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
I think this is something I’d like to do for these Weekends Away, an itinerary detailing what I did (although the next two in my calendar aren’t really going to lend themselves to it). The thing is, I’m not sure my actual itinerary is one that other people are going to want to recreate, especially … More 48 hours in Paris: two itineraries
There aren’t many secrets in Paris. With 30-50 million tourists coming to the city of love each year, there’s very little left that hasn’t been discovered, dug out and paraded on social media. But I have found one thing that I’ve never seen anyone else do, that I didn’t even know existed – the Ballon … More The best kept secret viewpoint in Paris
While I was in Paris to visit Notre-Dame, I wanted to find some other interesting things to do. I tend to repeat the same circle of tourist stops: the Eiffel Tower, Sacré-Cœur, the Arc de Triomphe, a boat trip. And while I enjoy those, I’m trying to do new things. Last time I was in … More A first-timer’s evening at the Moulin Rouge
Last weekend, I went off to Paris. Because these days I occasionally take inspiration from people rather than throwing a dart at Google Maps, this was inspired by Brogan Tate, who went to Paris earlier in the year for a press trip and put a picture on Instagram of her with Notre-Dame in the background. … More I went to the restored Notre Dame (don’t bother trying to reserve tickets)
I said this back at my very first post about Poland but I was inspired to go off for a quick trip by Laurie Alyce Adventures who is a teacher and crams her many adventures into weekends during term time, which made me begin to wonder if I could be doing more with my weekends … More Weekend Itinerary: 48 hours in Kraków
I Am A Polar Bear 