Gljúfrasteinn — Laxness Museum

The house was designed by the architect Ágúst Pálsson and finished in 1945, and it is shown as a home rather than as a set of display cases. The walls carry a serious collection of Icelandic painting: Jóhannes Kjarval, Nína Tryggvadóttir, Svavar Guðnason, Louisa Matthíasdóttir, Karl Kvaran and Ásmundur Sveinsson, alongside the Dane Asger Jorn and the Norwegian Jakob Weidemann. Much of it came from artists Laxness knew.

After the Nobel Prize in 1955 the house became a stop for official guests visiting Iceland, and foreign musicians gave concerts in the living room. The windows are part of the point: they look out over the valley, and the river Kaldakvísl runs past the house.

• The tour is recorded, not led. A short film at the entrance, then an audio guide through the rooms. Staff at reception answer what it misses.
• The visit is short. The audio tour runs about 20–25 minutes. Do not build half a day around it.
• Concerts are a summer fixture. Outside summer the visit is the house and the guide alone.
• The shop sells Laxness in English translation. Useful if the tour leaves you wanting to read him.
• There are toilets on site, including a wheelchair-accessible one.

Gljúfrasteinn stands in Mosfellsdalur, the valley east of Reykjavík, and visitors arrive by car. Parking is at the museum, so there is no approach walk from a lay-by or a trailhead — you leave the car and go in. Laxnes, the farm where Laxness grew up, is close by in the same valley.

Better: summer, when the museum puts on concerts in the living room where musicians once played for Laxness.

Avoid: midwinter, if the views matter to you. The valley outside the windows gets little daylight then, and the windows are half the pleasure of the house.

Nobody is moved through in groups here. The house is toured with a recorded guide, so you set your own pace and the hour you arrive matters less than at places with fixed tour departures.