Head along to Edinburgh’s Mound precinct from 25th November 2010 for some German food and drink, ideal for warming up the chilly bits. Tasty delights will include hearty sausages, fried potato cakes, steaks and German beer, as well as the now famous Glühwein. Christmas markets have been a tradition since Medieval times and Edinburgh’s German Christmas Market is provided by stallholders based in Frankfurt. This year the market celebrates its tenth year and is back as always, selling a mix of classic and contemporary gifts.
Monthly Archives: November 2010
Traditional German Christmas Market in Edinburgh
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Filed under Attractions, Events, Miscellaneous
How London 2012 ticketing will work
Filed under Events, Miscellaneous
Ticket applications for the London 2012 Olympic Games will open in March 2011. And here’s how the ticket application process will work. You will be able to apply online at www.tickets.london2012.com or via a paper application form. Paper application forms will be available on High Streets throughout the UK.
Unlike some other events, tickets will not be allocated on a first come, first served basis. The application window will be open for a set period of time, after which all applications will be considered equally. This means there is no advantage to submitting your application on the first day. With so many sports, venues and days to consider, we recommend you take your time and discuss your plans with family and friends before submitting your application.
For sessions where demand exceeds the supply of available tickets, an automated and random selection process (‘ballot’) will run to ensure the fairest possible allocation of tickets for those sessions. The aim of the ballot is to maximise the number of different applicants who are allocated tickets.
Once tickets have been allocated and payment taken you will be told whether or not your application has been successful, the amount you have been charged and for which of your chosen sessions you have been allocated tickets. If you are successful in all your session applications, you are committed to buying all the tickets.
You can pay by Visa (debit, credit and prepaid), and also by cheque or postal order if applying via the paper application form. If you choose to pay by Visa, you must ensure you have sufficient funds to cover the maximum possible charge.
You can only submit one application per email address and Visa card.
To increase your chances of being successful, we recommend that you apply for more than one or two sessions and for a range of sports. Tickets will be delivered to your billing address in 2012.
Applications for Paralympic Games tickets will open in Autumn 2011 and will follow a similar sales process.
To make sure your family and friends don’t miss out on important ticketing information, encourage them to sign up and register their interest.
Useful links:
Hotels in London
B&Bs in London
Self-catering in London
Tourist attractions in London
Great savings on hotels for the Royal Wedding
Filed under Accommodation, Events
Following the announcement of a date and venue for the Prince William and Kate Middleton’s Royal Wedding (29th April 2011 at Westminster Abbey), yesterday we posted details of how you could get a hotel room for 2 people in Westminster for just £125 for the night before the wedding, so you could be in the heart of the celebrations. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the same room has already risen to £175 per night, and prices will no doubt continue to soar upwards. For this reason, we’ve provided you with some links for one and two night stays in Westminster and a number of nearby locations. All these links go directly to our live price comparison search results for the dates and locations in question. Click on them and you’ll notice some huge savings can be enjoyed, depending on who you book through. But remember to act quickly as prices are likely to continue to rise.
Staying in Westminster, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (28th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £175 to £390
Staying in Westminster, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £66 to £400
Staying in Westminster, 2 people in a double room for 2 nights (28th and 29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £350 to £811
Staying in Waterloo, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (28th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £85 to £298
Staying in Waterloo, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £85 to £190
Staying in Waterloo, 2 people in a double room for 2 nights (28th and 29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £170 to £380
Staying in the Strand, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (28th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £105 to £594
Staying in the Strand, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £162 to £594
Staying in the Strand, 2 people in a double room for 2 nights (28th and 29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £669 to £1,188
Staying in Mayfair, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (28th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £104 to £999
Staying in Mayfair, 2 people in a double room for 1 night (29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £146 to £479
Staying in Mayfair, 2 people in a double room for 2 nights (28th and 29th April 2011) – at the time of writing, prices vary from £329 to £1,317
For other searches, just go to www.ukhotel.com/london
West End of London will be car free for one day
Filed under Events, Miscellaneous
For one day only, London’s West End will be completely pedestrianised as part of Shop VIP West End Day with Oxford Street, New Bond Street and Regent Street all being car free.
This will probably come as a relief for anyone who has tried to battle London streets at the best of times, but with Christmas coming, the famous shopping districts of Oxford Street, Regent Street and New Bond Street become even more manic. On the 27th November between 10am and 6pm the streets will be car free meaning people only need to worry about other shoppers, not taxies and buses.
If you have an American Express card, you can also earn double rewards which might be handy for the odd shopping spree with your gold card or charge card.
For the first time the event is partnering with a charity. In this case it is the Starlight Children’s Foundation who will receive £1 for every transaction (see web link for full details).
So get your shopping skates on and head down town…if you happen to live in London anyway.
More details can be found on the West End VIP web site.
More London Links:
Hotels around the West End of London
Visitor attractions around the London West End
Birmingham International Tattoo in November
Filed under Events
Edinburgh Tattoo might be more famous, but Birmingham has been holding its own International Military Tattoo for over 20 years to much acclaim.
The Birmingham International Tattoo is more of a cross between the Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the The British Military Tournament.
Set in the National Indoor Arena, the event will include massed bands, pipers, gymnasts, dancers, field gun competition and a dog display team. In total there will be over 1000 international participants for this three hour spectacular pre-Christmas show. The show runs on the 28th and 29th November 2010.
Full details and tickets can be found on the Birmingham International Tattoo web site.
Royal Wedding – venue and date announced
Filed under Attractions, Events
Prince William and Kate Middleton are to get married a little earlier than many bookmakers were predicting. A July or August wedding had been favoured but the date has instead been set for Friday 29th April 2011. And without wishing to sound too smug (but we did predict it!), the venue will be Westminster Abbey. The day will also be a public holiday and will fall in the same week as Easter Monday, meaning that many UK citizens will enjoy just a 3-day working week.
For hotels in Westminster with availability on the night of Thursday 28th April 2011, click here. There are some bargains to be had from just £125 for 2 people if you act very quickly!
Useful links:
Hotels in London
B&Bs in London
Self-catering in London
Tourist attractions in London
Brighton Christmas Pudding Race for Cancer Research
Filed under Events
For the first time this year, the Great British Christmas Pudding Race is coming to Brighton in aid of Cancer Research and Martlets Hospice.
As we reported earlier this month, the Covent Garden Great British Christmas Pudding Race is in its 30th year on the 4th December, but for the first time the event is also running in Brighton with all monies raised being split between Cancer Research UK and Martlets Hospice in Hove near Brighton.
The race essentially involves running with a Christmas pudding on a plate, while negotiating a challenging obstacle course – not as easy as it sounds (see video from the London event below).
The Brighton race takes place on Saturday 11th December in Bartholomew Square at 11am. Details about entering teams can be found on the Christmas Pudding Race web site.
The London Christmas Pudding Race takes place on the 4th December in Covent Garden.
Video of a previous Covent Garden Christmas Pudding Race:
Brighton Links:
Hotels in Brighton
Tourist attractions in Brighton
Self-catering accommodation in Brighton
BBC Good Food Show at the NEC
Filed under Events
If you’re passionate about food, then the BBC’s Good Food Show is the place to be, running from the 24th to 28th November at the Birmingham NEC.
The show is a combination of advice, entertainment and exhibitors from around the country. With celebrity chefs such as Gordon Ramsay, Rick Stein, Gary Rhodes, James Martin and the Hairy Bikers, this is the place to go for your Christmas food queries and ideas.
Highlights this year include the MasterChef Experience, Saturday Kitchen Live, The World Cheese Awards and Oz Clarke’s Masterclasses amongst a whole host of other events.
If like me you’re not much into the whole cooking experience, it’s probably still worth popping down as there are always loads of freebie samples from the various food stalls during the week.
Full details are available on the BBC Good Food NEC web site, although at the time of publishing I couldn’t get this to work properly – hopefully you’ll have more luck.
Links around the Birmingham NEC:
Hotels near the NEC Birmingham
Other attractions around Birmingham
Self-catering accommodation near the Birmingham NEC
Shopping and eating out with the celebrities in London
Filed under Accommodation, Attractions, Eating & Drinking
If celebrities are your thing then you need to know the secrets of where to look to find everyone from X-Factor celebrities to famous millionaires and even royals.
Helpfully the Daily Mail has produced a guide of where to find a hotel, shop (real and window shopping) and where to dine out, so you might just happen to bump into your favourite famous people…and of course tweet this fact to all your friends. Oh and don’t worry, you won’t need a mortgage to afford any of these treats.
Where the celebrities stay:
There are a few famous hotels in London where the rich and famous are known to stay, but as we’re dealing with placed us mere mortals can go, then we have to forget the Savoy, Dorchester and Ritz, unless you want to spend £400+ a night on a hotel room.
- The Radisson Edwardian in Leicester Square might not be quite the Savoy, but its good enough for “cooler” stars such as rapper Dizzee Rascal, girlband The Saturdays and West End star Duncan James. This also has the advantage of being right next to all the star studded film premiers in London so even more A-list stars.
- The Cumberland hotel is an ultra modern hotel, but is ideal if you want to be a shop-a-holic with Oxford Street, Marble Arch and Hyde Park (my favourite bit of London) an easy walk away. The Cumberland includes a contemporary art gallery in its foyer and a rock and roll Jimi Hendrix suite. You can dine in at the Gary Rhodes W1 restaurant where Liam Gallagher (Oasis) and Nicole Appleton have been seen.
- The Langham is one of London’s most historic hotel with over 150 years of welcoming A-list guests including Oscar Wilde, Noel Coward and Wallis Simpson. One huge advantage of the Langham is its location just across from the BBC Broadcasting House (mostly used for radio), so anyone needing a quick start at the BBC is likely to be staying in The Langham. Nearby shopping districts include Regent, Oxford and Bond Street.
Where to shop with the celebrities:
- Selfridges is one of the most famous shops in London and was recently voted the best department store in the world, which is quite some coup with Harrods in the same city. Whereas Harrods is perhaps a bit over the top in places, Selfridges caters for everyone from the rich and famously rich, to the rest of us. The Shoe Galleries is the place to buy shoes with over 4000 pairs in stock, and the personal style consultants are there for both the famous and everyone else.
- Bond Street is famous for jewellery, but it is also one of the ultimate places to spot the A-listers, with shops such as Gucci, DKNY, Armani and Tiffany Jostle this is the high end of the window shopping world. There are plenty of jewellery shops too including Cartier if you want a watch that tells you the time and costs more than the average British salary.
- Portman Village is one of the less well known areas of London, but is essentially covering Quebec Street and Seymour Place. This is a true secret area of London where most people don’t go celebrity spotting, but with clothes shops, cafes and even an art gallery or two, there’s bound to be someone you’ll recognise and most likely a more genuine A-list celebrity too.
Where to dine with the celebrities:
- Tibits vegetarian restaurant is described as “the most down-to-earth places to eat in London” and is handily located just off Regent Street, so ideal when you’ve shopped to you drop. The area around Tipbits is pedestrianised and gives a very much European feel to it with open tables outside the cafes. Well known faces such as Beverley Knight and Leona Lewis have been seen dining out here at lunchtimes.
- Mr Chow is a plush Chinese restaurant which has seen many TV celebrities and is said to be especially a favourite of Simon Cowell. This status hasn’t completely gone to their heads and they still do main courses from around £12 to £25 so the restaurant is well within the range of all of us, even if we didn’t win X-Factor.
- The Punchbowl in Mayfair is one of the few places which openly admits the clientel are likely to be celebrities, but as long as you don’t try taking photos then you can mingle with the stars. The pub is owned by Guy Ritchie (Madonna’s ex-husband) but regulars are said to be Jude Law, Kevin Spacey (pictured), Sophie Dahl and Peaches Geldof.
More links in London:
Things to see and do while in London
Hotels in London
London is better than Paris according to the French!
Filed under Miscellaneous
We Brits always knew this, but it’s now official – according to a French tourism report, London is a better place to visit than the French capital Paris….and several other European cities.
Paris has always been the capital of fashionable goods, Gallic cuisine and chic pavement cafes but according to a report by the very people who are supposed to promote France’s tourism, it seems London might actually have “borrowed” these concepts and be doing them better.
The report entitled “Twenty Four Hours In A Tourist Capital” looked at 6 major European cities and concluded that London scored very highly on welcoming visitors from outside the country, along with our London taxies and even sights such as Westminster Abbey were considered en-par with the visitor attractions available.
Amsterdam was joint second, Rome and Madrid joint forth and Berlin came fifth in the survey by the Paris-Ile de France Regional Tourism Committee (CRT). The only thing London really failed on was the lack of speaking other European languages, which has always been a known issue and never really properly addressed.
Overall this should please British tourism bosses and Londoners, although it would be interesting from all sides if the same tests were conducted in places other than the capital cities.
London Links:
London hotel accommodation
Award winning visitor attractions in London
