Yikes, we’ve been traveling so long, I’m starting to lose track of time! ;•) It’s now Saturday evening, and we’re on Heimaey, the main island in the Westmann island archipelago. The weather has definitely taken a turn for the worse, but we’ve continued to be lucky with patches of clearing at opportune times. I’m going to report on Thursday, and then attempt to get caught up as we wend our way back home over the next couple of days.
Thursday morning was cloudy and cool, and had rained a fair bit during the night. Fortunately we had some indoor activities on the agenda, and then just a couple of sights to see along the Snæfellsnes peninsula north of Reykjavik. First was a couple hour drive to Borgarnes, then a visit to the Settlement Museum there. The exhibits there were fascinating, with one section that covered the little that is known about how the first Norse settled the island, then another that was a great example of the Viking ‘sagas’ that are so common here. This is one small sample of the wood carvings that were the highlights of the second exhibit:
From there, we headed out onto the peninsula to take in the iconic mountain Kirkjufell, and it’s sister waterfall, Kirkjufellfoss, on the north coast. The weather was very rainy at that point, but I still managed to capture some decent shots:
One of my primary goals of the whole Iceland trip was to visit (and get a photo of) Snæfellsjökull, the iconic ancient volcano that inspired Jules Verne’s novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, and is actually the namesake of our own Mt. Sneffels! It’s located at the far end of Snæfellsnes Peninsula, which was completely covered by clouds and rain by the time we got there, so I guess it just wasn’t meant to be on this trip. The salvation of the day, however, was that we’d made dinner reservations at a hotel/restaurant recommended by friends in Ouray (thanks Kathleen & Carla!) in the tiny coastal town of Búðir. After driving the main road from Kirkufell west a little ways, it climbed into the clouds and we proceeded for about 5-10 miles in 20 feet of visibility. Suddenly dropping out of the clouds, we saw Hotel Búðir in the distance. We had the most incredible meal, sharing perfectly cooked Iceland lamb chops and Dover sole. It was the perfect end to our first day of less-than-ideal weather. As we got in the van to drive to our next campground, we even spotted Búðir’s famous Black Church:
As I wrap up for today, it’s blowing a gale outside, but we’re enjoying the warmth & international commradery of the campground’s communal building. We had a delightful chat with some German students who are part of a group of 16 staying here tonight, and are surrounded by folks speaking several languages (none of them English). Tomorrow we catch the early ferry back to the mainland, drive to Reykjavik for some last-minute shopping, and then on to our guesthouse near the airport for our 8:35 flight to NYC on Monday morning. I should have lots of time tomorrow afternoon to get caught up on the last couple of day’s adventures. In the meantime, here’s yet another waterfall, seen flowing out of the clouds above Búðir:
