Amsterdam
The first stop on our Northern Lights Rally (a 5000 mile drive from Scotland to Estonia) was Amsterdam. As we arrived early on the ferry from Newcastle we had the whole day to spend with our Dutch friends and they were an extremely helpful source for finding out where I could buy gluten free food.
This hostel provides breakfast for customers but not free of charge. They responded within 20 minutes of my emailing! More evidence of efficient Scandinavians!
At 6 Euros per person I doubt I will take them up on their breakfast but it’s good to know that they provide gluten free options!
This hostel offers free breakfast to all customers. Again, I received a response to my inquiry within a few minutes…
This hostel offers free breakfast for all customers. I received a response to my email from this hostel within 5 minutes…very impressive!
Dear Laura,
To be honest i’m not entirely sure if we have anything gluten free.
Our breakfast exsists out of :
-brown and white bread
-hot buns
-boiled egg
-peanutbutter, chocolate spread, chocolate sprinkels, jam, ham, cheese, salami.
-cornflakes, muesli
-milk, chocolate milk and jus d’orange and soy milk(on request)
-tea and coffee
You probably know better then me what has gluten and what not.
I could ask the owner if we could buy something special.
Kind regards,
Tommy Sevens
Intersail
I responded by thanking him for his fantastically quick response, saying that eggs, milk, orange juice, tea/coffee and possibly some spreads are gf and that if the owner would be willing to get either gf bread or cereal it would be greatly appreciated!
The following day I received this… 🙁
i forgot to mention there is also yoghurt on the list.
Unfortunatly, the owner said we won’t supply gluten free bread or cereals.
We have normal cereals and muelsi probably not gluten free.
If you want gluten free bread or cereals you will have to suply it yourself, we can store it in the fridge for you if needed.
I’m sorry about this, but there is nothing more i can do about this for you.
Sweet potato and kimchi pizza....
...Ready to eat
The night before a big race, runners everywhere are filling up on pasta, spaghetti and various other high carb foods. On race day they will need all of the energy they can find and a carb heavy meal the night before and a decent sized breakfast 2-3 hours before the race are as important a part of a runner’s preparation as a good night’s sleep!
I’ve been running for about two and a half years now and before being diagnosed as celiac, my pre-race routine would involve going to my favourite pizza and pasta bar the evening before to stock up on my carbs with a huge bowl of chicken and pepper penne arribiata.
Mmmmm
UPDATE: Jan, 2015:
As of this month, there are still a whole bunch of Cadbury’s selection which they say is “Gluten Absentâ€. You can check out the most updated list here yourself. I came looking to see if creme eggs are still gluten-free after all the recent madness about the change in recipe and for now at least, they no longer appear to be on the gluten absent list! Strangely the Creme Egg Twisted is still on the list so I’m hoping someone from Cadbury will get back to me soon and let me know once and for all if these new creme eggs are safe for us to eat! Until then, Twirls, Crunchies and Wispas it is..
__________
Creme Eggs
According to Cadbury’s website…yes they are and as you would expect the mini creme eggs are too!
If you’re wondering whether Creme Eggs in the US are gluten free you’ll want to check out Hershey’s as they are the ones who make Cadbury’s products in the US and therefore whether they are gluten free or not is up to them and their manufacturing processes.
Easter eggs
Thornton’s Nutritional Info
Easter is fast approaching and chocolate eggs are everywhere to be found on UK supermarket shelves. The question is…which of these eggy delights are gluten free? For those of you unfamiliar with these easter eggs, the majority are a hollow egg along with your choice of chocolate bar. If you buy a Creme Egg, Twirl or Dairy Milk egg for example, expect to get a hollow cadbury’s chocolate egg and the cadbury’s chocolate bars of your choosing.
I am flying to New York with Aer Lingus in May. We finally booked our flights yesterday after debating who to fly with and chose Aer Lingus for a few reasons: We don’t have to back track to London or Amsterdam, flight times are good and decently priced, we have flown with them before and enjoyed the flights and they offer gluten free meals…
You can’t select your gluten free meal when booking the way you can with Virgin for example but there is a phone number to call if you need to make any special  meal requests. It’s a 10p a minute number so I made the call at work and I’m glad I did because I was on hold for 10 minutes before anyone answered. The woman who answered asked for my booking reference, confirmed my name and asked if it was just me who wanted a gluten free meal. She then put me on hold for another few minutes before confirming that a gluten free meal had been ordered on both my outbound and return flights. I was a bit concerned at this point considering I had only booked a one way flight!?! I told her this and she said she wasn’t sure what she was looking at but my meal on the Dublin-JFK flight would be gluten free. I’ll keep you updated on how this goes….
My special meal
UPDATE: I am happy to report that I got my gluten free meal as requested on my Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to JFK. Around an hour into
My gluten free lunch
the flight it was lunch time and as all of the ‘special people’ are served first, I received my ‘Gluten Free Coeliac meal’ of chicken in a tomato sauce with rice and veggies, a small salad, melon and a gluten free roll. Most of the meal was tasty and more importantly gluten free as I felt great afterwards. The roll was pretty rubbish and quite clearly gluten free as it was as hard as a brick but I was pleased with the rest of my meal.
Later on in the flight we were given a ‘light snack’ of a scone with butter and jam. At first I thought they had
In-flight gluten free scone
forgotten about me but a few minutes later a gluten free version of the same thing was put in front of me. Much tastier than the earlier bread and far less obviously gluten free, I happily munched on my gluten free scone whilst listening to Bon Jovi and playing mindless in flight games.
Our next trip is a 4000 mile drive from Glasgow to Estonia (via the northernmost tip of Norway) on the Northern Lights Rally! The aim was to buy a cheap banger (ours is a 1980s Ford Escort names Maxi) and to drive it 4000 miles before giving it to an Estonian charity. We are driving from Glasgow to Newcastle then taking the Ferry across to Amsterdam where the rally begins. From there it’s through Germany to Denmark, across the Oresund bridge to Sweden, into and right to the top of Norway before heading into Finland and finally over in a short ferry ride from Helsinki to Tallinn….all in 10 days!
You can check out the details or become a team sponsor on the Tartan Eagles website:
If anyone has information on gluten free eating in Scandanavia or in any of the places we will be stopping in then please get in touch with me and share your knowledge…this would be greatly appreciated…we will be spending nights in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Oslo,  Trondheim, Fauske, Tromso, Nordkapp, Rovaniemi, Helsinki and Tallinn so will be looking for delicious gluten free treats in all of these locations.
From this 10 day trip in April I hope to bring lots of good information on gluten free eating in Scandanavia! I also hope that our banger can make it 4000 miles!
