#3.4 North-, North-East

Leaving Reykjavik after a good nights sleep and breakfast we were heading north for the Sneafellsnes peninsula. Having planned a 300km trip with 2 or 3 main sights we really had no expectations about what to happen. We just drove off to see "miniature Iceland" as some call this part of Iceland in the north east of the country.

- Unexpected beauty and a famous place no one cared to mention - 

Barnafoss

 The first day starting the trip around Iceland should show whether the tips for sights to watch found on the internet were actually any good. So with the destination enter into the navigation we set off for the Barnafoss. This waterfall arise for a river filling old lava caverns. The water basically falls into those caverns, is hidden for a while and comes back to sunlight creating this beautiful waterfall. This unexpected place on a sunny day experiencing the force of the water forcing it's way through the rocks really put us into "holiday mode" and made it easy to enjoy the countryside.

We went on for a very scenic drive along the west coast of Iceland seeing the Sneafellsjökull glacier from afar. Driving towards the white mountain top, stopping over occasionally for pictures, waterfalls and sheep along the way made it a memorizing day. In

fact we decided to extend our planned route from following the main road 54 directly to our place to stay for the night. We drove into the Nationalpark around the glacier.

Seeing that many different places, from waterfalls to glaciers, from cliffs to beaches really confirmed what I've heard about the penisula when planning the trip. I basically gives you an impression of what to expect around the island just in a smaller scale. 

- a small town and a popular scenery famous for Iceland tourism - 

View over Grundarfjödur

When arriving closer to Grundarfjödur we expected to find another Waterfall the Kirkjufellsfoss, which we did. What we didn't knew before arrival was that this place is one of the used scenerys used to promote Iceland. Be it the view from the waterfall to the white mountain tops or to the sea you'll find it in a lot of ads about Iceland. 

In the town itself we found our accomodation, a grocery store and some very nice restaurants. Ending the day at one of those having to look at the surroundings and again the never ending sunset really made this a great first day for our trip.