FFF #2.2 – Gljúfrasteinn and Cafe Álafoss
[Happened 28 Sept 2014. Written 1 October. Maybe.]
The weather forecast looked promising, and the fall colors were busy being colorful, so I decided to venture a little further afield than usual, and visited Gljúfrasteinn. Gljúfrasteinn (TripAdvisor) is where Iceland’s only Nobel laureate, Halldór Laxness, lived with his second wife, Auður, for some decades. It’s a little outside the main city area, about a 20 minute drive from our home.
I found out when I’d arrived that there is no photography inside the house, but there’s a pretty good gallery on their webpage. Every guest gets their own audio-player and headset, and walks around the house in quiet listening to a well produced and interesting audio-tour.
My impression was that Halldór and Auður were cool cats in their day and age. And I definitely came away thinking that Halldór was exceedingly well married! Not only did Auður decorate the house to perfection, and produce her own sewing-art, but they also had a lot of friends (including many artists who gave them art), and routinely hosted parties, large and small. The art in the house is really quite interesting and surprisingly colorful. Although their speaking style sounds very old-style to my modern ears, they were probably considered somewhat avant-garde back in the day!?!? (I’m guessing!)
Anyway, to make up for the lack of pictures indoors, I took a bunch of photos of the surrounding area.
After I’d had my fill of nature, I drove back and made a quick pit-stop at the Álafoss Cafe in Mosfellsbær (aka Mos-Eisley) before heading back home to the peeps. (45 images total)
Looking towards the city, which is hiding behind that hill/mountain there in the distance. See that bridge up close on the left? A river runs under it.
Gljúfrasteinn is located in a pretty popular hiking area.
Looking up the river by the parking lot, you see this rather unhappy looking house. That’s not Gljúfrasteinn.
Ignoring the unhappy looking house on the right (out of the picture), the real Gljúfrasteinn is behind those trees on the left.
Anybody up for a walk?
About the house.
Et voila! Gljúfrasteinn!
I bought a ticket in what was probably the garage, but was now full of tourists watching a documentary in some Nordic language. I then took my ticket and rang the bell on the wooden door on the right. An attendant opened the door and explained the audio-tour. And off I went!
IMAGES FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE ARE HERE (CLICK! CLICK! CLICK!)
Outside again, looking towards the main road.
There is a nicely sized swimming pool in the backyard. And the water’s warm!!
The unhappy house, river and warm swimming pool. All very poetic!
The house from a different angle. Halldór’s bedroom was up on the second floor (he had the balcony). Her room was further back. Below his bedroom was the living room.
The river a little further upstream.
The backside of the house, with the dining room and kitchen on the first floor, Auður’s bedroom and Halldór’s workroom on the second floor.
Cool waterfall.
Same waterfall.
Random hikers hiked past me.
At this point I switched lenses on my camera, and put on the 100 mm marco lens. This photo is taken from the same location as the one above.
Cute little flowers.
Seeds mostly gone.
Back at the cool waterfall.
This river is quite noisy. It’s not hard to imagine Halldór walking about the area pondering his writing. The whole place is pretty darn inspiring!
This path was on the other side of the house.
Playing with the focus and depth of field.
Sheep’s head?
This sign is pretty darn effective in getting people to slow down after driving at 90 km/hr from Thingvellir.
The scattered showers were quite scattered.
A farm on the other side of the valley.
I drove back towards the city and stopped at Álafosskvísl in Mosfellsbær.
It’s an arty place!
Álafoss-clothes best
Cafe time!
Expensive cake time!
The hot chocolate looked good!
I asked for a full size carrot cake slice, and a small hot chocolate. The cake was humongous but good, while the hot chocolate was barely warm. The hot chocolate gets a 2.5 out of 5, mostly for lack of warmth, but it had promise.
The inside of the cafe.
It was too cold and wet outside for sitting outside.
The cafe building, again.
This is where you go to buy wool.
Arty flowers.
How much do you want to pay for small wooden creatures.
The wooden people from before.
Rain clouds moving in.
Hrefna gives up on trying to take a formal selfie.
Time to drive home and rejoin civilization.
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