A thermal swimming pool in Iceland! Most people have heard of The Blue Lagoon haven’t they? Well I’d heard of it and when I realised I was in Iceland, suddenly it would have been stupid not to visit it. So without swimming trunks I didn’t want to go in naked, so I had to buy…
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The main airport in Iceland is at Keflavik. Thats where I arrived into Iceland the day before Northern Ireland’s European Qualifier with Iceland in September 2007. I had stayed two nights in the Aurora Guesthouse in central Reykjavik, near the large church. Then by chance I met up with a young lady called Una whom…
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I had seen the Pohutu and Prince of Wales Feathers Geysir’s in Rotorua in New Zealand’s North Island in July 2007. Both were fascinating, but you had to pay entry into a ‘museum’ at Te Peiua on the outskirts of the city, and then walk round a custom-built set which led to the geysirs. That…
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The next part of the Golden Circle tour of Iceland took us to Gulfoss, an absolutely gorgeous waterfall in the heart of Iceland’s countryside. It is part of the Hvita River, in a canyon in South West Iceland. Upon walking towards Gulfoss, there is a strong wicked wind and a nice spray of ice cold…
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Pingvellir/Phingvellir/Thingvellir (Google that one people) is a beautiful little place in the South of Iceland. There are no houses there and no people! But it has some relevance. The Icelandic government was formed here in 1845 by a Danish King. Next to it lies a little river where people were hanged back in the days.…
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So Iceland? So Reykjavik! I always wanted to go and so should you. It is the world’s most northerly capital city. The country is massive, but the population is low. The people are lovely and the scenery is amazing. I was lucky enough to end my entire World Tour in Iceland! What a way to…
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My first visit to Berlin was in March 2005 as part of a football trip to Warsaw, Poland. I hadnt even visited Germany pre-unification, but always held an interest in it. It’s the fascination about the World Wars as a child, and certainly my Great Granda, John Mawhinney’s time fighting for Britain had always made…
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I had met three Latvians (Mark, Janis and Monta) in 2004 while working on Bournemouth beach. To be honest I had never had any desire to go there for some reason. This changed for a few reasons. Ryanair Stansted – Riga was one. The fact that Latvia were playing my country, Northern Ireland at football…
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If you do have a simple mind (pun intended) then you will think “Oh, I like Ireland, I must visit Dublin.” You’d be making a major error there! Dublin is bland, predictable, cosmopolitan and expensive. VISIT NORTHERN IRELAND INSTEAD. The amount of people I met on my travels that think Dublin is the best place…
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I had been to France three times before. All with my family on holidays in the summers of 1989, 1992 and 1993. During that time I had visited St Malo, Cherbourg, La Roche sur Yon, St Gilles and St Jean de Monts. The 2007 France adventure would see me breeze through Campeigne and Marseilles, before…
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