Today has been yet another driving day, we left our little guest house quite early, and drove westward through gently rolling hills of green pastures. Since we had time we made a detour out to a sightseeing spot called Borgarvik, an old kind of fortification on a cliff top, and not far from there, a strange cliff formation in the sea.
We made a quick stop for lunch then drove on for most of the afternoon, the surrounding landscape becoming wilder all the while. We hit the coastal road as we entered Snaefellness peninsula and came up a steep hill overlooking the archipelago below and just had to make a brief stop.
As we came down from the hills and started following the meandering coastline the landscape became more rugged, with sheer rock walls rising right out of the green hillsides, cutting the sky in straight lines. A short while later we looped back inland and went through more civilized terrain on the way out to our stopping place for the night in Stykkisholmur.
Once we had checked in to the hotel and gotten some information from the most helpful tourist information I’ve ever been to, we headed out again. We started by checking out the town’s volcano museum, which was small but nice. After that it was the Library of Water, a place full of acrylic tubes filled with water which was less impressive than the tourist information lady made it sound.
Finally we visited the small island down in the harbour and checked out the little orange lighthouse before heading out of the village despite the rain that had just started falling.
It was not long until we came to our destination, Berserkjahraun, a lava field where a path is said to have been cut by two Viking berserkers. The place is just like the outlandish landscapes we saw from the road the first day, a jumbled mass of boulders of all shapes and sizes covered in a sickly yellow moss, and here and there mounds of black and red lava rock. So far we’ve only seen these fields from a distance but here there is a small gravel road winding its way through it in a meandering fashion. This is great for seeing a bit more, and with the scarce traffic, you can stop anywhere along the way. This was great, it’s just the kind of bizarre landscape I really enjoy. Just too bad it was raining.
When the rain got heavier, we hastened back to make sure the restaurants would still be open. We had dinner at what I believe is the towns most popular restaurant then went back to the hotel to call it a day. Tomorrow we will explore more of Sneafellness.
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