Day 6 of 7 on the Ring Road in Iceland

Hey Guys!

For those of you following along, you will know that we are actually doing Day 7 of our itinerary due to our flight out to Iceland being cancelled.

We actually do Day 1 (Golden Circle) of our itinerary on our last day which will be the next blog post I publish.

You can read my full itinerary here.

Read Day 1 here, Day 2 here, Day 3 here, Day 4 here, Day 5 here, & Day 7 here

So, let’s get started. We are now in the Snæfellsnes Peninsula checking out of the Kast Guesthouse. We are heading towards Reykjavik which is 2 hrs without stops.

Sadly, we woke up to a rainy, foggy day. We had great weather up until this day.

We headed to our first stop of the day, Bjarnarfoss. We had to backtrack about 10 mins to see this waterfall. However when we arrived, it was too foggy to see much.

So, we headed to our 2nd stop of the day, Ytri Tunga beach. It was only 15 mins from Bjarnarfoss.

Tip: You could make your next stop the Landbrotalaug hot pot – 40 mins from last stop – GPS coordinates N 64 49.933 W22 19.110.

Ytri Tunga is a great place for watching seals. The best months to see them is June & July.

We arrived and it was still raining so we pulled out all of our rain gear.

No matter what you have read, you need to have rain gear. We took rain coats, rain pants and waterproof hiking shoes and used them often.

The seals were everywhere and so playful. They seemed to be very curious about us humans.

You will see this lighthouse from the beach.

After leaving here we headed to our next stop, Glanni Waterfall.

Tip: Your next stop could be Gerduberg Cliffs then Glanni..however, we skipped this stop.

Glanni is approximately 1.5 hrs from Ytri Tunga. You will go through Borgarnes on the way so you could stop here first. It’s an hour from Ytri Tunga.

Tip: Stop off at Geirabakarí in Borgarnes. This is where Ben Stiller turned the bakery into a Papa John’s Pizza for three days while filming The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. Try the chocolate covered cinnamon bun.

You could also visit Akranes. It’s 30 mins from Borgarnes. Read here about one of the most picturesque lighthouses and the old abandoned rusty ship in Akranes.

Tip: Hvammsvik Hot Springs is located 35 mins from Akranes – Read an article about this new hot springs here

On our way to the waterfall we passed the Faskrudarbakki Church.

We arrived to Glanni and it was a short 5-10 min walk from the parking lot at the Golf Club House.

There are several paths along the river. Be sure to find the salmon ladder. These are a series of pools built like steps to enable fish to bypass a dam or waterfall.

We loved the color of this waterfall.

Iceland’s waterfalls range in a variety of blue shades.Tip: Other nearby areas are Borgarfjordur, Husafell, Deildartunguhver Thermal Spring & Krauma Geothermal Baths

After leaving here we headed to our next stop, Grabok crater. Once we arrived we saw there were lots of steps to the top so we decided to take pics from the bottom. 😉

I’ve since read that there are as many as 500 steps to the top! Glad I skipped that!

Grábrók is the largest of the craters on a 2000 ft long fissure. The Grábrók fissure is the eastern most postglacial eruption site in the Ljósufjöll volcanic system.

Click here to read about more craters you can see in Iceland.

If you look closely you can see people at the top.After leaving here we headed to our next stop, Hraunfossar & Barnafoss.

There are so many cool road shots in Iceland!

On the way to the waterfall, we stopped off for lunch. We ate at a gas station restaurant called Baulan.

My hubby ordered his usual burger and I ordered the chicken teriyaki with rice.

We had to pay to use the restrooms here.

After lunch we continued our drive to Hraunfossar. We spotted this church on the way.

We drove alongside this river for a while during our drive.

We finally arrived to Hraunfossar. We loved this waterfall! I highly recommend a stop here!

This is also the location of Barnafoss.

After leaving here we continued our drive towards Reykjavik.

We decided to skip the short cut which would have taken us through the Hvalfjörður tunnel and I’m so glad we did. The drive was breathtaking!

Read here why you should skip the tunnel & Click here to see all the tunnels along the ring road.

We passed this church along the way.

Another road shot

We passed this church in Reykholt.

There are actually two churches at this one location. The older church of Reykholt, built in 1897, served as a parish church for a 100 years, and the new church, was consecrated in 1996. The new church plays a second role as a concert hall.

Tip: Check out Snorralaug in Reykholt…It’s the oldest hot pot in Iceland ..however, it’s not open to the public. It’s a very short walk from the church. Also, 35 mins from Reykholt is another hot pot that you can get in called Krosslaug. See all hot pots, as well as swimming pools & gas stations in Iceland here.

Tip: Just 7 min drive from the church is Europe’s most powerful hot spring called Deildartunguhver & 50 mins from the church is the Langjokull Glacier where you can do an ice cave tour or a snowmobile tour.

We passed these beautiful horses alongside the road

We saw this troll statue near the road

We passed lots of beautiful views along the way but I was a bit disappointed knowing I was missing some of the views due to the fog! 🙁

Can you pronounce this?! I’ve never seen such long words like the ones in Iceland!

We stopped at another church along the way called Saurbaejarkirkja. This church had beautiful ocean views!

Tip: 20 mins from this church is the new hot springs called Hvammsvik Hot Springs

To see more beautiful churches in Iceland click here. & here.

Our tiny little car

More beautiful shots along the way!

I highly recommend you bypass the tunnel and take this route as the views are incredible!

Here’s a picture of the map showing the route. The red line between Borgarnes & the Kria Cottages indicates the tunnel that you want to skip.

We passed the road to the Glymur waterfall. We skipped this stop since it takes around 3 hrs round trip to hike. Read reviews here.

We passed this very small waterfall on the way

For a list of waterfalls in Iceland click here & here

We spotted a rainbow on the way!

We stopped to take pics of the rainbow and met 2 older gentleman from Norway who were fishing for salmon. They told us about a nearby salmon ladder so, we went to see if we could spot any in the water. Sadly, we never saw any but these views were definitely worth the stop!

After leaving here we continued our drive to our next stop, Fossarrett.

This was a small waterfall but it was surrounded by all kinds of beautiful flowers!

Tip: I have since read that if you walk up above the falls there is another falls.

There was also an old sheepfold located here.

There was also a patch of trees nearby that we went and checked out.

We discovered more pine trees!

After leaving here we continued our drive..We passed this old WWII naval base along the way..You can still see the rusted remains of the pier of the British naval base jutting out precariously into the ocean.

More remains

And more stunning views along the way!

We stopped to take pics of this river..it was called Laxa i Kjos and it was surrounded by lupine flowers!

Salmon river is called laxá in Icelandic. There are many rivers that bear the name Laxá and are identified by their location.

Láxá í Kjós has been a popular river for fishing for decades and is one of the best known rivers for salmon fishing in Iceland. The river is about 20 km long with around 100 fishing spots.

We finally arrived to Reykjavik. It was actually a lot bigger than I had envisioned.

We headed to our hotel, the CenterHotel Klopp.

We passed this statue on the drive. It’s called Water Carrier. See more statues in Reykjavik here.

We drove around for a while and couldn’t find street parking so we ended up parking in a parking garage. It cost us $15 to park overnight.

The nearest parking garages to the hotel are Vesturgata 7, Laugavegur Parking Garage & Radhus Parking Garage.

The hotel was very centrally located.

After checking in, we headed back out to find something to eat. We were very close to the main shopping street called Laugavegur.

Iceland’s streets are full of “street art”…here are some of the ones we saw.

Reykjavik is a very colorful place

I loved the hearts that were painted on the street!

We spotted these Viking cutouts and just had to get our picture! 😆

We took the recommendation of our hotel concierge and ate at Islenski Barrin.

We saw someone try the Hakarl …he ran outside an threw up!

We both ordered the fish and chips and it was delicious!

After dinner we decided to walk to Hallgrimskirkja.

The church was designed by the late Guðjón Samúelsson in 1937, who was often inspired by the fascinating shapes and forms created when lava cools into basalt rock.

Construction of the church began in 1945 and ended in 1986, with the tower completed long before the rest of the building. The crypt beneath the choir was consecrated in 1948, the steeple and wings completed in 1974 and the nave consecrated in 1986.