(08/01/14) Snaefellsjokull

Today we were on another day-long bus trip  to visit Snæfellsnes peninsula located on the west side of Iceland. The tour first stopped at Gerduberg, a columnar basalt cliff in Hnappadalur valley, and Ölkelda, a natural spring of clean drinking water. It is supposedly good for people with heart and kidney problems and diabetes because it is high in iron. We sampled the water and it tasted terrible! George said it tasted like battery acid. I used to take iron pills in high school and this brought back unpleasant memories of those stinky pills. I used to gag just opening the bottle. It was hard to wrap my head around drinking something so pure looking and having it taste so badly.

We then drove around the peninsula and to the National Park. The landscape of Arnarstapi is described as  "harsh beauty". The shores and scenery were pretty sparse, but in a nice way. It reminded me of some of the scenes from Lords of the Rings "Middle Earth". The landscape and peculiarities of the surroundings were pretty neat. We got to spend the day looking at fjords and sea caves. We even had the opportunity to do some hiking, led by our tour guide along the cliffs and doing some bird watching. We were hoping to see some seals, but didn't get lucky this time. Everywhere we hiked, we kept seeing these low lying bushes with little berries on them. Our tour guide explained that they were "crow berries" and you could eat them. We tried them. They were a bit sour and somewhat mealy. 

Our journey continued through the National Park and we basically drove around the volcano on the highway, so we got to see it from all sides. Snæfellsjökull glacier is on top of the dormant volcano and attracts thousands of people each year. The legend says that this glacier is one of the earths seven energy spots and visitors will assemble there regularly each summer to enjoy the energy radiation. 

We got to hike down to a black sand beach that was mostly pebbles and stone. There was wreckage from a trawler from the 1800's that is still  there and in pieces. As we were leaving, we came across this fun activity for people to do. There are four rocks, the next each heavier than the last. You can try to pick them up to see how strong you are. George had a good time flexing his muscle.

  

We were lucky enough to find geocaches at almost every place that we stopped today. That made the bus ride a little more tolerable. 

We also decided to take one of our "signature photos". When we go to a spot that we both like and we feel is significant, we have someone take a photo of us facing backwards. We are usually sitting down on the ground and looking out at something. We use the photo to remember what we were looking at.

This is our last day in Rekyjavik. Tomorrow we head out on the road to travel around the island and see what we can find to do.