Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
1
and soup (850kr). It's also a popular place for a beer of an
evening.
Mon-Thurs 8.15am-11pm, Fri 8am-11pm,
Sat 10am-11pm, Sun 11am-11pm.
Tilveran
Linnetstígur 1
T
565 5250.
A justifiably
popular seafood restaurant with daily lunch specials
including soup, fish of the day and coffee for 1990kr; in
the evening it's 2990kr for a succulent fish dish, 3990kr if
you prefer something more meaty.
Mon-Thurs
11.30am-2pm & 6-9pm, Fri 11.30am-2pm &
6-10pm, Sat 6-10pm.
Þríhnjúkahellir
Tours daily June 15-August 20 •
W
insidethevolcano.com • 37,000kr including return transport from Reykjavík
About 20km southeast of Reykjavík near the Bláfjöll ski area,
Þríhnjúkahellir
is like
nowhere else in Iceland, an accessible, 4000-year-old subterranean magma chamber
discovered in the 1970s. There's little to see on the surface - a small volcanic bump
amid a landscape covered in thick clumps of moss and grass - but the scale below
ground arrives becomes clear as you climb into a safety cage and are lowered by crane
into the 120m-deep chamber. Once you've touched down safely at the bottom, you're
allowed to wander cautiously over the rough boulders and stones that carpet the floor
of Þríhnjúkahellir's 30m-wide chamber; check out the walls, streaked in different
colours left by molten minerals, all twisted and spiked by the creating forces. Normally
a chamber such as this would fill with magma during an eruption and then solidify, but
in Þríhnjúkahellir's case the molten rock drained out through tunnels, still visible at the
sides of the cave floor. Note that you should bring warm clothes and tough shoes or
boots; the tour ends with hot soup.
There are plans to make access into Þríhnjúkahellir both easier and less dangerous by
building a level pedestrian tunnel in from the surface, which will end at a viewing
platform halfway down the chamber wall. Hopefully this will also make the tours
considerably cheaper - check the website for the latest information.
Viðey
Actually the top of an extinct volcano and measuring barely 1.7 square kilometres,
the island of
Viðey
(
W
elding.is/videy) boasts a rich historical background. Just
750m outside Sundahöfn harbour, you can see it from the mainland by taking a
ten-minute walk north of the Laugardalur area along Dalbraut, which later mutates
into Sundagarður. If you fancy a brisk stroll with ocean views and a bit of alfresco art
thrown in, this is the place to come.
Brief history
Viðey (Wood Island - though it's no longer forested) was first claimed by Reykjavík's
original settler
Ingólfur Arnarson
as part of his estate. Archeological studies have
shown that Viðey was inhabited during the tenth century and that a church was built
here sometime in the twelfth century, though it is for the Augustinian
monastery
,
consecrated here in 1225, that the island is better known. However, the island's monks
fled when, in 1539, representatives of the Danish king proclaimed Viðey property of
the Lutheran royal crown. Barely eleven years later, in 1550, Iceland's last Catholic
bishop,
Jón Arason
, regained possession of the island through an armed campaign,
restored the monastery and built a fort here to defend Viðey from his Lutheran
THE VIÐEY RESCUE
The greatest
coastal rescue
Iceland has ever seen took place off Viðey's westernmost point in
October 1944, after the Canadian destroyer HMCS
Skeena
, with over two hundred men on
board, ran aground in heavy seas and blizzard conditions. Although fifteen crew members
perished, the remainder were rescued by a team of Icelanders led by Einar Sigurðsson who
was later awarded the MBE for his courage and guidance.
