Snæfellsjökull

Mystical Magical Majestic

Photo taken with a scope from Washitsu.Casa

The entrance to the center of the Earth
Can be seen on good days from much of west Iceland and even from Reykjavik, the Reykjanes Peninsula and the south side of Westfjords
A national park is named after it
These pages are not just about the park but also the Snaefellsnes peninsula. There is so much that the area has to offer. It is a minivers of Iceland. With fjords, beaches, the sea and mountains.
Stay at Washitsu.Casa to enjoy the view and feel the energy of this majestic, mystical, mountain, volcano and glacier. More on www-europe.org
Washitsu.Casa is inspired by the look a like mountain in Japan Mt Fuji and as such has a Japanese theme
The west side of Iceland can be depicted as a stretched out leg (the south west - the Reykjanes Peninsula, with Keflavik Airport between the heel and the toe) and as a open hand with stretched out fingers (the north west of Iceland - Westfjords) and between them a stretched out arm with a closed fist (the Selflessness peninsula)
On these pages you will find a lot of photos either from the area or from an identical landscape
The really fantastic thing about Iceland are not the tourist places but finding tranquility and the purest of nature
So instead of just the tourist places we encourage you
- to examine a local fishing village
- to enjoy a waterfall alone or in the company of few others
- to go to some seaside cliffs and just watch the birds fly by and the whales (you can borrow binoculars at the Washitsu.Casa)
- To lay down in the moss
- to observe the bird life (Washitsu.Casa) is in an unbelievable location to do this
- the Midnight Sun or the Northern Lights (2250 km is the perfect distance from the Geomagnetic North Pole for the Northern Lights halo). This is the distance Washitsu.Casa happens to be at. It is also the place where you can observe the point where the Atlantic and Artic Oceans meet. A point where cold nutrient rich currents , meet the war currents from the Gulf of Mexico. Where fish and whales like to hang out.
- a black sand beach and / or beaches with all sorts of rock formations
- a drive in volcano crater
- take marked and un-marked hiking trails or just walk off-trail (just taking care not to form unwanted new trails)

Where the Atlantic and Artic Oceans meet is where the nutrient rich cold water meets the warm currents from the Gulf of Mexico is where the fish like to hang about and consequently also the whales and fishing boats😯 From Washitsu Casa this is the view you can expect in one direction and in the other direction you have the view of some lakes, waterfalls and the glacier. The photo at the top of the page is indeed taken from our living rom with the provided scope.

You may also use the scope to potentially spot some whales and of course to get a close view of the birds.

The artic tern pictured to the right above has the longest migration of all birds up to

...or the sheep. You might also get a glimpse of the fox although he tends to keep a distance from the village which is part of the reason why the birds like to nest here.

Not just a pretty picture of our local church but lots of history.

When CNN did an article about the best passports in the world then it added one country as the 21st country, Iceland just so they could have a similar beautiful picture with the Snaefellsjokull glacier in the background, even though the 20 other countries have beautiful photos too. This was the same day as Harris commenced her campaign for the US 2024 presidential race
CNN probably new that this is no ordinary church but where Christopher Columbus stayed over winter to gather information on how to get to Wineland the continent the Vikings had long ago discovered and was later known as America
The current church is probably the oldest church in Europe constructed from concrete
The beautiful flowers in front where introduced to Iceland from Alaska, they help bind nitrogen into the ground but they interrupt local plant evolution which starts with lichens and in this area they are encroucing on the breeding areas of birds. We would like to keep this invasive spieces under control.

Another newsworthy place on the peninsula is Kolgrafarfjörður. You will find information placard next to the fjord but they fail to tell the whole story.

So here we go:

The Icelandic Road Works which is responsible for planning and making or sub contracting roadworks in Iceland was given the task of crossing the fjord. Normally such work requires studies and scientific measurements of how such an undertaking would affect wildlife.
But for some reason or another they planned it wrong.
Basically they made the open section, the bridge to short and the landfill next to it too long.
So what used to be a fjord became a lagoon with restricted mixing of the water inside the fjord with the ocean outside.
Interestingly the placard you can see from the fjords viewpoint fails to mention the above but mentions what happened after.
During winter, swarms of fish like herring like to go into little fjords like this and some whales follow.
However in the winter 2012-13 a huge swarm of herring entered the fjord (and because of the restricted connection with the ocean) ran out oxygen and died in mass. We estimate that 70 million herrings died.
This death gave rise to a lot of life. Cross fishes who fed on the carcasses bred like crazy. Which in turn attracted the Northern Gannet, which hit the water like missiles diving for the starfish.
Other wildlife was attracted too, various birds and killer whales.
The crossing of the fjord has another benefit also. It results in the inner fjord having almost no traffic. So it is a beautiful tranquil fjord to enjoy.