Great Britain special - English Toffee

Some day we'll come back and continue our rambling explorations through the countryside and stop at somebody's B&B!

The weather is something you cannot do anything about, but check at Weather On-line.

As we promised - here is a short story about our journey, generously studded with links. We went on a tour from Glasgow to London, and all the time we liked what we saw. We booked only the first night in advance, in a Guesthouse in Renfrew, but later on we just stopped where we liked the place and the surroundings. At home we had studied the map very carefully, and tried to sketch the travel route with not too many hours on the road. Of course we changed it a bit when we liked a place too much! Some places had to be explored a bit more! In the luggage we had put old cuttings from newspapers with articles of interest, even if they were 10 years old. Quite exciting to see if they were still valid! We hope that Mrs Huffkin's Tea room and The Lamb Inn still are available when you pass that way!

Scotland	Cumbria	Wales
England	London	Castles and cottages

Scotland Alas our experience about Scotland isn't as we would like it to be. Our daughter Sara participated in a workshop in Glasgow, learning how to paint on silk, and we visited her one day only. Anyway, here are our experiences of Scotland for the moment: Renfrewshire Guest Houses near Glasgow - Fly to Glasgow, rent a car and travel around! Charles Rennie Mackintosh The Willow Tea Rooms, Glasgow - Every piece of furniture and equipment is designed by MacIntosh; the chairs are straight-backed but still comfortable. Beautiful! Haggis - good! Try it at The Willow Tea Room in Glasgow!

The Willow Tea Room, Glasgow

Cumbria Cumbria - the Lake District - is really beautiful. Cumbria Map - and an AA-map book is a must in the whole of UK! The lanes wind away between hedges and stone fences or under huge trees cut like green tunnels. But, if you suddenly are rolling on a narrow gravel path without any of above mentioned attributes, you are probably driving between two fields out in nowhere! Short cuts can be just short cuts, but until you exactly know where you are it is confusing. To ask somebody in the nearest village? Well, it is OK but the dialect is perhaps not Queen' s English and there are NO subtitles as in the TV-films!

 

Wales Wales got only a short visit from us, but we found interesting things we would like to explore another time. As these ... VisitWales - A good start - everything you want to know! Where would you go in Wales? - "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch!" please! Next time! Welsh food. We made only a day-trip into Wales from Hay-on-Wye (see below!) but the Inn that served us a tremendous lunch cannot be the only place with good meals! As usual we followed our noses in the search for a good kitchen! We got an excellent roast beef with Yorkshire pudding, the vegetables were cooked perfectly, and for dessert we got a lovely Apple Crunch with Custard. The cows in the field outside were perhaps the producers of one of the ingredients in the custard! The specialties from the Welsh kitchen must wait until next time.

The Llangollen Railway - Wales' Scenic Preserved Railway - ! Talyllyn Railway - Fantastic site, not only for fans of vintage trains Welsh Mountain Badger Face Sheep - a kind of sheep you may meet in the lane!                                   Beacon's Edge Hay-on-Wye for book lovers, situated half in Wales and half in England. A small town with green surrounding hills to stay in for a while, and explore and use as a starting-point for expeditions in the neighbourhood. Wales within reach in a few minutes! By foot! The Old Black Lion - Pub with good food! We stayed at a B&B near enough (50 m) in Lion Street. Most comfortable beds and the very nice couple sometimes had dinner at the "Lion", too.

The other guest did as we did, dug like happy moles deep into the shelves of all the second-hand book shops. We found a lot of children's books from Sweden! Fresh from the printer's store! The owner of the shop had bought every edition available, not only in Swedish, of our children's most beloved"Totte" (Gunilla Wolde). "They will be sold some day, nothing to worry about!" he said. Margareta found her most beloved book from the childhood "Milly-Molly-Mandy" (J. L. Brisley), and the only one in Hay it seemed, a much read and handled paperback edition. We passed through many a village which could have been the one that Milly-Molly lived in.The illustrations of the book are still perfect! How lovely to find a fresh Seed Cake at Mrs Huffkin's in Burford some days later, just the kind Milly-Molly's Aunt used to bake. Happiness can be a piece of Seed Cake! The Swan Hotel - if the B&B is not available Hancock & Monks - music & sheet music - "oldies" too now on CD! Hay-on-Wye - The Official website

 

England Hereford Hereford Cider Museum - learn how to make cider! Nice souvenirs!

Cotswolds Oxfordshire Cotswolds - All accommodations! - Pub or B&B? Burford, Cotswolds antiques and history - one of our favourites, a pretty little town with B&B if you want to stay for a while. Filkins - with a "Spinning Jenny" in the CWW-museum! Cotswold Woollen Weavers - Where, what, who - a museum with most useful souvenirs - clothes made from cloth fabricated in Filkins. Lovely warm "Soft-twist Lambswool Throws" and skirts and gentlemen's hats and ... The Lamb, Shipton-upon-Wychwood - now it seems to be "refreshed" but we suppose it will be even better. If you are a fan of Agatha Christie`s Miss Marple, this is the place!

 

On our way to Christchurch we took a break at The Old Inn in Allington, their "Ploughman's lunch" was serves with their own bread! According to their Facebook page with a photo gallery, it is nowadays a PUB in style of the one in Midsumer with Quizz nights, Live music nights ... Christchurch Touristing in Christchurch!

 

London - a tour with a real old fashioned black cab in London and squeezed in the Tube, museums, rain showers and Victoria station ... Covent Gardens Market - sometimes musicians play for you . Where Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins met!

 

Mixed links to cottages and castles (including ghosts!) United Kingdom tourist information - for a start Britain guide - museums, art, famous places, zoo, etc UK Travel - informative site with lots of sub-links, including the British Royalty and a recipe for Steak Balmoral! UK bed and breakfast accommodation - B&B all over the country

Kenilworth - the castle in the winter

 

The Craven B&B, Uffington - friends of "Milly-Molly-Mandy" will probably stay here The Trout at Tadpole Bridge B&B - could be a pub from a book by P G Wodehouse or a film with chief Inspector Morse! Until next time we are able to visit Britannia and her subjects, we have to be satisfied with books and films with the story located in the country. The BBC TV-series and British films are produced in many parts of Britain and you'll recognise the places, especially if you have got a map of the settings for the films. A nice map indeed- "Emmerdale" here we come!

Every day we were filled with wonder over all these breeds of sheep in so many colours and shapes, and they are everywhere near the roads in the countryside, not only in fields with fences but happily munching from the greens of the waysides all over Britain, so please, drive with care if there are a road sign about cattle on the road (of any kind)! Sheep always find it is their right to be gallivanting near or on roads, and do not give a damn about all your shouting and honking! Black-faced Beulah, curly Wensleydale, Lincoln och Dartmoor; small black sheep from Wales, brown ones with four horns from Manx, etc! Personalities! As a finale of our British story we pretend we are "judges at a cattle fair" and proudly present some of the splendid specimens of producers of wool living on the British islands! Here is a link to more about cattle on the islands! There are many more kinds of sheep, but use your cursor on the pictures (click) and read about them.