Planning a trip to the UK?

I love Bristol!

A friend is coming to visit England in June and I've been excitedly giving her travel tips so I thought I'd toss my ideas out for you to play with.

Tip one: Public transport
Coming to England from some countries (like New Zealand) you might not be used there being as much public transport as there is here. I never used the train in New Zealand, whereas here it's often the best (if not cheapest) way of getting around.

Trains are generally the nicest way of travelling (as long as they're not packed commuter trains). They are substantially cheaper off peak, on weekends and if booking in advance (months in advance). Try the Trainline. Be aware that trains are sometimes cancelled or late so given yourself plenty of extra time if you're doing something time-critical, especially in winter.

Inter-city coaches are much cheaper than trains and fine if you're on a budget. They can be slowed down by traffic and they need to get a bit smelly and tiresome after several hours. I've used National Express coaches several times.

In London get an Oyster card and load it up so you can easily get around by tube, bus or train. I find the tube heaps easier and quicker than buses, although I'd suggest trying to avoid travelling at rush hour in central London as the natives get pretty shirty at anyone who isn't sure of where to go or isn't moving at top speed.

Tip two: Winter closing
It annoys me mightily, but lots of the National Trust properties and some of the English Heritage properties close during winter. Closing times vary from October late December to February or March. The lovely Welsh guys Cadw are better at staying open and they have amazing castles to visit just over the border from England.

Tip three: Sunday closing
Basically the best thing to do in England on a Sunday is have an enormous roast lunch at a pub then toddle off to Evensong at a cathedral. There's not much else to do* as shops are only open for about five hours and much of the public transport doesn't run.

Tip four: Where to go
Well, I think there's so much cool stuff that it'd take a lifetime to scratch the surface, but if I had to chose a few favourites...

• Bath - Georgian architecture, Jane Austen settings like the Pump Room and Sydney Gardens, lovely museum/art gallery called The Holburne, evidently the Roman Baths are great but I haven't been yet.
• Salisbury or Winchester - both cute small cities with a quaint old town centre. Salisbury has a deservedly famous cathedral while Winchester has the ruins of a castle with an old round table (the inspiration for Arthur's Round Table?)
• Cardiff - great shopping and eating and a lovely restored castle right in the middle of town. Also the Dr Who Experience for fans. 
• Pretty much anywhere in the countryside. You'll need a hire car, but there are different sorts of gorgeous scenery all over the place. The Cotswolds are a line of hills running through Oxfordshire. Gloucestershire and surrounds - they are an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (it's a thing). The National Parks I've been to are lovely - Exmoor and the Brecon Beacons particularly. Pretty much the whole county of Dorset is stunning.
• York or Chester (but probably York) - medieval city walls in both, Roman ruins in Chester, Tudor houses and cute little shops in both, York Minster church.

You'll notice I'm not saying London. I think most of the touristy things you see in London can be replaced with similar things elsewhere that are less crowded and cheaper to get into. I do recommend Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, but you'll have to book six months in advance to get in (worth doing nonetheless). The shopping in London is better than anywhere else in the country but Oxford Street is craaaaazy busy at peak times and some of the chain stores are overwhelmingly huge. I loved Kew Gardens.

I'm also not saying Bristol, even though I love living here. It is the best place to live in England and there is plenty for tourists to enjoy here, but it's not one of the top few tourist destinations in the UK. 

Also, I haven't yet been to Northern Ireland and I didn't looove Edinburgh. I'm looking forward to seeing more of Scotland so I'll let you know how I get on.

Tip five: A dearth of squirrels
British people don't seem to realise how cute their wildlife is and how much we foreigners would really like to see it.

You can go and see deer in deer parks and otters in WWT wetland centres (highly recommended), but there isn't really anywhere to see foxes and badgers and squirrels etc. I spent my first few trips to England staring at trees as I walked about but only saw about two squirrels in two weeks. If you want to see squirrels - go to a public park where people feed them and look on the ground as well as in trees.

Right, I think that'll do for now. Anyone got any other tips to share? Or any challenges to my admittedly biased viewpoints?

* This is a wild exaggeration.

Visiting the ponies of the British Isles

I've got a plan. My plan is to visit the different types of pony from around the United Kingdom.

Last year I saw Welsh Mountain ponies and their foals roaming around the Brecon hills. I tried to entice them over for cuddles with bits of muesli (granola) bar but they weren't keen. Still, they were very pretty to watch, especially the foals as they bounded over the grass.

I've discovered that you can go pony trekking in the Brecon Beacons so I expect I could pat a Welsh Mountain pony at the pony trekking establishment, even if the pony wouldn't be up to my weight for me to actually ride!

I've also seen semi-wild ponies roaming around the New Forest (which is confusingly mostly not forest these days and dates back over 1000 years). I didn't get to pat the New Forest ponies, but I'm a bit less interested in them as they're a less distinctive-looking breed compared to some of the other Mountain and Moorland breeds.

Anyway, my pony visiting plan was born on a recent trip to Exmoor. There was a lady riding an Exmoor pony around the village of Dulverton to promote the Exmoor Pony Centre. I got to pat the pony and I was enchanted. The pony was all shaggy with winter coat and it had the softest dusty coloured nose! So pretty!

I just noticed on the Exmoor Pony Centre website that you can adopt a pony. I think I might. What's 20 pounds for a year of virtual pony ownership? And it'd give me an excuse to go back to Exmoor as it was such a lovely place to visit. (Seriously, visit Exmoor, it's gorgeous!)

http://www.visitscotland.com/blog/scotland/shetland-ponies-in-cardigans/

Talking of lovely places to visit... I was lucky enough to have a Shetland pony as my first horse growing up in New Zealand. Well, sort of lucky. She was a bad tempered little thing who'd bite me as soon as look at me. Still, she taught me to stick on as she tried to brush me off against fence posts and by ducking under low hanging tree branches. She looked rather like the white cutie on the left from Visit Scotland's very successful marketing campaign. (Of course, I didn't put my pony in a giant cardigan - mainly because I didn't have a giant cardigan!)

Anyway, even having had a Shetland pony in New Zealand, I'd really like to go and see her Scottish cousins in their natural environment. People keep making TV shows with presenters exploring islands around the UK and they keep stirring up my desire to see the various islands. The Shetland Isles look like an amazing place to visit with their Norwegian heritage and unspoilt natural beauty.

I'd also really love to head down south again and visit the ponies on Dartmoor in Devon. Most of the bottom of quarter of England seems to be spectacularly beautiful, so it'd be nice to visit a new bit and get some pony spotting in while I'm at it.  (Note I say 'most'. There are some very dingy towns down the M5).  Dartmoor ponies are fairly rare, but hopefully I'd catch sight of one. And I could pop across and take in Tintagel Castle while I was in the area (another long-held  place on my travel wish list).

I'll let you know how I go with Dartmoor and Shetland this year!

Places to visit - Tintern Abbey in Wales

I realised I haven't done any travel posts for ages - mainly because we really haven't been doing any travel. Still, over our short Christmas break we took a few day trips so here's a peek into one of our days out.

Tintern Abbey is only just across the Bristol Channel from us and oh my goodness it's amazing!

The current buildings (or ruins) on site were started during the 1100s and were inhabited by Cistercian monks and lay brothers until that vandal Henry VIII in the 1500s came along and ripped out the lead from the roofing to start the decay of the buildings.

I do have quite a grudge against Henry VII for the dissolution of the monasteries as I visit these beautiful places and compare them to places like Tewkesbury Abbey which was saved by the local people purchasing it from the Crown. Tewkesbury is still in use as a place of worship, whereas Tintern is a tourist attraction. Anyway, enough ranting about ancient history...

Tintern was founded to be in a very remote location so the monks could focus on God. It's not so remote these days, but is set in a beautiful valley.

We were lucky to have glorious sunshine (pretty rare for Wales, I have to say!).

And it was lovely that the place was open at all. The National Trust in England has most of its properties closed 'till March (and they're expensive to visit). English Heritage is a bit better as staying open and also has more free and cheap places to visit.

 Cadw is the historic environmental division of the Welsh government and they run places like Tintern Abbey. I've got a lot of time for them - lovely staff, lovely stuff in their little shops, amazing castles and ruins and they don't take three months off! Anyway, I'm ranting again...

The Abbey church was in the traditional cross (or cruciform) shape with chapels and screens and things to break up the space. It's over 70 metres long inside. 

As well as the great big church there were rooms for various purposes: dormitories, dining rooms, a kitchen and infirmary as well as an excellent drainage system (still working) and gardens. One thing that tickled my fancy was these book cupboards. Books would have been very rare and expensive so needed to be kept safe and dry.

You can see the sun on the beautiful hillsides through the ruined window. There would have been some stunning stained glass in the church...

It started getting dark around 3ish as the sun dropped behind the hills. This is a view of the reconstructed west window from inside the church.

We went for a quick walk up Offa's Dyke beside the River Wye as it the sun was setting. We were trying to find a place called The Devil's Pulpit but gave up after about an hour of slogging uphill through mud over boulders on a very rough track. It was amazing to be walking on such an old man-made structure, but we didn't want to be toddling about the woods in the dark! 

 If it looks cold, it's because it was! Rather chilly tromping about outside for several hours, but worth it for the gorgeous views. This is the other side of the bridge over the River Wye.

The Anchor Inn near the Abbey looked like it had a delicious dinner menu but I wolfed down some lovely carrot cake and a warming glass of mulled wine after our walk up the hill.

The sun is just hitting the tops of the hills. So purty! I can see why this area has inspired artists for centuries.

So basically, if you haven't been to Tintern Abbey and you can make it - go! Especially go on a fine day in winter as it wasn't at all crowded. And plan for a meal at the Anchor Inn to complete a lovely day out.