For the last few years, I’ve often taken a film camera with me on trips. Nothing exciting, either a 90s holiday camera from eBay or a really light plasticky new camera once the 90s one started misbehaving. There are no settings except flash on/off and the 90s one doesn’t even have that. I made it … More Iceland on film (summer 2025 edition)
One of my own personal Christmas traditions is to go ice skating. Usually it’s at Bournemouth but last year I tried (and failed; the blades weren’t sharp enough) in Reykjavik and this year I finally had the opportunity to have the iconic Christmas experience of skating at Somerset House in the heart of London, or … More Ice skating at Somerset House: iconic London Christmas experiences
This is an exciting Christmas activity that I saw Sandy Breitmeier, aka sandymakessense, do a month or two ago and the moment I saw it, I knew I had to give it a go. It’s a lampworking workshop, where you use a blowtorch to melt and twist glass to make a Christmas tree ornament. I … More Lampworking: making a Christmas tree using a blowtorch
I don’t do a lot of travel within the UK. I’m not a fan of driving on motorways and while our rail network is reasonably extensive, train travel is expensive, complicated (no one will tell you when various ticket types are valid but will leap on you the second you get it wrong) and notoriously … More Birmingham’s Frankfurt Christmas Market
In my last post, I told you all about my time at Thermes de Spa, the original spa – well, the current spa in the town Spa that gave all spas their name. I wish I could get three or four posts out of this weekend but it’s not really worth doing an itinerary post … More Spa by train
If you’re writing a book about hot baths, thermal water, steam rooms and bathing culture, sooner or later you’re going to find yourself in eastern Belgium in Spa, the town with natural thermal mineral water that gave its name to many towns with natural hot water and all places where you go to get properly … More A spa day at Spa, the spa that named all spas
For the time being, that’s everything I have to say about what I did in Romania but as I’m trying to get into the habit of doing an itinerary for as many trips as possible, I’m going to do that as my final post. I was in Romania for about five days – I arrived … More My five day Romania itinerary
I had three reasons for going to Romania last month. One was Therme București, the second was seeing Bucharest a bit further on from its communist day and the third was to correct all the mistakes I made on my trip there in 2009. So this us everything I did wrong back then and how … More The 7 mistakes I made in Romania in 2009 and how I did it right in 2025
I’ve seen a lot of people go all the way to Bucharest to go to the Therme but very few – actually, none at all come to mind – spend any time in the big city a few kilometres south of it. But although Europe’s biggest spa was a lovely bonus, I actually was in … More How to spend two days in Bucharest after your Therme trip
“Are you going to the spa in Bucharest sometime?” It was just a comment on someone else’s Instagram, left over a year ago, on a post I shouldn’t even have been stalking but it set it all into motion. From the moment Therme București shoved its way into my consciousness, the biggest spa in Europe, … More Is the biggest spa in Europe overrated? My day at Therme București
I Am A Polar Bear 