Buðir

We have arrived at our destination at the Hotel Buðir which is about 2 ½ hours north of Reykjavik. To say that we are having miserable weather is an understatement. It is pouring buckets of rain and very windy. I have to apologize right away for the quality of the photos today. First, much of the gorgeous scenery we had expected to see just isn’t visible, and then I’ve had to contend with the heavy rain which has poured onto the camera if I open a window to take a shot. A lot of the photos I took were out the front window of the car…I’ve avoided posting any with the windshield wipers in the way! First photo is of some volcanic looking mountains shortly after we left the city:

We decided to go through the Havelfjörður Tunnel instead of driving around the fjörd since we didn’t expect that the beautiful views would be in sight today. The waterfall we had planned to hike to was at the end of the fjord and because it was no day to do that hike, we opted for the tunnel. It cost us 900 Kronur, or $15 to drive through the 2 ½ mile tunnel. Remember, everything here is expensive! Here is the information map showing the dotted line of the tunnel under the fjord, and the shot of us coming out of the tunnel at the end (into the blinding light!). The tunnel was just cut out of the lava rock and not lined with tile until we got to the very end. Unfortunately, those photos didn’t turn out well in the dark tunnel.


When we reached Borganes at the other end of the tunnel, we stopped to get a cold drink and to use the toilet/WC/rest room…I have no clue what it’s called here because there was only one, not mens and ladies separate rooms, and the sign on the door didn’t give me a clue to what it was. Luckily the door was open so I could see it had what I needed! This is a photo taken from the parking lot. This was the largest town we went through.


Here is the sign for the Snæfellsnes Valley (dalir = valley). Our hotel is #19 on the chart. You can see Buðir on the map, on the south side of the peninsula about ¾ of the way down the coast:



The mountains are all volcanic with large striations across them. I wonder if that is caused by a build-up of the volcanoes or from glacier coming through. Unfortunately, I don’t have the answer. Photos of the mountains as we drove past:


Many had craggy jut-outs, so different from the mountains of New England which are so rounded off at the top:


We passed a little town (if you can call it that) with a lovely little church. We were amazed at how many churches we saw along the way, and each one had a few homes around it. We wondered if the pastors rotate through these village churches because we couldn’t imagine each would have their own pastor.



We passed a pond with lava rock all around it:


As we made the turn out onto the thin part of the peninsula, we saw Eldborg Crater in the distance. This was one of those things that interested Hubby and he thought we might hike up the trail to the crater rim to view the inside, but this journey was rained out as well. It reminded me a little of Devil's Tower, Wyoming in Close Encounters of a Third Kind, the way it just rose up out of the floor of the valley.


We saw some animals along the way. So far, we haven’t seen any cows but there are lots of horses (a bit smaller than the US variety but larger than the Shetlands we saw in Scotland) and many wooly sheep. One herd ran right in front of us!



We saw some amazing lava rock formations:


And some mountains in the distance:


We finally arrived at our hotel which is perched just out in the open with nothing around it except an old church that we can’t go in. It is on the edge of the ocean and the waves are high. Here is our room, on the corner with (what should be) magnificent views:


We do wish so much that we could see the mountains here but these are the views from our room in both directions:



We had a cup of tea, met some Americans from Rhode Island who are in Iceland for four days before they head to Norway. He is actually originally from Norway but has been in the US for about 50 years. Tonight’s dinner will be interesting. On the menu: cod, monkfish, whale (!!), a vegetarian option, and lamb. I’m going to have to be adventurous so I think I’ll have the lamb. It’s something I don’t cook because I think I had it too often as a child. It’s a little gamey for me, but I haven’t had it for years so it’s time to try again. It will cost us about $60 just for the entrée. They appear to only sell wine by the bottle, and the cheapest wines were about $100 each…..we’ve decided to have water! We are a captive audience here…..there is no where else to eat!

Now that I’ve written all this in Word, I have to go find a place in the hotel where the wireless works so I can post this. If the service is good, I should be able to upload the photos…if not, well you’ll have to wait to see them until tomorrow. Oh and by the way, our hotel for the next two nights has changed. We got “bumped”! Good thing I had Internet yesterday and received the email. So the former hotel arranged for another hotel for us. We'll be at the Hotel Selfoss, a 4 star hotel in a larger town (Selfoss) so it should be okay.