www.roadtrip.co.uk  

www.haggisadventures.com 

Excess Baggage Company in the UK offers a left luggage service at the following train stations:

London Paddington (0700 - 2300) - Platform 12

London Waterloo (0700 - 2300) - Platform 11-12

London King’s Cross (0700 - 2300) - Platform 8

London Liverpool Street (0430 - 2300) - Platform 8

London Charing Cross (0700 - 2300) - Concourse

London Victoria (0700 - 2300) - Platform 8

London Euston (0700 - 2300) - Concourse Platforms 16-18

Leeds (0700 - 2300) - Concourse

Glasgow Central (0700 - 2300) Concourse

Manchester Piccadilly (0700 - 2300) - Platform 10

Birmingham New Street (0700 - 2300) - Concourse

Edinburgh Waverley (0700 - 2300) – Concourse

BBC Travel News has organized loads of links to make travelling through the UK easier:

Road - These are organized by country and county, and give up-to-date traffic and road closure info

Rail - This gives links to the homepages of all rail operators in the UK

Sea - Links to the homepages of all ferry operators

Air - Often updated info regarding air travel disruptions, as well as links to the homepages of all main UK airports

London - Road, rail, bus and tube info for London

National Trust Cottages - www.nationaltrust.org.uk 

I don't know what your budget is, but the National Trust rents out holiday cottages, many quite affordably priced. That way, not only do you get self-catering accommodation in a beautiful area, but the cottage itself will have some unique historical value as well.

I just saw on the main website that they also organize B&Bs:

"Many of the Trust's tenant farmers offer bed and breakfast to visitors, making this a great chance to enjoy simple accommodation in the best of our countryside."

("Tenant farmers" makes me think of Tess of the D'Urbervilles)

They had a bit in the newspaper a few years ago about renting a cottage that your favorite author had lived in, that's how I found out about them. Spouse and I are always talking about renting something in Cornwall or Wales for a long weekend, but we haven't got round to it yet.

There is always the option of a house swap. I did this five years ago and scored a place in the Royal Cresent in return for my shitty cottage between Sydney and the Blue Mountains.

Dog Friendly Breaks

Walks: Pint to pint

Walks: Time Out Book of Country Walks

Well, Orange terror alert and cancelled Hogmanay street party notwithstanding, we are back from our trip and had a fantastic time. We arrived far too early at the airport, due to the ominous news coverage of long security lines, but had no trouble whatsoever. With the aid of prescription medication, we both managed to sleep a good deal of the flight, and landed in London early. The 5 hour train ride to Edinburgh seemed to take longer than the flight!

It was good to be back in Edinburgh, one of our favorite cities, but it was Very Cold! Backpacking with a heavy winter coat, hood, scarf and gloves is a much different experience than going in the summer. We wimped out right away and took a taxi.

Millfield Guesthouse was just as charming and welcoming as we recalled from our first trip, and we were very happy to be back. Our first night we were treated to dinner by some fellow MINI owners at a yummy veggie restaurant in the old town. We really enjoyed getting to know them over veggie haggis (and a few pints). It had been a very long day for us, having covered well over 4,000 miles by plane, train, and automobile, and by 11, we were practically incoherent. We had our first lift in a right hand drive MINI back to our room, which was disorienting, but fun.

Bright and early Monday, following a huge breakfast at our guesthouse, and lots of coffee, we headed out into the cold for our MINI run. About 10 or so MINIs met up, and took us on a drive to St. Andrews, which was absolutely incredible. The wild coast of the North Sea was breathtaking, and we explored the cathedral ruins, and posed for a photo by the 18th hole, evidently quite a famous spot for golfers. We had a blast riding about in different people’s MINIs, and trying to interpret their version of English. We rode back to Edinburgh via Craill, a lovely harbor village, and along the coast, with a super nice couple that we went for drinks with at the Caledonian in Edinburgh.

After experiencing the road from the wrong side we decided to take the train, rather than hire a car, up to Stirling, where we wandered about the hilly town, and made our way up to the castle. It was a great daytrip, and we really enjoyed the scenery and exploring the town. That night was the Night Afore festival, part of the Hogmanay celebrations, so we braved the cold for that, and had the opportunity to stand right up front at a bagpipers performance. I’m running out of adjectives, but it was amazing. It was snowing, the men were in their full kilted regalia, and the bagpipes sent shivers right down my spine. The Night Afore also featured street theater performances from India, which were a lot of fun.

New Years Eve dawned colder than ever, and we started out the day with a brisk hike up Arthur’s Seat for a fantastic view of the city. From there we visited Holyrood Palace, and made our way up the Royal Mile, ending up outside Edinburgh Castle, where you couldn’t take two steps in a row for all the tour busses. We did some shopping on Princes Street, and stopped for tea before going back to rest up for Hogmanay. At just about precisely the moment we left for the festivities, it started to bucket rain. Our hostess at our guesthouse fortified us with some hot mulled wine though, and we went in search of dinner. This was easier said than done, as evidently pubs stop serving food at mysterious times, and we hadn’t made any dinner reservations for a restaurant. We ended up at an Italian cafe on Grassmarket, which was fine, and headed over with the masses to Princes Street, experiencing a total decimation of our umbrella along the way in the strong winds (we later learned the wind was gusting to 90 mph).

We made our way to a few pubs, and heard around 10:30 or so that the fireworks were cancelled. We found a policeman near the gates, and learned that the entire event was cancelled due to adverse weather conditions. This is Scotland, where there’s really no such thing as good weather conditions! We joined the melee on Princes Street, which was rapidly deteriorating into chaos as tens of thousands of partiers in various stages of inebriation booed at the announcements ordering everyone to leave the area. Just the opposite was taking place however, as they had given up on gating the area, and people were pouring in. We finally decided that with no fireworks, no concert and no countdown, there was nothing to keep us in the bedlam, so we managed to get a taxi back to our room, where we rung in the new year listening to Big Ben chime on our tinny little clock radio.

Naturally, New Years Day came with a beautiful sunrise and clear weather. This only lasted, however, until we got off the bus near Craigmillar Castle. We walked about a mile to the castle, only to find it was closed, and to be greeted with rain. Some visitors from New Zealand were

there, and we all climbed the gate, but couldn’t get past the outer courtyard. They kindly gave us a lift to the nearest bus stop though. We visited Edinburgh Castle in the afternoon, and it was more crowded than our first time there in the middle of tourist season. After searching high and low for a place to eat it seems everything is closed for New Year’s Day we finally had a nice bowl of tomato soup, and climbed Calton Hill, where we found more stunning views of the city and the sea.

Mary Kings Close was next; a walking tour of a preserved part of town from the 1400s, that had been walled up and built over centuries ago. It was a fascinating tour, though I didn’t buy all the ghost stories. Leaving there, we stumbled onto a New Years’ Day Parade. Friday we left early for London to meet Brian’s sister. After a whirlwind tour of Trafalgar Square, parliament/ Westminster Abbey and Covent Garden, we met up with an acquaintance who took us out to a pub where we all proceeded to drink far too much. I learned that English cider is tasty, and quite powerful. Our long night kept us from getting an early start Saturday, so squeezing in a trip to Harrods and the Tower of London was all we managed, along with a lot of walking in the cold air to awaken and refresh us. We are dinner at Wagamama, a fun asian eatery that was really quite good.

Sunday we went to one of the street markets I found a vintage Burberry coat - and that afternoon we took an aœ flight on the London Eye. From there we took a long walk to see Buckingham Palace. That night we went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour, which Brian had wanted to do

since our last trip to London.

Monday morning, with all the latest flight groundings still making the news, we got to the airport just in time the Gatwick Express being very delayed and had an uneventful flight back, which is all you can ask for.

Spouse and I enjoy cycling, and the towpaths along the extensive canal networks in England are the perfect place to do it. We recently took a two-day trip north from London along the towpaths to Great Dunmow.

We followed the Lee River navigation up to I think about the level of Broxbourne, and then followed the River Stort navigation to Bishop's Stortford, where we left the towpaths and cut across to Great Dunmow on the Flitch Way, a walking/cycling track through some very beautiful woods. We'd meant to continue to Braintree and maybe on to Colchester the next day where we could have caught the train back, but we were fagged out and running very late by the time we got to Great Dunmow, so we just rested up there a day and returned to London by the same route.

The ride up the towpaths is very flat, and quite easy going if you don't mind the bumpy ride you'll get on the final 1/3 of it. On the weekends the are lots of people fishing along the canals that you'll have to watch out for, but it seemed fairly quiet during mid-week. The only real problem we found with the ride from Stortford to Dunmow is that there's a couple of spots (at the beginning, and again right at the end) where you're diverted onto busy roads for a few hundred meters; however, the ride along Flitch Way itself is very beautiful and very quiet. We left North London about 10am and made it to Great Dunmow by about 5pm, with a stop for lunch and a couple of water breaks along the way.

Probably the next trip like this we make will be up to Oxford.

Anyone in the UK (or planning to come here) who's interested in walking or cycling trips like this, should consult the British Waterways website, which is pretty comprehensive and provides maps of the entire canal network.

there can be some beautiful days in January/February - bright, clear, cold, brilliant sunshine - but mostly they'll be cold, overcast, damp/wet and windy. Not the best pleasure cycling weather! So if that's when you'll be out here, I'd suggest just renting a bike when you get here, if the weather happens to turn brilliant. I don't recall how much it is, but it's not too much - I'll call one or two places and see if I can get some prices for you.

Taking bikes on the trains is allowed, although they do say that you can't do it during peak travel times (morning and evening rush hour). That said, whether or not they enforce this rule depends mainly on how crowded the train is - I carried my bike on very empty trains during peak travel times, and no one gave me any trouble about it. I've never carried a bike on the tube or a bus, although I've seen other people (only very occasionally) with bikes on the tube.

I'm not sure what the rules are about taking them on tunnel trains - I suspect that you'd have to box it like you have to do when checking a bag on an airplane, but on the other hand it seems like I remember seeing an unboxed bike stowed on the Eurostar. I can't be sure about that though.

If you find yourself in England in better weather, i'd bring your own bike only if you plan to do a lot of cycling. There are some brilliant cycle trips you can take here though! I think that would be a fantastic holiday.

London is one of those cities that you either love or hate. I like it, but a friend of mine up in Edinburgh, wouldn't come down to meet up with me on my last trip. So we compromised and met up in York.

Actually ... if you want to stay somewhere outside of London, York was pretty nice. Lot's of cheap B&B's, sites, shopping. Good for day trips to the some costal towns too. And it has the rowntree (I think) chocolate factory

My eldest son recently took a trip by train. It would be most amusing if it were not so depressingly real, and I have to say, so familiar! His letter to the train company starts like this:

I just thought I'd drop you a line about a recent train journey. My fiancé and me are not regular train travellers and, following our experiences on Wednesday, I remember why.

I know this may sound like a bit of a cumbersome ramble, but it was a cumbersome train journey, so I hope you will allow me to explain in full.

On Wednesday 30th November 2005 we decided to go on a trip to Birmingham. Because we felt that driving to and parking in the city would be a tedious experience, we decided to use the train., Had we realised just how tedious the train journey would have been, maybe we would have used the car. Had we done so we would have actually paid a few quid less (that includes parking), making it even more tempting for the future.

The rest of the letter can be found at:

http://www.uktrail.com/BACKPACK/traintrip.htm 

In Britain we expect early winter days to be dull and miserable, and we've had a good few of those; Monday, for example, was wet all day, and so dull that when you were coming out of a store it looked dark outside.

But today (Friday) was one of those December rarities: a beautiful sunny day, calm, and mild (8C). We went to Shrewsbury for some minor shopping. We walked along the bank of the River Severn, which was at about normal flow level. We saw reflected in the water the buildings and the tall bare trees; I don't remember seeing reflections in an English river, certainly not the Severn. Especially impressive were the two tall church spires, viewed above the length of a stretch of river so the reflections were complete. There were small groups of swans and ducks. A gull was sitting in the middle of the river, moving backwards, with a V-wave ahead of his movement. Eh? Turned out he was swimming upstream, but the current was carrying him downstream faster!

After visiting a shop, then going to buy tickets for a concert that we found had been sold out 2 weeks ago, we discovered a little continental market in the Square. Loose biscuits and sweets were on sale, bratwursts, Dutch cake, French bread, all at high prices. We bought two French chair seat cushions at £5 each. I had a roast pork sandwich which was OK but not worth the £3. My wife had a French almond bun for £1. She commented how the merchant picked up the food with his hands, and also handled the money. These Frenchies obviously have different hygiene standards, such would not be allowed in England. Hang on -- this IS England. Clearly our health regulators had not found their way here.

Nothing else happened worth noting, but the fine weather continued until sunset (before 4pm!), and for shopping trips this was a little special.