If you’re going to swim in a delightful outdoors naturally heated geothermal pool in Iceland, you’re going to have to face the dreaded Obligatory Naked Shower. Icelandic pool water comes straight from the ground. They don’t put chlorine in it or any other chemical disinfectant. The way Icelandic pools remain clean is to demand that … More Public nudity post-pandemic | Iceland 2022
The hot river hike was part two of my horse riding day. The lovely Eldhestar at Hveragerdi were the only people I could find who’d do a guided hike to the hot river valley so I went for it. The reason no one else does it is because it’s a 3km hike on a pretty … More I hiked up a mountain to the hot river valley | Iceland 2022
The horse’s name was Vorboðar, which means Bringer of Spring and he was not doing his job. Naively, I’d expected spring in Iceland to look quite a lot like summer – sunshine, leaves, people in lighter clothes – and what I’d seen of it so far had been winter but without the fun stuff like … More Horse riding in the rain | Iceland 2022
The second* thing on my to-do list for my trip to Iceland last month was to go to the Sky Lagoon, Iceland’s newest geothermal spa and it… well, it was good enough that I went back a second time five days later. It takes a lot of what the Blue Lagoon does well and – … More Iceland’s newest spa: The Sky Lagoon | Iceland April 2022
Yes! At long last I have new travel content – and new Iceland content at that! I got on my first plane in over two years and we’re starting with a bang: I visited the new Icelandic volcano! It still hasn’t been officially named, to the best of my knowledge, but it’s usually called Fagradalsfjall … More I visited the new Icelandic volcano! | Iceland 2022
It’s been a sunny weekend so I’ve been out in the garden getting my plants in order. I’ve already talked about what I learned from my garden last year so now I’m starting to put that into practice. Indoors First, my little hot plants. I planted my tomatoes, chillis and peppers in my windowsill propagators … More Spring 2022 in my garden
My county came up with a May lockdown challenge badge in 2020 which kept me nice and busy. In 2021 they did another: the Jurassic Plod badge. Yes, May 2021. I only finished it last week, in April 2022. The “plod” in question doesn’t have to be along the Jurassic Coast but I immediately decided … More Jurassic Plod challenge badge
I didn’t exactly rave over my last Travel Library book, did I? And I’m afraid it’s pretty much more of the same today. This time I’m reading Helen Russell’s The Year of Living Danishly. Helen is a freelance writer and journalist whose husband unexpectedly got offered a job at Lego HQ. They took the plunge … More Travel Library: The Year of Living Danishly
As I start to write this post, I finished lesson eleven of my twelve-lesson Russian evening course last night and I have one more lot of homework and one more lesson left and then I’m done. I’m glad for two reasons. One is that this is hard – learning anything with a different alphabet is … More A review of my Russian evening course
If you want to follow the story so far, I’ve talked about: Anita’s B&B, Monday in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, Tuesday at Our Chalet, Wednesday in Neuchâtel and Thursday at Reichenbach Falls and on the Brienzersee. Friday was a light day for our driver. I’m still kind of bitter and bemused over how much we paid … More Switzerland 2014: St Beatus Caves, a boat trip and a rainstorm
I Am A Polar Bear 