We landed in rain around 1:00 AM and that was a preview of what was to come for the next 4 days. The shuttle bus to the car rentals was not operating at this time. It took a while for us to locate the Blue Car Rental Office. It was not too far, but we had to walk in the cold. Following the instructions in the email from Zero Car, we picked up the keys and located the car. It was a silver Kia Rio. We loaded our bags and headed towards Reykjavík. We reached our hotel, Hilton Reykjavik Nordica.
We were going to stay here for 3 nights. There was ample parking in front of the hotel. It was not far from the city center and with easy access to highways to get out into the countryside. We had informed the hotel in advance of our late arrival. The check in process was smooth. The room was typical and had all the standard things available. It was late and we got to our room and quickly went to sleep.
We had a relaxed start the next morning. Based on the weather predictions we had been tracking, we were trying to avoid the rain as much as possible. So today we were headed to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. It was nice to see the varied landscapes as we left the city and drove north.
Passing through the Hvalfjörður Tunnel was a pleasant surprise because we didn’t know of a tunnel on this route. We continued to head north crossing Þjóðvegur. This was the brightest it was all day. And unfortunately for us, from this point onwards, it got more and more grey.
Our first stop was the Selvallavatn View Point. There was parking off the road and walking further down we had nice view of Lake Selvallavatn and the hills behind.
Driving further we saw the Lava Rocks Formations. It was a huge area of moss covered lava rocks on both sides of the road. This wasn’t like anything we’d seen before.
Next we drove across Kolgrafarfjörður bridge and got some nice views of the sea. We also stopped at the Kolgrafarfjörður View Point. But the low clouds didn’t let us have a magnificent view of the tall mountains behind the water.
We made a quick stop at Grundarfoss. It was a long walk from the parking to get closer the falls. The clouds were so low that we couldn’t even see the snow capped mountains behind it at all.
We then stopped to see the famous Kirkjufell Mountain. There was a farm right next to it where there were a few Icelandic horses. We waited for a while for the cloud to move but didn’t get a clear view of the top of the mountain. It didn’t look like the sky was going to clear up anytime soon so we headed towards out next stop, Arnarstapi.
We stopped at the Búlandshöfði View Point on the way to take in the fantastic views of the Atlantic Ocean. The drive towards Arnarstapi was amazing with almost no traffic. By the time we reached there it was very cold and windy.
We looked around to get something to eat and decided to have Chicken Quesadilla and Fish & Chips at the Frista Food Truck. It was too cold and windy to use the picnic tables there so we headed back to the car and ate inside. It felt nice to eat hot food in that weather.
We walked to the Bárður Saga Snæfellsás Statue and then along the path to see Gatklettur. Soon it started to rain a little and we decided to skip seeing the Stone Bridge and the Arnarstapi Lighthouse and headed back towards Reykjavík.
We took a small detour from our return route to Búðakirkja and it was nice to see the church we had seen in pictures so often. Most people were there for a quick photo stop but one couple in a camper van was literally in and out in less than 2 minutes. The sky was still overcast but I could imagine how nice this little black church would have looked with a bright blue sky and fresh green grass.
The drive back was uneventful. Getting closer to Reykjavík we decided to end the day with a visit to Laugardalslaug a public swimming pool close to our hotel.
We bought our entrance tickets and were each given a bracelet to use to cross the turnstile and access the lockers in the gender-segregated changing rooms. The pools are filled with geothermal water, which have no chlorine. So to maintain the cleanliness and hygiene, everyone had to shower naked and wash themselves thoroughly before getting into the water. Having experienced a few Finnish saunas in Helsinki and a Japanese onsen in Ibusuki before, this didn’t seem as intimidating to me now.
There were two large heated pools one to do laps and another one for kids to play around in with slide etc. There were also a couple of smaller pool areas and various hot-tubs ranging from 40- 44 degrees. There was also a steam room. It was nice to swim a few laps in the warm water and to enjoy the hot-tubs. Great way to end our day after a visit to the cold and wet and windy Snaefellsnes Peninsula. We headed back to the hotel and called it a night.
🚘 Zero Car
🍽️ Frista Food Truck Arnarstapi
🛏️ Hilton Reykjavik Nordica