Friday 14th - Grundarfjordur - Snaefellsnes Peninsula

After a reasonable night, I woke at 5.30am and managed to get online and check in for our flights. I downloaded the boarding passes on to the iPad but couldn't pay for the extra bag, so will have to do that at the airport.

By the time I had finished checking in, we arrived at Grundafjordur at 6.30am, in brilliant sunshine. The boat came alongside the quay and docked quickly. We are leaving on the all day coach tour at 8am, so it will be a quick breakfast.

Sure enough, we left the quay at exactly 8am for the tour of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. It turned out to be a stunningly beautiful drive in glorious sunshine and a 'balmy' 10 degrees centigrade. Our guide was a pleasant lady, Helga, who was very informative.

Most of the first half of the drive was along the coast going round the dormant volcano with its top covered by the Snaefellsnesjokull. Jokull means glacier. With clear skies, we had great views of this 5,000ft high mountain, which, if conditions are favourable, can be seen from Reykjavik.

Snaefellsnes Volcano

The volcano with black lava flows in the foreground

Our first stop was at Djupalonssandur, a black sand beach, very similar to those in Hawaii. We walked down to the beach from the car park, going past a hole in the rock formation through which you could see the volcano.

Close-up of the ice sheet covering the top of the volcano

Further on, there was an amazing reflecting pool, with mirror-like water. I was able to take some lovely photos of the volcano's peak reflected in the pool.

The reflecting pool

No, the volcano is not upside down. It is just the reflection!

On the beach, we saw rusting pieces of metal that turned out to be the remnants of the Epine, a British trawler from Grimsby, that was wrecked in a storm in 1948 with the loss of 14 fishermen with only five saved.

The remains of the Epine

The black sand beach and striking lava formations

We walked down to the water's edge and admired the smooth black pebbles on the beach. Helga told us we could take one or two, which we did. It was a lovely place to be on such a sunny morning, although large waves were crashing on to the shore, the remains of yesterday's storm.

We next stopped at Hellnar and went into the National Park Visitor Centre and then walked to the tiny church and graveyard overlooking the sea. A large number of Arctic terns were flying around protecting their nests on the ground.

Then it was a short drive on to Arnarstapi, a village with holiday cottages and an abundance of birdlife. We came to a series of wonderful cliffs with amazing rock formations, which were crowded with nesting kittiwakes. We also saw shags, Arctic terns and eider ducks and we took a lot of photos as we walked along the top of the cliffs.

Basalt columns

The rugged cliffs

Amazing arch

Nesting kittiwakes high up on a cliff ledge

Not much space or headroom here!

Beautiful Arctic tern with its red beak

Arctic tern returning to its nest with a fish

The scenery and weather were glorious as we walked to the monument nearby. It was made in 1985 by Ragnar Kjartansson and is of Bardur Snaefellsas, half-man, half-troll, who is the deity of Mt. Snaefell. He was the son of a king from Northern Hellaland in Scandinavia. The monument was put up in memory of a local teenager, who died on Snaefellsnes in the 1920s, in the hope that it will protect other travellers in the area.

The drive then took us across the peninsula to the north shore and our lunch stop at the town of Stykkisholmur. On the way we passed several fields with Icelandic horses grazing. Interestingly, these horses have an additional gait, the tolt, which is smoother for the rider.

Icelandic Horses noted for their gait!

We made a short stop at a vast ancient lava field with several lakes.

We arrived in the town of Stykkisholmur for our lunch, passing the strange-looking architecture of the modern church.

We had a pretty good lunch of mushroom and parsley soup and cod. We were then given the option of going on a short hike up a hill or returning to the boat. We opted to return, so we had plenty of time to do our packing.

The ship in the harbour at Grundarfjordur

At 6pm, we went up to the theatre for Daniela's presentation of the DVD of the voyage.

At 7.30pm we went up to the aft deck to join Pauline, Jan, Tim and Jo for 'Hot Rocks'. It was a fun evening consisting of good food (ribeye steak and prawns), lots of wine and much lively good- humoured conversation. There were only 3 or 4 other tables occupied. We stayed out the longest on our table, fortified by wine and yet another joke from Civan the sommelier, who loves to make us laugh.

We warmed up in the Panorama Lounge with a farewell glass of Champagne and then said our goodbyes to Judy, Tim and Jo and also to Pauline and Jan, even though we are on the same flight home tomorrow! We went back to our cabin to finish our packing. We will be up early in the morning, as we have to leave the ship by 9am at the latest.

So, our latest Silversea cruise is coming to an end. What fun it has been, even after taking into account the disappointment of not going ashore in Greenland.