Heston Blumenthal, owner of the Fat Duck at Bray and one of several celebrity British chefs, has become known for a number of bizarre concoctions. We’ve gathered a few of them together here for you to watch at your leisure.
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UK restaurants
You’ve just got to love the South Bank. Theatre lovers can flock to the National, photographers can snap the impressive views from the London Eye and foodies can eat to their heart’s content at the abundance of restaurants and bars. The views of the Thames are simply wonderful in the summer and since we are on that topic, let’s take a moment to discover the best South Bank venues and events to see before summer ends…
1) Firstly and perhaps most importantly, a trip to the Dishoom Chowpatty Beach Bar is an absolute must. Sip on a gingery Bombay Pimms and munch on a Bombay Chip Butty (the classic English grub with a spicy Indian twist is just genius) in the colourful and lively surroundings. Situated on the Riverside Terrace overlooking a pop up beach, it really feels as if you have been whisked off to the shores of Bombay. It is open until the 4th October so don’t miss out!
2) Embrace your favourite English stereotype (punk rocker, housewife, city gent etc.) and head to the Duckie, Best of British event at the Clore Ballroom. Expect an evening of plenty of dancing and help honour over sixty years of British pop-rock. Tickets should be booked in advance.
3) A blast from the past awaits you at Museum of 1951 in Royal Festival Hall. The Spirit Level of the Hall has been transformed into a gallery of memorabilia, artworks and models from the original festival. This free event is open until 4th September and should not be missed.
4) For some truly delightful fun the Jeppe Hein: ‘Appearing Rooms’ on the Riverside Terrace will catch you out. Jets of water shoot into the air, making ‘rooms’ and it’s up to you to anticipate when the water will pop up! This wonderfully wet spectacle is open until the 18th September.
So there you have it. If you are looking for fun, culture and food as summer slowly slips away, you needn’t look any further than the glorious Southbank.
Neil Waller is a Co-Founder at My Destination.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on the UKseries.com UK Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
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London hotels
London B&Bs
London self-catering
London attractions
Preseli Adventure is a fully licensed coasteering company who enjoy using stretches of the National Trust Pembrokeshire coastline in the name of adrenaline!
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South Wales hotels
South Wales B&Bs
South Wales cottages
South Wales campsites
South Wales attractions
Who needs video games when we’ve already got bugs!!!?? Peel your children away from their Nintendo DS or that portable Playstation and get them outside enjoying the British countryside! How about a little bug hunting in the Yorkshire Dales for starters? The following video was shot two weeks ago…
Britain often gets bad press when it comes to food, but undeservedly so. There’s more to British food than fish & chips and bangers & mash. Watch the videos below from the Great British Menu and perhaps you’ll get a better insight into some of the fantastic food that can be enjoyed in Britain if you know where to look…
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UK restaurants
Northumberland’s Haltwhistle and Wooler cycle hubs each consist of seven cycling routes of varying terrain and difficulty. And now you can download the GPX files for these cycle routes to use on your desktop PC or mobile phone. You can then use these files to navigate the cycle routes. You’ll also find a quick and easy online guide to show you how to download the files and access them from your mobile phone.
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Northumberland hotels
Northumberland B&Bs
Northumberland cottages
Northumberland campsites
Northumberland attractions
Notting Hill Carnival has been held on the August Bank Holiday weekend every year since 1966, and is now the largest festival celebration of its kind in Europe. In fact, last year it attracted an estimated 1 million people. Get yourself along and enjoy the fun!
And if you need a reminder of what the event it’s like, enjoy the footage below.
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Notting Hill hotels
Notting Hill B&B
Notting Hill attractions
Considered to be one of Europe’s most beautiful and picturesque cities, the capital of Scotland lies on the rugged southeast coast of the country, its stunning landscape a product of pre-historic volcanic activity. Edinburgh sits atop a group of extinct volcanoes; its skyline dominated by a castle fortress perched high on Castle Rock, a collapsed crater of an ancient volcano. The city is renowned for its medieval buildings and some of the finest examples of Georgian architecture anywhere in the world. This bustling city also boasts more green space than most major cities, its many parks welcoming visitors to just sit, relax and soak up the surrounding beauty.
Edinburgh Castle began its function as a royal seat during the Middle Ages, the oldest part of the building today being the 12th Century Chapel of St. Margaret. However, archaeologists have found evidence that the site has been in use since the Bronze Age. The castle, along with sections of the cities’ Old and New Towns have been designated UNESCO World Heritage Sites. From the castle’s ramparts, visitors are treated to spectacular views of the whole city. The castle houses Scotland’s crown jewels and the legendary Stone of Destiny, the coronation seat of ancient Scottish kings. Taken to London in the 13th Century, the stone was placed beneath the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey. In 1996, Scotland rejoiced as this piece of Scottish history returned home, exactly seven hundred years after it had been spirited away.
The famous Royal Mile runs through Old Town and stretches from the Edinburgh castle to the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the official residence of the Royal family, once home to Mary Queen of Scots. The Old Town is a labyrinth of narrow streets and passageways leading to formal courtyards graced by centuries old buildings. New Town, were building commenced in 1750, is where you will find magnificent Georgian structures. If you’re a horticultural fan, don’t miss the Royal Botanic Garden which features an impressive collection of plants, trees and flowers from all over the world.
Edinburgh is also known as a centre for arts and culture and it is rife with museums, art galleries and theatres. The city has a rich cultural heritage and has been home to some of the world’s great thinkers, scientists, engineers, economists and literary giants. Great writers like Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson hail from the city and more recently, it is where the fertile mind of J.K. Rowling gave birth to Harry Potter. You can drop by the Elephant House café where the literary phenom conjured up the boy wizard. If you read the Da Vinci Code, you may also want to visit the mysterious five hundred year old Rosslyn Chapel, located a few miles south of Edinburgh, and long believed to have links to the Knights Templar and the Holy Grail. The chapel’s mysterious carvings, which date back to before Columbus landed in the Americas, depict plants that are native to america.
Whatever your interests, from Renaissance masterpieces to modern art, elegant gardens to wonderful theatre productions, historic buildings to a vibrant nightlife, you’ll find that the beautiful city of Edinburgh has something for everyone.
Kirsty Peters is the Founder of Best Holiday Parks.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on the UKseries.com UK Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
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Edinburgh hotels
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TV channel Dave has revield the best and worst jokes as told at the famous 2011 Edinburgh Fringe.
Up and coming comedian Nick Helm won the award for the best joke of the entertainment festival, but veteran magician Paul Daniels should perhaps stick to magic after being voted as having told the worst joke of the year.
A full top 10 was revealed by Dave, but the best joke of the festival and thus according to many, the best told in the UK this year was…
“I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves“.
The full top 10 best jokes of the Edinburgh Festival:
1) Nick Helm: “I needed a password eight characters long so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.”
2) Tim Vine: “Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels.”
3) Hannibal Buress: “People say ‘I’m taking it one day at a time’. You know what? So is everybody. That’s how time works.”
4) Tim Key: “Drive-Thru McDonalds was more expensive than I thought… once you’ve hired the car…”
5) Matt Kirshen: “I was playing chess with my friend and he said, ‘Let’s make this interesting’. So we stopped playing chess.”
6) Sarah Millican: “My mother told me, you don’t have to put anything in your mouth you don’t want to. Then she made me eat broccoli, which felt like double standards.”
7) Alan Sharp: “I was in a band which we called The Prevention, because we hoped people would say we were better than The Cure.”
8) Mark Watson: “Someone asked me recently – what would I rather give up, food or sex. Neither! I’m not falling for that one again, wife.”
9) Andrew Lawrence: “I admire these phone hackers. I think they have a lot of patience. I can’t even be bothered to check my OWN voicemails.”
10) DeAnne Smith: “My friend died doing what he loved … Heroin.”
And the worst joke of the festival? That was – “I said to a fella ‘Is there a B&Q in Henley?’ He said ‘No, there’s an H, an E, an N an L and a Y”.
Background: The Edinburgh Fringe isn’t as new as many believe, having started as far back as 1947, as the alternative to the Edinburgh International Festival.
The Fringe originally tended to concentrate on comedy and theatre, often productions which were a little far from the mainstream for the main festival, but today it encompasses a whole range of entertainments including well known and up-and-coming acts.
The festival also tends to spread out onto the streets much more than the original Edinburgh International Festival with many street entertainers taking part. It has also become a good place to find new talent who in a relatively short space of time will become part of the “mainstream” entertainment scene.
More Edinburgh Links:
Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Things to see and do while in Edinburgh (apart from visit the Fringe)
Hotels in Edinburgh (tend to book up quickly during Edinburgh Fringe time).
Self-catering apartments in Edinburgh (often a cheaper alternative to hotels)
It’s been a tradition for over two hundred years, and grows with annual popularity. At the top of a very steep Cooper’s Hill in the Cotswolds, southern England, held every year on the Spring Bank Holiday, twenty people hurl themselves after a runaway wheel of cheese. The cheese, Double Gloucester, is rolled down the hill and the first person to catch it wins it: simple.
It’s an event that attracts hundreds of spectators each year. They stand behind the red and white tape that lines the sides of the hill, precariously perched as the participants tumble passed. At the bottom lies a barrage of hay bales into which the competitors crash and, if any are seriously injured, are scooped up by on-hand paramedics before being whisked off to hospital if needs be. Thus far, no one has died from taking part in the cheese run; a typical outcome from participation would be concussion or a sprained ankle. It depends how much you want that cheese.
Located around where the race takes place are a couple of pubs, The Victoria and the Cross Hands. It is in these two pubs where the prospective cheese chasers discuss tactics, get each other psyched up and, of course, fill themselves with the strongest of ales or spirits so as not to feel the bruises and grass burns from which they’re likely to suffer in the coming hours.
Three miles away, in the village of Shurdington, is The Cheese Rollers, a pub named after the event, of course.
It’s probably one of Britain’s most outrageous events, but one that follows tradition, on which Brits pride themselves. The Coopers Hill cheese race is a day of excitement, laughter and, quite possibly, lots of hand-over-mouth-in-shock moments. Don’t forget the camera.
Neil Waller is a Co-Founder at My Destination.
If you would like to be a guest blogger on the UKseries.com UK Travel Blog in order to raise your profile, please contact us.
Useful links:
Gloucester hotels
Gloucester B&Bs
Gloucester self-catering
Gloucester attractions
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