After a lovely first day our second real day in the lakes also happened to be Easter Sunday. As expected it was raining which did scupper our plans slightly as we would have loved to have attempted to climb Scafell Pike (highest mountain in England.) It just wasn’t meant to be this time round, still, it’s a great reason to head northwards again in the future. After a leisurely breakfast we hopped in the car for the short drive to… View Post
Always planning 🙂
Our first day in the lakes began with a 7.5 hour drive from the south of England to the north. Top tip, it’s true what they say about traffic in the UK on a bank holiday, horrendous. Avoid at all costs. Still, we made it to our destination of Coniston late afternoon so had time to grab some supplies from the local shop and check into the cottage. The cottage was lovely – decorated in a country style. One bedroom… View Post
Full round-up of our 4 days in the beautiful Lake District coming soon!!!
Can’t wait for our Lake District retreat. Cozy cottage, hills, lakes and down time. Its been a year since our last “digital detox” in Scotland and I’m looking forward to some fresh air and relaxation! We have a few adventures coming up that I’m looking forward to writing about plus I’m planning on having a go at some iteninary posts too!! Watch this space.
16 days and counting. It cannot come soon enough! Budapest 2015
As part of my Christmas present my in-laws got me a Gin Parlour Experience in London which involved drinking gin. Which everyone knows is one of my favourite activities. As it involved gin we needed to stay in London which meant we were going to make a weekend of it! I’ve written about our day at London Zoo so here is a round-up of the rest of our time. Given that gin was the order of the day I was… View Post
As part of my Christmas present my in-laws got me a Gin Parlour Experience in London which involved drinking gin. Which everyone knows is one of my favourite activities. As it involved gin we needed to stay in London which meant we were going to make a weekend of it! More on the Gin Experience and our weekend in general to follow but I decided to put a whole post together on London Zoo! I love going to zoos, I… View Post
Day 7 – our last real day Our last full day in Sweden was spent much like the previous day with relaxation, beer and an open fire. We had a late breakfast and did some packing before heading out for some cross country skiing around lunch time. I had never been cross country skiing – or normal downhill skiing for that matter – so I was a little apprehensive to say the least. I shouldn’t have worried too much as… View Post
Our next two days in Sweden were pretty low key. We spent most of our time curled up in the hotel lounge by the fire with books, hot chocolate and more beer. It was pure bliss if I’m honest. Sure I am up for seeing as much as possible while you’re away but sometimes it is just as good and rewarding to sit down, look out of the window and just while the hours away. The hotel lounge was also… View Post
As our tour was a Great Rail Journey it was about time we boarded another (and our final) train taking us from Kiruna even further north to Bjorkliden. A fairly leisurely morning we made it to the station about 20 minutes before the train was due to leave however it was unfortunately delayed. By an hour. As mainland European trains go it was unusual for it to be late and we were informed it didn’t happen often. Which in some… View Post
Sorry for the slight post gap – catch up with days 1, 2 and 3! We had a lazy morning before our afternoon and evening excursions which was nice as it meant a lie in! Always a plus in my book. Our cabins were wonderful, I wish I took a picture of them but it was super homey. After breakfast we decided we would have a wander around and a play in the snow! It was a beautiful morning (as… View Post
Our next day in Sweden began with what became an almost constant, beautiful light, a big positive for the short daylight hours at this time of year. When there is light is wonderful. Today was our first train ride of the trip taking us from Lulea to Kiruna. Kiruna is the biggest town in the Lapland area and is essentially a mining town as it’s home to one of the biggest iron ore mines in Europe. The interesting thing about… View Post
After travelling today was our first real day in Sweden was filled with excitement, not knowing how cold it was going to be and with the prospect of sailing out into a frozen sea. After breakfast (nothing to write home about, just your typical European mix of fruit, meat, cheese, yogurt and cooked eggs) we layered up and headed out on the bus. After a short drive to Piteå we glimpsed the first site of the Piteålven River which is… View Post
Forward apology for lack of pictures on this post – I must get better at documenting the journey and not just the destination! Most people would consider it a little crazy odd to opt to go on holiday with their in laws but when my Mother in Law suggested a trip to Swedish Lapland for her birthday I found myself agreeing and booking pretty quickly. As a group of 6 (joined by some family friends) I didn’t feel too daunted… View Post
So we are back from our week long trip to Swedish Lapland and it was amazing! As someone who has never been anywhere with any amount of snow before it was a little overwhelming being near so much of the fluffy white stuff!! We were treated not only to the snow but also the NORTHERN LIGHTS!!! Not on just 1 day but 4 days!!! There aren’t really any words to explain how thankful I was to actually see them and… View Post
So I finally tool the plunge and decided to upgrade to a custom domain name! Not a huge deal I know as they are pretty cheap to come by but hey ho thenonbackpacker.com it is!!!
After rounding up 2016 I began to think forwards to this year (as everyone on the internet does) and found myself pondering over some finer points – here is my sort of not resolution for 2017! I quite often find myself in a horrible cycle of spending my weeks wishing they would hurry up so that the weekend could come and we could do something fun. In reality, the weekends aren’t always fun and your life is predominantly made up… View Post
