Essex vineyards tour: it's a new wine world out there

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK in order to reduce our impact on climate change. Climate change means that many more entrepreneurs are starting up vineyards in the UK. On a visit to three Essex vineyards you can match locally grown wine with seasonal treats, take a tour of the vines or simply savour the Essex scenery. Words by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Essex wine on sale at New Hall vineyard

"English wine is having a renaissance." This wonderful phrase kept coming up during a day-long whistle-stop tour of Essex which included three vineyards, one brewery and a new entrant to the flavoured gin business, Wilkins & Son, which is already world-renowned for their delicious Tiptree jam and chain of tea rooms around Essex.

Ever since I visited the EU display in Brussels about European grown wine - four years ago - I've been an EU wine convert. This means that I don't buy new world wines in a bid to avoid the considerable carbon-heavy shipping costs. Recently I've become a big fan of Borough Wines' refill bottle option. It's always from Europe and is a good economy, and green, option as my three bottles have been refilled many times rather than just being used once then recycled.

The big question
"Do you have European white wine?" is my question to every pub and restaurant I visit nowadays. But after Visit Essex invited me along to see New Hall vineyard, West Street vineyard and Dedham Vale vineyard I see that it is time to alter my pub challenge to "Do you have any English wine?". And pubs really could because the UK now has around 600 vineyards and 140 wineries.

Crouch Valley wines 

As I was born in Essex - and my husband, Pete May, has written the witty book Joy of Essex - my question should perhaps be even more focussed to "Do you stock Essex wine?", not out of a kill joy instinct, but because it's a fabulous drinking choice.

New Hall vineyard, established in Purleigh in 1969, are the perhaps the stars. At any rate they grow 12 varieties of grape, make around 100,000 bottles of wine a year of which some have been spotted in Waitrose. Manager Lucy Winward  - super lovely and knowledgable - explained that this part of the UK has an historical link to vineyards. She could even point towards New Hall vines growing in the same spot as recorded around the time of the Magna Carta. I don't think she said that deal was celebrated with a glass of New Hall Signature, but perhaps if Brexit actually ever happens (and I say this as a Remain voter) then it could be marked with a glass of Essex-grown Signature (the Signature Reserve 2014 is delicious). It's the mild climate along the River Crouch which helps New Hall vineyard's success. In fact there are now six vineyards in this part of Essex, covering more than 200 acres and turning out 200,000 bottles of Essex wine  - or should we say Crouch Valley wine - annually. Something the Loire Valley or the Beaujolais region may one day really worry about...

The bacchus grape (originally German) seems to thrive in Essex. As someone who spent a childhood of Christmases at Goldhanger, near Maldon (where the salt comes from) and really isn't far from New Hall, my memory of estuary Essex is damp Decembers. For a grape - neither frost nor snow fans - this is a huge plus. In fact for the vineyards hugging the River Crouch, Essex's long coastline makes the area an excellent wine growing site (because the sea helps regulate the temperature avoiding extremes of temperature). Add in the impact of climate change - mentioned by all the vineyard managers - which is simultaneously making wine growing in the UK easier and in the increasingly hotter US and parts of Europe harder (because it is just too hot), it is clear that English wines aren't just having a Renaissance, they're becoming the wine of choice.

I loved seeing the machine at New Hall too because this vineyard, about 7 miles outside Chelmsford, is also a winery, where wine is made. New Hall has a large acreage of vines, but local grape growers can bring over their grapes and get them added to the New Hall wines, or separately bottled. You can even support the business (community supported agriculture) by renting a row of vines for around £400 and then buying back 'your' wine when it is bottled for a peppercorn amount. I bought bottles of New Hall's Signature, Bacchus (2014 Reserve) and Chardonnay. My plan was to host some English wine tasting back home in London, but already one of my feckless teenage daughters has taken the Chardonnay (without my permission!) and drunk it without keeping tasting notes (never mind manners). Thank goodness she is not growing up on a vineyard.

West Street Vineyard has a purpose built restaurant in
a well-designed building modelled on the famous
Crossing Temple barns, which were originally owned by the
Knights Templar.

Touring the wineries
A classic wine-lovers holiday pleasure is to tour the wineries around Perth, Australia or New England, US which might involve a stop and shop of local wines, a self-guided walk around the vines and a fabulous meal. Thanks to Essex-Australian Jane Mohan's vision you can do something similar at West Street Vineyard which is just outside Coggeshall.

Coggeshall has long been a wonderful place to visit - for antiques, pretty street front, historic tythe barn and food offerings. It's famous for Ley lines, murders (back in the day) and monks. Now West Street Vineyard, bought by the Mohan's in 2009, is an obvious stop point. It's an award-winning place to eat, serving really delicious seasonal food (two courses with a glass of West Street wine are around £18 and three around £20). I'm vegetarian and was given the prettiest plate of crispy camembert with all sorts of seasonal trimmings as a delicious starter. There's nothing like eating lovely food looking out over rows of grape vines, so it was no surprise that I loved the main too, a pumpkin risotto topped by a deep-fried boiled egg (never tried something like this ever before and thought it fab, but then I had just done my first wine tasting which involved six glasses of Essex wine, followed by a white Essex wine for lunch). And then there were puddings - again beautifully arranged. It was such a foodie treat, but served in such a relaxed manner just like they do in Australia.

Wine tasting at West Street vineyard

Jane also offers wine school events (around £15 per person) which reveal her absolute passion for wine and help you find out more about how wine is made and the flavours developed. Over six tasting glasses of English wine (see pic) Jane explains how she fell in love with vineyards as a 17-year-old when she was sent by her parents to learn French in France. Back then her newly acquired love for rosé must have seemed a worry, but now she's an Essex vineyard owner - who reckons she's tried 965 of the 3000 grape varieties - it all makes sense. In fact I began to appreciate rosé myself as the strawberry and cream flavours revealed themselves as scent and then taste. Jane now has six acres of vines but to harvest she relies on West End's volunteers who are summoned via Facebook. A day's picking earns you a meal. As Jane is equally passionate about the joys of a delicious meal and a glass of something nice, eaten with friends and family, those post harvest dinners must be a real treat to join.

"The best place to buy wine is the cellar door." JANE MOHAN, WEST END VINEYARD, ESSEX

For the long-suffering - but enthusiastic - Essex wine growers raising their harvest must be incredibly stressful. As Jane from West End Vineyard, who used fires on three intense frosty April nights - eventually unsuccessfully - to try and keep her vines warm pointed out: "You are at the mercy of the vagaries of the climate. You have to be an eternal optimist or a complete nutter because wherever you are (in the world) there's always something that can wipe out the crop." Wiping out the crop has to be built into a vineyard's business plan.

Deham Vale specialises in wine, but it also has an orchard of 460 walnut trees.
Both harvests are late October - followed by a wine and walnut festival.
The smell of fresh walnuts in their shells is delicious.

If West End vineyard was like being in Australia, with its fantastic food; then Dedham Vale vineyard was a nature paradise. It seems miles off the beaten track - even in a county like Essex which is 70 per cent rural. The tasting barn overlooks a pond where kingfishers regularly hunt and every spring the lucky see an otter with her cubs. The whole vineyard is surrounded by woodland and views across the vale. Amazingly this is another Essex spot which has been growing wine since Roman times. Definitely worth asking what have the Romans ever done for us?

Piles of logs and heaps of walnuts at the entrance to Dedham Vale Vineyard.

Festivals, weddings & nature walks
Obviously there's wine tasting at Dedham Vale Vineyard too. This 40 acre, mostly wooded estate in Boxted, on the Essex-Suffolk border is stunningly beautiful. It's not far from the place where Constable painted The Haywain or equestrian artist Munnings lived in Dedham (which still has a visitable museum). Deham Vale Vineyard covers 7 acres (plus there are 10 acres of vines at Mersea) is a place to get married, go to a walnut and wine festival or simply drop in to purchase wine at the vineyard. Here I tried their Colchester Oyster, a dry white that one of the vineyard team reckons goes "really well with Thai and has proved very popular". Drunk as an aperitif it was fab too.

"Grapes do well in Essex because it has the best climate in the country. The driest town is Shoeburyness," explains Simon Ward, who is clearly not a fan of rain (though he's not keen on drought either). Of course grapes need some rain, but if there's too much they rot. At the moment Essex vineyards are obliged to follow an EU regulation that toughens up grape vines because once they are three years old, vines cannot be watered. This ruling is intended to encourage the vine root to deepen and take water from lower in the soil which has a long-term benefit.

There's so much to love about local grown food not least the fact that less carbon is needed to ship the product around the world. I also really love that it's grown by people who want to explain what they are doing and share their wine as widely as they can. As you can tell I've become a bit of a fan girl - hopefully you might be encouraged to do so too. So, here are:

10 reasons to try Essex - English - wines

1. LOCAL Instead of picking up a bottle that's been shipped 12,000 miles around the world you can get it from just down the road, less than 100 miles from London. I've spent the past four years avoiding new world wines because of their carbon footprint - as a result I'm used to drinking wine which is less sugary, less alcoholic and which you need to enjoy its mineral qualities rather than expect gooseberry popping flavours.
2. FAMILY RUN The three vineyards we visited were family businesses, all run by people passionate to make the best possible wine. Jane at West End Vineyard had sold her house to finance the business. There's nothing like drinking wine - or doing a tasting with someone whose passion is to create the best possible wine.
3. IN THE PINK If summer is made for rosé and pink fizz then Essex can provide it. And how.
4. RED ALERT It's still hard to ripen grapes to create the best English reds. Global warming will change this reckons Jane from West End vineyards. It's not something she wishes to think hard about because it signifies so many other world problems. "If we end up with Malbec in Essex - or any heavy red - then climate change is happening."
5. PARTY TIME New Hall is just about to celebrate it's 50th birthday - in 2019 - something that Rasto, the Slovakian born winemaker at the vineyard is currently trying to find the right wine combination. He's so good at making wine that he's already produced some wonderful tasting elderflower wine.
6. KNOW HOW There's no need to be a snob about English wine. English winemakers are creating some of the best wines you can buy at vineyards all around the world.
7. THE ONLY WAY TO GET ESSEX WINES ISN'T JUST IN ESSEX If you are in London then it's easy to find Essex wines, e.g. at Borough Market
8. VINE RUNS Get to know an Essex vineyard by joining the 5k or 10k Dedham Vale Vine Run along the vines and through the orchards on 2 June 2018, entry info here.
9. CLIP, PICK, DRINK Have a look at the websites and see how you can get involved. You can just drink English wine, or talk it up (like this blog). Or you could volunteer and pick the grapes during harvest time, or be part of the pruning at West End in January. Yes, you may be thinking what could possibly go wrong - but it might be an amazing way to learn more about vineyards, vines, Essex and the UK.
10. CELEBRATE English wine week 2018 is Saturday 26 May - Sunday 3 June 2018. What better excuse to get t know English wines better?

Do let me know if this piece has inspired you - either to have a try of Essex (or English) wine, or simply ask for it at your favourite wine stockist. 

• New Hall Vineyard, near Chelmsford has daily cellar tours and tastings. Plus a rather fab (free) xmas display.
• West Street Vineyard, in Coggeshall runs bookable tastings (they are really interesting) and serves delicious meals. Totally recommended. During the summer head over from Sunday-Thursday 9am-5pm, and Friday & Saturday from 9am - 11pm. From 1 October 2017 - 1 April 2018 the vineyard is closed on a Monday and Tuesday. 
• Dedham Vale Vineyard near Boxted.
• Info: Visit Essex organised the vineyards tour for bloggers.

Climate Change: HRH, scientist & fashion voices in London

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK in order to reduce our impact on climate change. So how do you get people to do something about their impact on the planet? Compare and contrast methods by HRH Prince Charles, climate scientist Dr Emily Shuckburgh and Pacific Islanders from Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

PNG style, model with London Pacific Fashion
Collective designer (r) Sarah Haoda-Todd
thinking clothes and climate change.
(c) LPFC

Give Dr Emily Shuckburgh a TV show.

That’s my verdict after hearing the British Antarctic Survey scientist, who measures trapped bubbles of carbon dioxide in million-year-old ice cores, describe the thinking behind the Ladybird Expert Book For All Ages – ClimateChange which she co-wrote with Prince Charles and former director of Friends of the Earth, Tony Juniper. The 24-page booklet, which crams in 200 words per page, was published in January this year (2017) and has become a best seller.

“We wrote the book to appeal to normal people. People think there is much less scientific agreement about climate change than there actually is,” says Emily who is an unusually plain-speaking professional climate scientist. “This is fuelled by the media and the way the BBC insists on [reporting it with for and against so climate change deniers are given airtime] and Daily Mail headlines.” 

She’s also able to make the science simple to follow. It’s not just the Ladybird book, which condenses many 3000-page reports, it’s also her ability to tell it as it is. She tells the Archway with Words audience that scientists are in agreement that the climate is changing, and that it is man-made.  She then explains that there are three major risks from the increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

1. Coral reefs are dying (she is very negative about this, “coral reefs are dead”)
2. Extreme weather
3. The collapse of the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet.

“If the Western Antarctic Ice Sheet collapsed it would be irreversible. The sea would rise by two metres and change coast lines. This would bring the sea into London and up to Cambridge. Ely might be an island again,” says Emily. She has a way of speaking that talks truth, but without hammering it home with an explosion of facts. The risk is high – there’s a 1:10 chance. To make her point she explains that “When I was pregnant a 1:20 chance was high risk medically. You could say the world is in a high risk category of disaster.”

Scientists calculate that the maximum amount of carbon dioxide our atmosphere can hold is 3,000 billion tonnes. Two-thirds of that budget has already been used.

She’s willing to speak out because she’s also a mother. “It’s precisely because I’m fully aware it’s going to impact on my children’s future [they are 2 and 4 years old]. I don’t want in 20 years time for my children to say ‘You knew! Why didn’t you do more to communicate that risk?’. It’s a sense of duty.”

Emily Shuckburgh talks climate change at the Archway Methodist Church
(c) around Britain no plane

So who’s turned up to the Archway with Words Festival to hear this talk? The wrong generation, that’s who. Most of the audience are grey headed. Admittedly it’s a Saturday talk, kicking off at 6.30pm when families with young children are busy making dinner and those 20- and 30-somethings with jobs are Whats Apping their evening out plans. My teenage daughters have also found something better to do – one has just moved into new uni halls, the other is on a sleepover to Netflix binge. 

Behavioural psychologists might draw other conclusions, as George Marshall makes clear in his book Don't Even Think About It: why our brains are wired to ignore climate change.

“It’s quite demotivating,” admits Emily adding that "Martin Luther King didn't give an 'I have a nightmare' speech. “So in the book we wanted to emphasise that it’s not necessarily doom and gloom. Responding to the climate change challenge can bring huge opportunities. A low energy lifestyle could be an improvement. It could improve air quality which is good for people’s health and it could drive new technologies, for example electric vehicles.”

I’ve worked at Friends of the Earth in the past and know that stuff. But so do we all. What I hadn’t realised is that people measure the increases in climate change from 300 million years ago because that was the time of “the greatest mass extinction ever.”

Winnie Kiap, PNG High Commissioner. (c) LPFC

Despite the warnings from Emily Shuckburgh too many of us do too little. But that’s not the case for Pacific island countries.  “For us it is a matter of life and death,” says Winnie Kiap, the Papua New Guinea High Commissioner when I met her at the first fashion show I've attended.  “We already have climate refugees in the outlying islands of Bougainville, the Carteret Islands [1.5m above sea level see here ] . In PNG we use funds for building early warning systems and infrastructure to build resilience,” said the high commissioner.

Pacific art and fashion both include hashtag climate change.

Winnie was speaking at the London Pacific Fashion Collective which used their London Fashion Week runway to highlight #ClimateChangeInThePacific . At the far end was artist Rusiate Lali’s absorbing picture, Shark Attack (metaphor!) and against this fabulous outfits by designers Pania Greenaway (New Zealand), Robert Kennedy (Fiji), Warlukurlangu artists (Australia), Sarah Haoda-Todd (Papua New Guinea/PNG) and Lucie from Samoa displayed their work.

Winnie Kiap, PNG High Commissioner introducing the
London Pacific Fashion Collective designers with
Fiji's Robert Kennedy on the left. (c) LPFC

“Was it just lavalavas (sarongs)?” asked my eldest daughter imagining a collection suitable for humidity and the beach. The answer was absolutely no. London Pacific Fashion Collective – in particular the designers from Samoa and PNG – used their love of their country to create striking designs. The repetition of PNG’s national emblem, a bird of paradise, and patterns borrowed from weaving and cultural tattoos was a winning collection from Sarah Haoda-Todd.  Given the endless criticism of fashion shows that it’s a monoculture of anorexic white beanpoles, an added bonus was that almost all the models were women of colour and several were plus size.

London Pacific Fashion show focusing on #climatechangeinthepacific
 at the Lloyd George Room, National Liberal Club.
(c) LPFC

So who was at the London Pacific Fashion Collective show? All sorts – men and women of all ages, hopefully with some purse power. In contrast to the dour, worthiness of the audience at the Ladybird books (it’s ok I’m only thinking of me) the Polynesian and Melanesian islanders have played an excellent trick. Take the people what they want – beautiful clothes – add national pride and a dose of cultural chic, and then add on the awareness raising about #climatechangeinthepacific. 

“The most important thing you can do is vote. Environmental issues are not high up the political agenda so they don’t get addressed,” says Emily. And of course we all need to inspire people to get involved in the solutions. Bludgeoning us with facts hasn’t been a game-changer. But like the Pacific island nations Britain is an island – and one that has been increasingly blighted by flood damage - and that ought to make us all pay a great deal more attention to tackling climate change.  

In Prince Charles, Tony Juniper and Emily Shuckburgh's Ladybird Book the simple wins include turning down the thermostat (or using the timer effectively), using public transport or low-energy transport more often, take less flights (just one transnational flight uses all of your annual carbon 'budget') and eating less red meat. All of these changes also save money… and go a small way towards saving the world. 

And not just your world, but people living on the coastline like so many people in Pacific nations.

The public scepticism about whether climate scientists are in agreement or not has to be resolved, fast. So perhaps the take home message should be read and share the book. Or get it ordered for your library. And yes, several people have sent a copy to President Trump, and, just as importantly, ordered a copy for sceptical friends and family.

• Ladybird Expert Book for all ages - Climate Change by HRH Prince Charles, Tony Juniper and Dr Emily Shuckburgh
• www.londonpacificfashion.com 

Fish and flowers at the seaside

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post takes a look at Whitstable, taking in quick Ozzie seaside tours of food and flora.  Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

"Britain is really an island!" said my daughters, almost in unison as we sat on the shingle at Whitstable and looked across the estuary. Living in London it doesn't feel like an island at all. But once you hit the coast - and our's is pretty long - you start to feel it.

We hardly ever go to the sea so it was fun to watch my 14 and 12 year old creep up on a tiny olive green-carapace of a Shore Crab. Even when they worked out it was dead they were frightened of picking it up in case they were nipped... clearly city kids! The dog was just as bad, lapping up the sea water in puzzlement and then rubbing his furry face into the sand in an attempt to rid himself of the saltyness.

Shingle, blue skies and beach huts. Ahh.

Seaside houses painted ice cream shades
by an upturned blue boat.

Whitstable is a Kent gem. You can reach it by train (approx 90 mins from London's Cannon Street). The beaches are mostly shingle, but in June they are covered in wild flowers - ranging from sea cabbage to my favourite garden escapee, red valerian, gorgeous. And dogs are allowed on the beach all year around.  The vistas give you plenty to think about: we imagined being back in Freemantle , Perth, Australia as we wandered over to the Whitstable Brewery so Pete could have a pint of native and we could ogle the oysters on offer.

Oyster shells waiting to be re-used
 (so don't take them home)

In fact the food all around the seaside part of town was amazing - ranging from oyster shacks to little fish stalls. Certain views give a sense of the pretty Byron Bay coastline along Sydney Harbour. But sitting at the Forge with fish and chips was lovely too. Then finish off at the Old Neptune pub with live music on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights, or park yourself on a bench outside and stare out to sea as the sun goes down.

If you've never explored our 11,000 mile (17,000 km) coastline, promise yourself a few days to have a good look (maybe check the weather first...).

Great spots for a seaside day out:

• Eyemouth, Scotland (to feed the harbour seals)
• Leigh-on-Sea, Esssex (for the food sheds)
• Whitby, Yorks (to hunt for Dracula)
• St Bees, Cumbria (to start the Coast to Coast walk)
• Margate, Kent (for art, windfarms and a sandy beach)

Where can I be happy?

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post takes a look at what it means to be happy - on holiday or at home. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Horse chestnuts in flower (look for the white candles).

"Does Japan have cherry blossom trees?" asks Nell, 12. This seems left-field but she explains that she's been playing Subway Surfer with a new background of blossom to make it seem more like Tokyo...

These days it's easy to travel without leaving your mobile.

Springtime - ideally outside away from screens - is wonderful in a country like the UK with four seasons. At least that's what the dog and I think as we walk around London (see photos). The dog enjoys sniffing and running - he's a lesson in how to be in-the-moment and happy.

But is happiness a choice? Can you feel happiness on demand, say by taking a holiday or being generous? I don't think so - although it's lovely to break routines, the pressure of keeping a family all happy (let alone a large family) for 24 hours a day for a week or more sounds terrifying. Creating a calm environment - with the opportunity to have many happy moments - is another option.

Wanting to be happy (and solvent) are two closely linked aspirations. As I meet more teenagers - my daughters' friends and the university students I teach - I do wonder about their resilience levels. It feels as if inner-toughness is being eroded at quite a speed. 

So what's happened in four years that's changed? Possibly far greater reliance on mini-screens for entertainment? Here's where I have to reel in an interview in the Guardian with 15-year-old Alice Carruthers talking about her perfect (or possibly typical) weekend, see here. In brief her main external experience appears to be from watching old episodes of Friends on YouTube. I am sure Alice has zillions of strengths but I was shocked to read her summary of typical weekend. She doesn't seem to move around, do anything for anyone else, of have many domestic tasks - other than homework. She's never asked to solve problems.

Circus ponies graze near tower blocks in spring sunshine.

"I want to get off"
Teaching riding I often find kids reach a point they can do most things (eg, steer and rise to the trot), but are quite unable to cope with a horse or pony resisting their requests. It can be frightening riding a horse but if a child - or an adult - can find the inner resilience to cope with the unpredictable, stop the tears and maybe to learn to love an animal that is as likely to stand on their foot as nicker at them over the stable door - I think they are lucky indeed. Not only will they be able to ride (a rare skill), they'll also have mined a strength of character that I am sure helps people to cope with problems.

Oh yes, and climate change...

In St James' Park on a spring evening with deck chair, book & picnic rug.

Cow parsley and hawthorn blossom-lined walk along a former railway.

For rather more cerebral insights about happiness have a look at Mattieu Ricard, a Buddhist monk, who links science and meditation with a certain amount of joy, see here. With thanks to my friend ML for passing this on (via Melbourne/Honiara and Facebook).

Over to you?
Any ideas for developing our resilience levels? Is there something that can be done at school or uni with students or is it something families need to work on?

Glastonbury god and goddesses

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post finds a way to feel like a deity - and then gets a bit mixed up with rabbits and religion (in Melbourne).  Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).   

Glastonbury's presence has been even bigger than usual thanks to the amazing Olympic opening ceremony with the green hill far away brought to London (well a removable replica). By luck our family was visiting Somerset the next day and on the hunt for a picnic lunch ended up in Morrisons supermarket under the shadow of the Glastonbury tor. It felt all wrong.

A day or so later we're back at Glastonbury, this time to look around. The market - selling clothes you just don't see anywhere else, lots of hippy stock, tie dye and crystals - was on. Every lamp post was festooned with a yellow plastic bunch of sunflowers. At the meeting room there's a Goddess Conference - this theme's colour seemed to be yellow as all Goddesses were kitted out with something of that shade (they wore blue in 2011). I wanted to find three rubber two-headed dragons, but they didn't seem to be available despite a huge number of hard magic and priestess kit shops. Want a bird's wing, a dragon cup or a wand? Easy. Vegetables were also impossible to find.

At Glastonbury Abbey - which hogs one side of the main street behind a row of crystal, green man booklets and incense selling shops - a wonderful gentleman kitted out in black Tudor garb introduces himself as Robert Pollard. Glastonbury is billed as the earliest Christian sanctuary in Britain - possibly Jesus was brought here by Joseph of Arimathea... (I think this is rather a big possibly). It's still a place people like to make pilgrimages too - for god and goddesses.

But Pollard (see photo below) has a different story. He did the dodgy dirty work for Henry VIII and his adviser Thomas Cromwell to ensure that the abbey was closed. Obviously Henry wanted the cash, not sure what Cromwell's motivations were - power I suppose - but the result was the unfortunate Glastonbury Abbot, already in his 80s, was given a traitor's death. He was hung, drawn (your guts are slipped out and dipped in boiling oil), then quartered. It made nobody look good, but also made it clear that no one was to mess with Henry VIII.

Years later the ruins were included in businessman James Austin's garden  - which still has the most lovely views. Austin is infamous for introducing rabbits to Australia (he wanted better sport). He has another legacy - his Oz property was named Avalon (another Glastonbury link as the abbey grounds also boast the legend that King Arthur's bones were found there, see pic). Avalon is now part of Melbourne.

Over to you
What's a place you've visited that's offered a terrific tour?

New Holland in Essex (without lions)

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post takes a tour of Essex taking in Holland and Australia.  Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).   

Essex: it's got spray tans, hair extensions, wicked heels, new gleaming teeth and can boast at being the county with the (arguably) longest coast line in the UK. Pete writes endlessly about Essex (expect a new book in October) so sometimes the family is caught up in his Joy of Essex research. Turns out this stop off is roughly where the non-lion of 2012 August bank holiday was hanging out... see here

If you go to that mostly North Sea coast line you can be in all sorts of worlds and enjoy:

• Wildlife - from seals to wading birds - see here
• End of the pier attractions at Southend, Walton on the Naze and Clacton
• 1950s beach fun on the greensward at Frinton
• The best fish grazing (winkles! cockles! fish and chips!) at Leigh on Sea's pubs and fish stalls
• Oil refineries at Canvey Island
• Tasty English wine at Mersea Island

Pete, Nell, the dog and I took a little trip to flat Dutch landscapes at New Holland - midway between Clacton and Frinton (reach via a train to the seaside towns and then take bus 7, 7x or 8 on to alight at the Roaring Donkey pub). Once in New Holland it's really not got a cliche Dutch feel at all. Instead the bungalows, neat gardens, low walls and big vehicles parked in most drives give a strong sense of being in olde worlde Australia, a Perth suburb like Scarborough.

If you're in Australia then you'll expect really good food. So get back on the bus and head to Frinton where the Mouse and Hat Restaurant (pic of menu sourcing board above) offers stunning deli treats. Stunning for the UK that is. It's midway down Connaught Avenue (once known as Essex's Bond Street, but now rather more like a Country Living magazine fantasy of bookshops, galleries, material stores, ice cream parlour and a friendly green grocer).

Oceania at Greenwich

Festival vibe: rug, snacks, anticipation.

Greenwich is a spider trap for tourists and day-trippers. But so well-deserved, and with the DLR taking you into Cutty Sark, where this famously fleet tea clipper (ship) has been quite beautifully repaired after the burning incident, Greenwich is a treat. Even more so on 21-22 July 2012 - the first weekend when the sun shone all day for what seems like months.

Best of all the BT River of Music has one of its six free stages, all along the River Thames here - which look set to entertain half a million people. The Americas and Europe stages were fully booked instantly; the Africa, Asia and Oceania were a bit slower to "sell" out. Nowadays even free concerts seem to involve buying a ticket - for a £3 booking fee.

Narasirato from Solomon Islands in London.

Tangio tumas
Show stealers for Lola and Nell's first festival were -of course - the bamboo pipe band from Solomon Islands. The group are from 'Are 'Are lagoon, a wonderful place in Malaita (it's where I learnt to speak Pijin, paddle a canoe, etc). It's also where Gary Barlow thought erroneously he was going to be eaten, but enough of that. The band, Narasirato, have two albums and a history of touring big music festivals (including New Zealand and Japan. The pan pipes are made from bamboo, it's all very traditional but the extra oomph comes from the Solomon Islanders' staggering energy on stage - they just keep on dancing; and the drums (also made from bamboo pipes but whacked with rubber similar to a flip-flop) seem to give it a rocky sound. If you missed this, you can see them at Womad 2012.

Get this party started
We heard George Telek from Papua New Guinea, then bands from Milne Bay, also PNG, the Marshall Islands, Guam, East Timor and the Aborigine musician Frank Yamma sedately from a picnic rug (the same place for New Zealand's Hollie Smith). It was like being in an issue of the world music magazine, Songlines. But when Narasirato picked up their pan pipes half the audience rushed to the front or got up and danced. It was marvellous, and later we had a quick chat with the band while they munched on chicken and chips.


Pete actually stayed on our picnic rug so watched -with some incredulity - his family at the front of the stage dancing along when focus-on-the-crazy-members-of-the-audience were flashed on to the big screens. In 2011 during our long stint in Solomon Islands I insisted we went to several hotel "tourist" dances in the hopes that we'd see the famous pan pipe entertainers. We never did - it was mostly Kiribati sashaying of the hips or Belonna stomping (although the latter was fab). As the proverb says, "good things come to those who wait". There's never any reason to rush off around the world, nearly always the world comes to you... so it was with BT's River of Music festival at the Oceania stage.

Pete and Nell try a Greenwich sofa.

Go see Greenwich
On the way home, we were distracted by more of the things Greenwich has to offer - a street market of delicious food (flat white coffee, vegetarian burgers brazenly named after their ingredients (carrot, greens), Scotch eggs served with a runny egg and a sprinkle of celery salt, at bearable prices, located just by the Old Royal Naval College. We then ate these on a vast atro-turf covered sofa surely designed to give you an Alice-in-Wonderland feel.


Over to you
Have you discovered free events thanks to the Olympics? Or has the Olympics tempted to you to find out about another country's cultural heritage? And have you seen a Gamesmaker yet in their bright purple jackets?

What's so special about the ExCeL venue?

Landed, SS Robin and the final view of Tate & Lyle  from the Docklands Light Railway.

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This post has a look at the area around the ExCeL centre, one of the Olympic venues - which offers a mishmash of world experience. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).    

Perhaps this title is misleading? At the weekend we stumbled on the ExCeL as a result of joining a madcap musical improvising jam set up by the team at SS Robin. SS Robin is a wonderful, old steam ship built in this area at the old Thames Ironworks (at the top of the River Lea) - and the birthplace of West Ham football club. Robin is now on a vast pontoon in Royal Victoria Dock awaiting some interesting changes to make her into an exhibition space before she is relocated a little way upstream.

Royal Victoria Dock is opposite the ExCeL Centre (a company with direct links to Abu Dhabi as in ExCeL: ADNEC). We thought we were going to hear the Grand Union Orchestra - but it turned out we were to be part of the orchestra which is famous for it's rhythms and diaspora players. At the SS Robin workshop there was Claude from South Africa who used a violent whistle to keep all the percussion players in time. He was phenomenal and managed to help both Pete and I (absolute tuneless wonders) find some kind of musical mojo through beating out a rhythm of "co-ca, co-la" and for 3:2 "we are the cham-pions". Seeing Pete perform a triangle solo was quite something! Although I was unable to laugh seeing as I'd tried to hide myself - and my bell and stick - behind a pillar in a bid to avoid such scarey attention... Other music trainers included Yusuf from Bangladesh and the very talented, friendly Lily from Bulgaria.

It's big
After the music jamboree we clambered up the stairs that take you over the Victoria Dock footbridge to the Western Gateway Dock (with the ExCeL, Ibis hotel etc). It has a remarkable view across to the Thames/Emirates cable car one way - and the good ship SS Robin the other way. Everything is on such a scale in this area - the old warehouses, the much-reduced Tate & Lyle factory with it's iconic Golden Syrup can on one side of the building, the new builds, the old cranes along the dock, even the water - that it's hard not to make a big thing look small. Or to feel like a dwarf.

Opposite - or over the footbridge - is the Excel centre where some of the Olympic Games will take place including tae kwondo (to which my family has tickets!). Beside ExCeL are restaurants that aim to cater for huge crowds - although there were only a few people around during our visit. There are two Indians, one Italian and a pub called Fox@excel. We ended up at the Fox which is strewn with TV screens and has a sports ambience to it. It's a vast brick space which is clearly going to fill up during the Olympics - the Ladies had a row of 10 loos which felt profligate given the smallish collection of Saturday night pub goers.

All change
Obviously this part of London, a dock sandwiched between Canning Town and west Silvertown - is all the old East End. But it feels so strange compared to the crampedness of up town living.

There are surprising clues to the extraordinary story of how this area has gone from marsh to dockland to bombsite, to sport and leisure venue over the centuries thanks to a life-size sculpture. In Brisbane we were much impressed by the street sculptures that brought history right into the shopping centres. The same's been done by the ExCeL at this once crazily-busy dockside. There's a bronze sculpture by Les Johnson, unveiled in 2009, called Landed with three portraits of workers - one young man, one fatter manger reading a docket slip beside a large package just unloaded from the spice (and slavery) island of Zanzibar, and the other older with a flat cap and a sack hook over his shoulder. Above them is a large hook, who knows how it stays up, but clearly representing the cranes used to unload all the cargo in what was then known as the Royal Docks. I believe there's a crate labelled Hong Kong too, but I managed to miss this... The problem with round the world travel is it's not long before your brain is over-loaded with information, and that's even when you are pacing a 500m route across a dock!

See the Grand Union Orchestra perform on 18 July 2012 at the Hackney Empire.


Over to you
Just two questions: what do you know about the Olympic venues? Do you think music or food is a better route into new cultures?