Reykjavík Grapevine - 19.06.2015, Síða 35

35The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 8 — 2015 TRAVEL
Distance from Reykjavík
Around 230- 270 km
The first of these swimming pools
is at Hotel Laugarhóll in Bjarnafjörður.
This is where most of the children from
Hólmavík and Drangsnes learned to
swim, before the construction of pools
in the respective towns. The pool at
Laugarhóll (which can be translated
to “Pool Hill”) was constructed in 1947.
It’s a full-size 25-metre pool for ardent
swimmers. There is also a nice natural
hot spring to soak in.
Nearby is a protected site where
you can see a recreation of Gvendar-
laug hins góða, a pool named so after
having been blessed by the medieval
bishop and folklore figure Guðmundur
Góði (“Guðmundur the Kind”). There
are several natural or recreated pools
by this name in the country.
Also close to the pool is an exhi-
bition, run by the Museum of Sorcery
and Witchcraft in Hólmavík. The exhi-
bition consists of traditionally styled
turf houses and is called
The Sorcerer’s Cottage,
after another historical
figure, Svanur the Sor-
cerer, who is mentioned
in some of the Icelan-
dic Sagas. He lived at
Svanshóll, which is still
an active farm in Bjar-
nafjörður. Despite the
name, the exhibition is
meant to show the living
conditions of medieval tenants, which
were pretty tough. But at least they
had a hot tub to relax in after a hard
day’s work.
Krossnes
To get to the next pool, you just keep
on driving until the road
ends. There, you will
find the small swim-
ming pool at Krossnes,
accompanied by a hot
tub, seemingly added
as an afterthought. It’s
on the shoreline, close
to the sea. It’s magical
to soak in a pool, sur-
rounded by the sea and
the untouched nature,
at the edge of nowhere.
4
Reykjarfjörður nyðri
The road may end at Krossnes, but
there’s still one more pool which de-
serves an honourable mention. The
oldest pool on the list, constructed in
1938, is still further north and is argu-
ably not a part of Strandir but of Horn-
strandir. You cannot drive there, so you
must either hike or take a boat from
Norðurfjörður or Bolungarvík to the
isolated Reykjafjörður nyðri. This harsh
but beautiful region was inhabited until
the 1960s; since then people have only
stayed there in summer.
If you take a boat, you must walk
some distance from the pier (beware
of the Arctic terns if you’re there dur-
ing the summer!) to the cosy 20-metre
pool, and the apparently indispensable
hot tub which was later added. The
nature here is spectacular, and Dran-
gajökull glacier provides a scenic back-
ground.
The pools in Strandir are simply a
treat for everyone, playing hard to get
with their locations, making them that
much more rewarding when you finally
reach them and get to take a dip!
The pools in Stran-
dir are simply a treat
for everyone, play-
ing hard to get with
their locations, mak-
ing them that much
more rewarding.
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BOOK YOUR FLIGHT OR
DAY TOUR AT AIRICELAND.IS
ÍSAFJÖRÐUR
ICELAND’S WESTFJORDS
ARE ONLY 40 MINUTES AWAY
Let’s fly
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/s
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.is
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