Wonders of Snaefellsnes

 Breakfast was served at the hotel (included with most hotel stays) and of course it's quite different than American fare - meat, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, porridge, fruit - there was a lot to choose from!  I always need a little protein and luckily the hard boiled eggs peeled easily!  The fruit was surprisingly amazing!!  I'm not sure I've ever tasted such wonderful honeydew melon!  Their coffee is strong but it didn't bother me at all!

We were checking out of this hotel and meeting our actual guide and the people we would be going with this morning - one couple was Bob and Wendy (a little younger than us) from outside of NYC and a young couple, Matilda and Jonsey (?) from the UK - his name was so hard to pronouce so we just didn't ever say his name - HA!  Although we had opted for this "smaller"tour group that could have up to 16 people, we were totally shocked when it was just the 6 of us!!  WOW - talk about a private tour!! And we even had WiFi on the bus which made it really nice!

The van was great and Kiddie (our driver and tour group leader) was wonderful!  We could spread out wherever we wanted to and it sure made it easy when we had to put on extra clothes for outdoors, to have plenty of room to do it!

We were headed to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula for the day - and after I saw the names of the things we were going to see, I knew there was NO WAY I was going to try and type the names out!!  So Patty and I decided to take a picture of what we were doing during the day so we could refer to it on our phones and that worked out great!  So my first picture is the itinerary for the day!

I took SO many pictures of beautiful mountains it was ridiculous - but each set seemed better than the last!

We did stop at a "travel center" I would call it to pick up lunch that we would eat in the bus - that way we didn't waste time stopping at a restaurant along the way!  Patty and I would usually get a sub sandwich and a small bag of chips to split - worked out great!

And we did drive through a tunnel many miles under a lake to get to the other side of the mountain - very interesting!

We saw many, many sheep grazing and they are the really woolley kind with beautiful colors!  They don't have cows here, just Icelandic horses - and they're all purebred horses with the original ones coming from Norway - no other horses are allowed in the country ever!

This church was built in 1703 and the following picture is the cemetary.

What a backdrop for this church!

I loved the rock formations at this beach - so unique!

And this is the black sand beach.

You have to hike some to get to these places - some had walkways and others didn't!  To get down to the black sand beach was quite the journey - and when I turned around I saw this unique hole in the rock!

This sign was very interesting so had to take a picture of it!

And of course I had to try lifting the rocks - I could only lift the first one!

What a dramatic setting!

This waterfall or should I say waterfalls was gorgeous - the sun was not really shining in a lot of these pictures so many actually look black and white - I can just imagine the sun hitting these though!

See the walkway down?  It was VERY steep and I lost my footing once and almost couldn't catch myself - but luckily I did!!  It had been raining a little bit so it was slick!

Had to throw this sunset picture in as it was so pretty watching the sun set from the van!

We stayed at Hotel Hamer that night - out in the country - and THIS was the view from our room!

But unfortunately there was a sewer smell in the room and although the maid tried a couple of things, the smell just wouldn't go away so we had to move to another room.....

Dinner was lovely - 3 courses - and we got to know the couples much better that evening!  They're a fun lively bunch and we so enjoyed visiting with them and our guide!

We had just turned the lights off to go to bed when the phone rang - Patty answered it and sure enough, it was the front desk stating the northern lights were out!  We had all left word to be notified no matter what the time!!  I've never gotten dressed so fast in my life - if you can call it that - no socks, just untied boots and a pair of pants and a coat - that's all we put on as sometimes the lights are only there for a few minutes and we didn't want to take any chances!!

You could see the green in the sky with your eyes but when you put your camera up to the sky, that's when the beautiful green starts!

We were freezing out there but just couldn't stop snapping pictures as it was so beautiful!!

THAT is one of the reasons I came to Iceland - to see the Northern Lights!!  And it was SO SPECIAL to see them because many, many people that come, never see them!  What an awesome experience!