By and large, I’m a solo traveller and I think it’s time I started emphasising that a bit more.
Back in the days when I could solo travel, I gravitated towards Iceland, Scandinavia and the Arctic, with occasional visits to places like the Baltic states and eastern Europe but you’ll find plenty of Paris and Switzerland and western Europe here too. Actually, my non-Wessex UK travels are here as well, so come with me to Scotland, London and a few other places around my own country.
There are so many ways to get around when you’re travelling but people seem to avoid public transport. It’s a bit intimidating – how does it work, where does it go, etc? – but it’s something I like to do, mostly because not everything is in easy walking distance and I personally don’t like taxis.… More How to use public transport in Reykjavik
Let’s talk about how it felt to travel abroad post-pandemic! My trip to Iceland in April was the first time I’ve been abroad since the plague got started. My first time on a plane. My first time in a city bigger and busier than Salisbury. I was nervous. I had a plane to face, I… More How it felt to travel abroad post-pandemic | Iceland 2022
The day after the horse riding and the hike, I did the Golden Circle and made my first visit to the Secret Lagoon. It didn’t start particularly brilliantly. A lot of my stuff was wet from the previous day. My waterproof jacket fortunately dries very quickly and my coat had never got soaked so they were… More The Golden Circle and the Secret Lagoon | Iceland 2022
If you’re going to swim in a delightful outdoors naturally heated geothermal pool in Iceland, you’re going to have to face the dreaded Obligatory Naked Shower. Icelandic pool water comes straight from the ground. They don’t put chlorine in it or any other chemical disinfectant. The way Icelandic pools remain clean is to demand that… More Public nudity post-pandemic | Iceland 2022
The hot river hike was part two of my horse riding day. The lovely Eldhestar at Hveragerdi were the only people I could find who’d do a guided hike to the hot river valley so I went for it. The reason no one else does it is because it’s a 3km hike on a pretty… More I hiked up a mountain to the hot river valley | Iceland 2022
The horse’s name was Vorboðar, which means Bringer of Spring and he was not doing his job. Naively, I’d expected spring in Iceland to look quite a lot like summer – sunshine, leaves, people in lighter clothes – and what I’d seen of it so far had been winter but without the fun stuff like… More Horse riding in the rain | Iceland 2022
The second* thing on my to-do list for my trip to Iceland last month was to go to the Sky Lagoon, Iceland’s newest geothermal spa and it… well, it was good enough that I went back a second time five days later. It takes a lot of what the Blue Lagoon does well and –… More Iceland’s newest spa: The Sky Lagoon | Iceland April 2022
Yes! At long last I have new travel content – and new Iceland content at that! I got on my first plane in over two years and we’re starting with a bang: I visited the new Icelandic volcano! It still hasn’t been officially named, to the best of my knowledge, but it’s usually called Fagradalsfjall… More I visited the new Icelandic volcano! | Iceland 2022
Welcome back to the last of this long-overdue miniseries on my county trip to Switzerland in the summer of 2014! Today is our last real day. We’ve still got a two-day drive home, which I won’t tell you about because it’s boring (in summary: we sat in a minibus for two days. One old lady… More Switzerland 2014: St Beatus Caves, a boat trip and a rainstorm
It’s now Thursday on my 2014 county trip to Switzerland and today we’re off to Reichenbach Falls and we’re going to return to Interlaken on a boat across the Brienzersee. I’ve already covered Anita’s B&B, Monday in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Tuesday at Our Chalet and Wednesday in Neuchâtel and Yverdon-les-Bains and now it’s Thursday and… More Switzerland 2014: Reichenbach Falls & a boat trip on Brienzersee