Winter road trip in Iceland: the West Fjords and the Snæfellsness peninsula

Last updated on June 6, 2022 by Mountainswithmegan

Where I left off blogging about Iceland, Gareth and I had just left northern Iceland and were heading to the Westfjords. This article will focus on the end of our winter road trip, the Westfjords and the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. It’s been almost five months since I returned from Iceland. I have been very busy with school and starting my jewelry business. However, I am committed to finishing my articles in Iceland before heading elsewhere.

The Witches Museum

As I mentioned before, we didn’t even know if we would be able to go to the Westfjords on this trip. Winter conditions there can be so extreme that roads entering and exiting the fjord are closed for some time. As we were there and the weather looked good, we decided to give it a go. After all, we may never return to Iceland.

As we entered the Westfjords, the road changed from pavement to gravel. We headed to the town of Holmavik to see the Museum of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the museum was pretty dark and scary. It definitely highlighted the sinister side of ancient magic. There was a lot of information about witchcraft used by the early Icelandic settlers. I was disappointed that history seemed to mostly remember men who were wizards, and that there wasn’t much information about early witches.

There was a pair of ‘necropants’ on display. These are pants made of human skin. Apparently, the wearer of the pants must steal a coin from a widow, store it in the scrotum, and then be rewarded with an infinite amount of money. Gareth didn’t think the human skin pants were real, but from what I read online they came from a 17th century wizard who gave permission to make them into pants after his death.

There were all sorts of weird things at the museum. I didn’t want to touch anything, but Gareth touched a 300 year old hand carved rock that had been used to collect the sacrificial blood.

After leaving the museum, we were lucky enough to have a campsite in town that wasn’t on my list of open campsites. It was attached to the local swimming pool and we had it to ourselves.

The Westfjords

I had heard about a ferry that ran from the southern coast of the Westfjords to the Snæfellsnes peninsula. This would potentially save us a few hours of driving and allow us to spend a little more time in the Westfjords. After all, we only had a few days of van rental left and we wanted to make the most of it.

After leaving the town of Holmavik, we head towards the ferry. I had reserved a place for us on the ferry that would leave that evening. We drove through the mountains and through a snow squall. It’s always quite stressful driving in the snow in the middle of nowhere in Iceland, but luckily it was short-lived and we made it down the mountain without a problem.

We reached the West Fjords. The roads were dirt and gravel again, and driving was slow for a few hours as they crisscrossed the coast. Some roads were very steep with long descents, but overall it was a scenic drive. We eventually arrived at a hot spring, where we planned to spend the afternoon bathing while waiting for our ferry.

It was a cute little spring nestled in a rocky alcove right on the edge of the ocean. The water was warm, but not as hot as I would have liked on a day as cold as it was. We had the spring to ourselves for about an hour. Finally, it was time to quickly return to the van and get dressed.

There were many other things I would have liked to see in the Westfjords, but we just didn’t have the time. Even a nearly three-week road trip to Iceland didn’t seem like enough to see everything we wanted.

Ferry to Snæfellsness Peninsula

We drove to our ferry location only to wait a very long time for our ferry to arrive. We were a little worried that this wouldn’t happen and that we would have to take a very long drive to Reykjavik to return our rental on time. Our worries were in vain, because it eventually happened.

We drove the van onto the ferry and then walked to the guest deck. Although a few tractor trailers were loaded onto the ferry, we seemed to be the only ones invited to be there for non-business reasons. I imagined that in the summer the ferry would be crowded, as there was enough seating for almost 100 people. But it was just Gareth and me, and two men in work uniforms.

We were both starving and hadn’t been convinced that the kitchen would be open, even though the ferry website said so. After all, it was off season. To our greatest pleasure, the cook was still working! We ordered burgers with fries and beers, relaxed and enjoyed the boat ride.

After dinner we went up to the terrace to go out into the night and see the water. The wind was freezing in my face and the railings were frozen for me to hold on to. We couldn’t see further into the ocean than where the boat’s lights reached. The waves were dark and menacing. We briefly discussed that it would certainly be fatal to fall overboard at this time of night in these conditions. That was enough outdoor time for us and we rushed back into the warmth.

After several hours at sea, our ferry arrived in the town of Stykkisholmur on the Snæfellsness peninsula. Happy to have more pleasant weather conditions, we leave the ferry to find our campsite on the outskirts of town.

Snæfellsness Peninsula

We only had one day to explore the Snæfellsness peninsula. We wanted to make the most of the little time we had left in Iceland. We were both really starting to miss our pets at home. Although we were determined to enjoy the rest of the trip, we were also close to ending our vacation.

We started our morning by going to a local bakery in Stykkisholmur to get some pastries and coffee, and planned our day a bit from there. We spent the day exploring the sights. I was excited about Kirkjufell, a famous mountain and yet another Game of Thrones filming location. The cloudy day actually made for a really nice backdrop for taking photos of the mountain. I imagined Jon Snow hiking north of the Wall.

We treated ourselves to a takeaway pizza for lunch then went to explore a canyon off the road. The hike to get there was short and we were the only ones visiting. Then we went to see a small black church built in 1703. It was very cute. It looked like it had been renovated since 1703 and even looked a little modern.

Once daylight began to fade, it was time to head out again. We started the return to Reykjavik to save time in the morning. It was the day before Christmas Eve, and we wanted to get to the grocery store while it was still open and check into our AirBnb the next morning.

We continued to the town of Akranes and located our campsite. The evening was still young and we couldn’t resist one last trip to a local swimming pool. We soaked in the hot tub until closing time, then we were asleep and ready to retire for our last night in the van.

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