All posts tagged: Europe

Cornwall Summer (Part 1): St Mawes, Penzance and the Minack Theatre

I’ve wanted to go to Cornwall for a long time, but as I approached, I realised I knew so little about what to expect. I didn’t know there would be cliffside theatres with sharks basking in aquamarine water below, or that there would be wildflowers in abundance, pirate bays and bars, accents with an endearing drawl at their strongest, modern hotels opposite centuries old buildings where seafarers have been raising tankards of ale for centuries. All this I didn’t really know. Our introduction was via St Mawes, where to arrive at the coast we found ourselves driving down one of the steepest and surely narrowest streets I’ve ever driven on (in a manual – eeeee!), so by the time we parked I was frantically looking for an alternate exit route, gulping at the thought of terrifying(ly embarrassing) hill starts. When I took a few deep breaths and looked around, I saw an endearing seaside village, where every building was white-washed, only the roofs differed in colour, and only a little. Two hotels draw a sophisticated …

PapirØen Street Food, Copenhagen

Whether you consider yourself a culinary traveller or not, PapirØen Street Food is a destination sure to evoke a squee of delight. Situated on PapirØen (Paper Island), which is a short (and I mean very short – around 5 minutes) ferry trip across from the pastel photo paradise that is the streets of Nyhavn, this foodie gem has casual river-side dining figured out. Copenhagen Street Food is set in two large warehouses with pop-up shipping containers out front, long communal benches, and a row of reclining chairs with views across the river. This is people watching at it’s best. Stake a spot, then duck inside and veer to the right until you find Cocktailbaren for their off-the-hook berry mojitos. You’ll need it to mellow your excitement when you head back inside and start decision tackling the plethora of food stands. Skymie indulged his love of Korean food by heading to Bulko for some spicy BBQ vegetarian bibimbap with a side of kimchi, while I braved a huge line to get a middle-eastern pita pocket – …

Svartsö: Wild Spin in the Stockholm Archipelago

This mini adventure began in typical wild spin fashion, running at high speed through the crowds of Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town. We didn’t leave enough time after visiting the Vasamuseet to ferry back from Djurgården, collect our bags from the hotel and get down to the ferry wharf and set sail on our next adventure. So here we were, victims again of our misconception that we can fit a fat itinerary into a thin afternoon, sweating and side-stepping the leisurely tourists of Central Stockholm. But this is a story about the archipelago. We walked onto the gangplank with a minute to spare. The Stockholm Archipelago is made up of approximately 30,000 islands, so as the ferry left the city in its whitewash, we began to float past rocky islands of varying sizes. Some are little more than a jagged outcrop used as a resting place for gulls, others are the size of a private property – and indeed that’s what they are – a pine-clad oasis for a summer home, Swedish flag swinging in the …