No, well get out your beach towels. For, on a beautiful, sunny and calm summer day, admittedly a rare meteorological occurrence at this latitude, you may want to visit Nautholsvik (pronounced “nay-tolls-veek”) for a day at the beach. Yes, there’s a beach in Reykjavik, the capital city of Iceland, and on very good day you can sunbathe, play volleyball, build sandcastles and even swim. Truth be told you could do many of these things on any day just not in a swimsuit. Iceland is famous, or shall I say notorious, for its capricious weather.

That’s not to say that there isn’t nice weather here. It just won’t stay that way and warm days are somewhat rare, all of which creates a sense of urgency to get out and soak up the sun. The day I visited Reykjavik’s “thermal beach,” as it is called here, was on a particularly splendid Saturday in July, the skies were clear, the winds calm and the temperature was about 19 degrees Celsius (66 degrees Fahrenheit) — downright warm for Iceland.