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Georgia: Reporting a Theft – A Cautionary Tale

Definitive proof there ARE criminals in Georgia - a Wanted poster in Kutaisi Police Station
Definitive proof there ARE criminals in Georgia – a Wanted poster in Kutaisi Police Station

There’s a Dino song called “Georgia Sunshine” referring to Georgia, USA and the second line is “how I wish that I was there”.  I was definitely thinking “You and me both, Dino” since I arrived in Georgia, a country that was part of the Soviet Union, because I couldn’t say I was enamoured with this former Russian republic.

I’d just endured the most bizarre day reporting a theft to try and get a report for my travel insurance company and it definitely qualifies as one of the strangest travel experiences I’ve ever had.

I’d been flying through the night and got to my hotel at 5.30am local time, which was 3.30am on continental time that I’d been on for the last month.  I slept for a few hours and then walked to Tourist Information close by.  I decided I had enough time to do the Prometheus Cave and the Sataplia Nature Reserve that afternoon.

I went to the cave first and it’s famous in Georgia, but it was a mistake going there for 2 reasons.  Firstly, I’d just been in Slovenia and after Škocjan, Postojna and Križna, it came a very poor 17th.  Secondly I got my iPod stolen by a pickpocket there.

The scene of the crime - Prometheus Cave
The scene of the crime – Prometheus Cave

I had my waterproof jacket on going round the cave and my iPod was in my zipped pocket.  Then we had to get on a shuttle bus at the exit to take us back to the car park.  It was hot, I took my waterproof off on the bus, put my iPod in the pocket of my shorts, there were about 20 people on the tour, not enough seats on the bus, it was crowded, someone must have seen me put it in my pocket and swiped it.  It was my own fault for being careless, I’m always warning people on my tours about pickpockets, but I didn’t think there’d be a problem on a cave tour with just 20 people.  It wasn’t like I was in a huge crowd.  I got into my taxi in the car park and we’d just started driving down the road when I realised my iPod wasn’t in my pocket.  I went back onto the bus and searched, it was nowhere, had a look in the car park, it was nowhere, asked if anyone had handed it in at the ticket office, they hadn’t, I even went back to the exit to look around there, although I knew it wouldn’t be there.

I really was kicking myself and didn’t particularly enjoy the Sataplia Nature Reserve after that where they’d found a dinosaur footprint, even though it was a beautiful walk through the woods on a lovely, sunny day.

In the evening, I went to have a look at Bagrati Cathedral, Kutaisi’s 11th century Georgian Orthodox Church perched on the top of Ukimerioni Hill and was considering what to do the next day.

I needed a report about my stolen iPod for my insurance, apparently I didn’t need a police report, a hotel one would do, but I couldn’t make them understand what I needed.  Besides the hotel didn’t even have any headed paper, so I doubted the insurance company would take it.  So I thought the best thing to do first thing in the morning was to go to the police station to get a report.

The dinosaur looks like it's creeping up on me...
The dinosaur looks like it’s creeping up on me…

So what follows is the reconstruction of my bizarre day reporting my stolen iPod to the police.  It took 6 hours!

I went into the police station in Kutaisi, there were all these police both in uniform and plain clothes standing outside.  I went inside to this empty corridor and went in the first room I could see and asked the lady in there if she spoke English.  Of course, she didn’t.  They found someone who spoke English, I’d typed up what had happened so he read that, it was a bit easier than me trying to explain it.  He said the boss would come and talk to me in about 10 minutes.  I explained I just needed a police report for my insurance, I wasn’t expecting to get the iPod back, but I could send a report in to my insurance company and they would give me the money to get another one.

Half an hour later, I was still waiting, so I took a photo of the Wanted Notice Board to prove I’d been in the police station.

A view of the hills from my walk in the Sataplia Nature Reserve
A view of the hills from my walk in the Sataplia Nature Reserve

Then a policeman in uniform came to speak to me, he spoke good English, he said he’d been learning English at school since he was 6, he took the details from me, although I had problems with everyone I spoke to trying to make them understand it was an iPod just for music, not an iPhone or an iPad.  This policeman seemed to understand.  In between me explaining what had happened he kept asking me questions about where I was going in Georgia, was I alone, and the favourite that everyone kept asking me and he asked me about 4 times, did I like Georgia?  I needed their help, so I couldn’t exactly say I hated it and wanted to go home, so I was diplomatic.  He said he had a break at 6pm and offered to show me around the botanical gardens!

Another concept that the Georgians seemed to find difficult to get their heads around was that of travel insurance.  They seemed amazed that I’d get money for my stolen iPod, it seemed totally alien to them.  The policeman said it was bad when things like this happened to tourists because they then went home and told all their friends not to go to Georgia and thought it was really bad when the victim was a young woman on her own.  I agree with all that.

Then said the sheriff would be there to take my statement.  What?  I thought he was the sheriff!  I had to wait again? I was watching this woman whose sole job seemed to be sweeping the long corridor, she did it about 3 times while I was there.  It got to twenty past eleven and by now I’d been in the police station well over an hour and a half.  So I pointed at my watch to the woman I’d spoken to originally and said sheriff.  Then another old woman who kept carrying a kettle from room to room brought me a cup of coffee.  I didn’t want to offend her, but I hate coffee.  I took one sip, but it was impossible for me to drink it.  I apologised later (although she probably didn’t understand) when she got the cup from me and poured the coffee on a nearby plant. All this hanging around, usually to pass the time I’d be listening to my iPod… What an idiot!

Walking through the woods at the Sataplia Nature Reserve
Walking through the woods at the Sataplia Nature Reserve

Finally the someone else came to see me, a bloke in jeans, who I later realised must have been the sheriff, because the bosses don’t have to wear a uniform.  I had to explain what had happened all over again.  And then try and make him understand it was an iPod, not a phone or tablet and that I needed a report for my insurers.  Ramaz, who had offered to take me to the botanical gardens, was around and spoke better English than the sheriff so he helped a bit with translating.  Then the sheriff rang someone on the phone and she was asking me where it had happened.  That was an uphill battle as well, trying to explain it had happened on the shuttle bus between the cave exit and the car park.

Then for the really bad news.  As it had happened at the cave, that wasn’t Kutaisi police territory, I’d have to go to another police station.  Someone would come and pick me up.  You just couldn’t make it up, could you?  Ramaz said it would take about 2 or 3 hours.  After the 2 hours I’d already completely wasted in this police station?

I was waiting another half hour for someone to come and pick me up.  I got fed up sitting on this hard chair, so I got up walked to the door, stood in the sunshine and was told by another policeman in the corridor I couldn’t stand outside, I had to sit down.  Finally this policeman came to pick me up, he didn’t speak English, I can’t speak Russian.  I thought he was just there to transport me to the other police station.  That’s what he should have done, but again it was just bizarre what happened.

The amazing fountain roundabout with its armoured horses and the Toast Master in Kutaisi
The amazing fountain roundabout with its armoured horses and the Toast Master in Kutaisi

I should also tell you about the driving in Georgia.  It’s mad! People overtaking each other, honking their horns and cows all over the road.  There are no fences, so there are animals, mostly cows, wandering onto the road.  There was one cow laid in the middle of the road and cars were just speeding past it either side.  Another cow was standing in the road on our side and the policeman just drove straight at it and swerved at the last minute to miss it.  What if it had started walking?  The car was fitted with seatbelts, but they didn’t work, so I was just praying.

So this bizarre journey to the police station.  The policeman rang someone and then pulled into this school car park and this woman got in the back of the car and wanted to know what had happened and was translating.  Then she got someone on the phone who was asking what had happened and I was trying to make her understand over the speaker on the phone.  Then the policeman got his wallet out and found a couple of business cards that he thought might be useful for me, one for the American Embassy and one for the FBI!  Even if I was an American, the FBI are not going to be interested in an iPod stolen by a pickpocket at a cave in Georgia.  This was a petty theft, it was hardly an episode of Criminal Minds!  The policeman dropped this woman off and drove me round the corner to the police station and told me to sit down.  So what had that strange telephone conversation in the back of the police car in the school car park been about?  To this day I’ve never worked out the answer to that question!

The chief of this police station arrived and invited me into his office and asked me to explain what had happened.  He’d lived in London for 10 years, so he spoke good English, but he didn’t seem to get the concept of travel insurance either.

Cathedral of the Dormition by night, a Georgian Orthodox Church in Kutaisi better known as Bagrati Cathedral
Cathedral of the Dormition by night, a Georgian Orthodox Church in Kutaisi better known as Bagrati Cathedral

So I went through everything with him and he seemed very offended that I thought someone had stolen my iPod, he said they didn’t have criminals in Georgia.  I give up!  I said it could have been another tourist.  He said had I seen anyone take it?  No, because if I had I would have done something about it at the time!  I did say I’d been back to the bus and searched, searched the ground at the exit of the cave and the car park, been into the ticket office twice to ask if anyone had handed it in.  I wasn’t expecting to get it back, I just needed a report for my insurers.

The end?  Of course not!  This smartly dressed woman came into the office with some cans of Coke and bottles of water.  She offered me a drink, I took a can of Coke because I hadn’t had anything to eat or drink and I was wilting, the sugar would hopefully do me good.  The smartly dressed woman then sat down and asked me to tell her what had happened.  Again?  Another one?  How many times do I have to explain this and to how many different people?  It turned out she was the official translator.  So I had to explain it to her, she seemed to think the same as me that someone had taken it out of my pocket.  Even if I’d dropped it, which I doubt because I’d have heard it fall, someone had picked it up and taken off with it, otherwise they would have handed it in.  I’m not blind, I searched everywhere, someone had taken it.  But the police chief seemed insistent that there were no criminals in Georgia.

However, he said they would sort me a police report out.  He said that the report would say that I had lost my iPod and where I had last seen it and that I wasn’t sure what had happened to it, basically so they weren’t admitting in the report that there were any criminals in Georgia.  It was  going to be in Georgian script and would need translating, but it was an official police report and would be good enough for my insurers.  It took two policeman and a secretary to produce this police report.  But finally I had it in my hand.

As if I hadn't had enough of caves for one day, I went in the one at Sataplia too!
As if I hadn’t had enough of caves for one day, I went in the one at Sataplia too!

Then the police chief called me back into his office and said he’d arrange for someone to drive me back to Kutaisi.  While we waited I asked him if his job was busy.  He replied that he was busier than he’d ever been.  Whichever way you look at it, there are some serious flaws in that reply.  If he really was busier than he’d ever been, that sort of suggested that there were quite a few criminals in Georgia, otherwise why would he be so very busy?  On the other hand he’d spent the better part of the afternoon with a tourist reporting the theft of her iPod (and while I was in his office he didn’t do much apart from smoke a couple of cigarettes and show me some photos on Facebook) that suggested that he didn’t have a lot else to do with his time.  I can’t imagine walking into a police station in England to report a theft and being invited into the Chief Inspector’s office.  Make up your own mind.

The police chief asked me if I would come back to Georgia.  My reply was a diplomatic “maybe” and he said when I came back to give him a call and he’d take me to Batumi on the Black Sea, it was a beautiful resort.

I waited until the same policeman who offered me the FBI business card came to take me back to Kutaisi to my hotel and endured the same mad, terrifying driving on my return journey.  But I was grateful to them for transporting me instead of making me get taxis or the bus.  Now can you see why it took me 6 hours?

The precious police report in Georgian script was the end result of the 6 hours it took reporting the theft of my iPod
The precious police report in Georgian script was the end result of the 6 hours it took reporting the theft of my iPod

A word of warning, if any of you do decide to holiday in Georgia, don’t be stupid enough to lose anything like I did or you’ll have to go through something like that! Or maybe not. My friends are constantly amazed by all the bizarre and surreal things that seem to happen to me that they have never heard happen to anyone else!

By the way, after all I went through to report this minor crime to the Georgian authorities, when I got home, my travel insurers paid up without even asking to look at the police report I’d worked so hard to get.  I think that’s what you call Sod’s law!

If this article hasn’t put you off the idea of travelling to Georgia for life, here are some practicalities.

I travelled to Georgia during the first half of October 2016.

The first hotel I stayed at in Kutaisi was appalling.  I moved to a second hotel which was beautiful and I would recommend.

Grand rooms with chandeliers and apparently the room I was in had been slept in by a king!  If you also want to stay in a hotel patronised by royalty I stayed at the Edemi Hotel

Hotel fit for a king in Kutaisi
Hotel fit for a king in Kutaisi

Prometheus Cave is located 21km from Kutaisi, an approximately 30 minute drive. You go through the cave on a guided tour. WATCH OUT FOR PICKPOCKETS!

The Sataplia Nature Reserve is located approximately 10km from Kutaisi. I travelled here after visiting the Prometheus Cave. A guide shows you the dinosaur footprint and then it is self guided tour through the nature reserve and the cave.

The Cathedral of Dormition, better known as Bagrati Cathedral is walking distance from Kutaisi city centre at the top of Ukimerioni Hill. It is open from approximately 9am to 8pm and entrance is free.

I flew to Georgia on a Wizz Air flight to Kutaisi from Budapest, Hungary. This was a cheaper alternative to flying to the capital, Tbilisi.

I flew to Budapest from Manchester Airport with Jet2.

To see a more positive side of Georgia, read about my time in the city of Tbilisi.
The Hilltops of Tbilisi

I went on a day trip to Davit Gareja near the Azerbaijan border from Tbilisi.  Read about my experience.
Davit Gareja Cliff Monastery Complex

Read about my traditional sulphur bath experience in Tbilisi
Traditional Sulphur Bath Experience

Everyone should take a trip to the Caucasus Mountains if they visit Georgia. Read about my journey there.
Into the Caucasus Mountains

To read about a rather more successful caving adventure, check out my post about the Gaping Gill cave in the Yorkshire Dales National Park.

Austria: Längenfeld Aqua Dome Spa and the Enchanted Guesthouse

Amongst the sheepskins with a creepy wooden mask above me in the Alpine breakfast room
Amongst the sheepskins with a creepy wooden mask above me in the Alpine breakfast room

For the final day of my Bavarian trip, I headed to Längenfeld in Austria to spend the day at the Aqua Dome Spa.  I was staying overnight in Längenfeld and the guesthouse there was traditional, but also a bit weird.  The bedrooms were lovely and mine had a balcony.  The Breakfast room was amazing, like an Alpine Mountain Hunting Lodge complete with sheepskin coverings on the seats.  There was a stone fireplace and the hosts lit the fire for breakfast, there was an old fashioned radio, a goatherd’s hat and a rather creepy carving of a face in the wood.

There were also lots of witches and wizards around the house, including a life size witch and wizard on the stairs.  The family were obviously religious because they also had a Mary and Jesus ornament on a table at the top of the stairs.  I didn’t think witchcraft and religion necessarily went well together, but they seemed to happily co-exist at this house.  It was a very strange mixture.  However, the hosts were very welcoming and keen to make sure I had enjoyed my stay.  I actually think it would be a really good destination for a long weekend, because there are loads of hiking trails around.  If I’d had longer I would have ventured on some of the hiking trails, there were a couple of impressive waterfalls close by and a swing bridge up in the mountains.  I could see it from the levitating bowls in the spa and I could see hikers up there.

Full size wizard at the top of the stairs
Full size wizard at the top of the stairs

As for the Aqua Dome, I had a very enjoyable afternoon and evening there.  I liked the system they had where you pay as you leave, so rather than trying to guess how long you’ll stay there and then having to get out before you’re ready or wasting money leaving after 2 hours when you’ve paid for 5 hours, everything just gets put on your locker number, that included my massage, my food and my cocktails!  The spa is quite a complex, there are the pools, the saunas, the beauty spa and the hotel.  I went in the pools and had a massage, but as I was staying in the Enchanted Guesthouse as I liked to call my bed and breakfast accommodation, I didn’t see the hotel.  I also ended up not going in the saunas.  They did look interesting, but I think they would have been best enjoyed with company, so I ended up not trying them out.  If I do ever go back for a long weekend break, I think the ideal would be to stay at the Enchanted Guesthouse, go hiking in the mountains during the day and then go and relax at the Aqua Dome at night. So I could check out the saunas then.

Swing bridge in the mountains is visible from the levitating bowls at the Aqua Dome
Swing bridge in the mountains is visible from the levitating bowls at the Aqua Dome

There were several pools to go in, the warmest indoor one wasn’t huge, but big enough to do a bit of swimming and it was a kid free zone as well, nice to have one kid free pool, especially since they had a dedicated children’s pool anyway. From the indoor pool you could go outdoors and swim along to one of those vortex type pools that you get into and then it pushes you along round in a circle.  I did enjoy that.  I went to that on about 4 separate occasions.  There were 3 levitating bowls and the middle one was by far the hottest and busiest.  Unfortunately it was salt water and I have a sensitivity to salt water.  Although it wasn’t irritating my skin, I didn’t want to push my luck by staying in there, so I stuck to the upper and lower levitating bowls, which did start to feel a bit cold when you were in them for too long.  The top one was a sulphur pool which had a fountain that would spout sulphuric water out of it at timed intervals and the lower one was a massage pool with water jets that would also start at timed intervals.  During the day you could see the mountains and the swing bridge, although it was quite misty with low hanging cloud so you didn’t have views of the mountain tops.  At night it was lovely because the bowls were lit by mini Olympic torches that went right round, and they were real flames.

One of the many witches to be found in the guesthouse
One of the many witches to be found in the guesthouse

There were coloured lights in the water too and they changed colour on a sequence, so it was really pretty.  They came round with cocktails to the levitating bowls at night as well, so I had a Blue Lagoon and a Green Moon.  They didn’t have a vast amount of alcohol in them.  Or maybe they had a normal amount of alcohol in them, but I’d become immune because of the industrial strength cocktails I’d had at the Rattlesnake Saloon.  I wasn’t so keen on the fact that when it got to the evening the levitating bowls were full of smooching, snogging couples.  If the cocktails had been stronger I wouldn’t have cared!  I can understand them making the cocktails fairly weak at the pool though, otherwise the lifeguards would have been busy!

A radio, a goatherd's hat and various other curiosities on display
A radio, a goatherd’s hat and various other curiosities on display

I did go in the children’s pool area to go on the water slide.  I’d spotted it outside and decided that I had to try it out.  It was mostly being used by kids, but some adults were going on it too.  It started out light in the slide and then went dark and then had stars in the tunnel before you came out, thankfully into a shallow pool.  I once went on one in the West Edmonton Mall in Canada called the Cannon and it shot you from a height into deep water.  So that was the reason it said it was for deep water swimmers only! It was still a bit of a shock.  But this was a shallow pool.

Long table in the breakfast room decorated like a traditional Alpine hunter's cabin
Long table in the breakfast room decorated like a traditional Alpine hunter’s cabin

My massage was very nice, it was really just a traditional massage, but they used Swiss herbs in the massage oil to make it an Alpine Moonwood massage, just to make it exclusive to the area.  All in all it was a good day and I enjoyed the spa a lot.  It is a place that would be nice to go back to if I get the opportunity, especially if I can combine it with some mountain hiking.

I think I would have struggled to fit any more in that day after driving from Munich and spending the afternoon and evening in the Aquadome, even though I did have some regrets about not getting to that swing bridge.  But I think after all the running around I’d been doing all week in Bavaria, a long soak in hot pools and a relaxing Alpine massage were the perfect end to my holiday.

I travelled in Bavaria and Austria during the second week of May in 2015.

I visited the Aqua Dome Spa in Längenfeld in the Austrian Alps.

I stayed at Ferienhaus Steindl complete with its traditional Alpine breakfast room and all its witches and wizards!

Bedroom in the guesthouse
Bedroom in the guesthouse

Längenfeld is an approximately two and a half hour drive from Munich.

Read about my other adventures on my trip to Bavaria and Austria.
Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps
Surreal Night at the Rattlesnake Saloon

Wiltshire: Longleat Festival of Light

The Gingerbread House from Hansel and Gretel was my favourite in the Festival of Light
The Gingerbread House from Hansel and Gretel was my favourite in the Festival of Light

One of the great things about being a tour manager is you get to do a lot more Christmas trips than the average person, Christmas tours to snowy destinations, European Christmas markets, English stately homes with their themed Christmas decorations and Christmas lights.

Longleat combined Christmas lights and decorated English stately homes, and as an added bonus, you get to go around a safari park too.

Little Red Riding Hood is stalked by the wolf
Little Red Riding Hood is stalked by the wolf

Longleat first started drawing the crowds when they bought lions as a way of attracting visitors and since then they have expanded.  These days there are a lot more animals and a multitude of other attractions to set this place apart from other English stately homes.

And throughout December and the beginning of January, Longleat have a Festival of Lights for Christmas.

The Three Bears
The Three Bears

We came to Longleat on a weekend when there was heavy snowfall through the Midlands.  Fortunately we did manage to get to Longleat, unfortunately because of the cold weather, the animals weren’t exactly the most active I’ve ever seen them.  If they were to be seen at all.

And Goldilocks!
And Goldilocks!

When we drove around the safari park, the deer, zebra and Bactrian camels seemed happy enough in the cold weather.  The recently rescued elephant was in her house and the rhinos were also indoors.  We drove through the monkey enclosure and the monkeys are normally jumping all over the vehicles being both playful and destructive.  But in the cold weather, the monkeys also preferred the shelter of their tree hideaways, just a couple of hardy souls were sitting outside, but they were conserving their energy and barely moved a muscle, they certainly weren’t doing any running and jumping.  Even the Canadian timber wolves who you would think would be used to cold winters, were mostly sheltering inside and only one or two were visible, laying under the trees.

Gurt Wurm - the Somerset Dragon - there isn't one of these in the Safari Park!
Gurt Wurm – the Somerset Dragon – there isn’t one of these in the Safari Park!

The big cats did make up for the inactivity of the other animals though, the lions were all out in the open, grouped in their prides in the two enclosures, one of the cheetahs was sitting proudly on a tree stump as if posing for photos, but the tigers were the stars of the show, stalking around the enclosure as if they were hunting for prey, one of them walked right in front of our bus.  Very clever.  If it was going to get a meal, it seemed to make sense to target the vehicle with the greatest number of people in it!

The Little Mermaid looks out to the lake
The Little Mermaid looks out to the lake

After the safari we had several hours to look around the rest of the Longleat estate.  The train that runs along the lake shore had turned into a Santa train for Christmas so I didn’t ride the train on this occasion, however, the boat was sailing as normal.  The hippo was a long way in the distance, but at least you could catch a glimpse, unlike the gorillas who were nowhere to be seen.  Nico, the old gorilla who lives on his own island in the middle of the lake, in a house with central heating and a telly, was not receiving visitors today.  In warmer weather he’ll sit outside, but when we went past his island he was in his house, probably lounging in his armchair in his dressing gown, drinking Cabernet Sauvignon and watching a Christmas film on telly with the radiator on full blast.  Which is exactly what any sensible person would have been doing on a day like this.

Boat from the Little Mermaid lit up in the lake
Boat from the Little Mermaid lit up in the lake

The other gorillas were also in their house, they’d already been fed so there was no incentive for them to venture out into the cold again.  But the sealions could always be relied upon to provide the entertainment on what would have otherwise been a very dull boat ride on the lake.  They were swimming alongside the boat for the entire trip.  All of the sealions are females apart from Buster, an enormous male who is probably the noisiest of the sealions too.  The children on the boat could purchase fish to feed to the sealions who greedily waited for the food to be thrown overboard.

Sleeping Beauty's Castle is made of silk, like every other structure in the Festival of Light
Sleeping Beauty’s Castle is made of silk, like every other structure in the Festival of Light

I hadn’t been in Longleat House for a few years, but I went inside on this occasion to see it all decorated for Christmas.  They had done a beautiful job of decorating the house, a large Christmas tree in each room, the dining room table set in readiness for a festive meal and all staff dressed in period costume, happy to tell visitors about Victorian Christmas customs.  Sadly no photographs were permitted inside the house, so I can’t show you what the decorations were like.

Cinderella's glass slipper and her pumpkin coach in the distance
Cinderella’s glass slipper and her pumpkin coach in the distance

The main reason for coming to Longleat was to see the Christmas lights.  Every year Longleat have a Festival of Lights where they decorate the grounds around Longleat House in a particular theme.  The theme this year was fairytales.  The decorations were made of silk and had lights inside them.  The lights were due to be switched on at 4 o’clock.  The Fairytale Festival of Lights was one of the best outdoor Christmas light displays I have ever seen.  It was worth coming to Longleat to see these alone.  My particular favourite was the gingerbread house from Hansel and Gretel, but there were so many other fairytales represented from classics like Cinderella and the Sleeping Beauty to more unusual ones like the Firebird, a Russian fairytale and the local Gurt Wurm, a legendary dragon originating in South West England.  There was also an illuminated boat on the lake as part of the Little Mermaid fairytale and an archway leading into the Snow Kingdom from the Snow Queen, which was appropriate for this time of year and the animals from the Snow Queen were all quite happy to be out in the cold, snowy, winter weather.  A path weaved its way amongst the fairytales and brought you into the courtyard where there was a giant Christmas tree.

The Firebird is a Russian story and one of the more unusual fairytales to be represented
The Firebird is a Russian story and one of the more unusual fairytales to be represented

There were a couple of other Christmas specialities at Longleat, the first was the story of the Enchanted Christmas Tree.  In the courtyard, a story was narrated, centred around the giant Christmas tree where the lights on the tree changed colour and visually told the story and images were also projected onto the opposite building to accompany the tale of a child’s journey to find an enchanted Christmas tree.

The Enchanted Christmas Tree in the courtyard
The Enchanted Christmas Tree in the courtyard

The other special Christmas show was the Flight Before Christmas where a lady sat on stage telling a story of Christmas in the forest and owls flew silently in a triangular pattern around the dimly lit room, flying so low that they brushed some of the audience as they soared past.  I love birds, probably more than any other animals and owls are a particular favourite, so I adored this show.

Arctic animals from the Snow Queen are all made of silk for the Light Festival
Arctic animals from the Snow Queen are all made of silk for the Light Festival

It was a marvellous day at Longleat, I thoroughly enjoyed it and it’s made me want to go back there again to see another Festival of Lights.  Who knows what the theme will be for the next Christmas season, but I’m willing to bet it will be just as spectacular as this one.

I visited Longleat to see the Festival of Light in December 2017

There’s still time to catch the Longleat Festival of Light

It’s on for another week until 7 January 2018.

For more adventure ideas in England, check out these posts.
Yorkshire: Gaping Gill Winch Meet
Norfolk: Hiking the Pingo Trail

Liechtenstein: Wine Tasting in the Prince’s Cellar

Vaduz Castle in the Liechtenstein Alps
Vaduz Castle in the Liechtenstein Alps

Liechtenstein. A double landlocked Alpine principality sandwiched between Austria and Switzerland. And I didn’t know much more about it before I went.

Now one of the problems with Liechtenstein and the likely reason it receives so few visitors (it’s the second least visited country in Europe after Moldova), is it’s like Hull, in that you don’t pass through it to get to anywhere else. Liechtenstein is so small trains just go round it rather than through it. So, like Hull, you have to go to the effort of making a special journey if you want to see it. So I did. Liechtenstein, that is. Although as it’s so close to where I live, I’ve also been to Hull. Several times. Deliberately. Hull is worth the effort. But what about Liechtenstein?

All the statistics about this Alpine principality you never knew you needed to know
All the statistics about this Alpine principality you never knew you needed to know

I’ll be honest, Liechtenstein isn’t somewhere I’m likely to visit again and again. Possibly not even one more time, in fact. But it was worth making the special journey to visit although I had no choice but to go to Vaduz on a Monday, which isn’t the ideal day to visit. In England, our museums are open just about every day, but in most countries on the Continent many of the museums close on a Monday and this is also true in Liechtenstein. The Postage Stamp Museum was open. And the Treasury. Had I been in Vaduz on a day when mainland Europe wasn’t shut, I could have spent longer in the city, as I would have liked to have visited the Fine Arts Museum and National Museum, but on Monday they were both closed. Maybe you’re thinking I should have gone to Vaduz on a different day, but you have to be somewhere on a Monday!

My snowy walk to view Vaduz Castle - on a Monday!
My snowy walk to view Vaduz Castle – on a Monday!

I spent 2 hours on a train to the Swiss border and after Zurich, the Alpine lake scenery on the way to Sargans was beautiful. It was winter, it was snowing, the lakes were grey rather than blue, but I loved the mountain scenery. After disembarking the train in Sargans, it was then a 20 minute bus ride to Vaduz, the capital of Liechtenstein.

Snow covered paths lead all over the outskirts of the city
Snow covered paths lead all over the outskirts of the city

Liechtenstein is very sleepy. And that includes Vaduz. Although it’s the country’s capital and it’s called a city, in a tiny country with a small population, the capital isn’t going to be very big.

Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein's wine tasting cellar
Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein’s wine tasting cellar

Somewhere in Vaduz that is nearly always open, including on Mondays, is the Hofkellerei des Fürsten von Liechtenstein, the Prince of Liechtenstein’s Winery, home to the Herawingert vineyards. It’s open from 8 o’clock in the morning and it is recommended to taste wine as early as possible when your taste buds are at their best. So on arrival in Vaduz at just after 10am, I walked to the winery.

Yes, Liechtenstein produces wine. Austrian wine is reasonably well known in England now. The Swiss production is so small they keep virtually all of it for themselves and export very little. I have tasted Swiss wine, but only in Switzerland. So if Swiss wine is difficult to find overseas, wine from Liechtenstein is going to be almost impossible to obtain outside of the principality. So this was my chance to try wine from Liechtenstein.

Three glasses of different Pinot Noir to taste
Three glasses of different Pinot Noir to taste

I did a wine tasting in the Prince’s cellar by special invitation from the prince. Part of that sentence may not be true. Seriously, it was Prince Hans-Adam II’s cellar, but of course he didn’t extend a special invitation to me personally.

90% of grapes grown in Liechtenstein are pinot noir, so that’s what you get to taste, a rosé, a red and an oaked red. They also produced a white pinot noir which I’d never tried before. I was inadvertently given the white pinot noir, but the rosé is so pale, you can barely tell a difference in the colour, the rosé is labelled as “feather white”. The white pinot noir was a light, dry wine, which was good, but the reds were the stars of the show. I do particularly like pinot noir, having tasted some very good quality pinot noir in Central Otago in New Zealand and in Oregon, both regions are renowned for this wine.

Traditional red Pinot Noir and a rosé so pale it's called "feather white"
Traditional red Pinot Noir and a rosé so pale it’s called “feather white”

The first pinot noir was a light, fruity wine, but it was very good. The oaked pinot noir was certainly more robust and it was an extremely good wine, but I did prefer the first one. I had been given 3 generous glasses of wine for a tasting, and despite having eaten breakfast at 6am, I had the foresight to bring a couple of cheese rolls with me to soak up some of the alcohol at this hour of the morning. Just as well, because after I’d finished drinking the 3 generous glasses, I asked if I could try the white pinot noir as I’d never had one before, unaware that I’d been given the white instead of the rosé to start with. The lady in the winery then discovered she’d given me white instead of rosé, so she gave me the rosé to taste and some more white so I could compare the two. She asked me if I liked schnapps, as she had a pinot noir grappa available to taste and then I’d have tried all of the pinot noir products they had on offer. I confirmed that I did. The rosé was another dry wine, but it was more fruity and less dry than the white. I did prefer the rosé. I’m not a huge fan of rosé as it’s generally too sweet for me, but the pinot noir grape doesn’t produce a sweet rosé wine, instead I was getting lots of fruit flavour.

Vaduz Castle overlooks the vineyard that I danced through in the snow!
Vaduz Castle overlooks the vineyard that I danced through in the snow!

Now I do enjoy wine, I have educated myself about it over the years and I try and taste local wine if I go to a wine producing country, but I don’t favour using all the fancy descriptions you hear wine experts say, which is why you’re only getting adjectives like fruity, dry and light! But these were good quality wines. The terrain and soil is apparently ideal for pinot noir and the quality of the wine I tasted confirmed this.

And did I try the grappa? Yes, I did. I got another very generous glass to taste. It was a good grappa, very smooth, but also very strong, I was still breathing fire 4 hours later!

Liechtenstein may not have its own currency, but it does have its own stamps, hence the Postage Stamp Museum
Liechtenstein may not have its own currency, but it does have its own stamps, hence the Postage Stamp Museum

I bought a bottle of the pinot noir to take home with me to drink with my dad on New Year’s Eve, my mum isn’t a wine drinker so she won’t have a glass. It’s probably going to be our only opportunity to drink wine from Liechtenstein again.

Bearing in mind I’d drunk 5 glasses of wine and a glass of grappa at the tasting, I was practically dancing through the vineyard on the way out as the snow fell down around me. It snowed for the most of the 5 hours I was in Vaduz.

This is as close as you can get to the residence of Prince Hans-Adam II and his family
This is as close as you can get to the residence of Prince Hans-Adam II and his family

After the wine tasting I went to the Tourist Information Centre to get a postcard to send to my friend who collects them, I send one from as many places on my travels as I can and to get a stamp for my passport. The Tourist Centre in Vaduz has cashed in on the fact that people like evidence they’ve visited the principality. For 3 Swiss francs you can get your passport stamped. As I’m British and my passport is UK and an EU passport, I don’t get a stamp in any European country I visit at the moment. I was extremely disappointed when I visited Greenland in March, that as a dependency of Denmark, they don’t stamp your passport on arrival. Technically you’re still in Denmark. They even have a sign up at the airport saying “no souvenir stamps”. I would have happily paid a couple of pounds to have a Greenland stamp in my passport. But I have got a Liechtenstein stamp.

Liechtenstein Parliament Building
Liechtenstein Parliament Building

I then went to the Postage Stamp Museum to buy a ticket for the Treasury. The Postage Stamp Museum was free, but it was very small and probably only interesting to people who like stamps. Interesting fact, Liechtenstein has its own stamps, but doesn’t have its own currency. They use the Swiss franc here. So I saw some Liechtenstein postage stamps in the museum, but as I have no more than a passing interest in stamps I didn’t stay long.

It's going to be a colossal Christmas Market in Parliament Square!
It’s going to be a colossal Christmas Market in Parliament Square!

The Treasury was very good though. A large collection of Faberge eggs, a crown, some weaponry, some beautiful paintings, I particularly liked the ones of the Rhine Falls and the view of Vaduz, but the most fascinating thing in the museum was in the final cabinet, two Liechtenstein flags that had gone to the moon and now were proudly displayed with their accompanying pieces of moon rock! I found it fascinating that such a tiny country had sent, not just one, but two flags to the moon on two separate moon landings and each flag had its own pieces of moon rock. Maybe the Prince of Liechtenstein is interested in space travel? I would recommend looking around the Treasury. I think the fact that I was in Vaduz in winter (and on a Monday!) could have had something to do with it being so quiet, but I had a very slow wander around the Treasury and I was on my own the entire time, apart from the security guard sitting in while I was looking at the paintings and exhibits. The Treasury was dimly lit and no photos were allowed, hence the absence of photos from the Treasury. And I bet you were all dying to see the Liechtenstein flags and their accompanying pieces of moon rock weren’t you?

Sculptures at the entrance to the Cathedral of St Florin
Sculptures at the entrance to the Cathedral of St Florin

From there it was a walk through the small town and past the Parliament building. There were some huts in the square, there in readiness for the Christmas Market starting at the weekend. They also had some huts near the Town Hall and an ice skating rink all ready for the Christmas market visitors.

Beautiful stained glass windows in the interior of the Cathedral of St Florin
Beautiful stained glass windows in the interior of the Cathedral of St Florin

A little further on from the Parliament building was the cathedral. When you think of cathedrals you think of huge, imposing churches, but this was Liechtenstein where everything was on a smaller scale. The “Cathedral” of St Florin is the parish church of Vaduz and it is also the burial place for the royal family. You can’t see the tombs of the royals, but you can go into the cathedral. The beautiful stained glass windows were very striking and it was also very peaceful. Unlike most cathedrals that always have crowds of visitors inside, St Florin was empty. It was nice to go into a peaceful chapel.

I also hiked up to see Vaduz Castle. Sadly Prince Hans-Adam II of Liechtenstein had not invited me to join him and his family for afternoon tea and it is the royal residence, so you can look at it from the outside, but you can’t go in. Prince Hans-Adam II obviously has enough money to make it unnecessary to open his home up to the public. It is a lovely walk up there on a snow covered path, there are lots of information boards in 3 languages telling you everything you never knew you needed to know about Liechtenstein as you hike the trail and you get wonderful views of the mountains from up there too, even though the low cloud meant the visibility was quite poor and wasn’t the best for taking photos. But I didn’t mind that. I love mountain regions. They’re beautiful in the summer, but they’re absolutely magical in the winter with all the snow. Personally I prefer to visit mountain regions in the winter, although I enjoy hiking in the mountains too, which is a lot easier, and in some cases, only possible in the summer. As mentioned before, I’m a hopeless skier, so skiing isn’t really an option for me.

Preparing the skating rink in front of the Town Hall in readiness for the Christmas Market
Preparing the skating rink in front of the Town Hall in readiness for the Christmas Market

I took a different path down from the castle to go past the landmark Red House, perched on the side of a hill, built in 1338 and painted red in the 19th century. It was a monastery in the past, but is now a private residence, so you can’t see inside. I think the point of the Red House though, is to see it from the outside.

The Red House of Vaduz
The Red House of Vaduz

And that was it, my time in Liechtenstein was up, time to walk to the bus stop to get to the station in time to catch my train. And will I visit Liechtenstein again? Maybe. But not on a Monday!

I travelled to Liechtenstein in December 2017.

I went wine tasting at the Hofkellerei des Fürsten von Liechtenstein within easy walking distance from Vaduz city centre. It costs 9CHF to taste 3 wines.

Tickets for the Treasury cost 8CHF and can be purchased from the Postage Stamp Museum which are located in the same building.  Entry to the Postage Stamp Museum is free.

Liechtenstein Passport stamps cost 3CHF and are available from the Liechtenstein Tourist Information Centre in Vaduz city centre and the Postage Stamp Museum.

All the proof you need to say you've visited Liechtenstein
All the proof you need to say you’ve visited Liechtenstein

I travelled to Vaduz from Switzerland. You can get a train to Sargans and then a connecting bus from Sargans Railway Station to Vaduz Post in the city centre. I bought a Swiss Saver Day Pass for 52CHF which was valid from midnight until 05.00am the following day on the Swiss Rail Network and selected buses, including into Liechtenstein.  Prices vary depending on how far in advance the ticket is purchased. Full details are available on the Swiss Railways website.

Germany: Surreal Night at the Rattlesnake Saloon in Munich

Ready to enter the Rattlesnake Saloon
Ready to enter the Rattlesnake Saloon

As a lover of country music, the Rattlesnake Saloon had been a chance discovery when I was searching the internet to see if there were any country music venues in Munich. It appeared that there was a limited audience in Bavaria for country music and the only place where they had live country music bands was the Rattlesnake Saloon.

One of the strangest things about the Rattlesnake Saloon, other than it was a pub in Germany where they had country music bands, was its location. We had the address and as the saloon wasn’t in the city centre, we decided to drive past in the afternoon to see exactly where it was. It was a residential area and as we were driving down this street full of houses, my thoughts were we were either in the wrong place or the Rattlesnake Saloon had closed down. Neither of these assumptions turned out to be correct. There, in the midst of ordinary houses, was the Rattlesnake Saloon. It wasn’t open at that time of the day, but it didn’t look boarded up. Even so, I wasn’t convinced that it would be open later, despite the fact the website was still live and advertising the Andy Starek Band, a Bavarian country rock band would be playing on Wednesday night.

The Rattlesnake Saloon seems a bit out of place on an ordinary residential street
The Rattlesnake Saloon seems a bit out of place on an ordinary residential street

In the evening we drove to the Rattlesnake Saloon. The Andy Starek Band were on the bill. They were quite something. It was a 4 piece band and Andy was the singer/songwriter who also played the guitar. There was a bassist and drummer and then a keyboard player who looked about 25 years older than everyone else in the band. There was a table of people already there when we arrived and they were either wives of the band members or other musicians that sometimes played with Andy. A bloke turned up on his own and then there was a group of another three blokes and that was it, that was the audience!

Andy asked where everyone was from and when he found out we were English, he said he usually did all his own songs which were in Bavarian dialect, but since we’d come to see him, he would do some cover songs in English. He did his best to translate what the songs were about for us, although sometimes the translation lasted longer than the song did! The first song was called something like “Just go away”. A helpful member of the audience provided a less polite English translation. Then Sylvia who sometimes sings with him got up and we had a bit of Hank. Jambalaya. Sylvia had a really good voice, but she did have this weird thing going on with a pair of braces that were attached to her jeans, but rather than having the braces over her shoulders they were dangling round by her knees. I actually found that really annoying. But I’m not well up on fashion, is this a popular style these days?

Stage all ready for a Bavarian country rock band
Stage all ready for a Bavarian country rock band

Andy did some more of his songs in Bavarian including one about a stalker and a love song for his wife. He decided to translate the second verse into English for us which took longer than singing the entire song! A guitarist called Robert played with him, he was excellent. And then another bloke at the table who had been learning the guitar did a song about trying to achieve a perfect body. I picked some of it up, but my German isn’t good enough to understand it all which was unfortunate, because it was obviously hilarious, the blokes at the next table were in hysterics.

In the second half of the set we then got an accordionist jamming with the band. Robert the guitarist broke into the opening lines of “Please Release Me” and then, as Robert is great at playing AC/DC songs we got “Highway to Hell”, with the accordionist taking part in that number. That was fantastic. And we got a song about the love of Nutella Bread, which is possibly the weirdest subject for a country music song I’ve ever heard! Nothing tastes as good as Nutella Bread. If you say so Andy!

The Rattlesnake Saloon served the strongest cocktails I've ever tasted in my life!
The Rattlesnake Saloon served the strongest cocktails I’ve ever tasted in my life!

At the end of the set, Andy said it was his birthday next day and he was having champagne at midnight to celebrate and invited the 5 members of the audience to join him in a glass. After we’d all sung Happy Birthday accompanied by the accordion, the accordionist then sang “Living Next Door to Alice” in German, with us all joining in for the obligatory line put into the song by Chubby Brown when the song was a hit for the second time. We sang that line in English! I was a little surprised that “Living Next Door to Alice” was a song that was particularly well known in Germany and especially by a Bavarian accordionist! I actually don’t think surreal begins to describe our night at the Rattlesnake Saloon!

As for the alcohol, well those cocktails were not for the faint hearted. Alan generously offered to drive so we didn’t have to get a taxi, so he drove and I drank. I started with a Lynchburg Lemonade which was Jack Daniels, triple sec, lime and lemon juice. Then I had a Caiparinha, except I was told it was a strong one, not all lime juice. It certainly was strong, you could taste overpowering alcohol on the first sip. I ordered a Mai Tai after that, it was huge and loaded with alcohol. I thought I’d easily manage 3 cocktails, and usually I can, but that’s at an ordinary establishment where there is more fruit juice than alcohol, not at the Rattlesnake Saloon. They were very generous with alcohol and liked to give you your money’s worth. The staff said they hoped we would come back. I would definitely make a point of going there if I came back to Munich.

The recipe (in German) for an extremely alcoholic Lynchburg Lemonade
The recipe (in German) for an extremely alcoholic Lynchburg Lemonade

So with the cocktails and the champagne, I was extremely drunk when I got back to the hotel. The drinks, the music, the venue and the company all made for an amazing and memorable evening. There’s no doubt that our night at the Rattlesnake Saloon will go down in history!

I travelled in Bavaria during the second week of May in 2015.

The Rattlesnake Saloon hosts live music events with a focus on country music and is located in a suburb of Munich

I stayed at Hotel Kriemhild close to the Hirschgarten in Munich

I flew to Munich direct from Birmingham Airport with Lufthansa

Read about my other adventures on my trip to Bavaria and Austria.
Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps
Längenfeld Aqua Dome Spa

Germany: Paragliding in the Bavarian Alps

And we have lift off!
And we have lift off!

My paragliding day in Bavaria was almost perfect, probably the best day of my holiday. My paragliding adventure took place in the morning.

My excitement at getting ready to fly in the Bavarian Alps!
My excitement at getting ready to fly in the Bavarian Alps!

I was flying from Wallberg at Rottach Egern at around 10am. I did get slightly lost trying to find the paragliding site, I put the name of the mountain in the sat nav and ended up at a ski school! I rang the paragliding pilot, he gave directions to the landing field and from there we were going to the cable car at Wallberg which had amazing views of the Bavarian and Austrian Alps.

All kitted up and ready to run off the top of a mountain!
All kitted up and ready to run off the top of a mountain!

There were 2 bags of equipment for the tandem paraglide, that looked like a lot of stuff! I was telling Hagen, my pilot, about tandem hang-gliding in New Zealand and the Canyon Swing in Queenstown and doing a static line parachute jump in England as a student. He said I was obviously an adventurer.

Parachute laid out and getting hooked up to my instructor
Parachute laid out and getting hooked up to my pilot

The Wallberg cable car up the mountain is one of those small ones that takes about 4 people, one that you sit down in and much better than the bigger ones where you all stand up and cram inside.  I actually didn’t think we would get in there with the equipment as well, but we managed. It took about half an hour to get to the top of the mountain and I loved the cable car journey up there.  We walked to the second take off site which was higher up because of the winds and the view up there was amazing.  There were great views of the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany and from this mountain we could see into the Austrian Alps and see the highest mountain in Austria too, the Grossglockner.  We had climbed very high up on the cable car, the fact that it took half an hour to get up there meant we were high up.  Hagen asked me if I was nervous. I admitted I was slightly nervous. Hagen said he wasn’t nervous. Since he was the instructor, I took this as a good sign! But I soon forgot my nerves as I got kitted out in my flying suit.

Up, up and away!
Up, up and away!

As for the paperwork, there wasn’t any!  It’s the first time I’ve ever done an activity like this and not had to sign my life away.  Hagen said a lot of people went paragliding in Turkey without thinking about safety and the fact that a lot of Turkish paragliding instructors don’t have good safety measures in place.  He said that wasn’t the case with him, all of the instructors in Germany had to have liability insurance.  I told Hagen I backed out of a tandem hang-glide in Brazil when the pilot forged a passport number for me because I didn’t know it and my passport was in the hotel safe, insisted on me paying cash, was vague about how much he wanted me to pay and when I said I didn’t have much cash on me, I was expecting to pay by credit card, he said he would take me to a cash machine after my flight.  At that point I changed my mind.  Too many warning bells!  It wasn’t as if I hadn’t done a tandem hang-glide before, I’d done it with John the World Champion in New Zealand and with John I’d even done some aerobatics on the way down, we were doing barrel rolls, which I didn’t even realise you could do with a hang-glider, so I didn’t feel it necessary to risk life and limb with some Brazilian scoundrel who could drive me into a favela and leave me for dead!

This is what it feels like to fly!
This is what it feels like to fly!

Now I was a bit surprised that Hagen, my paragliding pilot in Germany, was an older bloke, but I was reassured that with age, no doubt, comes experience and he would be a good person to fly with.  And he was, he really looked after me and made me feel relaxed.  Once I was kitted out, he explained to me how we were going to take-off, he said it wasn’t quite the same as hang-gliding. He said with hang-gliding you have to run as fast as you can and not stop, just keep running off the edge of the mountain.  But as a paraglider has a chute and isn’t on a fixed frame like a hang-glider, first we had to take 3 big steps to get the chute in the air. He explained as the chute billowed up it would try to pull me back so I had to keep leaning forward, it was important that I didn’t fall over and then run and just keep running, even if I thought we had taken off.  I’m more than capable of running as fast as I can off the edge of a mountain so that part wasn’t a problem.  Hagen got me to take steps forward and then he pulled me back to simulate the sensation of the chute to prepare me.  He set up the paraglider and called me down the hill, much further down than I expected to take off.

A bird's eye view of the mountain surroundings
A bird’s eye view of the mountain surroundings

In fact, probably the most nerve racking moment for me was making my way down the fairly steep slope to where Hagen was.  He hooked me up and then the wind dropped completely so we had to wait a minute for the wind to build up a bit.

An upward view of the parachute and my dangling legs!
An upward view of the parachute and my dangling legs!

When it did build up again, he said take 3 big steps, I managed to stay upright although it was difficult and then he shouted run, run, run!  And I kept running as fast as I could and although I was never built for speed, the speed I managed was good enough. And that was it, we were up and away, he said “good girl”, the people watching said “wow”! And that was it, we were flying.

Steering to catch the thermals!
Steering to catch the thermals!

It was much better than the appalling attempts at take-off I’d seen at Tegelberg the day before, it took some of them 3 attempts to get in the air! I was told that the wind conditions there were usually quite challenging and it was a difficult location to take off from. Hagen had a camera on a stick to take photos and a video.  He took photos first and then video of the second half of the flight.

View from above the paraglider
View from above the paraglider

We were bumping around a bit in the air after take-off because even though it was a glorious, warm, clear, sunny day, we were in a westerly wind, Hagen said that made it bumpy, but we weren’t in any danger.  But I wasn’t worried.  I trusted he knew was he was doing and a few bumps didn’t bother me.  We managed to catch some thermals and climbed higher than we’d been when we took off.  It is the best way of seeing the mountains and the view of the lake below was amazing. He kept asking me if I was okay, I was fine, I was enjoying it.  We were flying round for about half an hour before we started our descent. Hagen let me do some steering, when we were comfortably flying around in the thermals he handed me the strings to control our flight, so I had a go at soaring around to get my own views of the Bavarian Alps. However, after about half an hour the wind was starting to get stronger and it was beginning to get a bit more dangerous to be paragliding up there.

Creative camera angles give a view of paragliding from my perspective
Creative camera angles give a view of paragliding from my perspective

Finally, before we came in to land, not be outdone by World Champion hang-glider, John who had done the aerobatics for me on the way down, Hagen wanted to give me a thrilling descent with a paraglider. You can’t turn the paraglider upside down like the hang-glider. So instead we did some extreme corkscrew turns, which basically meant we were spinning round really fast as we descended.  It took my breath away it was so fast, it was like being on a rollercoaster.  It was fantastic, I loved it.

Quite happy to wave at the camera while floating in the sky above the Bavarian Alps
Quite happy to wave at the camera while floating in the sky above the Bavarian Alps

When we landed Hagen told me I was a crazy girl and it had been great flying with me.  He said two thirds of his passengers would have been terrified in the bumpy conditions and they certainly wouldn’t have gone for the extreme corkscrew spinning on descent. But I wasn’t going to say no to any offers of extra thrills that could be thrown in on a flying adventure like this, that’s just not the kind of girl I am!

I travelled in Bavaria during the second week of May in 2015.

I went paragliding with the brilliant Paraworth Tandem Paragliding off Wallberg in the Bavarian Alps near Rottach Egern

I stayed at Hotel Kriemhild close to the Hirschgarten in Munich about an hour’s drive from Wallberg

I flew to Munich direct from Birmingham Airport with Lufthansa

Read about my other adventures on my trip to Bavaria and Austria.
Surreal Night at the Rattlesnake Saloon
Längenfeld Aqua Dome Spa

Greenland: Two Day Dog Sled Adventure

16 strong and fast dogs pull the sledge across the icy landscape for my 2 day expedition
16 strong and fast dogs pull the sledge across the icy landscape for my 2 day expedition

My final adventure in Greenland was a 2 day dog sled expedition.  There were 5 of us going and each of us had our own dog sled and musher.  We got the bus to a hut to put on our sealskins.  It was going to be cold sitting on a dog sled for 6 or 7 hours each day for 2 days, they recommended we hire them, so we all did.  I hired boots too, but they weren’t sealskin boots and they kept my feet no warmer than my own boots.  The others on the trip were 2 German couples.

Ready to go - all bundled up in my sealskins and I was still cold!
Ready to go – all bundled up in my sealskins and I was still cold!

We went to the area where all the dog sleds leave from and the other 4 went to their sleds and I had to wait for mine.  My musher was about 15 minutes late, the staff phoned him and they said he was on his way and that he had strong dogs and would catch the others up.

When he arrived on his sledge, he looked to have a lot of dogs.  I asked how many dogs there were because it was difficult to count them when they were moving.  There were 16 dogs to pull the sledge.  I put my camera in the zipped part of the front of my sealskin jacket, the rucksack went on the back of the sledge, I sat on reindeer hides, held onto the string that had everything secured in place on the sledge and we were off.  I had been warned that I might have to get off the sledge and walk up hills, but I didn’t have to do that once.  These dogs were strong and they were fast.  We easily caught the others up.  After about an hour we stopped for the dogs to have a rest and then we were off again.

My musher and his 16 strong and fast dogs and our racing sleigh
My musher and his 16 strong and fast dogs and our racing sleigh

I’ve been dog sledding in Alaska in the summer through the forest and the Alaskan huskies were racing dogs.  They ran in pairs in a straight line.  The Greenland huskies seemed to be bred more for strength and they don’t run in a straight line, they fan out and bunch together in tighter spots rather than go in front of each other.  Going downhill you do have to hang on, it’s like a rollercoaster ride, you go over bumps and the sledge jumps into the air.  On steeper downhill sections we were told the dogs would be behind the sledge, but my musher didn’t drive his dogs like that, he always had them in front.  He had a brake at the back and also put thick ropes over the runners on the front of the sledge to create some friction and slow us down because his dogs really did run down those hills!

I have to say, if you’re an animal lover and have a pampered pooch at home, dog sledding in Greenland is probably not for you.  These mushers are hard on their dogs, they’re not pets, they are working animals relied on for survival, so the treatment of the dogs is definitely strict.  I didn’t realise that the dogs would be treated so harshly.  The mushers all have whips which are mainly used for steering the dogs, they whirl it around like a cowboy would a lasso to show the dogs which direction to run.  However, the mushers aren’t above giving a dog a couple of cracks of the whip if they aren’t behaving.  I suppose they can’t afford for the dogs to play up, the dogs need to know who’s in charge; the hunter’s survival could depend on it.

Lead dog and boss dog are alert while we wait for the other 4 sledges to catch up
Lead dog and boss dog are alert while we wait for the other 4 sledges to catch up

My musher had a young dog that was about 9 months old that struggled to keep up with the others after a while particularly when the dogs were running downhill.  I witnessed something on one downhill section and I assumed the reason the dogs generally run behind the sledge when they go downhill was to prevent this happening.  We were going down one downhill section and the young dog went under the sledge.  I screamed because I thought we’d crushed it to death.  Thankfully there is a bit of a gap under the sledge so we didn’t kill the dog.  The musher retrieved the dog and tossed it along with the others to carry on running, but it was struggling.  I didn’t know if it was hurt, my impression was that the musher was going to make it keep running otherwise it wasn’t going to learn, at least I’m presuming that was the reason the musher gave it a couple of cracks with the whip when it started to fall behind again and decided it had had enough.

A double ice shelf
A double ice shelf

On the other hand, on the way back the musher told me he had to watch the struggling dog because he was young and when we were almost back at the end of the second day and this poor dog couldn’t keep up with the other dogs anymore, the musher pulled the young dog onto his lap and was stroking it.  So it wasn’t all bad.  He pointed out his best dog to me and also his boss dog which were two different dogs.

And of the 5 sledges, my musher definitely had the strongest and fastest dogs.  I never had to get off the sledge, quite often the musher sat on the sledge while we were going uphill, even though on some sections I was thinking “we’ll never get up there”.  And even if the other sledges started out ahead of us, we always overtook them and arrived first.  Another musher tried to take the lead a couple of times, but then my dogs would have to slow down.  On the way back, on 2 sections we were so fast and so far in front of the others, we had to wait quite a while for them to catch up which was when my musher told me about his dogs, he had 24 in total, he also hunted reindeer and was a halibut fisherman in the summer months.

Strange ice formations in the fairytale snowscape
Strange ice formations in the fairytale snowscape

On our first day, our second stop was at a hut at about one o’clock where we had a cup of tea and a bar of chocolate.  The Germans asked if we would get lunch.  I told them, I thought that was it!  And I was right!  And after that we entered the most impressive landscape on our journey.  The scenery was beautiful, a wilderness of snow and mountains and no one else around.  But when we went down the hill from the hut we were in fairytale land.  It was like being on a sleigh in Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen going through all these ice sculptures, but these were all natural carvings, no people had been here to sculpt this ice.

We came back the same way and the scenery didn’t have the same impact of the first sighting, but I managed to get some photos on the way back.  However, you really had to see it, photos simply didn’t do justice to this icy wonderland.

Pristine ice sculptures in the ice field
Pristine ice sculptures in the ice field

After that we headed through some really deep snow to the glacier.  The dogs were working extremely hard to pull the sledge, sometimes the snow was right up to the top of their legs, but they ploughed on.  They were incredibly strong dogs.

The mushers encouraged us to do a bit of a walk to view the glacier when we stopped close by, it was a steep and treacherous climb and unfortunately there were no snowshoes or poles for us to use and, more importantly, there was no José.  If you can’t manage, the mushers just leave you, they don’t help.  The German ladies helped me a bit, but after a while I’d had enough and decided I’d got far enough, I had a good enough view of the glacier and I didn’t think climbing any higher would improve the view.

Our luxury mountain log cabin complete with air conditioning and guard dogs
Our luxury mountain log cabin complete with air conditioning and guard dogs

And then we got back on the sled for the final leg of our first day on the dog sled to our overnight accommodation.  There were 2 huts in the distance at the top of a hill.  I thought my dogs would never pull me up there, it was too steep, but they did.  And we were first again.  The blokes had a harder time, they were heavier and their dogs weren’t as strong, so they had to get out and walk up the hills quite a few times, including to the huts.  The dogs were tied up and we were all shown our luxury suite.

The Royal Suite with "the Great Outdoors" ensuite- at £120 per night Raffles has got some stiff competition
The Royal Suite with “the Great Outdoors” ensuite – at £120 per night Raffles has got some stiff competition

We’d been told it was basic, we’d seen photos at the tour operator’s office, but we were still all quite shocked just how stark and rustic it was.  We didn’t have to share with the mushers, they had their own hut.  There was a heater in the corner of our hut, but it was still freezing in there.  There was a wooden table and a bench which would seat about 2 or 3 people.  Useful for 5 of us!  There was a large lower bed with mattresses and one upper bunk.  As the Germans were in couples I said I’d go in the upper bunk because there was only room for one person in it.  They said there was enough room for me if I wanted to sleep on the lower mattresses, but actually being up there on my own was the best deal, there was quite a lot of room, it was like being in a single bed.

It was so cold in the hut.  We all took our sealskins off, but we were sitting around in our coats and the floor was wet from the snow on our boots, so we couldn’t take our boots off.  The funniest moment of the evening was when Julia said she didn’t think she would need her house shoes that she’d packed and pulled a pair of slippers from her rucksack!  She should have known that luxury suites like this provide you with slippers, you don’t have to bring your own.

I got the penthouse, the top bunk all to myself - the other four shared the lower bed
I got the penthouse, the top bunk all to myself – the other four shared the lower bed

The mushers kept coming into our hut at intervals to bring us food, bread and cheese and then chocolate and then tons of butter!  And quite a lot of tinned goods.

4 hours after arriving we were still cold, the heater hadn’t adequately warmed our hut and the ice in the pan on the stove that was supposed to be melting to give us water was still solid chunks.  The mushers had evidently kept the best fire for themselves because they had their hut window open and were in teeshirts!  We were all pretty cold and miserable at this point and kept going out intermittently to see if we could see the Northern Lights.  But they didn’t come out until well after midnight and by half past eleven we’d had enough and went to bed.

Inefficient fire for the first 5 hours, old fashioned kettle and plenty of wardrobe space for handing yr sealskins, what more could you ask for?
Inefficient fire for the first 5 hours, old fashioned kettle and plenty of wardrobe space for hanging your sealskins, what more could you ask for?

There was another door in the hut which we optimistically thought might be the toilet.  It wasn’t.  The ensuite facilities of our luxury cabin in the mountains were The Great Outdoors.  Julia and I had been outside earlier to scope out the best place for the toilet, decided the side of the hut with no window was good, privacy and a bit of shelter and as with the ice camping on the ice sheet the weekend before, I drank very little during the day so the toilet would only be necessary once last thing at night and once in the morning before we left.

Yes, I definitely advocate living on batteries so you don’t have to drop your drawers in the snow at the side of a hut in -20 degrees.  The German ladies were worse off than me, they needed to go during the day and had to try and get the sealskin dungarees off as well as everything else.  It was obviously less of an issue for the blokes.

Arctic Princess ready to glide across a fairytale icescaepe on her magical sleigh. Maybe this Snow Queen would look better in white?
Arctic Princess ready to glide across a fairytale icescape on her magical sleigh. Maybe this Snow Queen would look better in white?

So after checking for the Northern Lights for the last time we went to bed and as I was up in the penthouse, once I climbed up there that was it for the night, I couldn’t be clambering all over the Germans on the mattress below me unless I desperately needed the loo.  After being freezing for most of the evening, by bedtime our luxury cabin was really warm, the heater had finally done its job.

I ended up sleeping in just my thermals and half the night I was on top of the sleeping bag because it was so warm.  There was loud snoring from someone so I plugged my iPod in and listened to my music all night, but I slept surprisingly well after initially looking at our Royal Suite in despair.  We were all making jokes about when was the waiter going to come with the wine list and stuff because it did all seem so dire at first, but once it warmed up it was bearable.  So, yes, I slept, mainly because it was very warm.  Much warmer than the tent on the ice camp adventure and I also had a lot more space on the top bunk, it was just like sleeping in a single bed.  A bed in a dormitory or a hospital, this was no luxury hotel, but it was nowhere near as uncomfortable as the tent.  After initially having my doubts, our mountain lodge was much better than the tent, certainly for sleeping.

For a very brief moment another sledge is in front of ours
For a very brief moment another sledge is in front of ours

The next day we were awakened by one of the mushers bringing us some hot water at 7.30am.  So we all rushed to get ready and we needn’t have bothered, the mushers were in no hurry.  I pulled my sleeping bag down to try and put it into its holder and Julia said something to her husband and he got the sleeping bag and said he’d put it away for me.  I said I was just about to do it, he didn’t have to do it for me, but he said when his wife told him to do something, he did it.  Good lad!  That’s what I like to hear.  I had a muffin and cup of tea for breakfast and then we were ready for off.

We all had to walk down the hill from our luxury mountain lodge; that was the only time I had to walk instead of the dogs pulling me on the sledge.  We came back the same way and once again, my sledge was fastest by a long way with my strong fast dogs.

Rapidly catching up with the dog sled ahead, the other dog teams just couldn't compete with my strong, fast dogs
Rapidly catching up with the dog sled ahead, the other dog teams just couldn’t compete with my strong, fast dogs

It does get very cold sitting on the sledge, it wasn’t as bad in the sunshine, but it was perishing in the shade and my feet were absolutely freezing, I couldn’t seem to get them warm and I had 4 pairs of socks on under my boots!  I kept taking my gloves off to take photos and then put them on again in a hurry and worried because then I couldn’t feel my fingers for 10 minutes.  The things we do to get photos…  But the scenery was so special, no one else around, very tranquil.

It was something that was wonderful to do as a one off, but I wouldn’t want to be out on that ice sheet hunting and fishing with the dogs on a regular basis.  What, I hear you say?  You don’t want to rush back to the Royal Suite at the luxury mountain retreat?

Ice sculpture fit for a Snow Queen
Ice sculpture fit for a Snow Queen

I did enjoy it, but I did have a few issues with the dog sledding.

Firstly I was uncomfortable with the harsh treatment of the dogs, which the Germans also commented on.  And the dogs were very smelly too, just as an aside.

Secondly it almost felt like we were imposing and the mushers didn’t really want to take tourists out with them.  Running round a field for 2 hours in a dog sled, which is what most tourists do, is completely different to doing this 2 day trip.  Can you argue that the mushers don’t have to take tourists if they don’t want to?  And if it is such an imposition they shouldn’t be taking them anywhere?

We were told it was an authentic experience.  I think the office staff were referring to our luxury mountain retreat when they said that.

The blue sky just made it even colder
The blue sky just made it even colder

Have the mushers been more or less forced into it because they can no longer survive with their traditional way of living?  But things change everywhere over time.  I did still feel like I was intruding, that the mushers didn’t really want to take tourists, they were just doing it for the money.

This was highlighted all the more after spending the previous 2 days with PGI Greenland and the Spanish guides with their impeccable customer service, their obvious enjoyment of their work and their enthusiasm for the activities and the landscape, looking after their passengers and enjoying being with them and getting people to make the most of their excursions.  It was a complete contrast to the dog sledding.

The mushers looked after us and made sure we didn’t die.  I enjoyed the dog sledding; the scenery was amazing, you really got out into the wilderness and that feeling of solitude and isolation was something special.  And the experience of staying in the nearest rival to Raffles is something I’ll always remember.

Greenland has the best postcards in the world - ever!
Greenland has the best postcards in the world – ever!

The enduring memory of Greenland of this undisputed Arctic Princess will be the tours I took with the Spanish guides, both the daytime snowmobiling and the snowshoe hiking, which were exhilarating and amazing, but more than either of those, going out with the whole PGI team that Saturday night on the snowmobile and enjoying the dazzling display of the Northern Lights together.  It really doesn’t get much better than that.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

My dog sledding expedition was booked with World of Greenland Ilulissat who are based in Ilulissat town centre.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
My First Day in Greenland
Exploring Ilulissat
Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia

Greenland: Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia

Snowshoe hike with José in deep snow
Snowshoe hike with José in deep snow

Saturday morning and it was back to PGI Greenland for my snowshoe hike after my snowmobiling the previous day. I’d asked at the office how many people were doing the hike and was told it was just me, but again PGI Greenland ran the tour just for me.  They obviously don’t want to disappoint anyone by cancelling.

This time Jose, originally from Granada in Andalucia, was my guide, and Marta from the office was going to come with us too.

Setting off with determination on my snowshoe hike
Setting off with determination on my snowshoe hike

Jose said the clothes I was wearing were fine for the hike, but he’d bring me some mittens because my hands might get cold.  He had me try the snowshoes on indoors so he could get them to the right size, you click into them like ski boot click into skis.  Thankfully this was nothing like skiing, I’ll write a post about my attempts at skiing, so you can all discover how good I was at that!  You might have guessed, athletic ability is not my strong point!  But at least I have a go.

Jose said we were walking the yellow trail which I’d now tried, and failed, twice.  After doing the hike with Jose, I realised I’d never have managed it without snowshoes, poles and a guide.  Me and Jennifer, who was staying in the same guesthouse as me, had been way off course the day before.  It was actually really difficult to follow the markers, they kept disappearing from view.  It’s only because Jose knew where the trail went that he could find the markers and the cairns.

Two lonely figures crossing the vast icy landscape
Two lonely figures crossing the vast icy landscape

I was told the trail was popular and there were loads of people always hiking it.  We didn’t see one person and there were fresh snowdrifts from the night before so we didn’t see any footprints on most of the trail either.  So you really needed to know where you were going to find the trail markers with all the deep snow half burying the trail posts and covering all footprints left the day before.

Jose had to cut a path up the steps to even start the trail since the steps were knee deep in snow and you couldn’t actually see where the steps were.  When we got to the top of the steps Jose put my snowshoes on for me, gave me 2 poles and he and Marta had one pole each and hiking snowboots, but no snowshoes.  Jose said after 20 minutes I’d forget I’d got the snowshoes on.  He showed me how to turn around in them and to be careful and then led the way.

Making a careful start on my first downhill slope
Making a careful start on my first downhill slope

I was quite slow, but Jose said we weren’t in a hurry and I was certain I was far from the slowest person they’d had on the snowshoe hike.  Marta only walked a short way, then said she was cold and went back, which left me and Jose to complete the trail.  My dance teacher always says the first rule of dancing is look after your lady and keep her safe.  That is definitely what Jose did when he took me on the snowshoe hike.  I was nervous going downhill, like I always am, and he showed me how to go down with the snowshoes which also have metal spikes on the front to give extra grip.

We got part way down and Jose told me to look back and see what I’d already done and how well I’d managed, he was constantly giving me encouragement and congratulating me on the part of the trail I’d covered.  I told him my balance was poor and he told me I couldn’t have done the hike with poor balance, I’d done really well in the snowshoes.  We had stops to admire the view and take photos and every time I wanted a photo I had to take my mittens off because I couldn’t operate the camera with them on.  When I’d finished, Jose would put my mittens back on for me!  Would you call that spoilt and pampered?  It’s certainly looking after your lady.

Climbing to the highest part of the trail
Climbing to the highest part of the trail

He tightened my snowshoes for me twice, kept an eye on me all the time, when we did the steep uphill section which was hardgoing, I asked him if we could rest for a minute because I was out of breath.  When we got to the top he showed me again how far I’d climbed and how well I’d done, especially as I’d never worn snowshoes before.  He made it really enjoyable because he was happy, enjoying the walk, enjoying chatting to me and I was enjoying the walk and the chat, and him looking after me and constantly encouraging me gave me a lot of confidence over the difficult sections.

I was so confident at the end of the hike that when Jose gave me the choice of us taking the easy route or ploughing through the deep snowdrifts and having a bit of fun, I chose to plough through the deep snowdrifts which was a lot of fun!  I enjoyed the hike as much as I’d enjoyed the snowmobiling the day before and the reason I was happy and buzzing after both tours was because of the marvellous guides.  I felt like I was getting a really personal tour, especially since on the snowshoe hike we didn’t see another soul on the trail.

Snowshoes and poles got me up here!
Snowshoes and poles got me up here!

Jose told me I should visit Andalucia where he was from, I told him I worked as a tour guide and knew good and bad guides when I saw them and congratulated him on being a top class guide.  Jose said they had an agreement with the University of Greenland to train locals to be hiking and snowmobiling guides.  They have local knowledge, but they could use help from other guides to show them how to be good mountain guides.  I hope the locals learn from these guides and maintain the standard, although it will be a very tough act to follow.

I can’t say with certainty I’d have managed the black ice hills on the permanent ice sheet if Jose had been my guide, but it’s definitely much more likely I’d have managed it if Jose or Joaquin had been guiding Camp Ice Cap.  The Greenlandic guide on the ice camp had been guiding on the ice sheet for 35 years.  He knew how to read the ice, knew exactly where he was, which parts of the sheet were snow bridges and which were solid ice, but as a guide, a 30 second demonstration of how to walk over black ice using crampons and poles and then taking off at the speed of light expecting everyone else to follow is not sufficient for the athletically inept such as myself.

Viewpoint at the top of the trail
Viewpoint at the top of the trail

I’ve already said with proper instruction, practise and perseverance I could have probably done the walk.  So if I’d had a PGI guide demonstrating and explaining properly, looking after their ladies and keeping them safe and with their encouragement and praise of your achievements which create confidence and happiness, who knows, maybe I could have done the ice hike.  You’ve got to adapt your speed to your customers, not go at your normal pace and expect everyone else to keep up.  Surely if you go at your normal pace when you’ve been doing it for 35 years, most other people will struggle to keep up.

Anyway, the snowshoe hike was all so personal and made me feel very special, that’s what good customer service is, the PGI Greenland staff were all so wonderful and did a marvellous job.  PGI Greenland made my visit to Greenland special and are my top recommendation for a holiday in this beautiful country.

May I present - icebergs!
May I present – icebergs!

They were doing summer kayaking tours in Ilulissat and said I should come back for that.  Because I knew Jose and Joaquin would look after me even though I’ve never been kayaking before and would be patient and encouraging, I was tempted.  Sadly I didn’t make it back there in the summer.  There’s always other years.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

My guided snowshoe hike was with PGI Greenland a seasonal adventure activities tour operator based in Ilulissat with offices in the town centre.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
My First Day in Greenland
Exploring Ilulissat
Two Day Dog Sled Adventure

Greenland: Exploring Ilulissat

Icebergs and the halo sun
Icebergs and the halo sun

Ilulissat is a little further up the coast to Kangerlussuaq where I’d just come from and rather than being inland, it’s on the coast, right on Disko Bay.  The sea ice was breaking up while I was there and there were huge icebergs out in the bay.  And when I say huge, these are staggering proportions, they are almost unbelievable.  It’s impossible to describe how enormous they are, and in fact, the photos do nothing to give anyone an idea of the colossal size of these giant pieces of ice.  You really do have to see them.  From a distance they look massive, so the scale of them when you get up close is mindblowing.

In the town of Ilulissat with a huge iceberg in the bay behind me
In the town of Ilulissat with a huge iceberg in the bay behind me

I stayed in a guesthouse rather than a hotel in Ilulissat, I didn’t want a week in a hostel, the hotels were expensive, the guesthouse was a good compromise.  There were 3 friendly Greenlandic dogs chained up outside.  They had kennels, but the dogs didn’t bother going in them, they seemed quite happy to curl up and sleep outside in the snow instead.

When I arrived there was a clear view of the town and Disko Bay.  24 hours later it was snowing hard, there was no view out into the bay and it looked thoroughly unpleasant outside.  But actually it was okay.  It wasn’t particularly cold especially if you were wrapped up, it was just very low visibility and my cheapo $10 sunspecs I bought in the States a few years back came in very useful against the glare of the snow.

Ilulissat Church
Ilulissat Church

The snowstorm had grounded all the planes, so Pedro who was staying in the guesthouse was going to be lucky to get to Copenhagen today.  He was from Brazil and had come from plus 40 degrees in Rio to minus 20 degrees in Greenland.  He’d had to come a long way round to get here too, Rio to Paris, Paris to Copenhagen, Copenhagen to Kangerlussuaq and Kangerlussuaq to Ilulissat!  He was going back to Copenhagen and then on to the Faroe Islands!  Wow!  Quite a journey.

On a day like this it was recommended I check out the museum, apparently you could spend hours there.  No, you couldn’t.  For a start, it’s only open 4 hours a day and it has 5 small rooms of exhibits.  However, it is interesting, detailing the ancient settlements found nearby, the history of the town and the explorers from Greenland who went on expeditions around the Arctic.  I spent just over an hour there and then headed off to the art gallery as my entrance fee to the town museum also gave me entrance to the art gallery.

Snow goggles on display in the museum don't look like they be very effective against blizzard conditions
Snow goggles on display in the museum don’t look like they would be very effective against blizzard conditions

The art gallery was very impressive for a small town.  There was one artist, Emanuel A Petersen, a Danish artist who spent time in Greenland whose paintings from the 1920s and 1930s were displayed on the ground floor.  They were definitely my kind of paintings, snow scenes, icebergs, I love those kind of scenery paintings.  And my favourite was one of the Northern Lights.  Upstairs was a photography exhibition by an artist from Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, and some ivory carvings.  It was only a small gallery, but it was a good way to pass the time when you have nothing else to do.

On a boat trip in Disko Bay to see icebergs up close
On a boat trip in Disko Bay to see icebergs up close

The next day I went on a boat trip.  In Greenland in March the weather is unpredictable and you can have blizzards and snowstorms at any time, so when the weather is good you have to seize the opportunity to do something.  The boat trip took place on a small fishing boat and there were about 18 of us on board.  There was plenty of space to move round and find a good spot for taking photos. The icebergs were amazing and what made it very special was the halo sun that lit up the sky and made the icebergs really beautiful to look at.  A halo sun is a rare phenomenon where bright, white rings appear around the sun when light travels through ice crystals found in upper level cirrus clouds.  Everyone get that?  Just look at the photo and you’ll see what I saw. It was beautiful and as for example icebergs, some were very blue and glassy, others were white and some had jagged pieces on them or huge cracks down them.

If boats venture far into the sea ice they could get stuck
If boats venture far into the sea ice they could get stuck

There was still quite a bit of sea ice, we went into a really small area of it, but we weren’t on a nuclear powered Russian icebreaker like the one I went to the North Pole in, we were on a small fishing boat, so the captain didn’t venture too far into the ice and risk getting us stuck.

We were out in the fjord amongst the icebergs for about 3 hours, so we got our money’s worth.  It did get a bit cold, but I was well wrapped up and it wasn’t particularly windy and the temperatures weren’t that low.  It was only about -4 degrees Celsius which is positively balmy for Western Greenland in March.  Seeing the icebergs with the halo sun overhead was a bit special and made for stunning photos.  But again, it’s impossible to describe how big these icebergs are, you just can’t explain it, you really have to see them.  But it was well worth taking the trip, it’s fantastic to see them so close up.

Holes in a massive iceberg
Holes in a massive iceberg

After the boat trip, I did a hike from the power station in town which took me out to the fjord where the boat had sailed earlier.  You get a different view from the land and the sun was setting too, so the colours of the sky and the icebergs were beautiful.  However, as it was getting later in the day, no one else was on the path by now and I ran out of trail markers and footprints and I couldn’t tell where the path went.  I didn’t want to get lost or stranded in the snow or the dark, so I simply backtracked, following my own footprints to get back to the power station.  It was very pleasant for walking in though, I was so warm I had to take off my hat and scarf!

Iceberg in Disko Bay at sunset
Iceberg in Disko Bay at sunset

The following afternoon I was supposed to be going on a walking trip, unfortunately it was cancelled because of a blizzard.  Not a lot anyone can do when the weather is as bad as that, but it was forecast to be much better over the next 4 days so I was hopeful that the rest of my booked activities would go ahead.

Despite the blizzard I decided to venture back into the town, so I put on all my layers and headed outside.  It was thoroughly unpleasant outside.  The wind was so strong it was almost knocking me off my feet, which also meant snow was blowing everywhere.  It was difficult to tell if it was snowing or if it was just the wind whipping up the snow that was already around.  There were some steps at the back of the guesthouse which were a short cut into the town.  I was planning to use them, but there was a huge snowdrift covering some of the steps.  I decided it was a bit risky going down them so turned round to come back and go the long way round, when a young lad came bounding past me and ran down the steps.  The snow came up to his waist and he just ran through it.  Obviously he was used to it.  I continued on my route through town and as the weather wasn’t improving, decided it was time to go back to the guesthouse and I was going to come up the steps and not walk the long way round.  Going up isn’t as bad as coming down and I had a railing to hang onto.  On the very last section where the snow had drifted, that’s when the wind decided to whip up again and blow snow into my face.  I almost fell over, but I managed to stay upright.

Wooden flights of stairs around Ilulissat get buried in snowdrifts
Wooden flights of stairs around Ilulissat get buried in snowdrifts

I went back into the guesthouse and poured myself a glass of wine.  I certainly had no intention of venturing outside again today in the blizzard.  It does seem a bit of a waste when you’ve come all this way and you stay indoors, but when the wind is trying to knock you off your feet, you can’t see where you’re going because the snow is blowing into your face, snowdrifts make the paths impossible to make out and you feel like Scott of the Antarctic, if you have got the option of staying indoors, sometimes you just have to wait out the storm.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I travelled to Ilulissat with Air Greenland from Copenhagen via Kangerlussuaq.

I went on the boat trip amongst the icebergs with Ilulissat Tourist Nature

I stayed at Paa & Jannik Guesthouse in a room on one floor of the house with a bathroom, living room and kitchen shared by 3 rooms. The guesthouse is located conveniently within an easy 15 minute walking distance to the centre of Ilulissat.

I visited Ilulissat Art Museum which is located in the centre of the town.

Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
My First Day in Greenland
Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia
Two Day Dog Sled Adventure

Greenland: My First Day

First photo of me in Greenland above the frozen musk ox lake
First photo of me in Greenland above the frozen musk ox lake

I love the polar regions. And I’ve always had a soft spot for the Arctic.  I completely fell in love with it on my very first trip overseas, in the Canadian Arctic in 1991.  I’d dreamed about going to the Canadian Arctic from the age of 14 after seeing a photo of the Virginia Falls on the cover of an Explorers Guide to the Northwest Territories.  I didn’t go to the Virginia Falls on that occasion, but I experienced the Arctic for the first time and I loved it.  I’ve explored various Arctic destinations in the 25 years that followed and Greenland was the only part of the Arctic left for me.  It’s become a bit of an up and coming destination in the last couple of years and now seemed as good a time as any to see this island of ice which should really be called Whiteland instead of Greenland because all you see when you fly over it is snow from the permanent ice sheet that covers most of the country.

View of. Remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above
View of the remote town of Kangerlussuaq from above

I prepared myself for my flight to Greenland by putting on my “extra warm” thermals I’d bought from Marks and Spencer, jeans and a jumper over the top and my parka from when I went on an Icebreaker ship to the North Pole.  I also had my waterproof trousers in my rucksack, 3 pairs of gloves, 2 hats and 2 scarves.  I got on the plane, I was really going to Greenland after years of dreaming about it and bearing in mind it was March and should be warming up a bit, the pilot announced it was -25 degrees in Kangerlussuaq.  I’d booked my window seat as soon as I booked my flight, so I got a good view of the east coast as we started to fly over Greenland.  I’ve seen Greenland from the air countless times on my many trips to Canada, but this was the first time I was going to be landing there.

Kangerlussuaq is how I imagine the eastern Canadian Arctic, Nunavut to look.  No trees just a few houses and lots of exposed rock.  From what I can remember from geology, the oldest rock in the world is found in Greenland, gneiss rock.  But I faintly recall that’s just in Eastern Greenland.  And there really is nothing in Kangerlussuaq.  Air Greenland have chosen this town as their hub because of the air base there, but there’s very little here except the airport and a few houses spread out.  The locals call Kangerlussuaq a city.  I can tell you now, it is as far away from a city as you could possibly imagine.

Head of the fjord above Kangerlussuaq
Head of the fjord above Kangerlussuaq

As for the accommodation, well the Old Camp is a series of buildings and the one I was in was like the Halls of Residence I lived in when I was at university.  A long corridor with about 16 rooms, a shared kitchen, dining room, living room and 4 bathrooms.  The rooms were very basic.  But I can’t say I expected anything else.  It’s not that bad.  But it’s not that good either.  I had my own room.  I had to put my own sheets and pillowcases on the bed.  But for the extra cost of a room at the hotel and probably not vastly higher standards, I decided I could cope for 2 nights.  The bonus was they gave me the room for 3 nights at no extra cost, so when I wasn’t sleeping the following night in my tent on the ice, at least I could leave my luggage in the room.

When I arrived at the airport I got onto a yellow school bus which took me to the camp.  Then I got on another bus shortly afterwards to go on a musk ox safari.

There’s a mineral lake where the musk ox like to go and drink and even though it’s frozen in the winter, the musk ox forget and apparently go there every day to try and get a drink.  But not today.  Today, they’d remembered it was frozen.  So all I saw on this musk ox safari was the Greenlandic equivalent of RAF Fylingdales when it still had the golf balls and a couple of distant reindeer.  Wow!

The throbbing metropolis of Kangerlussuaq
The throbbing metropolis of Kangerlussuaq

We did go up to a viewpoint to see the town below us and the fjord, but it wasn’t exactly exciting.  I got the “city bus” into town later in the afternoon to have a look around.  There were 4 shops, only 2 of which were open, a post office and a supermarket.  I bought another pair of gloves from the supermarket because they were waterproof and you can never have too many pairs of gloves.  Your hands lose the feeling in them very quickly without gloves in these temperatures.  I wasn’t sure how  was going to take photos because I don’t do well with gloves on, but I couldn’t take them off or I’d lose fingers!

Polar Ber sculpture outside the Old Camp - and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland!
Polar bear sculpture outside the Old Camp – and the closest I got to seeing any big animals in Greenland!

What I concluded on my walk back to the Old Camp from town, because it didn’t look that far and I couldn’t be bothered to wait for the hourly bus back, that however daunting Camp Ice Cap might be, it was preferable to spending 2 days in Kangerlussuaq doing nothing.  I was genuinely scared about being incredibly cold and anticipating getting no sleep whatsoever.  I got none when I camped out on Antarctica.  I’ll make sure I pack a fully charged iPod.  Why did I decide camping out on the permanent ice sheet for the night was a good idea? But unless you’re booked on activities there was literally nothing to do in Kangerlussuaq.

I was tired, so I thought I’d try to get an hour or two sleep and then get up to try and see the Northern Lights.  Kangerlussuaq is famed for its cloudless skies so is a really good place in Greenland to catch the aurora. I had a wander outside and could see the start of it, decided that I needed to wrap up warmer, so I went back inside and put more clothes on and then headed back outside again.  I watched the skies for a bit longer, the aurora which was a pale white light at that point wasn’t doing much and I wondered how much longer I should stay out in the freezing cold looking at the sky.  The sky was promisingly clear so we might get a good show.

A green leaping tiger in the clear night sky? The wonder of the Northern Lights.
A green leaping tiger in the clear night sky? The wonder of the Northern Lights.

I ended up joining a trip where we drove out of town and found a perfect spot for the wind to hit us and once again make me wonder how the hell I was going to survive a night on the ice.  Then we drove to a more sheltered spot and that’s when the lights started to dance.  And when they start to dance they start to glow colours.  Mostly green with flashes of pink and purple.  It was pretty spectacular to see.  The guide said he’d been there 4 months and gave it an 8 out of 10 for the show the lights put on tonight.  They were still dancing when we drove back.  I hoped that I might see the aurora again while in Greenland, maybe even  the following night when I was out on the ice and finding it impossible to sleep…  Anyway I can now die a happy woman and I have got to see the Northern Lights.

Aurora Borealis streaks across the sky
Aurora Borealis streaks across the sky

I got into the bed I made myself, there were two sheets in the wardrobe, presumably as there are 2 beds in the room, so I made the bed up with a bottom sheet and a top sheet, with hospital corners and everything to try and make it as comfortable as possible.  Once again, I had no idea how I’d manage on the ice, I remember very little about my night on the ice in Antarctica apart from I didn’t close my eyes once and spent the majority of the night listening to a rock band called the Little Angels, probably because they’re from Scarborough and that’s exactly where I was wishing I was at that moment in time.  But that was tomorrow.  Tonight I had a real bed in a warm room in a proper building.  And I’d survived my first day in Greenland.

I travelled to Greenland in the second half of March 2017.

I stayed at Old Camp in Kangerlussuaq.

I travelled to Kangerlussuaq with Air Greenland from Copenhagen.

Read more about my adventures in Greenland.
Viewing the Aurora Borealis by Snowmobile
Camp Ice Cap
Exploring Ilulissat
Snowshoe Hike to View the Kangia
Two Day Dog Sled Adventure