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I clearly remember that the first thing they told us at the rental was to be careful every time we opened the doors of the car, since the wind could be so strong that if we had not kept the door close it could have easily uprooted it. This gave us immediately a clear idea of what would have been the climatic conditions to which we would have been submitted in those days. Of course, we were also informed that the car was equipped with different types of sensors positioned in various parts that detected any bumps or collisions, even in the lower part of the car, something I had never heard of before.
We went to Iceland towards the end of March, so during the beginning of spring and therefore with slightly more favorable weather conditions, although coming from Italy we didn't notice it at all. Along the road it was really difficult to spot a little bit of "green", everything was covered from the snow and/or ice. But even so, the landscape wasn't less beautiful, but rather much more fascinating.
Iceland is a very wild country, with huge expanses of land where for kilometers and kilometers there is not a living soul to be seen and no human constructions. It is a land rich in waterfalls, volcanoes, geothermal springs and wild animals. Having the car at our disposal we were free to move around and above all to stop wherever and whenever we wanted.
One thing that left me very surprised was the fact that although the temperatures were very low, even several degrees below zero, the cold was still bearable. This was probably because there wasn't too much humidity and the climate was dry. Where I live, in the Po Valley, the temperatures are never so low, but because there is constant fog that loads the atmosphere with moisture, the perceived temperatures are actually much lower and the cold you feel is much more uncomfortable than what I felt in Iceland.
Obviously this is not to say that the weather conditions in Iceland are better than in Italy, since as I said before the weather conditions are very variable and in at least four of the five days we were there we encountered a blizzard, with winds so strong that it was impossible to keep your eyes open as the snow was coming at high speed and hitting your face directly.
But that is part of the charm of this wonderful country, a hostile and rugged land covered in ice and snow for most of the year, but with views and sights that take your breath away when you get there.
We toured a lot with the car and saw a lot of very cool places. We also always slept in different places, sometimes even booked on the spot. But let's start to describe some of the places that we visited on the first day.
Kirkjufell
One of the first places that we saw, was the Kirkjufell mountain.
Kirkjufell (Icelandic: Church Mountain) is a 463-metre-high mountain located on the north coast of Iceland, on the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, near the town of Grundarfjörður set in the fjord of the same name, and is part of the Vesturland region. It is considered the most photographed mountain in the country and was one of the filming locations for seasons 6 and 7 of the television series Game of Thrones.
A scene of Game of Thrones that was filmed in the Kirkjufell mountain.
Source
Its name in Icelandic comes from its resemblance to the shape of a church steeple, while in the past Danish sailors used to call it 'Sukkertoppen', or 'sugar top'.
Of course we visited the place all around, we left our car at the bottom of the mountain and we started by taking a look at the surrounding area.
Then we climbed almost to the top of it (of course there was no one there, since there was a lot of ice). But as you will discover through these posts that I will write about our journey in Iceland, we were very adventurous and also reckless, since we visited a lot of places that were closed for the really bad weather conditions, and so most of the time we were alone (which was really fascinating, but also illegal 😅).
During our descent we also found some kind of blanket/dress abandoned in the snow. Obviously, as soon as we found it, we started to think about why it was left there, and the most popular theories were as follows:
- some adventurous visitor like us had climbed the mountain in bad weather conditions and had been swallowed up by the mountain, leaving this piece of clothing as the only trace of his passage 😨 - a very fascinating theory, but very implausible;
- during the filming of GoT, some of the actors (brutes I would say in this case seeing how it was made) had dropped it and abandoned it on the mountain (thus making it a precious relic) - very fascinating theory too and with a fair chance of being realistic, although I hope it is not true, because we didn't keep it 😅;
- some simple visitor like us, and rather careless, had simply forgotten it there - not very fascinating as a theory but with the highest probability of being the true one.
Saxhóll crater
An other place that we visited the first day, was the Saxhóll crater.
This is an excellent sightseeing attraction and is really easy to access, since there is a useful walking path and steps. The top is approximately 100m high and it offers a really amazing view of a crater which once shot hot magma from the earth, sculpting the landscape around it.
From the top of the crater, one is blessed with incredible views over the Atlantic Ocean and the expansive, dried lava fields of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Here we had some fun, collecting seashells and playing with the black sand.
The first night we slept in a an hostel in the middle of nowhere (like any other building in Iceland actually). Here we met some other tourists like us, and to my surprise most of them were on solo travelling. Iceland is a very hostile environment especially during winter or the beginning of spring. It was not so uncommon to see cars overturned on the side of the road due to the strong wind. So I was quite fascinated by those people that were travelling on their own.
Conclusions
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