Just over an hour north of where I am staying is the lovely peninsula of Borgarbyggð – but while the area is lovely, the main reason for this little adventure was to check off another of my Walter Mitty locations…  Papa Johns.

Scene from the movie:

…and in fact it is a bakery!

After some searching, I managed to find Hlíðartúnshúsin – restored traditional Icelandic turf houses.

Ah, the rare Domesticus Snow Leopard!

He was camera-shy…

I managed to find the perfect place to curl up in Harry and read for a while…

Btw, if you don’t know about this painting, it is not by Rembrandt – but is instead the result of high resolution scans of all of his paintings, AI processing of the data, and the painting itself printed with a 3D printer to mimic the actual style of brushstrokes etc used by the real master.

…and when one considers this was produced back in 2016, one wonders about the future of ‘creative’ expression…

Anyway, the scenery was much too lovely to ponder anything so challenging for too long…

The mountain in front of me looked as though it had newly erupted…

We have such glorious sunsets here…

~ Bella

First, watch this clip – I was just there!!!  …and drove that road!!!  …complete with the movie’s soundtrack playing in the background…

Again, these photos do not do it justice, but this was one of the most amazing roads I have ever travelled.

It is said that the Transfăgărășan Road in Romania, that I have also travelled, is the world’s most scenic… but I think this one is right up there with it, along with Strada della Forra around Lake Garda in Italy, that I have also done.

…and yes, the only time it rained was on the way down the mountain – but even so, the drive was amazing.

This is the ‘Walter Mitty viewpoint’… unfortunately, the only place to stop would have required quite the hike to get back to it, so only photos from the car, I’m afraid…

Oh, I wish you could have seen it for real… these photos do not even convey 10% of the beauty…

What’s red and hides in long grass?

A phone booth, of course!

It was created in 2006 by Icelandic artist Guðjón Ketilsson to commemorate the centennial of the first international telegraph cable in Iceland. Reaching from Scotland to Iceland, the underwater connection began Iceland’s telecommunications with the rest of the world.

…and another Walter Mitty location…  At the end of the clip, Walter arrives at the Hotel Aldan…

~ Bella

Continuing on my ‘Walter Mitty’ quest, Harry Hyundai and I went in search of the supposed ‘Nuuk’ airport…

Here is a shot from the movie showing the airport…

..and hey presto!  Hornafjörður Airport!

From here we go searching for a red chair…….   http://luxuriousnomad.com/icelands-red-chair/

~ Bella

“You want me pump you?”

Harry Hyundai needed some go-go juice for our rather adventurous day trip, and I was quite proud of myself that I navigated the entire affair myself, without resorting to using English even once.

As I settled back into the car, a rather large fellow with a safety vest slowly came over to the car and stood at my window, staring at me.  I thought – oh, no, I must have done something wrong!

I put down the window and he said something very slowly in Icelandic.  I asked him if he spoke English, not sure what he was going to say if he did?

To this he replied, equally slowly, “you want me pump you” – with an inflection that made it sound like more of an order than a request.

Having now cottoned on to what was happening, I thanked him but said I had already taken care of it – and we were on our way!

Destination:  Snæfellsnes Peninsula

Tunnels are not exactly a welcome sight for me, since I have very poor low-light vision – and what I didn’t know was that this tunnel goes on for ages and ages and ages………….

…and, thankful to see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, we continued…

…and so we arrived at our first way-point – and the next in our Walter Mitty quest…  Stykkishólmur, where the helicopter scene was filmed!

The smaller two-storey building near the centre of frame was the building used for the bar in Walter Mitty… (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkpDb3-AruE)

This photo (below) is taken from where the helicopter was sitting…

…and in the image above, the cream building with the detailing down the corner edges of the building was painted a dark colour in the film…

The entire place is stunningly beautiful!

The Walter Mitty bar on the left…

Photo of Harry…

Freshly caught, freshly cooked!

…continuing on… http://luxuriousnomad.com/snaefellsnes-peninsula-part-2-of-3/