September 24, 2017 - Arnarstapi; Breidafjördur Fjord Boat Tour

We started the day by driving along Snæfellsnes Peninsula to Arnarstapi which is a village in the southern part of the peninsula.  The first stop was the huge statue of Bárður Snæfellsás made by Ragnar Kjartansson, one of Iceland's most renowned sculptures.  The statue is his interpretation of the giant character that dominates the area around Snæfellsjökull glacier. Bárður is an extraordinary being from the time of settlement in Iceland.  His story was written in Medieval times in the fifteenth century and is part of the Icelandic Sagas. Bárður Snæfellsás became known as the Guardian Spirit of Snæfell as the locals worshiped him and looked at him as their savior. For centuries, they would call upon him in times of hardship and trouble.

Then, we saw the Gatklettur (Arch Rock - is a cliff with a circular arch). Gatklettur shows how distinctive wave action has eroded the rocks into arches and beautiful swirled patterns.

Afterwards, we drove to Hellnar which is an old fishing village on the western most part of the Snaefellsnes peninsula. It used to be one of the largest fishing stations of the peninsula, the oldest record of seafaring there being from 1560.

We stopped at a local restaurant for lunch.  However, there was only one waiter and service was too slow.  Therefore, we decided to skip lunch and walked down to Badstofa Caves to view the wonderful sceneries there.

Later, we drove to Stykkishólmur harbor to join our optional Breidafjördur Fjord Boat Tour. The boat took us onto a two hours trip to Breiðafjörður Bay with its wonderful countless islands. The islands are actually on the list of 3 countless things in Iceland.

Three crew members threw out a net and had quite impressive catch including  scallops, sea-urchins, starfish, and all kinds of shells (fruit of the ocean). The crew opened up clams and offered fresh scallops for free.  They also provided knifes for us to open up clams ourselves. It was a delicious Viking Sushi treat.

After dinner at the Fosshotel, we were informed that there were northern lights just outside of the hotel.  We dashed out with our cameras and spotted some activities.  However, we did not setup our cameras properly to take northern lights photo.  But it was exciting of seeing it the first time in our life.