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Author Archives: trev

Half term driving warning for Cumbria & M6

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Posted by trev on February 9, 2012 – 1:20 pm
Filed under Transport

This morning Cumbria awoke to a blanket of ice this morning, but rather than the icicles and nice white Winter scenes, this was the much more dangerous black ice and freezing rain.

Cumbria Police have delt with over 97 car accidents in 12 hours on the road with numerous on the M6 between junction 36 (Kendal) and junction 40 (Penrith) due to unprecedented freezing rain which has covered the entire county.

Known accident blackspots include:

- A66 which is closed between County Durham (A1) and Cumbria (M6) due to numerous accidents blocking the road. ETA on reopening the road is still not known.

- M6 around junction 39 was especially bad with 8 separate accidents by 10am including a jacknifed lorry and numerous cars skidding off the road. Due to the altitude this area should be considered at high risk of ice throughout the day.

- The A684 Kendal around Kendal saw numerous accidents with drivers skidding off the road and is still considered at risk of serious ice.

- A66 west of Penrith (M6 J40) was partly closed due to a multiple car crash at the Reghead roundabout.

- In Haile near Egremont a two car crash closed a road although there were no reported injuries.

Cumbria: Having just driven from Penrith to Kendal this morning, I can confirm that the conditions on the M6 were treturous especially between J39 and J37 (Shap to Tebay) with most cars going at 30mph. The 45 minute journey took around 2 1/2 hours.

Lancashire: Around Lancaster there have been reports of many accidents due to ice and earlier a queue formed between Lancaster and Carnforth due to the number of accidents.

Northumberland: Police are still trying to re-open the Military Road after recovering an overturned van and many other high roads should be considered risky.

Rain not snow? There is a good piece on the BBC web site about why the rain is falling as freezing rain, which is all to do with a warm layer forming between us and the clouds.

Half Term: Hopefully by the time most start travelling for half term the ice and potential snow will have disappeared, but the forecasts keep changing on the latter so keep the eye on the BBC.

For traffic in the North of England see the Highways Agency traffic web site.

Amazing Travelodge £10 sale starts today!

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Posted by trev on February 9, 2012 – 9:00 am
Filed under Accommodation

A reminder that the £10 Summer Spectacular Sale from Travelodge has started for bookings between 1st April to 31st August 2012!

Travelodge really are offering rooms for just a tenner including London rooms so we recommend getting over to Travelodge very fast to grab yourself a bargain.

If you’re heading for Ireland, there are even better deals with 10 Euro rooms available for the same dates.

Do remember the rooms are likely to be very popular so best get one quick!

Click here for booking details.

£10 Summer sale spectacular from Travelodge

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Posted by trev on February 6, 2012 – 12:30 pm
Filed under Uncategorized

Budget hotel chain Travelodge have just announced their £10 Summer Spectacular on rooms from 1st April to 31st August 2012!

The sale opens on Thursday 9th February at 6am so better set the alarm clock for 3 days time.

That is not a typo – they really are offering Travelodge rooms for just a tenner, ten quid or even a Paul Mckenna if you’re on Albert Square (we do recommend trying cash, not magicians as payment however).

Whatever currency you use, those are seriously cheap rooms and worth grabbing especially if you plan to be part of the 2012 Olympics or perhaps want to get as far away from the games as possible!

The offer does exclude central London between 27th July to 12th August but with the London tube and bus network, these will still be excellent value for money for visiting London this Summer.

If you’re heading for Ireland, there are even better deals with 10 Euro rooms available!

Do remember the rooms are likely to be very popular so best get one quick – click here for more details.

Ultimate Valentines Day Champange “bubble bath” at the Cadogan Hotel

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Posted by trev on February 3, 2012 – 2:36 pm
Filed under Accommodation

Many British hotels will be offering special romantic rooms for this Valentines Day, but the Cadogan Hotel in London thinks it’s created the ultimate package its Champagne bubble bath experience for guests with very large credit cards.

The luxury Knightsbridge hotel seems to be trying to recreate one of the many legends of Marilyn Monroe by giving guests the chance to bath in over 120 bottles of Champagne costing between a “reasonable” £4000 for the Louis de Custine Brut to a rather eccentric £25,000 for Dom Perignon Vintage!

Naturally guests also have a butler on hand to serve a glass or two of Champagne presumably at a rather chilly 7′C, although there is no information on whether the bath will be giving customers goosebumps too.

For those with the sortof credit card which allows for such luxuries, could we perhaps suggest taking a look at the top 10 new luxury hotels on our sister blog as hotel and flights combined would likely be slightly more affordable.

For more details, contact the Cadogan Hotel in Knightsbridge.

More London Resources:
Places to visit in London
Hotel accommodation in London

Romantic meals for two for this Valentines Day

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Posted by trev on February 3, 2012 – 1:29 pm
Filed under Accommodation, Eating & Drinking

A little heads up for all ye’ olde romantics – Valentines Day is less than two weeks away, so with this in mind we’ve joined forced with Superbreak to find you some of the best dinner & hotel packages for you and your loved one.

1) The Low Wood Hotel on the banks of Windermere sits in the heart of Wordsworth’s English Lake District with magnificant views across Windermere Lake and the Langdale Fells.

The famous daffodils might still be sleeping around the 14th February, but whether you decide to join them with a long romantic snuggle up in bed or get out your walking shoes and explore the magnificance of the English Lake District, you’re assured of a break to remember with a romantic dinner at this fabulous four star Lake District hotel.

2) The Gosforth Park hotel offers four star luxury set within 12 acres of lush parklands, close to Newcastle-upon-Tyne offering a true romantic setting and convenient location for couples in what many surveys have suggested is one of the most romantic parts of the country.

As well as offering a relaxed environment and romantic setting for your perfect Valentines night with the very special AA Rosette awarded restaurant, the hotel also has a range of facilities ideal for this special night including a relaxing sauna, indoor pool and a range of beauty treatments available. Plus for the more energetic there is always the tennis court and gym.

3) The Legacy Falcon Inn in Stratford-upon-Avon neatly takes us from the romantic poems of Wordsworth to possibly the romantic playright of them all – William Wordsworth. This four star 16th Century coaching inn offers possibly the most romantic of all the locations in our list, offering you two the chance to explore the home and inspiration for Romeo & Juliette.

After wandering through Stratford itself, you can sit down to a wonderful meal at the rosette-awarded hotel restaurant in one of Stratford’s premier hotels.

4) The Cambridge Menzies Hotel is set in over 200 acres of lush grounds offering one of the best places to just get away on romantic walks, with easy access to the historic city of Cambridge. Guests can relax in the 16m swimming pool, Nordic sauna room and steam room, then dine out in the hotel’s AA Rosette Awarded restaurant to experience the true romantic meal for two. With dinner and hotel packages from only £72 per person for four star luxury, this is also one of the most affordable dining packages around.

5) The Holiday Inn Bloomsbury is located right in the heart of London’s theatreland with the British Museum and London Zoo also close by. Ideally suited for romantic breaks this Valentines Day, the hotel offers affordable four star luxury accommodation and superb dining in the Junction Restaurant.

Up Helly Ya – Live webcam from Shetland

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Posted by trev on January 31, 2012 – 10:01 am
Filed under Events

The spectacular annual Up Helly Ya festival will for the first time be broadcast live around the world from Shetland via webcam tonight.

The Up Helly Ya festival is unique to Shetland and occurs every year on the last Tuesday in January to celebrate the end of Yule season (a sortof European end of Christmas celebration).

Origins: Originally the celebration consisted of dragging burning barrels of tar through the streets as is still customary in a few places today, but around 1874 this was banned from the island and the Up Helly Ya torchlight festival began instead.

Today the festival involves thousands of islanders parading through the streets of Lerwick, the island’s biggest town, carrying burning torches ultimately towards a Viking Longboat which is burned in a ritual symbolising the island’s rich connections with the Vikings and Scandinavia.

Thousands more tourists come to the islands to see this festival which has become a welcome Winter tourist boost for the islands, but true to their traditions, the festival is essentially unchanged despite the numbers of visitors from all around the world.

Oddities: One of the slightly odd aspects of Up Helly Ya is that women are not traditionally allowed in the main procession which causes quite a number of the men to dress up in women’s clothes to even out the numbers.

Update: There are various activities which take place throughout the day. Below is a screenshot we took from the official webcam (link below) around 10am this morning:

 

 

To watch the festival click here for the Up Helly Ya webcam and there’s a lot more information on the Up Helly Ya web site.

If you’re planning to visit Shetland for next year’s festival, there are quite a few hotels on Shetland plus quite a lot of visitor attractions in Lerwick.

Cornwall gets 4G Internet for smartphones & tablets

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Posted by trev on January 30, 2012 – 3:30 pm
Filed under Miscellaneous

Smartphones seem to be increasing in popularity with people not wanting to miss a thing on Twitter or Facebook, but traditionally if you got outside of a city then Internet access ground to a crawl.

However, if you’re looking for a holiday destination with really quick broadband and don’t want to be sat indoors next to the wi-fi box, then head for the area around St. Newlyn East in Cornwall which is trialing a 4G Internet connection giving speeds in theory between 100Mbits and 1Gbit.

In reality speeds rarely reach the theoretical maximums, but residents and holiday makers in the area have reported steady speeds of 7Mbits which is still significantly quicker than most residential Internet connections!

The only hitch is the trial is currently only planned to run until June this year but has already been extended and might well be extended through the Summer again as the company behind it “Everything Everywhere” test the technology further. The village is around 2 miles south of Newquay in Cornwall.

More Newquay links:
Holiday cottages around Newquay
Visitor attractions around Newquay

A quick video guide to eating Sushi in Japanese restaurants

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Posted by trev on January 30, 2012 – 2:10 pm
Filed under Eating & Drinking

With the sheer diversity of restaurants springing up around the UK, it is pretty certainly that sooner or later you’ll encounter one of the most traditionally rich foods going – the Sushi restaurant.

Many Sushi restaurants opened up in London during the 90’s and most generally don’t worry about how you use the chopsticks (or even if you do use them), but if you want to impress the chefs and fellow diners, then there are a few simple rules you can use to ensure you keep in with the Japanese traditions.

As they say a picture paints a thousand words, the easiest way to explain this is with a video on how to eat Sushi.

 

One of the big advantages of Japanese cuisine is that you’re allowed to use your fingers for many dishes, but for those where chopsticks are preferred here is another quick video to help with how to use chopsticks:

2 Cumbrian brothers attempt to pedal across the Atlantic Ocean for charity!

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Posted by trev on January 30, 2012 – 1:02 pm
Filed under Events

For hundreds of years Cumbria has had strong sea-faring traditions with naval bases, smuggling and more recently fishing industries.

So it should perhaps come as no surprise that two Cumbrian bothers decided to continue this tradition with by building a boat and travelling across the Atlantic Ocean….except this boat is pedal powered!

Kieran and Shaun Sweeney didn’t come from a maritime family and had no real experience of sailing before they started out on this epic idea, but they did have one ambition. They want to raise £50,000 for a children’s heart unit charity (CHAF) at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle where a friend’s 12 month old daughter had received a new heart, although she sadly died 6 months later in the hospital.

The plan: Last Summer they drew up plans to build an ocean going boat which would make its way across the 3000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean purely on pedal power. The boat which is not much bigger than those you would find on the Cumbrian lakes, was packed out with hi-tech equipment for navigation and safety, and electrically powered by solar panels plus contained enough food to provide 8000 calories per-person each day.

The boat is made from plywood with a fibre-glass cabin and was mostly constructed by the Whitehaven brothers to keep costs down, especially as non of the donated funds from this charity boat trip are being used to fund the build.

The duo won’t receive an easy ride across the Atlantic with waves of 20 feet expected and help will be two days away should they run into trouble out at sea!

Attempt 1: The journey should have taken around 30 days from Gran Canaria aiming for Port St Charles in Barbados and was first attempted on the 14th December 2011 but they had to make an SOS call 10 miles out to sea after the driveshaft broke on the boat.

Attempt 2: The pair set off again on the 25th January 2012 having made modifications to the boat and were looking much better this time with no apparent mechanical problems. Unfortunately nature took a different tactic this time to delay their plans by giving the boys mild food poisoning and landing them in hospital after completing 43 miles.

Attempt 3: Not detered by these set-backs, the brothers are planning to get back in their boat in the next few days and try for Barbados again. We’ll report back when we know they’ve set off again.

You can find out more about the journey on the Ocean Pedal Challenge web site and even win a car by donating £10! (See web site for details). They’re also on Facebook under the Ocean Pedal Challenge FB page.

The English Civil War procession in London

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Posted by trev on January 26, 2012 – 10:23 am
Filed under Events

Every year, around 500 members of the English Civil War Society march along the Mall towards Whitehall in remembrance of the English Civil War.

It might seem a little odd to commemorate something which happened over 350 years ago, but historical re-enactments seem to be flourishing and this certainly draws the crowds.

This march marks the anniversary of the execution of King Charles I and the rather brief time that England was a republic 1649–1659 under Oliver Cromwell.

Dressed in full 17th century military uniform and carrying pikes & muskets, and dragging along a canon or two for good measure, the route travels from St James Palace along The Mall to Horseguards Parade, and then a small group lay a wreath at a monument to Charles beside the Parade Ground at Banqueting House.

It might sound like something only for history buffs, but the event is really quite spectacular and on a par with some of the more modern parades.

The whole thing takes place every year on January 27th from 11am, so if you’re in the area, don’t worry you’re not seeing ghosts…probably.

Some photos of the Civil War Parade in London.

Westminster Links:
English Civil War on Wikipedia
Hotels in Westminster, London
Tourist attractions to see in Westminster
Westminster self-catering apartments