Litlibær

Eating waffles in a historic farmhouse in Iceland's Westfjords

May contain traces of advertisement.*

In July 2018, when we were with our sons on vacation in Ísafjörður, we took a trip to the Arctic Fox Center in Súðavík and a bit further to Litlibær. We had an invitation for eating waffles in this little old farm.

Litlibær (= "little farm") is a turf house pituresquely located in the Skötufjörður fjord. Only a few hundret meters before reaching Litlibær, there is a parking spot worth to stop at. From here on the headland Hvítanes you have a great view to the biggest colony of seals in the Westfjords. The owner of the farm had placed there a box with spyglasses and glasses of jam. You can use the spyglasses for free to watch the seals. And you can buy homemade marmalade for 1000 ISK per glas. When we were there, we could see almost 20 seals. Some lying on the sand banks, others swimming, so that we could only see there heads.

View from the parking spot

Spyglasses and glasses of jam

Looking through the spyglasses

Seals in the fjord

The farmhouse Litlibær was built in 1895. Originally two families lived here, quasi in semi-detached houses. The kitchens were in a separate building. The main building had a base of 28 m². Additionally there were two small attic rooms. Nevertheless here lived about 20 people at the same time.

In one of the rooms there was a plate hanging on the wall listing the children of one of the families. The couple had 15 children. 6 of them died in early childhood. But who survived the first decade of his life, had a good chance to reach a blessed age. Quite a number of them became over 80 years old.

One of the families left the house, and in 1930 Kristján, son of one of the builders, took over the farm. He and his familiy lived there until 1969.

Old picture ofthe farm on an info plate ar Litlibær

Today the family of Kristján's youngest child Kristján Kristjánsson lives nearby in Hvítanes and works the farm land of Litlibær.

The old turf house Litlibær stood empty for about 30 years, until it was taken over by the national museum and restored. Meanwhile it is officially part of the National Museum of Iceland.

But it's still the same family, who's working in Litlibær. Sigríður Hafliðadóttir, wife of Kristján Kristjánsson, runs a café in this old house. During the summer season, she and her family offer waffles, homemade cakes and pastries and hot drinks to travelers. The café opens every day from 10 a.m. to 17 p.m.

The interior of the little house is cozy and lovely arranged. All over you can find old family photos, historical utensils and memorabilia of the family.

The fresh waffles we had with whipped cream and homemade rhubarb and blueberry jam were a dream, ...

... and all of us enjoyed it.

In addition, we had coffee and hot chocolate, creamy and delicious.

Einfach nur lecker!

For us and our children it was a great visit in Litlibær. We really felt so welcome. Many thanks to Sigriður and her daughter Guðrún!

Sigríður Hafliðadóttir and her daughter Guðrún in the kitchen of Litlibær

Much to my joy, Sigríður gave me some of her recipes, for her blueberry cake (Bláberjakaka) and for her "Happy Marriage Cake" as well as for the blueberry and the rhubarb jam. I'm so happy about that and I'm looking forward to try them out, when we're back at home.

With a view from Litlibær over the fjord we said goodbye to this wonderful little place of earth.

Overview:

Besides the specialty of the house, the waffles, the menu of Litlibær offers blueberry cake with blueberries collected on site, Hjónabandssæla ("Happy Marriage Cake") - a traditional Icelandic rhubarb cake, apple pie, vanilla cake and, of course, kleinur. Who prefers a hearty dish against something sweet, can get ham croissants or pizza snails.

A waffle with cream and jam costs 1200 ISK (approx. 9.60 €, 11.40 $). Coffee or tea is included.

* Legal note: 

Formally this article can be graded as advertisement, since we had been invited for the meal. Anyhow, we have chosen only restaurants, which we had heard good things about and which we estimated as interesting. Accordingly we're really delighted, and if we fall into words of praise, these are meant honestly.