A City Break in Reykjavik

Iceland is perhaps not the most obvious place to go for a city break but with a flight time of only 3 hours from London, less from Glasgow, you could find yourself exploring the world’s most northerly capital city, Reykjavik.

Reykjavik Harbour

Great Ambiance in Brading's Old Wax Museum

You may be forgiven for thinking that breakfast at an old wax museum might taste a bit...fake. But Brading's old wax museum has been transformed into a chic new table service cafe serving locally produced food.  And as a bonus, there is also a chocolate factory and shop next door.

Waxworks Cafe

 

Inside the Waxworks Cafe

10 Free Things to do in Reykjavik

Before I went to Iceland, I thought it was going to be a struggle to find anything free to do in Reykjavik because everyone kept telling me that Iceland was expensive. However, I couldn't have been more wrong, I found loads of free things to do in Reykjavik, 10 of which I've shared with you below. Reykjavik is relatively expensive but no more so than London or Tokyo and if you hunt around, get away from the main streets, you will find bargains and low cost accommodation and transport.


1. Harpa Concert Hall
The Harpa concert hall and conference centre is a stunning geometric shaped glass covered building overlooking Reykjavik harbour. At night it is lit up with waves of red, gold and green lights which dance across its facade.  It's not just a beautiful building to admire form the outside, it's free to explore inside too and the internal natural lighting effects are a photographers dream.

Harpa Concert Hall

A Microadventure with Dave Cornthwaite and the YesTribe

What are you doing at the weekend?

It's a familiar question in offices on a Friday afternoon and the responses usually vary from:

'Going down the pub with my mates, watching a bit of TV, getting to the next level in.....'
to
'Taking Sophie to ballet then Jake to karate then Sophie to horse riding and Jake needs new shoes...'

But rarely is the response...

'I'm meeting a bunch of strangers at Fenchurch Street station and we're all getting the train to Leigh-on-Sea for a bit of wild camping.' Which was exactly my response when I was asked last Friday.

Walking La Gomera

There's something quite special about being able to explore a small island; a circular coastline marking our boundary and allowing us to wander freely, safe in the knowledge that we won’t get too lost.

The Island we were exploring was La Gomera, the second smallest of the Canary Islands with a pleasant year-round climate and a character quite different from its big sister, Tenerife.

Loving Lisbon

Lisbon guidebooks wax lyrical about the elegant facades of the gothic cathedrals, Moorish castles and Manueline palaces but if I’m completely honest, I’ve never taken much interest in architecture.  To me, a building is a practical structure and as long as it doesn’t clash with its surroundings, I generally don’t notice details in its construction.  That was, until I visited Lisbon.

One of Lisbon's Famous Trams

5 Reasons to Visit The Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight has recently been voted the UK’s second best Island by Trip Advisor and had a great write up in Olive magazine for its gastronomic delights. Discover what else the Isle of Wight has been hiding other than great beaches and Cowes Week.

It has been a literary magnet for hundreds of years

Many great names have come to the Isle of Wight for its tranquillity and beauty.  Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield while he was staying in Bonchurch;  Darwin wrote the first chapter of his Origin of Species while holidaying in Sandown; Tennyson moved here for a number of years and Keats and D H Lawrence both found inspiration while visiting the island.   And although not a writer, the real Warrior, the horse the Germans could not kill, lived and exercised on Brook Beach on the Isle of Wight.

Tennnyson Down - a beautiful walk on the Isle of Wight