Day 7 - Fri 18 April

Reykjavik - Grundarfjordur

Headed north out of Reykjavik this time, past our pool from last night and up to Hvalfjordur.  We had to decided whether to drive around the fjord or take the tunnel under it.  As once again the weather was pretty miserable we decided on the tunnel, Which was fine till we realized that we had no cash with us, we spent the entire trip beneath the fjord hoping that they would accept credit card, they did.

As an aside - talk about a cashless society.  We were there at least 10 full day and not once did I touch and Icelandic Kronur - everything went on the card.

We continued up the coast.

Toured through Akranes and onto Borgarnes. A cute little town on the edge of Borgarfjordur.

 

Then up onto the Snaesfellsnes peninsular.

The weather was truly weird today.  It goes from beautiful blue sky, to 5 mins later snow and sleet, no visibility etc, and then 10 mins later there's blue sky above again.  We had planned to go for a horse ride at Lysholl on the south shore of the peninsular, but after a particularly bad white out condition 5 min storm (and 5 mins standing out in the freezing wind) we decided that we had better no risk it.  Very upset but it had to be done.  We stopped at the horse farm anyway and they owners were nice enough to take us out to the barn and introduce us to some ponys anyway.  Lexie even got to sit on one of them for a while, though Josh refused to.

We headed to the tip of the peninsular and the Snaefellnessjokull.  Unfortunately  even during the nice spells the clouds never fully lifted off the mountain and gave us a good view.  But it was a nice drive anyway.  We did stop at the Saxholl crater and climbed up it.

Not sure that was such a good idea.  The wind was howling a gale and freezing cold.  The entire time I felt like I was about the blown off the edge (thankfully the kids had elected to stay in the car at the bottom of the crater).  It was actually quite terrifying...But we did get a good view from the top.

By the time we got back to the car we were frozen, terrified and sore as all get out - not the most pleasant of excursions.

We drove out to the very tip of the Ondverdarnes peninsular -  a log drive along a twisty windy bumpy track through the lava flow - it was quite cool.

We stopped at the "Golden Sand" Beach and saw the Viking grave that was found there.

Then out to the lighthouse.  Andy and Bill walked out to the cliffs whilst Lexie and I cowered in the car out of the winds.

We tehn headed along the nirth coast of the peninsular to our stop for the night Grundarfjordur, where we stayed at a 2 bedroom apartment associated with the youth hostel.  Best place of the whole trip (also the most expensive) a great new apartment down by the coast with a spectacular view of Kirkjafell.  As it was Good Friday there was not a lot open so had dinner at the only open place, the local hotel.

Horses