Snæfellsnes Peninsula// Paris & Iceland, Day 10

Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Because we are road trip warriors, we had finished our Iceland Ring Road trip in even less time than we'd planned. Since today was actually the day we had scheduled for the Golden Circle but we'd completed that drive the previous day, we now found ourselves with a free bonus day in Iceland. We entertained the idea of going inside a volcano or glacier, but both of these experiences would've taken up at least half of our day plus they came with a steep price tag of around $800. Instead, we decided we would drive to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula after some brief internet research.  This is about a 2-hour drive from Reykjavík, so it made for a comfortable day trip.

It was a frosty morning, but it was clear for most of our time out today.

We began with breakfast at Brauð & Co that was actually in the same building as our dinner visit to Gló. We got some delicious chocolatey pastries but weren't sure where to get coffee, so we ended up picking some up from Krispy Kreme of all places.

We stopped to consider visiting a natural hot spring that was on the way, but (a) the wind was making it too cold to consider getting naked outside and (b) most importantly, there were several people there already.  To console ourselves, we stopped to explore a little abandoned house that we had passed on the drive up to the hot spring. 

Abandoned house artwork

We got so lucky with the weather and really appreciated the beautiful views on Snæfellsnes Peninsula.

Our first stop was Kirkjufellsfoss.

And when you turn the other direction, you see Kirkjufell Mountain, which is the most photographed mountain in Iceland.

Kirkjufell Mountain Top

Next, we drove over to Saxhóll Crater.

There was a long metal staircase leading up to the top.  

It was windy up there, but the view was great.  

It actually ended up getting up to 10℃ (50℉ Fahrenheit), which was about the warmest it got our whole time in Iceland.  I think the coldest we saw was 3℃ (37℉). 

We pulled over to take pictures of Snæfellsjökull along our drive. This glacier-capped stratovolcano was absolutely stunning. The mountain is one of the most famous sites of Iceland, primarily due to the novel Journey to the Center of the Earth, which involves the discovery of the entrance to a passage leading to the center of the earth on Snæfellsjökull.

We made one final, windy stop to take pictures by the ocean before heading back to town. 

 Our luck with weather faded in the evening.

We stopped at Reykjavík Chips for dinner part 1.  

Streets of Reykjavík

Dinner part 2 found us back at Gló. The dish we created wasn't quite as delectable as the one we'd put together the night before, but it was still tasty.

We swung by the grocery store and picked up some donuts for dessert for our last night in Iceland.

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