Grábrók is one of my favourite attractions in a country full of incredible things to see and do, and I can’t quite believe I’ve never written about it before. Technically Grábrók is “they”, not “it”. “It” is a little cluster of moss-streaked red craters beside the Ring Road: Stóra Grábrók (Big Grábrók), Litla Grábrók (Little … More Roadside Volcanoes: Grábrók
I said at the beginning of the year that I was going to work through some gaps and one particularly egregious gap is Hverir, the geothermal area at Mývatn. I love Mývatn. You can never run out of interesting geothermal or volcanic things to see and do, and one particularly popular spot is Hverir. Hverir … More Hverir: geothermal area or another planet?
I know, you’re a traveller, not a tourist, you don’t want to go on tours or be shown things by a guide, you’re independent and you’re smart and you don’t want to be a sheep and just go where everyone else goes. But I’d still like to tell you why you should use a tour … More Why you should use a tour guide
This wasn’t my original plan for my July book but the one I’d planned to read sounded like even its own author hadn’t enjoyed it so off I went to the Kindle shop where I came across I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol. It’s the tale of a woman in her 40s … More Travel Library: I’m Mostly Here to Enjoy Myself by Glynnis MacNicol
Today’s edition of Chocolate Wars should have been a no-brainer. Britain has an international reputation for not being terribly good at food and Switzerland is known for its chocolate. But on the other hand, we’re talking about Dairy Milk here and I think that’s a valiant contender. Next time I’m in Switzerland I’m going to … More Chocolate Wars: British vs Swiss chocolate
This last year has been like nothing I’ve experienced ever. I’m up to about five Girlguiding roles and this summer term, I’ve been out four nights a week plus the weekend quite a few times. So I thought, as possibly the busiest volunteer in the country, I’d talk a bit about each of those roles over … More Girlguiding 2023-24: a review
Iceland has had a major boom in tourism in the last 15 years, which was welcomed at first as an antidote to the kreppa, the financial crash of 2008. At that time, tourism was Iceland’s third biggest industry. Almost overnight, it soared to first place, leaving fishing and aluminium processing, the former first and second … More How to be a good tourist in Iceland
Just for the avoidance of doubt, I’m not actually a kayaking instructor. I volunteer at our Girlguiding boathouse where we have one qualified leader and three assistants. I’m kind of hoping to be an actual qualified instructor by next year maybe but for now, I’m using “instructor” in the sense of… well, my job is to go out … More My second season as a kayaking instructor
On Monday I talked about my trip to Gdańsk and I said I’d talk about Sopot today. Well, here we go. In short, I went straight to Sopot from the airport for a trip out on a pirate ship and then went to Gdańsk. Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia are three separate cities – or perhaps towns … More A pirate ship trip at Sopot
This year, I’m going back and filling in gaps in my blog, either where I never wrote the thing in the first place, or where it needs to be deleted and rewritten. I’ve never been particularly happy with the content from Gdańsk in 2019 so that was an obvious candidate for rewriting – but also, … More First impressions of Gdańsk
I Am A Polar Bear 