
Tjörnin
Shallow city-center lagoon where ducks and swans crowd a geothermally warm corner all winter while the rest freezes for skaters.
Location
About this audio guide
Tjörnin, the shallow lagoon in downtown Reykjavik, opens with a local joke that it's the world's biggest bread soup. In winter almost every duck in the city packs into one warm corner while the rest of the pond freezes solid enough to skate on. The guide follows what keeps that one patch open, the dozens of bird species that pass through in summer, and why the city now asks visitors to swap bread for oats and peas.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Reykjavík City Hall
Glass civic building rising straight from a city-centre pond, home to a giant cardboard relief model of Iceland.
Nauthólsvík Geothermal Beach
Lagoon of piped hot water meeting the cold Atlantic behind a low seawall, on imported golden sand.
Videy
Small volcanic island whose ancient crater now shelters bogs, meadows and nesting seabirds.
Grasagarður Botanical Garden
Open-air living collection of Iceland's native flora beside a bird-filled pond in a city valley.
Sundhöllin
Geothermal-heated public pool from nineteen thirty-seven, one of the city's first buildings to run on piped hot springs.
Blue Lagoon
Milky-blue geothermal lagoon in a black lava field, fed by power-plant runoff rich in silica and minerals.