By now you should have realized that Icelanders take great pride in creating words with as many letter as possible. I have totally given up on trying to pronounce the words!

We slept soundly to 7:30 this morning. We must have been tired. It had stopped raining but more rain is expected today.

We headed further west into the Snaefellsnes Peninsula, driving straight through until we got today’s destination, the town of Stykkisholmur (population 1195) where we were able to check into our hotel before proceeding for further exploration on the peninsula.

It was close to lunch by now and Scott wanted to stop by the grocery for some luncheon items. I happened to see a food truck across the street selling the famous Icelandic delicacy -the Icelandic hotdog. I had heard a lot about it and was told it was good so it had to be my lunch! I order the “classic” which means the beef/pork/lamb dog comes with mayo, ketchup, sweet mustard and fried shredded onions on it. I was somewhat skeptical about that combination, but “when in Rome….” I selected it as is. It was delicious!

Rain had returned by now, sometimes fairly hard, but mostly light or simply a drizzle during the whole day. We drove the entire Snaefellsnes Peninsula, stopping at locations that looked interesting. We hiked to the top of an extinct volcano (686 steps).

We walked out to rocky beaches and 2.5 km from one seaside village to another.

 

We did not get to see the primary attraction on the peninsula, the Snaefellsjokull volcano and glacier, as it was completely shrouded in clouds on this day, but we stopped at the visitor’s center to see a picture of it and learn about the area.

One of the stops we made was at a small slot canyon that I chose to not go see as it involved walking up a river into a very narrow ( less than 10 feet wide) canyon. I grabbed a power nap in the car while Scott ventured forth to see what it was all about. I have included a few photos he took on his exploration of the canyon.

We drove through grassy pasture land between tall mountains, barren lava fields and along rugged seashores with not much indication of inhabitants. This is still a sparsely inhabited country.

We returned to our hotel in Stykkisholmur in early evening and walked to another Trip Advisor recommended restaurant (Sjavarpakkhusid) a few blocks away on the harbor. Not that there are a ton of choices in these small towns. The featured seafood in this town is blue mussels “bought from local fisherman, Simon” according to the menu. I believe it. Outstanding! Scott selected the seafood stew which was equally excellent. The restaurant was small and tables were quite close and we ended up chatting with a young couple from Atlanta who were also visiting Iceland for the first time.

Back to our room in the small hotel that felt more like a home than a hotel where I worked a little on this blog before sleep overtook me, caused a lot by the 11,534 steps and 51 floors of elevation that I accumulated today.