Iceland: Snæfellsnes Peninsula to Reykjavik
Jules Verne famously wrote "Journey to the Center of the Earth" about Snæfellsjökull, a 700,000 year old strato-volcano located at the tip of the peninsula. It has a glacier on top and is considered to be one of the top "energy centers" in the world. There are lots of alien theories and other mystical tales that take place here. So, naturally, Nick needed to see it. Regardless, it definitely is beautiful and does have a "star power" that draws you to it.
We left our cottage in the morning and drove clockwise around the peninsula. It was a perfect day with bright sunshine and temps that allowed us to wear short sleeves for the first time in 10 days. The ocean views and steep cliffs were a picturesque site as we approached the F570 that would take us to Snæfellsjökull. It was like the F88 to Askja Caldera all over again, except much shorter and a lot less water.
After stopping at Hellnar and spending the day exploring the peninsula, we decided to head to Reykjavik. This made me very sad. I didn't want to go back. Nick was ready but I guess I have had Iceland on my must see list for so long, I was really bummed this leg of our trip was coming to a close. We decided to stay our final 2 days in an Airbnb in Reykjavik. Since we missed the famous Geysir and Gullfoss in the Golden Circle on our first day, we decided to head back out there and also swim in the Reykjadalur Hot Springs. Reykjavik is pretty small and we were able to see the bulk of it in an afternoon. Of course we saw the Hallgrímskirkja and Harpa Opera Hall and we also took in the Settlement Exhibit, which was really cool.
On our final night, we saw the Northern Lights for the 2nd time on our trip. The first time was at Lake Myvatn. Both times they were super faint, so we were unable to capture pictures of it. We feel a little lucky to have seem them at all since September is pretty early but we will have to plan another snowy adventure to get the full show nature puts on.
We had a super early flight to Glasgow so we had to get up at 4am to make it to the airport and drop off our rental car. It seems every single flight leaves within 15 minutes of each other at KEF so checking in our bags took a bit of time. They were efficient though...much different than my experiences in South America where you have to arrive 3 hours before your flight and you barely make it. Iceland is no short of breathtaking and we feel like we really did it right. I want to go back to do some hiking at Hornstradir and see Landmannalauger but I feel like we really got a good sense of the country and it's culture.
FINAL THOUGHT: It was strange to get back to Reykjavik and civilization. Once you travel past Hofn, you realize how isolated people are on the rest of the island. The West Fjords, in particular, are so expansive and desolate it's amazing to think people live there year round. It was actually hard for me to acclimate back being around so many people and having to hold full conversations with someone other than Nick. When we were at Geitafell and having conversations with the owners, it was took a lot of my energy. But I definitely need the human interaction...I think we both do.
