Cold weather trips

Ahh, it’s October and my thoughts turn to cooler weather activities and exploration … although I’m not pencilling anything as cold as the -30°C cross-country skiing on a Finnish frozen lake as in the picture above.

There are a couple of things which are already booked into the calendar:

1. Liverpool city weekend. Twenty years in London and I’ve not been to Liverpool. I’ll have to participate in something suitably Beatles-reminiscent in addition to the Antony Gormley beach sculptures that are the real purpose of the trip.
2. Lille Christmas market. The London-Lille Eurostar train journey is only an hour and a half each way. So, we can do a day trip to the Christmas markets. Amazing! I’ll have to start practising my French.

I’m also contemplating several other things :

• A glassblowing weekend course in Wiltshire. I would return to London with Christmas baubles crafted by my own fair hand.
• The West Highland railway in Scotland. The journey is consistently voted as the most scenic railway in the UK, and you will have seen it in the Harry Potter movies. It looks like a very romantic trip, with the snow capped mountains in the background.
• Winter walks among the Christmas card scenes in the Austrian Tyrol.

I’m in my element – dreaming, researching and planning trips.

~ Spotted Cow

Spring break. Planning trips

March weather is unpredictable. One day it’s mild and sunny, and I’ve tossed aside the hot water bottle. The next day it’s cold and wet, and I’m wrapped up again in the duvet coat. However, there is no doubt that spring is near and I am ready to come out of hibernation.

I pulled out the diary and flicked off the dust. The following dates have been penned in:

• Several weekends taking in the sea air in Brighton;
• A day out at Bletchley Park to see the code-breaking Enigma machines;
• Bank holiday city break in Stockholm;
• And, a week visiting a friend on sabbatical in Madrid.

I’ve been couch-surfing jauntful.com and cntraveller.com for recommendations. Jauntful is a crowd-sourcing site where people have compiled their travel lists with handy printable itineraries and maps. CNtraveller is the Conde Nast Traveller site that has luscious photography and helpful lists. I love the food and restaurant lists. On both sites, you type in your destination and away you go. Oh, and of course I have to get my Everyman map guide.

And not to forget my lovely friends at the Slow Pace, who will definitely get a look-in because they know Madrid well and they’ve just been to Stockholm. How handy is that! I’ve already written down their recommendation for the best meatballs in Stockholm.

~ Spotted Cow