We visited the farm of a friend of Margrét, our tour guide. It is a hobby farm as his real job is serving as the principal of a school in Reykjavik, but it was still a serious-looking operation with a couple hundred sheep and several horses. The horses were very comfortable with people, and they are cute and small, but we were told they “would have been insulted to be called ponies.”
We went toward the tip of the Snaefellsness Peninsula, which some people deem to be the center of the earth, or at least an entrance to the center. We stopped briefly at an area with some tidal pools so we could see some of the birds in the area.
At the small town of Arnarstapi we walked along the coast of basalt cliffs to see arches and cave-like features where many sea birds are nesting.
We hiked further through a lava flow to the even smaller town of Hellnar where we had lunch at a tiny cafe by the sea.
The bus picked us up from near the cafe and we continued around the tip of the peninsula past a landmark mountain called Kirkjufell.
We turned off the highway and drove through a lava flow mostly covered by moss.
This small road took us to a shark “museum” where we tasted the “delicacy” of hákarl, the meat of Greenland shark which has been fermented and aged for six months. The best thing about fermented shark meat is that they dry it in a very scenic location. Given the smell emanating from the shed, this is a tradition best practiced in the absolute middle of no-where.
The second best thing about fermented shark meat is that it is served with a cumin schnapps chaser, but that only helps it so much.
We returned to Stykkisholmur again for the night where I noticed the very unusual light fixtures in our hotel room.
Margrét had arranged for a couple of the guys on the tour who wanted to go fishing to go on a fishing charter for the day. They caught several fish, so Margrét then made a bunch of phone calls to various friends to arrange for a large pot with a burner she could set up behind the hotel. She also bought a bunch of potatoes and other fixings and made a traditional Icelandic fish boil for everyone to share. It took quite a bit of arm-twisting and logistics to make it happen, but we all got to try some very authentic Icelandic food.