tall lighthouse that was perched on the ledge and had the most beautiful location for a picnic bench I had seen. We walked past the lighthouse to get up close to the cliffs. These were the giant bird cliffs that Josh had been dying to see. If you have a fear of birds, don't go here. They were everywhere, flying around, squealing, perching on rocks. It was quite the sight. The cliffs were so steep that huge waves were crashing into them. I'm not sure how high they were. 100 ft? Maybe that's too dramatic. They were huge and some of the waves were ricocheting up taller than the cliffs. I can't imagine the force behind that water. When we got our cliff fill, we headed down the road the opposite way and found ourselves to the very western part of the peninsula. From here you can supposedly see whales. I could not. It later occurred to me that I'm blind as a bat and we had no binoculars. We always forget them. I'm not sure how I thought I'd see a whale even if it was out there.
DJUPALON
The rest of the family was getting pretty tired but I still wanted to visit one last stop on the way to our place. I had seen pictures of the rock stacks coming out of the water and the black sand beaches. I lured the kids in by telling them their were lifting stones still on the beach where fisherman would test a man's worthiness to be a fisherman by the size of rock he could lift. Our son was excited to lift two, my husband lifted four and our daughter sat and giggled. We all attempted to get some good pictures at the black stone beach without getting drenched by the icy waves coming in. When I headed over to the formations to get a few pics the rest of the family opted back up hill to the car. It seemed like only a few minutes later that I tried to join them but I found myself walking up a hill dead into the wind. I thought I might die and tried to take a shortcut which I think was just a shorter harder way. Exhausted by the time I made it back to the car. We completely skipped Hellnar and the black houses we wanted to shoot there. We had reached our wall. We wanted to sit down!
ARNARSTAPI HOME FOR THE NIGHT
I'm not sure how I picked this location or home, but we found a place on Airbnb that appeared to be in a great location. And it was. Literally on the coast (well, a little walk, but as close as any place) and with the major sights of the area in the backyard. We found out the next morning that we were only the 4th guest to stay in the cottage. Maggy, the co-owner of Go West (a highly reviewed tour operator) had just bought the house recently and started renting it out in February. She was as sweet as could be and stopped by the next morning to say hi and bring her dog to meet the kids. We had listened to her advise and bought dinner to fix earlier in the day. Taco Night in Iceland! It was really good. Our two bedroom cottage was just enough for our comfort. Once Josh had me figure out how to turn on all the radiators he seemed happier with the pick. (I think he was starting to miss his bed by now) We had a wood fired stove in the living room that was super comfy and our only fire all trip. It was a bit surreal watching a movie (we rented Walter MItty) in a cottage on the coast of Iceland with a fire burning. Other than our daughter now convinced that monsters were living in her head because she thinks about monsters when she sleeps, we had a decent night sleep. No Northern Lights, but I'm not sure if we just slept through them. That's possible. Maggy had just added a few details that I told her were very much appreciated. Several kids puzzles, which we did, some books and these cool Iceland pillowcases that I looked for, but couldn't find to bring home.
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