We took a shortcut over a mountain (gravel road and definitely needed a 4x4) to the other side of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula, where we were going to overnight. We were so close to the Snæfellsjökull ice cap, we could have hiked to it and actually saw some hikers climbing it. It’s small as ice caps in Iceland go, but still an impressive sight.
The Snæfellsjökull ice cap was immortalized in Jules Verne’s “Journey to the Center of the Earth,” in which a group of Germans descend into the volcano and encounter many adventures. It last erupted in around A.D. 200; "the dramatic peak was torn apart when the volcano beneath the ice cap exploded and the volcano subsequently collapsed into its own magma chamber, forming a huge caldera." ("Iceland," Lonely Planet)
Another of several images posted this morning of a lone church in a stark setting: