Ísafjörður to Stykkishólmur, 24-Aug-2026
A day with lots of travel but less activity. We returned to Dynjandi to spend more time at the falls with fewer people, then took a ferry across Breiðafjörður Bay before arriving in Stykkishólmur for the evening.
Our morning was a bit more relaxed. After breakfast, we stopped by a bakery to pick up some food for lunch, then went to the grocery store for additional food, then back to the hotel to finish packing and load the vans.
We needed to go through the same tunnels as the previous day. We made sure to not take the wrong turn in the middle, and we needed to be the ones to use the pull-outs to yield to oncoming traffic. It was uneventful, and soon we saw the sky again.
Dynjandi
We returned to Dynjandi to find only a couple of cars in the parking lot. Instead of the speed run we made the day before, we took our time going up, stopping at all of the other viewpoints along the way. We also climbed past the top platform to right next to the base of the falls. What we couldn’t really see the day before from lower down was a bunch of small rivulets going down mossy rocks, with a red section of rock at the bottom. I was able to get a few photos before my lens filter got filled with mist.
Once we were back at the bottom, we drove down a road along the water, catching up with other group members who had gone ahead of us. We turned around in time to get back to the picnic tables for lunch. We had a bit of time, but also wanted to allow extra time to be sure we didn’t miss our ferry in a couple of hours.
Ferry from Brjánslækur to Stykkishólmur
We arrived at the ferry terminal with plenty of spare time before we needed to load the ferry. There were no cars in line, so we stuck around in the parking lot until it got closer to time. We saw the ferry pull up, then turn around and back into the dock. The front of the ferry was pointed, so we weren’t sure what would happen inside, since it didn’t seem likely they would have cars back in or back out.
After the cars unloaded, we started loading, and we saw that the front of the car bay looked like a section that would fold down to let cars off. Overall, it seemed that not many cars could fit on the ferry. As we went upstairs, there were a lot of seats, so we figured there usually would be a lot of walk-on passengers.
Halfway through the ferry ride, we pulled into the island of Flatley to take on a few passengers. A small shipping container was also hoisted by crane onto the island. In the meantime, we were trying to figure out about dinner, since it was highly recommended that we have reservations for wherever we were going. We found a place and I made a reservation for a small group of us while on the ferry.
We went down to the car deck to get into the vans as the ferry pulled into Stykkishólmur, and indeed, the front section of the boat folded down and we pulled straight out. Looking at the ferry later, we could see that most of the bow folded up and a driving platform folded down.
After driving off the ferry, we drove a couple of blocks to our hotel and checked in. Looking around, we found an old upright piano in the basement with a sign saying it was fine to play through the early evening. I tried it out for a bit, and it was pretty out of tune, as well as having some of the key caps missing. Melody came down and we tried a duet.
It was time for dinner, so we started walking over. It was a small place, so while there were a few open tables, it seemed good that we had made a reservation. The food was great, and the kitchen seemed quite busy.
On the walk back, we noticed a fire hydrant that was dedicated to Bobby Fischer, and a door on the second floor of a building which opened to nothing.
