Day 2 Iceland Self-drive

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An early morning. I'm having trouble sleeping past 2 or 3am. Breakfast starts at 7:30 and with an Icelandic breakfast of bread, cheese and pastries I set off at about 10am. It was still pitch dark but I had quite a few places to visit and needed to get underway. The road took me out of the town I'm staying in ... name is I can't pronounce the name...Stykkisholmur. The sat nav with the coordinates has been amazing. Takes me to within a few metres of the places! Makes me feel much safer.

The first place I visited was Budir Hamlet. It was a 73 klm drive from my accommodation. The road out of town was icy as I found out when I stopped to by fuel before leaving town. Luckily I had the car to hold onto as my feel did a remarkable impression of a first time ice skater...lol. The road out of town was also icy so I stayed about 20 klm under the speed limit. About 10 klms out of town the road turned towards the mountains all covered with snow and ice. I drove really slowly and safely. The scenery was amazing. By the time I approached the Hamlet the daylight had started. There was an old church here and spectacular mountains and sea views.

Back on the road, I headed another 20klms to Arnarstapi Village. There are lots of holiday homes here. I guess this is where people who live in Reykjavik come for their summer holidays. Next visit was to Hellnar. I think this is the lunch break stop as there were buses pulling up from Reykjavik with tourists. This is tourist season for Iceland and it's a busy time. I had mushroom soup and bread. Expensive at just over $20 but warm and yummy.

Heading off to the next places were cliffs, mountains and waterfalls. Iceland has very little greenery. In fact there are no trees at all. The places that I visited today were on a peninsular so I was able to drive all around. There were a couple of places on my list that I didn't get to because of the short days. I intended to get back to my room before 4. Iceland looks very glacial; lots of valleys and weird volcanic rock outcrops.

I arrived back into town, drove up to the church on the top of the hill. Not sure what religion but a beautiful piece of architecture. I bought some goodies at the local shops and went back to my room. The stars were out and I thought it would be a good night for the lights so I drove out into the countryside and sat in the dark for a couple of hours: millions of stars but no lights. By about 9pm I was tired and went back to my room. Watched TV for a bit and lights out. Altogether a lovely day. Views of the lights would have made it perfect but not to worry.

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