Búðir is one of those places that looks like it was designed by a film director. A small black wooden church stands alone on a green headland, with a vast lava field spreading behind it, the sea ahead and, on a clear day, the white dome of Snæfellsjökull glowing in the distance. There is no village to speak of, only a hotel, a few scattered farms and the church, and it is the sort of scene that makes you reach for the camera before you have turned off the engine.
The lava field around Búðir, called Búðahraun, was formed by an eruption several thousand years ago, and it is now covered in moss, lichen and low scrub, with the sharp, folded forms of the lava forming small caves and gullies. A short walk from the church takes you down to a golden beach, one of the few on the peninsula, where the sand is light and the surf rolls in from the open Atlantic. Eider ducks and arctic terns nest nearby in summer.
The road along the south coast of Snæfellsnes is well maintained and a pleasure to ride, with long open bends, big skies and views across Faxaflói to the distant mountains of the mainland. The surface is good, but the wind off the sea can be strong, and rain squalls move in quickly. Traffic is light outside the high season, and there is little here to disturb the peace.
The church is of historical interest as well as beauty. A church has stood here for centuries, serving a trading post that once flourished at Búðir, a place where merchants from Europe bought dried fish and wool from the peninsula's farmers. The black tar that protects the wood is traditional, and the church is a popular place for weddings, which is easy to understand.
Services are minimal, with a hotel and restaurant on the spot, and the towns of the peninsula, such as Ólafsvík, are some distance away. Come in the evening, when the low sun lights the lava and the church, and the day's visitors have gone.