Day 4 and 5 - It's a long way to Snaesfjell
Well, not really, compared to other upcoming stints, the 3,5h trip from Reykjavik to Stykkisholmur is average. It also depends which part of the journey this statement should cover.
As for the aforementioned part from Reykjavik to my next hotel in Stykkisholmur (sorry, no idea how to pronounce this correctly), it went really smooth, already starting at the outskirts of Reykjavik at Perlan, a very creative way to make extra money out of the giant geo-thermal storage tanks that heat Reykjavik's homes and hot water.
In short, it's a museum, planetarium, cafe and observation platform, that was created by utilizing the space between the six giant storage tanks (the photo only shows two because they are absolutely massive) and placing a glass dome on top of the whole thing.
From there my path lead out of the city for the first time really confronting me with one of the specialities of Iceland's traffic rules. Like, e.g. the UK, Icelanders (or their traffic planners) seem to love multi-lane roundabouts. These differ from their UK counterparts in two important aspects. First, the maximum number of lanes across the country is two and second, the rules you have to observe when you are in one.
The UK model can be summed up as, the outermost lane takes the first exit, the inner lane(s) go to the second, third and so on exits (there is a very big * attached to this summary, because it all depends on how many lanes the exiting roads have).
The Iceland model is a bit simpler. You can take any lane you like to go anywhere. If the car on the inner lane wants to get out, the car on the outer lane has to give way. No exceptions or conditions.
However, once you get far enough away from the cities two things happen. The roundabouts are replaced with regular intersections because the number of cars on the road drops rapidly and the scenary really starts to look mystical and devoid of human life (with the occasional exception, of course).
This the road eventually lead me to my destination and base for the following two days, Stykkisholmur, a nice harbour town with 1200 inhabitants and a rather unique churche.
The following day was then dedicated to exploring the Snaefell-Peninsula, so called after the Snaefelljökull (literally translating to Snow Montain Galcier).
This day produced a number of spetacular impressions
But the most memorable experience of the 5th day is a combination of landscape and another road speciality of Iceland, gravel roads and the name of this experience, Berserkjahraun (Berserk Lava Field, sounds epic...).
