I suppose I’d better start with a really quick biography of Hans Christian Andersen. He was a Danish writer, born in Odense in 1805 responsible for about half the fairytales you know. The Brothers Grimm, who were German, wrote the rest. To be honest, you’ll probably know most of his stories from Disney. He wrote … More On the trail of Hans Christian Andersen in Copenhagen
“Can I do a kayak trip around Copenhagen?” I wondered as I was planning my birthday week in Denmark. Yes, of course you can. And the first company that comes up is GreenKayak, an enviromental NGO that gives you a kayak for free on condition that you collect rubbish as you go and give them … More GreenKayak, red flags
If you’re going to spend a few days in Copenhagen, you really can’t skip the Tivoli Gardens. You’ll probably hear it called the oldest theme park in the world but, in fact, it’s not even the oldest in Denmark. That title goes to Dyrehavsbakken, more commonly known simply as Bakken which is about 6 miles … More How to spend a day at Copenhagen’s Tivoli Gardens
Stevns Klint is the main reason I was in Denmark in the first place. I wanted to make a weekend trip of it with this as the star of the show but I haven’t had a free weekend for it since about January, so when Iceland was too full of eclipse-hunters for my usual birthday … More A cliff brought me all the way to Denmark
Now, this is a way to spend a birthday and a way to introduce my trip to Denmark! AIRE Ancient Baths is a chain of spas and I’ve had my eye on the one in London for quite a while. Never got round to it because I want to do the evening bath and I … More AIRE, an ancient bath in Copenhagen
Yes, yes, I know, it’s an old feud that’s half joking and half just longstanding tradition and there’s no real malice between the two Nordic siblings anymore but there’s a history and since I had to hear “I did not know any of this” from someone who partook in a conversation about all this, and … More Why Iceland doesn’t like Denmark
I meant to send off the films for the trips to Spain and Iceland at the same time but because I never manage to take a full roll (36 photos in a week, far too hard!), the Iceland won’t be ready to go for another month or so and I didn’t want to wait another … More Málaga on film
This is what I did in Iceland last summer! There was no point posting it as an Iceland Itinerary then because optimal Ring Road road trip season would have been well and truly over by the time it got posted, but this year it’s going up almost exactly to the day from when it started … More Sixteen Pools: my summer Ring Road itinerary
Ok, time for the post that explains the tag for this series, which is literally “This Trip Was Cursed (2026)“. Before… I had most of this planned back in February. The first day in Reykjavik was a bit more open but I had a potential to-do list and from Thursday onwards, everything was planned almost … More This trip was cursed
Iceland will never run out of interesting and unusual places to bathe, whether it’s a new tourist-oriented geothermal experience or a warm pool in a field you’ve just stumbled upon (if you do find a pool in a field, maybe check up on whether the landowner minds you being there and whether it’s a safe … More A dip at Reykjavik’s geothermal beach