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.
Camping is great but sometimes a hipster apartment in Hveragerði is better. During the latter half of my trip to Iceland this summer, I found myself homeless. I’d been in a tent for two nights – the campsite at Selfoss is great, with a duckpond and free hot pots (although I didn’t find that out… More The hipster apartment in Hveragerði
Outside Iceland, Dettifoss is best known as the big waterfall from the opening scenes of Prometheus. Within Iceland, it’s best known as being the most powerful waterfall in Europe, although that fact is now being prefaced with words like “possibly” and “among”. But it’s quite the sight to behold and you should make the effort… More How to visit Dettifoss
I know it’s been eight months but I thought it really was about time I did a post of some kind about the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I like stand-up comedy and because I am ridiculous, I keep a spreadsheet of what I’ve seen, which tells me that since November 2009, I’ve seen 237 shows, encompassing… More EdFringe 2015
In August 2014, I went on a county Guide trip to Switzerland. I’ve got some posts about it dotted around this blog in various places but I haven’t yet told you about Anita’s B&B. There were twelve of us and I was the penultimate youngest, at just turned 29. Kate (the organiser’s daughter) was 24,… More Switzerland 2014: Anita’s B&B
If you’re short on time, if you’ve only got a weekend, just 48 hours in Reykjavik, what’s a good way to see and do everything important? Day Zero My favourite flight to Iceland is Icelandair’s FI455, LHR 21:10 – KEF 23:10 direct. You can do pretty much a full day at work and then fly… More 48 Hours in Reykjavik
Snæfellsnes, a peninsula sticking out of Iceland’s west coast, is well worth a visit, and indeed a blog post and I’ll write one at some point. It’s an escape from the often-frenetic pace of activities in Iceland, where you rush or are rushed from Blue Lagoon to Golden Circle to horse-riding to glaciers to scurries… More Rauðfeldar: one of Iceland’s better-kept secrets
Two weeks ago, I went to Norway. It was just a long weekend, really, and I packed in as much as I could. I went out looking for the Northern Lights, my tenth attempt so far. And it turns out the Northern Lights in Tromsø seem to be a little more reliable than elsewhere. We… More Northern Lights in Tromsø
The first mountain I ever climbed was the Talkaser. It’s not huge and I still only got halfway up but here’s the story of my first mountain. My parents – no, let’s be frank – my mum likes to go to Austria for her summer holiday every year. Once upon a time, we could vary it… More My First Mountain: The Talkaser
In March 2014, I went off on a whistlestop tour of Lapland; that is, I had about forty-eight hours in northern Sweden followed by about forty-eight hours in northern Norway, because I wanted to go to Lapland and for some reason, I was finding it difficult to access the more remote parts of northern Finland. I… More The Iron Ore Line: the train from Sweden to Norway
My next big adventure is to Svalbard. In November. I know. I guess I’ve realised that was a bit of a mad idea. So I did some homework. I’m a big believer in doing some research, especially if you’re going somewhere special and there isn’t anywhere more special than Svalbard. So I needed to do… More Svalbard preparation