Today Sweden changed. Not dramatically at first, but as we drove north from Karlskrona the open agricultural landscape of the south gradually gave way to something that felt much more like the Sweden we had imagined before coming here. More trees, more lakes, more red wooden houses and, eventually, great stretches of forest disappearing off…
Today was one of those road-trip days when the journey itself turned out to be every bit as interesting as the destination. We left our lovely farmhouse B&B outside Ystad after breakfast and began heading east along Sweden’s southern coast, with Karlskrona as our eventual destination. Our first stop was Ales Stenar, high on the…
Our first full day in Scandinavia began with what, for me at least, was always going to be the day’s biggest challenge: picking up the hire car and remembering that everyone else was driving on the wrong side of the road. Our car for the next few days is an Audi A3, grey and reassuringly…
Birthdays are probably as good a day as any to start a road trip, though for a while this morning it looked as if the M40 had other ideas entirely. We left home with what I thought was a sensible buffer for Heathrow, only to hit delays that were just irritating enough to trigger some…
Buckle up. This is an essay, rather than a short read… The Scarf Every year on 1 August I open a drawer containing rather more Scout scarves than any sensible person ought to own and spend a few moments deciding which one to wear. It is never quite as straightforward a decision as it sounds….
I have spent a good part of my working life travelling, working with people from other countries and, from time to time, trying to explain Britain to them. That is not always easy. The country we describe abroad is often tidier than the one in which we actually live. We talk about parliamentary democracy, ancient…
On the 250th anniversary of American independence Happy 250th birthday, America. It takes a certain confidence to declare independence from the world’s most powerful empire in 1776. It takes even more confidence to spend the next two and a half centuries explaining to everyone else why you were right. As someone with both British and…
In just a few weeks’ time, thousands of teenagers will be traveling to West Virginia in the USA to attend the World Scout Jamboree. They’ll be flying in groups of around 36 young people, with each group accompanied by four long-suffering and truly wonderful volunteer adult leaders. If you’re one of those teenagers, or one…
This summer, 45,000 Scouts from more than 100 countries will converge on West Virginia, USA for the World Scout Jamboree. I was recently asked to provide some suggestions for some UK Scouts for making the most from the experience. (I’ve had the privilege of attending a few Jamborees over the years.) Here’s my starter for…
I’m updating this post as the story plays out. Scroll down to see the latest developments… 31st July 2018 Dear Turkish Airlines, On the evening of the 30th July, your agents at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul refused to check me on to my return flight to the UK (Flight 1987). The reason they gave…
