Brekkulækur Team

regarding our Icelandic guides, among other qualities we value their professionalism and experience as well as their proficiency in English and German. And all of them are eager to show you „their“ Iceland. In addition to our guides up to four members of staff of different nationalities work at our guesthouse during the summer.

Arinbjörn Jóhannsson

called „Abbi“, was born and brought up in Brekkulækur. After studying ethnology in Germany for some time, he decided to devote his career to tourism. He started his first riding-tour in 1979 and never ran out of ideas since then. He is a „self-made man“ who can do anything from fitting horse-shoes to organizing ornithological observation excursions. Nowadays he is mainly leading riding-tours through the Northwest of Iceland, supported by his 80 diligent horses.

Claudia Hofmann

moved from Germany to Iceland in 2001 and has never looked back. Most of all she likes being outdoors and enjoys Icelandic nature and riding horses whenever her time allows. Her jobs include work at the office, guesthouse, stables, kitchen and as a mother. Together with Arinbjörn she lives and works at Brekkulaekur all year round.

Pálina Arinbjarnadóttir

Growing up at Brekkulækur, she is an important part of the horseback riding tours and is familiar with everything in the guest house. She has been riding since she could walk. Driving and keeping the herd of horses running free is her specialty. From August to May she studies at the Akureyri High school with the focus on art.

Sigrún Valbergsdóttir

is a multi-talented woman. She studied in Germany, is a stage manager at the theatre, works for Icelandic radio and teaches at the Icelandic Tourist Institute. However, she does spend every summer in the countryside and has worked with us as a guide, cook and consultant from the beginning.

Maríus Þór Jónasson

works as a construction architect but ever since his student days he is guiding some of our hiking-groups and he will do so again next year. He speaks four languages fluently and is a great cook. Moreover no fish will ever escape him.

Katharina Ruppel

originally comes from Germany and has lived in Iceland for many years. She knows all aspects of our business because she has our book-keeping under strict control, occasionally works as a driver and successfully completed her studies at the Tourist Institute in 2010. Therefore she now also works as a guide for us.

Helgi Björnsson

our good neighbour – day or night, come rain or shine, if worst comes to worst, if anything needs repairing or something has to be built, Helgi is there. Because of his wood craft he also accompanied Arinbjörn to tourism-fairs in Germany during the past years.

Björn Sindri Arinbjarnarson

grew up bilingual at Brekkulaekur – he is a true child of nature, hiker and enthusiastic fisherman. He finds it easy to inspire his groups for Iceland’s nature. He is living in Reykjavik, is a landscape gardener and lately also works at a tattoo-studio where he can make use of his artistic skills.

Rannveig Einarsdóttir

successfully guided trekking-tours through the highland for us in the past and had a comeback in 2009. We are pleased to have her back for many tours next year. As a real cosmopolitan she spends her winters in London or Berlin and every summer at home in Iceland.

Páll Guðjónsson

young and dynamic! We were lucky when Pall joined our team in 2009. He is an electrician by trade, also works as a bus driver and lives in Reykjavik. He did the Brekkulaekur-airport –transfer countless times and also drives the mini-bus with our guests through the West of Iceland. Last year he guided our hiking tour for the first time and we are happy that he will do so again this year!

Martina Klocke

is our most important conection to Germany. She is talented in many ways: photographer, fair hostess, a multiplicator in many ways – as there is nothing she could not do – next to her job, family and her horses, of course. Thank you!

Brigitte Visbeck

after a one year stay on an icelandic farm, followed by countless more, during which she got to know many differnet aspects of life in Iceland, Brigitte finally decided to move to here. She studied geographics and enjoys the beautiful icelandic nature most of all. Her knowledge of Iceland and its people is almost boundless and she is eager to share it with our guests during the many tours she will guide for us next season!

Iris Johansen

Was born and raised in Iceland but has strong roots in Sweden as well, she is now one of our neighbors. She loves the county lifestyle, exercise and health is important to her, being a hobby farmer with sheep and horses she keeps herself active every day. She works in our office and guesthouse.

Ingi Hjörtur Bjarnason

is our accountant after graduating from high school he worked in the bank until he took over his parents‘ farm. He has a German wife, 4 children and sings in a choir – his interest is in music.

Randver

is mentioned here as representative for all the horses from Brekkulaekur. Most of our horses grew up on our farm, some were bought. Foals and young horses spend the summer running free in the highland, their varied training starts in a slow way when they are about four years old. They are fit right up until old age. During the riding tours in summer, they easily cover a distance of several hundred miles. They live in herds on the spacious grassland around Brekkulaekur. In winter the horses in training are stabled. Icelandic horses are known to be diligent, hard-running and sure-footed and of course they all have different characters and temperaments, so every rider will get a matching horse.
Our dogs Leo and Þúla are the most important employees, they work hard and help to drive the herd of horses, they also welcome our guests in the guest house when they have time and hope for cuddles or activity games.