Snæfellsnes Peninsula
The snaefellsnes peninsula is in the western part of the country, about an hour and 45 minutes of an exceptionally breathtaking drive. The teen trio had decided to explore Reykjavik on their own, Nirav-Aashna wanted to take it easy and so we had the pleasure of Gauravi’s company in our car.
We drove through some of the most picturesque landscapes in the country and would get excited every time we spotted a lace like waterfall adorning the bright green mountains. By the afternoon we had realized we had spotted over 50-60 waterfalls and broken records of number of waterfalls seen in a day in each of our lifetime! Sheep grazing, horses hanging out and the characteristic packed haystacks decorating the verdant vastness and infinitely empty pastures are not sights we get to see in our part of the world. I would get tempted to capture the vistas on my phone camera through the car video at every couple of km, but the result on the screen came nowhere close to what the eyes soaked in.
Ytritunga beach was our first stop where we walked on the rocks along the shore and encountered a sad site of a dead whale on the beach. The most Instagrammed church in Iceland, the Budakirkja church is the oldest wooden church in Iceland that sits on a field of lava rocks was built in that spot in 1703. We couldn’t resist stopping at the Bjarnarfoss to admire the beauty and try to capture it in pictures. The plan for the next stop was to go to Arnastapi to view the GOT filming sites, but an off-road adventure that would lead us closer to the glacier was on the books for us. Driving through mostly unpaved mountainous roads amidst the most unique terrain with lava fields on both sides was nothing short of exhilarating. While the glacier was playing per-ka-boo with the clouds we had fun spotting it’s glistening blue when the sun rays hit its surface. This 17 km off-road adventure was a major highlight of our day with stops to explore a cave or two along the way, both of which amazed the kids.
The best was saved for the last, Kirkjufell mountain and the foss. These iconic landmarks of the peninsula deserve a visit once every season at least with their ever changing beauty. We were there for long enough to soak it all in as best as we could while enjoying each other’s company, making impromptu birthday wishes videos for mom and A in the movie set like location and just marveling at the wonders of nature around us.
We made it back in town at a more reasonable hour than usual allowing us to grab dinner. Kahan joined Gauravi and family for a vegan meal at the Loving Hut cafe and Chinmay and I gave in to our desi taste buds craving some naan and malai Kofta at the Gandhi restaurant with Puja-Ashish and our newly found travel buddies, Darshan Joshi, his wife and their friends from Chicago. The long wait for our food ended up being quite entertaining with their jokes and the funny pearls of wisdom they shared. We hung out with friends at the Kalai cafe over drinks before calling it yet another amazing day!
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