Sweden
My first two trips to Sweden were to places north of the Arctic Circle in winter. It was all about dogsledding, hovercrafting, lots of snow, and watching for the northern lights…all things that are very different to daily life in Australia! I followed that up with a summer trip where I dodged the swarms of mosquitoes and stood in front of alpine lakes bathed in sunrise light at 2am.
Things You Might Not Know About the Midnight Sun
Lapland and Northern Norway are not places that you travel to expecting to sleep at traditional hours. No matter what the season, the natural phenomena of the Arctic Circle are often at their strongest in the middle of the night; the northern lights dance overhead in the darkness of winter and the m
Introducing the Guide to Lapland and Northern Norway in Winter
I’ve made no secret of the fact that I absolutely loved Lapland and Northern Norway when I visited last year. My 28-day circuit around the region was full of crazy experiences and memorable places to stay, and I’ve never had a holiday quite like it. One thing I noticed when planning this trip, thoug
How to Sleep Like a Baby in the Icehotel
Lapland seems to be chock full of snow hotels, and there is none better known than Sweden’s Icehotel. This hotel, built out of some 30,000m2 of snice (a special blend of snow, ice, and water that helps to insulate the hotel) and 1,000 tons of ice, is the 25th iteration of an idea that Yngve…
Hovercrafting in the Luleå Archipelago
Hovercrafts. Just the name evokes thoughts of hokey science fiction stories from the 1960s–or maybe, if you grew up in a slightly less sci-fi mad home than I did, it just brings to mind the fast ferries that run between Dover and Calais. In any case, I’m almost certain you won’t think of a hovercraf
The Northern Lights: Photos vs. Reality
You’d be hard pressed finding someone who doesn’t have “see the who doesn’t have “see the northern lights”on their bucket list. I know it featured on mine for years, even though I’d never given much thought to how I would accomplish it. Because all of these people have, at some point, seen a photo o
Photo of the Week: Finally Seeing the Northern Lights in Porjus
As many of you know, my short trip to Lapland last year was the inspiration for my ‘Texan in Lapland’ tour around Scandinavia this year. On that trip, I stayed in the Porjus Northern Lights Apartments for three nights, hoping that the long nights of January would give me extra time to see the aurora
The Vasa Museum: A Failure Turned Success
Inspiring engineering successes turned spectacular failures. Many nations have them. Germany had the Hindenburg. England had the Titanic. And Sweden had the Vasa, which, despite not being a household name worldwide, was no less a deadly failure than the other two. In 1625, King Gustav II Adolf of Sw
This Texan Is Going to Lapland!
Last week, when I posted about how I quit my job to be closer to my family, I mentioned that I had a trip starting nine days after I arrived. This will be the longest, most epic trip of my five-month sojourn to Europe, and I know I will need a good portion of April,…
Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Snow
I stood behind a heavy wooden door, peeking out at the frozen land beyond. Snow was falling steadily, adding to the piles that were already banked up against the outside of the small wooden building. I looked back at the bench where all of my clothes sat, happily folded up and basking in the warmth…
Braving the Arctic Wilds in Porjus
I am not a cold weather person. If the temperature gets down to 15C in Brisbane, I wear at least jeans and a jumper. In the dead of winter (as if that ever happens in Queensland), I can be found sitting on the couch wrapped in a very thick blanket. I shiver when I have…