{"id":26242,"date":"2026-11-05T13:12:07","date_gmt":"2026-11-05T13:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/?p=26242"},"modified":"2026-11-05T16:44:01","modified_gmt":"2026-11-05T16:44:01","slug":"driving-to-snaefellsnes-peninsula-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/2026\/11\/05\/driving-to-snaefellsnes-peninsula-iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"Driving to Snaefellsnes Peninsula, Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Tuesday, May 19 \u2013 The poor sleep we’ve been getting here in Iceland<\/a> was making it difficult to get moving in the morning. We got off to a late start. For breakfast, we took the car<\/a> to a bakery in a shopping center in the suburbs. Parking was free and abundant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We realized the bakery was part of a local chain. The signs were all in Icelandic, with no English. But the people behind the counter spoke English and were happy to explain what was in the assorted goodies. This bakery was about half as expensive as the places we’d gone to downtown<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The food was great. We’ve been blown away by the food here in Iceland — we haven’t had a single mediocre meal, let alone a bad meal. Once we finished eating, we set off, this time heading north on Highway 1<\/a>. It was another beautiful day,<\/a> sunny and 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9.44 celsius). <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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The scenery quickly went from suburban to rural. Eric realized that we were following the same route that the tour bus had taken when Eric went to the glacier tunnel<\/a>. It was a long but stunning drive to the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. This stretch of Highway 1 mostly followed the jagged coastline, so there were beautiful waterfront vistas all along the drive. Here was a shot looking back at the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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And looking inland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We came to the tunnel that had impressed Eric<\/a>, which ran under the Hvalfj\u00f6r\u00f0ur fjord<\/a>. The tunnel opened in 1998, was 5,762 meters (18,904 feet)\u00a0long and ran 165 metres (541 feet)\u00a0below sea level. Prior to the tunnel, cars had to drive another 62 kilometers (39 miles) around the fjord, so it saved an hour of drive time. This was the view from near the tunnel exit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not log beyond the tunnel, we passed a factory situated on the north side of the fjord. Eric remembered that the bus driver had told them it was an aluminum plant and that aluminum was one of Iceland\u2019s biggest source of revenue. Aluminum was abundant in nature as bauxite, a sedimentary rock composed mainly of aluminum-bearing minerals. But bauxite refining was an energy hog, making aluminum production expensive. But energy was cheap in Iceland<\/a>. Bauxite wasn’t indigenous to Iceland, so cargo ships brought in the bauxite for processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Not long past the aluminum plant was the turnoff that Eric\u2019s tour bus had taken to go to the base of the glacier.<\/a> We stayed on Highway 1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The glacier ahead was steadily becoming bigger and clearer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Highway 1 took us across a bridge over the lovely Borgarfjordur fjord to the southwest edge of the Snaefellsnes Peninsula. Highway 1 actually turned inland at this point, so we turned off Highway 1 and followed a road that took us northeast through a charming small town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Beyond the town, the scenery was mostly rural farmland, though we did pass a couple towns that were so tiny that you’d miss them if you blinked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The road eventually turned due east, following the shoreline of the peninsula. Our first stop was at viewpoint. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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to be continued… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, May 19 \u2013 The poor sleep we’ve been getting here in Iceland was making it difficult to get moving in the morning. We got off to a late start. For breakfast, we took the car to a bakery in … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,1,44,429,398],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-europe","category-general","category-history","category-iceland","category-tourist-activities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26242","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26242"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26242\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26313,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26242\/revisions\/26313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26242"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kosmos.liveflux.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}