Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
EATING AND DRINKING
Bakka Café
Garðarsbraut.
Comfortable café between
the church and supermarket serving predictable fare,
though their lunchtime special of rich, spicy goulash with a
basket of cheese toasties (1320kr) really hits the spot on a
cold day. Daily 11am-6pm.
Gamli Baukur
Hafnarstétt
T
464 2442.
Wood-
panelled, mid-range place at the harbour, where top marks
go to the grilled cod with sautéed vegetables and basil
(3650kr), and boiled salmon in butter sauce (4150kr). They
sometimes get live bands in, too.
Mon-Wed & Sun noon-
8pm, Thurs noon-1am, Fri & Sat noon-3am.
Ì
Naustið
Hafnarstétt
T
464 1520.
Family-run
restaurant inside a long, yellow, corrugated iron shed at the
harbour, serving simple, plain and filling seafood. Their fish
soup (1500kr) is famous locally, as is the grilled fish (2200kr);
they do sushi on Wednesday (1500kr) and lobster on Friday
(2500kr). Add 600kr for vegetables and it's still the best-
value place in north Iceland.
Daily noon-2pm & 4-9pm.
Ì
Salka
Garðarsbraut
T
464 2551.
Old warehouse
behind the Whale Museum on the harbourside, now
converted into spacious café-bar. Lunchtime mains are
decent value, especially the langoustine tails and garlic
bread (2550kr), huge Salka burger (1990kr) and Asian-
influenced seafood soup (1850kr). Evening prices are higher,
but the pan-fried arctic char with poached egg, sausage and
vegetables is worth it (3650kr).
Daily 11.30am-9pm.
6
Tjörnes
North of Húsavík along Route 85,
Tjörnes
is a rather broad, stubby peninsula with
brilliant sea views. A few kilometres from town in this direction there's a roadside
monument to the locally-born patriotic poet
Einar Benediktsson
, one of the key figures
of Iceland's early twentieth-century nationalist movement. Past here, now 5km from
Húsavík, the headland drops to a low
beach
, reached along vehicle tracks from the
road, where you should find the usual melange of
seabirds
, including purple
sandpipers, puffins, black guillemots and gannets; in spring, look out for marine ducks
and divers (loons) heading to Mývatn. Walking along the beach, it's not unusual to find
yourself being followed offshore by
seals
.
Tjörneshöfn
Around 10km from Húsavík, beside some sheer cliffs, a track off the main road
descends to
Tjörneshöfn
, a tiny boatshed and harbour looking straight out to Lundey.
A shingle beach stretches in both directions below the cliffs, though a small river to the
north may stop you heading that way; south there's plenty of seaweed and Pleistocene-
period
fossilized shells
in the headland's layered, vertical faces.
Öxarjörður
Back on Route 85, Tjörnes' northern tip is marked by the
Voladalstorfa
lighthouse
,
past which there's a roadside viewpoint with vistas out over the staggeringly blue waters
of
Öxarjörður
to Kópasker (see p.266). Puffins and fulmars nest on the grass-topped
cliffs right beside the viewpoint; on a clear day it's possible to pick out a very remote
Grímsey to the northwest, and
Mánárayjar
, a couple of closer volcanic islets that haven't
experienced any stirrings for over a century.
Jökulsárgljúfur National Park
Cutting into the northeast's rocky inland plains some 60km east of Húsavík,
Jökulsárgljúfur National Park
- an isolated fragment of the enormous Vatnajökull
National Park (see p.292) - encloses a 35km stretch of the
Jökulsá á Fjöllum
, Iceland's
second-longest river. Originating almost 200km south at Vatnajökull, for much of its
journey through the park the river flows through the mighty
Jökulsárgljúfur
, a canyon
which is 120m deep and 500m wide in places, forming several exceptional waterfalls
