Avebury Stone Circle is a huge complex of standing stones located in the heart of Wiltshire. It is less famous than Stonehenge, and lacks the moody moor location and impresive lintels, but personally, I prefer it.
At some point in the middle ages…
Caen Hill means Lovely Hill in Celtic, and it is a really nice place.
Built during the start of the industrial revolution as a way to get canals up the hill to Devies, the restored canal climbs an impressive set of 16 locks in a few kilometres, an…
The Cerne Abbas Giant is a mysterious chalk figure in Dorset. As such, you would have to have another reson for being in the area - Stonehenge, perhaps, or sailing at Weymouth, both of which are nearby. It takes very little time to stand at the vie…
Clifton Suspension Bridge, built by legendary engineer Isembard Kingdom Brunel, spans the Avon gorge between Clifton (the posh bit of Bristol, where the zoo is) and Leigh Woods. Even now, it's a genuinely impressive structure - I never look at it wi…
Kenilworth Castle is a red ruined castle near Coventry and Warwick. It is the historic home of John of Gaunt, who was Henry V's grandad, and Robert Dudley, who had an affair (allegedly) with Elizabeth the First.
Kenilworth is beautiful. Really…
Odder is a very, very cool bar near the University. What makes it so cool, I hear it say? Well, there is Fruli fruit beer on tap. There are many interesting Lagers. And there is velvet. wallpaper. in. the. girl's. toilets. It does not get any…
The Apple is a bar on a barge, and all my friends call it the Cider Barge. Mostly because by the time we leave, we are struggling to remember things like where we are and what city we are in.
The Apple serves a range of real cider. Not the mucky…
The Cooler is about £4-5 in. It is an Indie club on Park Street, and I have been there quite a lot. The bar is about average priced, small, but well staffed, and the dance floor usually starts filling by 1am. The playlist - poppy indie, for the m…
The Hatchet is the world's most friendly, least scene-ey, Rock pub. It is, conveniently enough, near the Carling Academy, but it was there first - it turns out that my dad got drunk there several hundred years ago, which was a strange conversation a…
The Hawk is a fairly upmarket chain pub - I'm not sure which chain - in Battlesbridge. It has a nice menu, well cooked, and a nice wine list. The pub itself is fairly big, but divided into little rooms so you never feel like you're in a big place. …
I don't know about good- but it's certainly not forgettable!
When I moved to Swindon, the only thing that anyone knew about the town was the Magic Roundabout. Everyone said, "Swindon - that's got that roundabout, hasn't it?" So this review is a…
How many pubs have you been to that are slap in the middle of a prehistoric stone circle? I mean, surely, nuff said!
The Red Lion is a nice pub in the middle of Avebury stone circle. It is in a nice building, and does great lunches and real ale.…
Thermae Bath Spa is the posh modern spa in Bath city centre. It is £22 for two hours or £32 for four hours, but I think that for an occasional treat, that's still much cheaper than going out and getting drunk. It uses the genuine hot springs - th…
Things you need to know about getting trains in the UK:
Book ahead
No - really. Book ahead. A single to London from Swindon can cost between £7.50 and £45, depending on restrictions and how organised you've been. And almost all tickets you…
Urbis is a museum come gallery with a great shop and cafe in the heart of Manchester. Housing off the wall exhibits, often with a theme of Manchester history or social responsibility, it is a fascinating place to end up. And it's free. Score.
Am…
This hotel feels a little like a single room only hostel, in a nice way. The staff are a) all Australian and b) lovely, and I was allowed to check in three and a half hours early for a nap so I was very, very happy.
It is the yellowest hotel I …
Watershed is a three screen independent cinema and part of the European cinema network for European films. It is reasonably priced, and right on the very cool floating harbour. The box office has really cool postcards and greeting cards. There is …
Wells Cathedral is in the centre of Wells, and you would have to close your eyes and ears very tightly to miss it. It has a very elaborate facade, and is terribly beautiful from the outside. Inside is gorgeous - there are some very unusual arches c…
Weston pier and beach are close to Bristol, and it's worth warning you I went in Winter - summer is probably far more crowded and parking might be an issue.
Weston super mare has an enormous tidal range, so there is a wide, sandy beach and then …
I'm putting this up because someone only gave York one star, which I totaly disagree with.
York is a small attractive city in the North of England, and it is a very nice place. Not big, not high rise, probably not the place to go if you want bang…
The M25 is a road that can strike terror into the hearts of almost any Brit. It is essentially a large motorway (that's highway, to our American visitors) that circles London. Theoretically, anyway. I've seen it described as the world's largest ca…
This is a reprint of a previous Blog entry - someone said it wa smore of a review than a Blog, so I apologise to those of you who've read it twice.
Round about the two month mark in any trip, people start asking me if I'm homesick yet. I'm not.…
The 365 steps are a forestry commission path in teh woods in teh Wye valley. The woods are apparently unique, and look a bit like the temperate rain forest in a Botanic garden. Except with more yew trees.
The steps ascend the steep hill on the…
Tintern Abbey is a historic ruined abbey in South Wales, on the banks of the river Wye. the Abbey was held by the Cistercians, an unusually hardy bunch of souls who refused to allow fires for most of the winter, and lost out to Henry the Eighth in t…
Ordinance Survey, or OS maps, are the standard maps you would need for hiking in the UK. I think most Brits take them for granted, but apparently the level of detail that the maps include are rare internationally and non-Brits don't necessarily know…
OK, it's only free if you have much, much better self control than me. But no-one's going to MAKE you buy stuff. It's not like there's a cover charge.
Bristol is one of the few cities in the South West that feel like cities, rather than just big…
Winchester Cathedral is a Norman Cathedral in the South of England. It is close to the M3 at Southampton, and well worth a short trip.
The cathedral itself is not that impressive from teh outside, with a short tower and pleasant surroundings. In…
The Woodman is a village pub in rural Gloucester. It has great food, real ale, and nice wine.
The menu is quite pricey, but well worth it for what you get. The two courses and wine each we had the night we went came to about £22 each. The food…
Cressing Temple Barns were constructed over several hundred years, initially by the Templar Knights. No, not like in Dan Brown books. The real ones. The buildings continued to be added to until about the 18th Century. It is now owned and run by t…
The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex in Salford, which is a city that is part of Greater Manchester. It is interesting architecturally, and focuses on contemporary and modern art.
The centre is fully disabled accessible. The galleries are …
Fisherman’s Retreat is high in the hills behind Ramsbottom, up a rough farm track (so watch out for oncoming jeeps). It serves really good food, excellent cask ales, has an amazing range of whisky (and possibly even whiskey – but I was too busy …
This hotel is lovely. I could only afford it because of an internet deal, but if you can get it on the internet or have the sort of employer who doesn't cap the room rates, then this place is really worthwhile. The rooms are lovely, the staff are n…
The Koffee Pot is a café in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, and one of the best places in the UK to try that most British of culinary delights, the Full English Breakfast. It is open, well, pretty much when they feel like being open. As a genera…
I stayed in the Paragon purely and simply because it was the second cheapest hotel in Expedia for that night - £32.50 or so. And possibly the last single room in the UK - a tiny little room, in fact, so if that bothers you this isn't the place for …
the Real Pizza co is down a sidestreet between Bath Abbey and the River; it might be on York road, or something similar. It is a very nice little independent Italian restaurant with very little on the menu except Pizza, and one of my favourite place…
If you had to guess where you would find the best ice-cream in the UK, I would imagine your first guess would be some five starred hotel in London or Manchester, or edgy bar in Glasgow. Perhaps a Michelin starred pub somewhere in the Cotswolds doing…
The Manchester Apollo is an incredible venue on the outskirts of the city centre of Manchester. To get there, you have to walk North-ish out of the centre, past the station and under the Mancunian Way, and follow the crowds of gig going people. The…
North Meadow is in Cricklade, near Swindon in the South West of England. It is close to the A419, and near the highest point on the Thames where you could theoretically take a boat. It is an ancient meadow which, for reasons lost in history, never …
The Corinium museum is a museum in Cirencester, a small town at the edge of the Cotswolds region of England. It is home to artefacts about the history of Cirencester and the surrounding countryside.
Corinium is the Roman name for Cirencester, whi…
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