Reynisfjara is known better to tourists as “the black sand beach”, although almost all beaches in Iceland have black sand. It’s therefore confusing, potentially misleading and it’s just plain rude. You wouldn’t come to England and talk about going to “the big yellow clock tower” or go to the US and talk about your visit … More Reynisfjara has been washed away. Now what?
And so do you! One of my favourite things to do in London, if time and events align, is to take the DLR out to Stratford, get hopelessly lost around Westfield and eventually wash up at the London Aquatics Centre, aka the purpose-built swimming and diving facility from the 2012 Olympics. These days, it’s just … More I, an ordinary person, get to swim in an Olympic pool
I think my old favourite small-space-for-a-small-price in London has been ousted but one of my favourite places to stay in London in the last few years has been Snoozebox Olympic Park, a hotel of very compact rooms made out of shipping containers. By London standards, it’s a pretty good price, especially considering you get your … More Sleeping in a shipping container: Snoozebox London
I did this back in May and this is the winter version: what I do between work finishing at 5pm and starting again the next morning at 9am. The summer version had a festival and kayaking and camping and archery and a trip to London. No watersports or festivals in January, alas. A proper 5-9 … More How I use my 5-9: January 2026 edition
This is a really old adventure that’s had two or three posts over the years but deserves a new write-up and a new place at the very front of this blog rather than being buried in its bowels: the day I swam in an active volcano, got stranded for hours in a lava field and … More One really simply does not walk into Mordor: swimming in a volcano & getting stranded in a lava field
When I went to Switzerland the other day, it was at least a month between booking flights to Geneva and making any decisions whatsoever about where I was going and what I was doing when I landed. I’d lived in Switzerland so I’d covered a lot of the country, albeit in brief day trips. My … More Stay at the Swiss Chocolate Hotel Lausanne with me
Ever since about mid-2019, I’ve had a series on this blog called Before It Burns Down, dedicated to cathedrals, and especially the massive, magnificent, medieval Gothic and Norman varieties, because it turns out that just because they’re looking towards their thousandth birthdays doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll still be there waiting for me to get round … More Before It Burns Down: Lausanne Cathedral
Since it’s a trend in 2026, I’m going along with this whole “analogue” thing but it’s just film photos under a new name, and if you haven’t been around here before, I have an entire tag for the photos I’ve been taking on 35mm film over the last nearly seven years, so this isn’t new. … More Switzerland in analogue
There, start with the spoiler! As a language student living in Switzerland twenty years ago, I made a flying visit to Chateau de Chillon, where I visited the Gothic dungeons underneath the castle and saw where the original tortured poet, Lord Byron, was imprisoned, chained to a pillar and left to rot (if you read … More Lord Byron was never a prisoner at Chateau de Chillon
When you think of Switzerland, you think of chocolate and cheese and skiing. Well, I don’t ski and I covered the cheese in the post-snowshoeing fondue I had in the last post which means it must be time for the chocolate! And it is! Long story short, I took the train out to Switzerland’s oldest … More I did a chocolate workshop at a Swiss chocolate factory
I Am A Polar Bear 