Snaefellsness Peninsula and environs

Our first first day in Iceland on Fram, and we have lots of things to do! Overnight we sailed in slightly loppy water to Grundarfjorder on the north coast of the Snaefellsness Peninsula. By the way, apologies to our Icelandic readers but your faithful blogger does not know how to type the 'eth' letter, which is the final 'd' in Grundarfjorder. The 'eth' is an old letter in the Icelandic alphabet that is pronounced 'th' as in 'the'. It looks like a 'D' with a little line through it. There is another old letter in Icelandic 'thorn' which is a softer 'th' as in 'thought'. The 'thorn' looks a little like a 'P'. Maybe by the time our Iceland adventure ends, I'll be able to produce these two interesting letters!

So back to where we were today. Several excursions were offered in the morning and afternoon and almost all of us took advantage of one or the other. The weather was very fine! Some Fram guests made a beautiful hike up to an great vantage point which afforded tremendous views of the area around Grundarfjorder.

Others took a bus and walking excursion over the Snaefellsnes (literally Snow mountain point or small peninsula) Peninsula. It's hard to believe that all the spectacular scenery was crafted completely by volcanic activity.Birds were abundant around the coastline including Northern Fulmar and Black-legged Kittiwake. Any ponds we saw had eiders on the water and shorebirds around the margins.

A Northern Fulmar displaying

A pair of Black-legged Kittiwakes

Over lunch our Captain repositioned the ship to Stykkisholmur, a little further along the north coast of the Snaefellnes Peninsula. There we had more great activities with some going on a small boat cruise to experience a few of the 3000 islands in Breidafjordur (wide fiord) and others hiking in a lava field called Berserkjahraun.

All in all we had a fantastic first full day of activities and look forward to tomorrow, and the day ofter that, and the day after that ......