Reykjavík Grapevine - 10.04.2015, Side 29

Litla Kaffistofan
(Little Coffeeshop)
30 km outside of
downtown Reykjavík
This green-trimmed cottage located in
the Svínahraun lava field—by its own
reckoning, the oldest coffee shop on
Route One—is well worth a stop on your
way out of town. With a surprising array
of fresh-daily sandwiches and coffee
(free for anyone who buys gas!), this is
a great place for a quick breakfast. Even
if you’re not peckish, stop to admire the
charming interior, best described as the
parlour of an Icelandic grannie if she
was a huge fan of the footie. Lace cur-
tains, doilies, and silk roses abound, as
do photos and bios of Icelandic football
players and local teams going back to
the early 1930s.
Seljavallalaug
154 km from Reykjavík
Tucked away at the base of Eyjafjalla-
jökull, with narrow waterfalls trickling
down the surround-
ing mountain walls,
Iceland’s oldest
swimming pool has
the air of a place for-
gotten by time, even
though it’s actually a
very popular spot for
both Icelanders and
tourists. Built direct-
ly into the side of a
rock face and fed by
a natural geothermal
spring, Seljavallalaug
was built in 1923 by a
local youth associa-
tion. At 25 meters, it
was the longest pool
in Iceland until the
mid-30s, and swimming lessons in the
pool were once compulsory for local
students. Today, the pool is still open to
visitors, but no longer regularly main-
tained. Although the concrete paving
is cracked and the dressing rooms are
mildewy and bare, the scenery lends a
distinct elegance to the disrepair.
Slipping into the water of Seljaval-
lalaug is a bit like submerging in an
algae-laced protein smoothie. If that
doesn’t sound terribly
appetising, I assure
you that it’s wonder-
ful—just slightly more
“organic” than your
everyday swimming
experience. But that
is, after all, the major
draw of Seljavalla-
laug—the incongru-
ence of sitting in a
natural, untreated
pool in such aston-
ishing surroundings.
Full disclosure: It’s a
little chilly when the
weather is hovering
in the low 50s. You
can treat yourself to a
quick reheat in the far left corner, how-
ever, where the hot(ter) spring water
that supplies the pool steadily trickles
in.
Jökulsárlón and Fjallsárlón
370 km from Reykjavík
We were standing on board a duck boat
in the middle of the Jökulsárlón glacial
lagoon, giddily gazing at a handful of
giant, toothpaste-blue ice cubes as
they floated stoically by when I heard
the woman next to me grumble to her
companion, “Gah! This totally sucks. I
can’t believe that they aren’t running
the small boats right now.”
Let me tell you in no uncertain
terms: this woman was wrong. There
was (and still is) nothing about Jökul-
sárlón that sucks. It is, in fact, totally
worth the hype, and even worth return
visits, as the icy landscape melts and
moves and is completely different from
week to week. It’s true that in the off-
season, the guides only offer the “Am-
phibian boat tour,” a 45-minute circuit
of the lagoon with anywhere between
15 and 30 passengers. And these don’t
take you quite as close to the icebergs
as you might get in the more intimate
“Zodiac tours,” which take no more
than seven people around the lagoon
in small motorboats, sometimes getting
within spitting distance of the icebergs
and any resident seals.
But guys—big boat or small—you’re
on a glacial lagoon. With icebergs. And
the guide will pluck a piece of gla-
cial ice out of the lagoon and let you
touch it, and break off little pieces for
you to taste, laughing that you now
have “1,000 years just melting in your
mouth!” Because the glacial ice is, in
fact, probably around that age by the
time it cracks off the Breiðamerkur gla-
cier and becomes cocktail glass fodder.
So no, lady, “this” did not suck. This was
awesome.
If you are in no particular rush to be
not-looking-at-glaciers, it’s also worth
doubling back to Fjallsárlón (“Moun-
tain Lagoon”), Jökulsárlón’s younger
and slightly less impressive sister. Nei-
ther the lagoon itself nor the icebergs
in it are as large, but it is less trafficked
and feels quite intimate by comparison.
The shoreline is also a lot closer to the
base of the glacier, which looms rather
magnificently behind the whole scene.
Kirkjubæjarklaustur
259 km from Reykjavík
Home to a Benedictine convent from
1186 to 1550, this pretty little village has
a rather gothic history, most of which
has to do with nuns doing distinctly
un-nunnish things and then meeting
fabulously grim ends. At Systrastapi
(“Sister’s Rock”), an anvil-shaped peak
jutting out of lush grazing land, two
nuns are said to have been burned at
the stake: one for selling herself to the
devil, carrying consecrated communion
bread past an outhouse, and break-
ing her vow of chastity; the other for
the comparatively mild sin of speak-
ing impiously about the Pope. Stories
also say that at Systravatn, the lake
located above town and feeding into
the Systrafoss waterfall, two bathing
nuns made the mistake of grabbing at a
phantom hand stretching out of the wa-
ter and wearing a fine gold ring. They
were dragged down into the depths
and never seen again.
These campfire stories added an
enjoyably creepy counterpoint to the
tranquillity of the pastoral surround-
ings. Grazing sheep hopped along with
us as we crossed through a local fami-
ly’s farmland to get to Systrastapi (make
sure to close the gate behind you). The
sound of the waterfall blended with
the light swishing sounds of birch and
spruce leaves as we made our way
up the (steep!) stairs and through the
wood to Systravatn. And there, from the
top, we encountered one of the loveli-
est vistas I’ve seen in Iceland yet.
This pretty little village
has a rather gothic
history, most of which
has to do with nuns
doing distinctly un-
nunnish things and
then meeting fabu-
lously grim ends.
29The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 4 — 2015 TRAVEL
Distance from Reykjavík
Around 259 km
More To See
It goes without saying that three
days is not nearly enough to see
all the sights dotting the south
coast. For every location I men-
tioned here, there are two or
three that I’ve left out. But this is
a good problem to have: there’s
always a reason to return for an-
other round of exploration.
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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