Iceland VIII - North to Snaefellsnes - Aug 19/26

This was another long drive day. Heading direct, there is not much to see in the northwest corner of Iceland. Following a guidebook recommendation, I had us heading north in a more scenic route along the north coast, specifically the Tröllaskagi peninsula. It was nice, with a curvy road (mostly decently maintained) that required some concentration to drive on, with some gravel sections. 

One surprise that popped up was a one-way tunnel. Iceland is full of one-way bridges and these are really no big deal. Basically the car on the bridge has the right of way and when it's free, you can go. A one-way tunnel, especially one that is 7 km+ long with a 50 km/h speed limit, is another thing as you can't see cars coming, and it's dark, and every time you wind a corner you couldn't be in a collision path directly into oncoming traffic. Thankfully I remembered reading about these tunnels before we came. Basically there are slightly wider "passing" sections throughout the tunnel. Whoeever has these to the right of them has to give way. I was pretty conservative on these as I wasn't sure how often the passing sections came along. I did make one mistake (at this point with several cars behind me, all pulling over at the passing sections). I didn't have quite enough room to reach the passing place, and of course I couldn't back up with all the traffic behind me. It was only one truck with a trailer I was head-to-head with, so thankfully he backed up slightly, enough room for everyone to pass. The rest of the tunnel went smoothly, but this was probably the scariest driving I did in Iceland.

After that we decided to stop in the next town, Siglufjordur, at another guidebook recommendation, the Herring Era Museum. 

This was about the herring fishery in Iceland. It became a major industry starting in the 1920s and going until the fishery collapsed in the late 1960s. The museum had a few buildings on display - one of them had two full, restored actual fishing boats (one of which you could climb on);:

the second building housed industrial equipment showing how the fish oil was extracted and the remainder salted in barrels or canned, with fishmeal being mainly used as animal feed. 

The third building had information on the lives of the people working in the fishery, with a particular focus on the "herring girls". It had displays on their lives and living quarters, as well as what looked like the operation's office.

Overall the museum was well done and worth a stop.

We continued along the peninsula and back the "mainland". Our next stop was yet another guidebook recommendation, the Glaumbaer turf farm museum. It was another good and informative stop. There are several buildings put together - the first few are a smithy, storage, and outbuildings, but there is also an elaborate main house that was once the home of the pastor in the local Lutheran church, complete with a study, bedroom, large sleeping/eating area, kitchen, and food storage/prep areas. 

We took a "direct" gravel route into the Snaefellsnes peninsula, where we were overnighting. We stopped briefly in the town of Blondes for a break during the long drive, and took a look at another ultra-modern church. 

A little further and we made it to Kolugljufur Canyon, with some nice waterfalls and a bridge over the gorge. 

A church meant to be shaped like a whalebone was the main reason for a detour north to Stykkishólmur. 

We finished off at our worst accomodations on the trip, near Grundarfjörður. It was a guesthouse with five rooms all next to each other. The walls were paper-thin and the whole place was very run-down. We could here the baby crying from  two rooms away as if it was next to us, and the beds were squeaky and tiny, as was the room. All food options were closed, so we went with what we had on hand. The one positive to the place was the location, looking our directly onto the mountains. There was auroral activity this night, but it was too dark to see anything.