Iceland Day 10 - Snæfellsnes Peninsula

For our last full day in Iceland, we toured around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula before returning to Reykjavik. The day was pretty gray but the rain held off until we were done touring. We made a stop at a bakery to pick up something to eat for lunch, then started driving around the peninsula.

Our first stop was Kirkjufell (Church Mountain), which is famous for its iconic view of both the mountain and waterfall. I loved this location! We walked around the falls to see the views from all the angles.

That's me at the top of the bridge!

We continued through Snæfellsjökull National Park. The center of the park is the glacier topped volcano called Snaefellsjokull. 

The road goes along the coast past more waterfalls and lava fields. We stopped at the black sand Djúpalónssandur Beach. A short hike takes you through some massive lava formations down to the beach.

The beach is still littered with the rusty remains of a ship wreck that happened in 1948.

The rock formations along the beach were beautiful. (A moody edit for a cloudy day using the Snapseed app.)

Our next stop was for a short hike out to the lighthouse which is located near the Lóndrangar Basalt Cliffs. 

Another brief stop was at the fishing village of Arnarstapi.

A beautiful view looking out at the mountains and coastline.

A final stop was at the Black Church at Búðir. We managed about 5 minutes at this spot before a big bus of tourists unloaded. I think I got pictures of the church from every angle. Here are a few of my favorites.

There were a lot of other places we could have stopped and hiked on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, but we had a drive of several hours back to Reykjavik for our last night's stay. We were lucky that the rain held out until we started heading back. 

We spent our last night at the Hótel Frón which is where we stayed the first night. This time we stayed in the front part of the hotel in rooms that seemed a bit newer. 

We ate at Reykjavik Fish Restaurant which was just down the road from our hotel. My friends had the fish and chips (again) but I tried the fish on a stick which was a combo of two kinds of fish on, what else, a stick! It was ok, but I thought it needed a bit more seasoning. We finished off with ice cream at the nearby Valdis Ice Cream. We then hurried back to our hotel to repack for our trip home.