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.

Half term driving warning for Cumbria & M6 is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

Flexible tickets

2012 Games Train Tickets have special terms and conditions that offer flexibility designed to suit travel to and from the Games.

Longer trains, more services

Over 100 extra train services will be added to the regular timetable each day across the National Rail network during the 2012 Games. Trains will run with more carriages to help provide additional capacity at busy times. 2012 Games train services will start earlier and finish later to help you to get to and from your Games event.

Don’t miss out on the great value train fares, exclusive to 2012 Games ticket holders

Train tickets are likely to get snapped up fast once they go on general sale, so make sure you buy now before they are available to the general public in April 2012. Railcard holders can get discounts too.

Useful links:
London hotels
London B&Bs
London self-catering
London attractions

Useful information regarding 2012 Olympic Games train tickets is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

Useful links:
London hotels
London B&Bs
London self-catering
London attractions

Does London need another airport? is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

Actually not exactly as there is one ticket type on Britain’s railways that allows pretty much unfettered access to the entire network for a fixed price with virtually no restrictions on getting on and off trains from Penzance in the south west to Thurso in the far north of Scotland.

So what is this ticket?

It’s called a National Rail Rover ticket and runs for either 7 or 14 days, and you can buy one from any main railway ticket office. The ticket only works if you plan to take quite a few railway journeys during the time such as maybe changing location each day, but in those cases it will significantly save money.

Prices for the National Rail Rover are as below with discounts for those with a Rail Card:
(all costs taken from National Rail web site in Jan 2012)

7 Day Standard-class fare costs £450 (£225 child)
7 Day First class costs £680 (£340 child)
14 Day standard class fare costs £680 (£340 child)
14 Day first class costs £1040 (£520 child)

Compared to buying individual tickets:

The above might still sound quite expensive, but taking the 7 day standard ticket would work out an average of £64 per day. According to some calculations based on real train fares starting 2 weeks from now and avoiding the expensive commuter trains, the average closest tickets I could find were still over £100 per journey.

The above tickets were mostly anytime tickets allowing stops in the journey and taking almost any train, but they still restrict to one particular journey which the Rail Rover doesn’t although on some major lines they can’t be used before 10am on Monday to Friday.

More details can be found buried in the National Rail Web site:
- 7 Day Rail Rover details
- 14 Day Rail Rover details

UK Resources:
All UK train stations and London Tube Stations
Hotels around the UK
Visitor attractions in Britain
With thanks to Andrew Spooner for spotting this (prices on that page are now out of date).

The secret ticket which brings back the true British railway holiday is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

So the big question is – can we really become a human sat-nav and dispense with all the technology? We don’t recommend you immediately set off and try to find your way to a city 100 miles say to the north without first doing a little research, but in essence we don’t strictly need even a compass to find out way between A and B.

The sun is probably one of the most accurate and important parts of the natural navigation toolkit and yes there are those quite frequent times when it disappears behind a cloud or two, but with a little observation you can still get a pretty good idea where its hiding.

Just remember that the sun faces south at its highest point after rising in the east and travelling west. If you have trouble remembering this, just think that the sun works down the alphabet so E -> S -> W. Having a watch would help during these calculations, but careful observation of where the sun is sitting will still give a pretty good clue.

The stars have also been a major part of the navigation process and if you can find the north star which is essentially in line with the edge of the big dipper or saucepan – see this web site for a good graphic. This is a little harder to work out if you’re driving of course or if there’s cloud so don’t entirely get rid of the compass just yet.

The clouds are a surprising navigational tool as long as you know which way the wind is generally blowing. TV forecasts can give a pretty good idea of this in the morning and very often the clouds will blow roughly west to east in Britain due to the Atlantic. Even if the forecast can’t tell you accurately about the rain, they are generally not too far off on the general wind directions.

This navigation system won’t help if you’re trying to find Poplar Street in Wolverhampton, but it could be an interesting way to find your way around and at least you’ll have a general idea if the sat nav suddenly decides you’re in the middle of the Atlantic (as they’ve been known to do).

If you want to know more, have a look at this interesting article from Fresh Air Fix on Natural Navigation.

Become a human sat-nav with “natural navigation” is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

Surprisingly, there are lots and lots of bus tours out there from those using the traditional red Routemaster buses (with the door at the back) to the rather quirky London Duck Tours with their bright yellow amphibious vehicles.

Tip: A little tip when taking a bus tour is to make sure they offer hop on, hop off services so you can interupt the tour at various locations and rejoin another tour later on at the same place.

So to help out visitors from the UK and further afield, here are the best bus tours available in London this year:

1) The Original London Sightseeing Tours offer what many see as the London bus tour experience with a proper opened topped London bus and commentary as you wander around the sights of the capital.

Live commentaries are in English, but they also offer recorded commentaries in a number of other languages, plus they have hop-on-off services so you can use the bus as your personal transport to various famous locations and even free tickets for various other services.

Intro video for the Original London Sightseeing Tours:

2) Golden Tours Open-Top Bus Tour offers an open topped bus service around London in one of the most colourful buses seen in the capital. Hop on, hop off services are available as well as various extras such as discounted Thames river passes.

An introduction to the golden age of Golden Tours:

3) London Duck Tours take the London tour to a whole new level, transporting visitors from the London streets straight onto the River Thames which is quite a good way of avoiding all the traffic. Their bright yellow amphibious vehicles take in sights such as Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace and Big Ben and then take to the water for a trip along this famous river.

Have a whale of a time with this Duck Tours preview:

4) Brit Movie Tours take a different approach to many of the other tours, by visiting famous London landmarks associated with TV and films such as Harry Potter, Notting Hill, James Bond and Bridget Jones film locations. There’s also a whistlestop tour option which takes in over 40 locations from 35 films.

Tours are also available in other locations – see preview video:

5) The Ghost Bus Tours uses on the classic Routemaster buses you see so much in the films about London, but takes visitors around some of the most haunted and scariest locations in London including haunted palaces and unmarked burial grounds. Definately not for the faint hearted!

A little taster of the Ghost Bus Tours:

More London Landmarks: If you’d like to make your own tours around London there’s plenty to see as the UKattraction guide to London will show.

Five of the best London Bus tours for 2012 is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

It’s been viewed more than half a million times already but that will no doubt escalate now that BBC and Sky News have covered it.

Anyway, what’s your take on it all? There’s rumour that the passenger who went to the aid of the conductor could face prosecution for taking the matter into his own hands? Is this unfair or should we all have a zero tolerance to individuals who have such little regard for the system and other passengers? Comments, please!

Useful links:
Linlithgow hotels
Linlithgow B&Bs
Linlithgow self-catering
Linlithgow  attractions

Fare-dodging on UK trains – what’s your view? is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

To find out more about the Devon Tourism Awards and the best of Devon’s accommodation, attractions and more click here.

Useful links:
Devon hotels
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Devon self-catering
Devon attractions

Devon’s award winners is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

Useful links:
London hotels
London B&Bs
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Transport hotspots to avoid during London 2012 Olympics is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog

The idea seems to be that the motorway services will be allowed to add logos and pretty much any other symbol to the signs rather than the rather bland if universally understood knife & fork, wheelchair symbol and similar.

Burger King, KFC, M&S are fairly likely to be widely understood, but at UKSeries HQ we’re thinking this will create a new game for long journeys, the – “What the heck does that symbol mean!?” game.

Of course this could be used by clever marketing people to encourage those on more leisurely travels to pop in and see what magical mystery ingredients a certain motorway services has to offer, but apart from a couple in the Lake District at Killington Services (M6 J36 – J35) and Tebay (J39 – J38) they all appear to be pretty much the same. The aforementioned could both include duck symbols for “We have a lake” perhaps.

The proposals are that the new signs could appear within the next couple of months, so if you’re travelling for Christmas, keep a look out for strange new symbols and remember to report back any sightings!

PS: Could we possibly have a credit card sign to mean “annoying credit card sales people operate here”, thus allowing us to avoid those particular service stations. :)

UK Resources:
Things to do and see in the UK (after getting off the motorway)

Redesigned motorway service signs could create new game is a post from UKseries.com's UK Travel Blog