During the next three days we travelled west along the north coast towards the West Fjords area. This included going through several long tunnels. The Vaðlaheiðargöng tunnel is a toll which you have to pay either before you go into the tunnel or within 3 hours of leaving it (you can pay via their web site). A couple of the other tunnels are one-way with turn-outs. That’s kind of interesting. You drive down this dark one-way tunnel until you see headlights coming barreling towards you and then you start looking for a place to pull over. There were a lot of large trucks so that was a bit stressful. On one occasion, we were a bit too close to our friends John and Nancy with another car in between; it was a bit dicey trying to fit into one of the turn-outs with three cars before a truck passed us from the other direction. From then on we kept our distance.
Our first stop was Goðafoss (waterfall of the gods). I’m sure it would have looked more heavenly if it hadn’t been raining.
From there we went to Akureyri (the unofficial capital of north Iceland) and wandered around.
We did a walk above the church and found a path that used to lead down to a dance hall. Students at the local college used to call it “the path to destruction”. However, they later put a positive spin on it by having new students walk up the path which they then called “the path to education”.
From Akureyri we continued on to Siglufjörður which used to the the home of the Icelandic herring fleet. We planned to go to the Herring Museum but it was closed. A number of the restaurants were closed as well (late in the season).
We stayed at a hotel in the middle of nowhere (Hotel Laugarbakki) which had a huge swimming pool filled with hot spring water. The next day we went to Kolufoss waterfall nearby.
From there we went along the north shore to Hólmavík in the West Fjords. It rained during the entire drive and the road full of potholes – the worst road on our trip. The only place we managed to stop for a pit stop was a two porto-pottys held down by a chain that connected to two tractor tires filled with cement. It’s a pretty windy area and the chain was there to prevent a possible unhappy accident which might otherwise occur if someone was in a porto-potty and the wind blew it down the hill.
We stopped in Hólmavík at a restaurant that also contained the “Icelandic Witchcraft and Sorcery Museum” – and from there to our hotel.
The next day we headed off towards the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Below is a picture taken of some sheep along the way.
We stopped in the town of Stykkishólmur and had lunch at the Sjávarpakkhúsið restaurant.
We then walked over to the Súgandisey island (more basalt columns) and took the stairs to the lighthouse on top.
Pictures for this part of the trip are at: HUSAVIK TO THE WEST FJORDS.
WR Foster 