Reykjavik's oldest cemetery still in use, Hólavallagarður opened in 1838 and now feels less like a graveyard than a small landscape park. Old elms and rowans lean over leaning headstones; lichens have softened every inscription. In winter the dark trunks against the snow are some of the most photogenic in the city.
The cemetery was traditionally the site of the local belief that the first person buried in any new graveyard becomes its "guardian spirit" — at Hólavallagarður the watchful first soul is supposed to be Guðrún Oddsdóttir. Walk through, do not picnic; the place is still used.