I don’t very often get to write about food! I know for some people, the food is half the point of travelling but it’s not something that’s ever worked for me because I have ARFID and food is an aspect of travel I generally just have to survive. But Catherine and Esther are normal people … More Everything we ate in Málaga
I like cathedrals. Sometimes I’ll like an ordinary church too but cathedrals were built to induce wonder and I’ll fall for it every time. So when I was reading about the must-dos in Málaga, the cathedral jumped out at me immediately. It’s nicknamed La Manquita, the One-Armed Lady, because technically it’s still unfinished. It’s supposed … More The One-Armed Lady of Málaga: a too-quick visit to the cathedral
The third of Málaga’s ancient treasures is the Gibralfaro castle, a series of fortifications on the hill of the same name which cuts the city in two and offers 360° views of city, Mediterranean and mountains alike. The Gibralfaro started life somewhere around 700BC as Phoenician fortifications but what you see today was really started … More The Gibralfaro: Málaga’s truly ancient fortress
I’ve already said that almost everything about Málaga surprised me, that it wasn’t the the city full of sunburned drunken British hen parties that I expected. It’s actually one of the oldest cities in Europe – it started life around 2700 years ago as a Phoenician outpost on a trading route between Phoenicia, which is … More All about the Alcazaba of Málaga (in which I am an idiot)
“You don’t seem like the sort of person who goes to Malaga,” Barn Owl said at Brownies the night before the trip. I knew I wasn’t the sort of person who goes to Málaga. Sun, sea, sand, drunken hen and stag parties, sunburned Brits demanding fried breakfasts after a night staggering around town with a … More Málaga, we were wrong about you: notes from the Costa del Sol
I’d heard of the mythical and mysterious “girls’ trip” but it had never happened to me and I kind of assumed it never would – until it did. I was in the courtyard at Prague Castle when I got the message: “Hey, are you interested in going on a mini break? We’re thinking somewhere warm … More How I survived my first girls’ trip
Having got a bit out of the habit of using the film camera that I carry everywhere I go, I was determined to get through a whole roll of film in Finland. I managed something in the late 20s out of my 36 exposures and used the last 8 in London last weekend but when … More Helsinki on film (winter edition)
We all know that sauna came from Finland. I’ve tried out assorted saunas, in Finland and outside, at spas, pools and on beaches. I’ve even been to Helsinki’s big flagship public sauna. But this time, I sauna’d the way the Finns sauna, which isn’t at spas or flagship venues or even in small sheds on … More Sauna & aquajogging: what Finns actually do at the pool
Quite a bold statement, especially for someone who has a Finnish train-related chaos story and lived in Switzerland. I do like Swiss trains – somehow they’re almost invariably timed so that you can quickly get comfortably interchange everywhere, they’re clean, quiet, efficient and the tickets are easy – any given ticket is for a journey … More Why Finnish trains are the best
This was my third trip to Helsinki (if you don’t count the one evening I spent there before getting the train to the Arctic Circle via the train wash…) and I’ve already been over to Suomenlinna three times. The “castle of Finland” (or “of Sweden” if you use Finland’s other official language) is a more … More Taking the icebreaker to Suomenlinna – or is it?
I Am A Polar Bear 