Snæfellsnes peninsula

Today was our first of three days with a rental car. We walked 15 mins to collect our very much pre-loved Toyota Corolla from SAD Cars (the name represents the initials of the three owners). After a few hours we thought we had the oldest car in the country.

Our first excursion was north to the Snæfellsnes peninsula, finishing at the village and ferry terminal of Stykkishólmur. It was our first experience of the Icelandic countryside and despite our experience with New Zealand and Scotland, we still found it stunning. The great weather helped a lot though.

The 2h drive took us through a 5.7 km under-sea tunnel. As with a lot of Iceland infrastructure (roads, buildings etc) we wonder how a nation of 300,000+ people fund such high-quality amenities normally associated with larger and well-developed nations.

At Stykkishólmur we grabbed lunch at a cafe and walked up to the small headland for a magnificent view of the jagged inlets (which make up a disproportionate part of the Icelandic coastline).

On the way home, we picked up a Dutch hitch-hiker whose name was the Dutch equivalent of Roger. He was flying out in the morning and was planning to sleep at the airport. We offered to take him to the airport after we finish with the Blue Lagoon. That worked for him as he was able to book a slot at the Blue Lagoon at 2100 while we went in at 2000.

We made our way to the Blue Lagoon at 1900. I hadn’t realised that slots would be so limited and the 2000 slot was all we could find. It was priced at EUR45 (but Roger who booked later paid EUR50 due to dynamic pricing).

After showering, we walked briskly through the chilly air to enter the milky blue water which seemed perfectly heated. That’s normally an indication (from spa pool experiences) that it wasn’t hot enough because after a while the body adapts. Strangely, the temperature felt good the whole time but it did vary a little through the different zones, giving us the incentive to wander around to explore the large area.

On the way to the airport, we took a few detours to find dark areas where we could view the northern lights. We waited a little and managed to get a decent performance in the heavens above us.

Dropping Roger off at the airport, we witnessed a spectacular sight of the lights despite the light pollution. It just shows that having clear skies is a big factor.

It seemed silly for us to have paid for a tour to go see the lights when we could have simply gone out with our rental car and just about driven anywhere in the countryside. But, it proved to be an OK decision as we had really clear weather the night we did the tour. The remaining three nights in Reykjavik were pretty cloudy. Once again, we returned to our hostel feeling lucky with our aurora sighting.