Finland to Germany by Ferry 28 hours on a ferry sailing the Baltic Sea from Helsinki, Finland to Travemünde, Germany: does that sound like a fine adventure to you, or a long time to be confined to a ship? I was a little apprehensive but I...
Porvoo Porvoo is only an hour away from Helsinki, yet it feels like a million miles. This pretty town is the second oldest in Finland (just a little younger than Turku) and its Old Town is gorgeously photogenic and packed with cute cafes and quirky...
Suomenlinna Camera in hand, I stepped onto the ferry for a day out exploring the island fortress of Suomenlinna. I’d woken to a clear blue sky, this would be a fine day to head out of the city for some non-urban adventure! Suomenlinna is a...
Helsinki Have you ever travelled somewhere and found that it hurt to leave? Somewhere that you felt so completely at home that your nomadic nature calmed and you wanted to stay for a while. This happens extremely rarely for me, I am always ready to...
Tampere, Finland Tampere resulted in a number of Finnish firsts for me: my first Finnish sauna, my first Finnish snow and my first taste of some of Finland’s distinctive food stuffs (you know, the stuff that graces Huffpost lists because it is quite unlike anything...
Turku Castle Turku Castle (Turun Linna) has seen its fair share of battles and sieges, a sturdy fortification dating from the 14th Century at a time when Finland was part of Sweden. It has played castle, grain store and prison over the centuries, suffering from...
Turku “Don’t speak to strangers. Ever.” That was the top tip given to me by my Finnish friend. “They will think you are either crazy or drunk”. Unfortunately, I found myself confronted with the need to speak to a stranger within minutes of arriving into...
Copenhagen to Finland, via Stockholm A fascinating bridge links Denmark and Sweden across the Øresund Sound, it vanishes under the water as a tunnel only to reappear on a spit of land half way across to sweep over the final half to Sweden. The Øresund Bridge turns into...
Elsinore Castle “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” I’d been in Copenhagen a few days, aimlessly exploring the city, entirely enjoying myself but also aware that I may be missing things. I decided to be...
8 Things to Do in Copenhagen on a Budget My heart leapt as I walked through Copenhagen from the railway station to my booked accommodation, this is one beautiful city with a wonderful vibe. It was a saturday afternoon and Strøget, the main shopping street, was packed...
By train to Copenhagen The lure to head to north was too much, Scandinavia called me. So there I was, stood on platform 5b at Hamburg station waiting for the InterCity Express 33 to transport me to Copenhagen. My time in Hamburg had been brief, I’d...
Finding Christmas in Northern Europe Merry Christmas, Hyvää Joulua, God Jul, Glædelig Jul, Frohe Weihnachten! From a spectacular Christmas market in Hamburg to Lego Santa’s in Copenhagen, one of the most wonderful things about travelling Europe in December is the abundant sprinkle of Yule dust...
Miniatur Wunderland, Hamburg The world’s biggest model railway? As far as tourist sites in Hamburg go, the Miniatur Wunderland had my name written all over it! I went as a train geek – I will confess now, unashamedly, as having a Hornby model railway as...
Amsterdam I had two days in Amsterdam, I hadn’t quite formulated my route and Amsterdam seemed a good place to decide which way to go. It was somewhere I’d never been, yet had wanted to, and probably not for a reason you’d expect! (Unless you’ve...
Rotterdam, the Netherlands I left Chris standing on a platform in Belgium waiting for a train to take him Brussels airport; from now on, I am solo travelling. We had both planned our last night together in Brussels but the Belgian rail workers had different...
Antwerp Antwerp is Belgium’s second largest city, its large port has meant it has been a wealthy, influential city for centuries. Today it is a thriving, fashionable city, the centre of the world diamond trade and, we were told , it is the second most...
