Blackpool is usually associated with gaudy delights such as the Pleasure Beach and Golden Mile, but away from the coast on the edge of Stanley Park lives a quieter attraction – Blackpool Model Village & Gardens. It’s hard to explain the joy that comes from seeing real things on a smaller scale, but if that’s your bag, head down here quickly. Established in the late 1960s or early 1970s (the owner was a little hazy about actual dates) by a local landscape gardener, the village is set in two and a half acres of park and is unique because of the beautiful (real size) flowers and shrubs that surround the more miniature exhibits.

And it’s all here – the village church with a wedding party outside, the local tea room, a caravan park, a fun fair and cricket match on the village green as well as plenty of things that let’s face it, few villages have – a huge prison, an airstrip and an enormous Scottish castle complete with Scots guards and piped bagpipe music.

As you enter the village you are given an instruction sheet that directs you along the labyrinthine paths with I-Spy style questions to keep the younger members of the party paying attention to detail. And the more you pay attention the more you get as there are little jokes throughout. Eagle-eyed visitors may spot that the proprietors of the garage are Messrs Hugh Crashum and W.E. Mendum. And although it’s a model village it’s not all perfect with an escapee making his way out of the prison, and oh no! a punch-up at the local caff.

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Posted by Anne on June 28, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (6)

This is just about as far north as you can go in Scotland. You have already travelled on a 15 hour ferry to Lerwick in the Shetland Islands. Then taken a ferry from what is called ‘Mainland Shetland’ to the island of Yell. Crossing this you then take another ferry from Gutcher Pier to the Wick of Belmont on Unst – this is the most northerly inhabited island in the Shetlands (and therefore in the whole of the UK). Travel up the road to Haroldswick (the most northerly village in the most northerly island in the Shetlands) and there over looking the Bay of Haroldswick is just about the most luxurious bus shelter ever. There was nobody around when we happened upon this spot – and certainly not a bus in sight. The bus stop fully furnished, stands regally alone by the road; the computer is perhaps not the most modern but the television seems ready to be switched on and the arm chair very comfortable; recently fresh flowers have been arranged in a vase. There is an all round panoramic view, including Muckle Hoeg with its chambered cairn, White Haggle to the north and behind to the east - Haroldswick Bay.

A visit to the Unst Bus Shelter website (address below) reveals that this is the domain of local schoolboy Bobby Maculay who started to make the place a little more like home after a particularly long wait for a bus. Now the island's most popular tourist attraction, It has been featured in Bella Magazine, The Daily Mail, BBC Radio Scotland, The Press And Journal and the Shetland Times five times, as well being voted the best bus shelter in Britain by Buses Magazine (and they would know). What better place to wait for that bus which never seems to arrive and may never come.

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Posted by Rob on June 26, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (3)

For years Rothesay was a prime holiday destination for hordes of Glaswegians who would take a trip "doon the watter" for some sea air. Thanks to its beautiful setting on the Isle of Bute, and well-preserved Victorian seaside architecture it is still popular (but not as much as it should be), and is easy to reach by public transport making it an ideal place if you suddenly decide you want to get away from it all.

The pleasure starts as soon as you get on the ferry at Wemyss (pronounced "Weems") Bay (or before if you've got the train into its glorious Victorian station). The sailing only take 35 minutes and it's a beautiful trip across the Firth of Clyde. You might associate Scottish island life with crofts and sleepy villages but even from the boat Rothesay's solid Victorian villas and sandstone tenements give a hint of its bustling past.

When you get off the ferry take a right and the Grade 'A' listed Winter Gardens, now the Isle of Bute Discovery Centre will help you find your bearings. The gardens outside are beautifully kept - immaculately clipped and colourful. You can have a game of putting or make a wish in the Wishing Fountain, gifted to the town in 1961. And if you walk along the prom you can enjoy the view over to the Cowal Peninsula. One thing that's so special about Rothesay, and indeed the whole of Bute, is that here a sea view doesn't mean just sea, it means layers and layers of hills and mountains from neighbouring islands and mainland. I'm not always sure what I'm looking at but I know I like it.

Continue past the Winter Gardens to Rothesay Pavilion, one of the finest examples of Art Deco architecture in Scotland described at the time of its opening as 'uncompromisingly Moderne and stylish, [it] captures something of the boldness of Mendlesohn and Chermayeff’s only just completed Bexhill Pavilion’. Now used for concerts and discos the Pavilion also has a cafe which is open during the summer.

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Posted by Anne on June 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

High above the industry of Yorkshire’s Aire Valley is Shipley Glen, a long shoulder of heathland below Baildon Moor, studded with boulders left there by the ice age. The Glen has been visited for generations, and was a very popular destination for the Whitsuntide Walks of the late 1800s and the first half of 20th century. Mill workers from Shipley, Bingley, Saltaire and Keighley would enjoy the open air in their hundreds. Local farms often converted a barn to a makeshift tearoom – some of these barns still have a faded TEAS still visible on their walls or roofs.

Many of these visitors would walk up the wooded hill from Saltaire, and In 1895 a local entrepreneur built the Shipley Glen Tramway to help get them up the slope. it’s been delighting the residents of West Yorkshire ever since. This cable-hauled funicular railway trundles the quarter mile from Saltaire Park at the bottom to the Glen at the top. At each end is a miniature station with a tiny ticket office run by an affable volunteer. Pass though the barrier and find a seat on the carriage – you may have to flip the back of the seat over to face the right way. When ready, a klaxon will sound, there will be a slight jerk and you’ll start your journey through the woods, clunking along through a tunnel of green at about the speed of a trotting horse. At exactly half way, the carriage from the other end will zip past in a flurry of bunting and waving arms.

Until a couple of years ago, the Tramway was part of a tiny theme park which included Britain’s oldest fairground ride, the Aerial Glide, built around 1900. Sadly, despite a campaign to save it, all that remains of the ‘Pleasure Grounds’ is a charming semi-decrepit (but happily functioning) dodgems – complete with marvellously unrestored cars – near the gate to the Tramway’s ‘top’ station. Next to the dodgems is a pleasing little souvenir shop selling ice-creams and sweeties. Further up the wonderfully named Prod Lane is a tea room and pub, and then the Glen itself – still a great place to explore, walk and relax.

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Posted by Gareth on June 21, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (5)

Crosby beach has some strange visitors - 100 figures by Angel of the North creator Antony Gormley. Based on a cast of the artist's body, the sculptures are made out of cast iron and stand staring at the horizon. On a busy beach at first they are hard to spot, arranged over 3 kilometres of shore, stretching almost 1 km out to sea. We could only see 10 or 15 at the most and only 3 were fully visible from head to toe. The rest were partially submerged with some only head and shoulders above the water, not waving but drowning.

Up close the figures have been worn by the elements, giving them a wonderful texture. Each one has a tag on its wrist with a number. Despite the fact that each figure is 650 kilos of high-grade British art they seem pretty approachable and local residents have obviously adopted them as their own. The one that we could get to most easily was surrounded by children and as photos from the Another Place Flickr pool show they are sometimes adorned with sunhats, motorbike helmets and even a Santa outfit. They're also a handy place to leave your flip-flops if you're heading in for a paddle (but please, no swimming on this beach - it's too dangerous).

We saw it on a beautiful sunny late afternoon but I can imagine that other viewings will offer up different things depending on the weather and the tide. The figures looked beautiful against a blue sky but they look like they would rise to the challenge of a cold, rainy winter's day. It’s a truly beautiful, unique spectacle, in harmony with its surroundings - simple and elegant. And you can take from it as much or as little as you want. Amid the bustle of the beach, the solidity and stolidity of these figures gave me an enormous sense of peace.

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Posted by Anne on June 18, 2006 | Permalink

Scotland’s Secret Bunker is near St. Andrews, Fife and it’s exactly the place to visit if Scotland’s weather turns momentarily inclement. You laugh at the irony of all the large signs pointing at Scotland’s Secret Bunker, you park at an unprepossessing farmhouse, near a slightly miscellaneous collection of military vehicles, you pay your fee, pass the barrier and a long, sloping tunnel leads you down into the cheap, paranoid world of the 70s.

Built in the 1950s as a safe place for government bigwigs from Edinburgh to hold Cold War pow-wows, the bunker is 40m underground. The air is purified to weed out radioactivity, gas and biological warfare and can be refrigerated/heated, ozonated/deozonated, humidified and de-humidified - whatever that means. There are so called "hot beds" in the 6 dormitories, more luxurious accomodation for the ministers, an RAF control room, and the piece-de-resistance, a telephone switchboard with 2,800 outside lines enclosed in a "Faraday cage" which is built to withstand an atomic blast. And if the red telephone should ring, there's a BBC Sound Studio for broadcasting the news of a nuclear strike to lesser-protected mortals in the outside world.

All in all, it’s an intriguing place which you expect to feel like a museum but which actually brings out a few thoughts and fears you might not have wanted to have on holiday. The slight half-heartedness of the dressed-up dummies manning the consoles and computers seems to suit the collection of shabby technology which must, once, have been state of the art, and which we presumably relied on. Part of you can’t imagine the idea that a bureaucracy would hide down here while the rest of us fried, but the bureaucracy itself seems oddly quaint; the Minister of State has generously appointed quarters, the scientific advisors have white coats and pipes, the typing’s all done by female secretaries, the café has nice checked tablecloths. One tends to think of nuclear war has something big, dramatic and American, either Dr Strangelove or some sc-fi fantasy; but this place evokes the apocalypse as administered by Reggie Perrin.

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Posted by Russell on June 16, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Reading Terminal Market is the hotspot for local and tourist foodies alike. Eighty vendors of every kind of edible goodie imaginable is housed at 12th & Arch Streets, adjacent to Chinatown and downtown corporate Philly in Center City.

Reading Terminal is 114 years old and is a Philly institution for locals and a must-see stop for tourists. Pick up produce from Iovine’s, local honeys and beeswax candles, fresh eggs, Pennsylvania wine (ok, not the wine…trust me.). The freshest meat, chicken and fish are available at excellent prices. Or if you’re in the mood for a quick lunch, check out any of the twenty-plus take out joints. Your food wish can come true at Reading Terminal, from Thai, Chinese, Mexican, Italian, and of course Cheesesteak.

The Philly Cheesesteak is an absolute necessity when visiting Philly. Locals have their favorites, but personally, I have to say that Rick’s Cheesesteaks in the Market has the absolute tastiest cheesesteak on the planet. And the bread is fluffy, but has some tooth. But you’ve got to have it “Wit Wiz”, that is with Cheez Wiz, a salty, orange, fake cheese concoction that is simply divine. Bon Appetit!

One of the big draws of Reading Terminal is the Amish vendors. These old school Christians of German descent who still wear turn-of-the-19th century garb (Seen Witness?) can make you one mean hot pretzel, smothered in butter of course. Butter that’s as close to the cow as you can pretty much get these days. If you want to check them out, however, you need to come to the Market Wednesday through Saturday.

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Posted by Rebecca on June 14, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (5)

We are off on a research trip, or holiday as it's commonly known, so there will be nothing to see here for a week or so.

We are always looking for new destinations. The weather is picking up so get out there and send us your stories.

Posted by Anne on June 02, 2006 | Permalink