Iceland in Winter: Höfði House, Painted Berlin Wall Slab, and Einar Benediktsson Statue

Our hotel (Fosshotel Reykjavik) is very close to the internationally recognized Höfði House and we had seen it multiple times when on tours around or leaving Reykjavik, but we did not have time to walk up to it until our South Shore Adventure was canceled. We took advantage of that cancellation to participate in the Raufarhólshellir Lava Tunnel/Tube experience, to see more of downtown Reykjavik and its museums, and to walk up close to the Höfði House.

Most of the photographs of the Höfði House show it in summer time with clear blue skies and deeper blue water of the harbor behind it. The photographs in this post are a bit different because we took them in the first week of January. Icelandars celebrate Christmas well into January as seen in this photograph.

The Höfði House is most famous outside of Iceland for the 1986 Reykjavík Summit between United States of America President Ronald Reagan and Union of Soviet Socialist Republics President Mikhail Gorbachev that started the process that ultimately resulted in the end of the "Cold War."

Because Höfði House is widely considered to be the location where the beginning of the end of the Cold Ward occurred, it is fitting that Iceland has placed near the house the painted slab of the Berlin Wall that was donated by the "Neu West Berlin art center on the occasion of Germany's 25-year reunification." There is a Wikipedia article listing the Berlin Wall segments that have been donated since 1989.

Within Iceland, the Höfði House is also well known as the home of famous poet Einar Benediktsson for a few years. In fact, it was Benediktsson that named this house. So it's also fitting to have the statue of him next to the house he named.

Visitors came walk up close to the house, but are not allowed inside. The statue and Berlin Wall slab can also be approached directly. These house, Berlin Wall slab, and statue of Einar Ben are interesting from a historical perspective and are backed by great views of the harbor. The photographs in this post show that the weather conditions in winter in this area of Reykjavik can be quite different than those typically seen in photographs of the house online.