Cycling near Salisbury - not a Holland quiet way yet

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. Cycling expeditions are now so popular, so what would my 15yo think about going for a long cycle ride with her mum around Salisbury? Words by Nicola Baird.

At the garden of the Ship Inn, Burcombe, Wilts

Cycling is supposed to be safe - but it needs to feel like an adventure else it's just a slog ride from A-B, which I do a few days most weeks around London. I've been longing to go for a really long journey by bike, say London to Amsterdam or London to Paris as organised by people like Simon Izod, but reckon it might be worth trying smaller trips before we sign up to 50 miles a day.

Nell is happy to take a one day cycling trip with me to Salisbury. The plan is for me to do some family history research, cycling the Wiltshire lanes, and also to let Nell explore Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. We're kitted out in high viz which feels unnecessary on London's new super cycle highway running from Farringdon to Blackfriars Bridge. But in Salisbury on National Cycle Network 45 it's essential.

I'm not sure that Wiltshire County Council really understands cycle lanes. The one we use from Salisbury to Wilton - about 3 miles away - mostly offers flat cycling, but there is a horrible section of fast, busy road that is on the A30.

Reflecting on the Magna Carta at Salisbury Cathedral

The TIC in Salisbury provides us with a map but when I ask questions the woman there uses the road names, rather than the cycle route names, which is a bit confusing as this special cycling map doesn't mention we'll be partly on the A30. Luckily I take a left at Quidhampton when I should have taken a right.... and when I discover this mistake I speak out loud asking myself what to do. To my amazement a lady on the other side of the hedge, gardening, pops up and suggests I take a back route up a gravel track by the kennels. Perfect. It's not the quickest way to Wilton but it avoids the A30 and is a really bucolic diversion with beautiful views of undulating Wiltshire countryside.

Cycling discovery - an injured snake near Burcombe.

Another lady - this time very old - points us towards Burcombe and at last our cycle ride becomes wonderful. Of course it helps that we find a snake. SNAKE!! A snake on the road. It looks as if it is basking and both of us are a bit nervous to get closer even though it's very small and quite still. I'm guessing it is a young grass snake as this satisfyingly flat route always seems close to a river. Luckily there is a fallen ash branch by the verge so we snap off two long prongs in order to pick up the "injured" snake so it can die safely off the road. If that's not an oxymoron. The road has become a crime scene - after much discussion we decide that the snake has been pecked by a bird and dropped on to the road. Anyway by the time we move it, I think it has died.

This bit of road is quiet - the hedges are high and the cowparsley offers a lacy white verge. You can hear larks and occasionally spot yellowhammer dive into the hedges. On the other side of the hedges, in fields generally rising up and away from the valley floor, are intense fields of yellow oil seed rape. Nearer the villages the farmers have sold or rented their fields for grazing and handsome horses raise their heads as we cycle past. It's slightly like being in an Enid Blyton novel.

We've also seen a man pushing his broken door car; lots of homes named after what they used to be - the old bakery, the old schoolhouse, the haybarn, the old forge. It's a good lesson in modern geography and for us Londoners a sense of bafflement about what people actually do in the countryside when there's nowhere close for them to go and do it. Mind you Wiltshire has lots of pubs.

We take a break at the Ship Inn, Burcombe which has recently redone its riverside garden, and love it.

Barford Inn, Barford St Martin. Nice sun terrace and cosy old-fashioned interior

 At the next village, Barford St Martin the Green Dragon is now known as The Barford Inn. This pub is also very old but it's full of ye olde agricultural equipment, cleverly attached to the ceiling. I'd like to linger but Nell has had enough of pubs and fields so we speed back to Salisbury for a cycling feast of Greek wraps on sale at one of the many Food stalls in the Market Square on a May Bank Holiday Sunday.

There are 1.3million visitors to Stonehenge, but you can still feel alone with the stones.

Besides the cathedral story, Salisbury has plenty of literary links. Charles Dickens based a section of Martin Chuzzlewit here, and it's forever entwined with Thomas Hardy who has tragic Tess of the D'Urbervilles ending up at Stonehenge. Had we the stamina we could have cycled to Stonehenge along the National Cycle Network 45 but neither Nell nor I thought we'd then do justice this 3,000 year old monument (on a site with 5,000 years of history). So our adventure was one day enjoyably lonely cycling on the flat lanes of Wiltshire, and one using a tour bus to mix with one of the UK's most popular tourist sites. It was a good mix for a very short break. But my suspicion is both of us had more fun stopping than we did pedalling along. Clearly we are not naturals for a long cycle ride.

Pluses: the Salisbury - Wilton route has an easy to follow cycle map which makes it easy to see the distance you've cycled. That's about 3 miles. Nell was proud to have cycled at least 15 miles on one day.

Minuses: brave lycra cyclists may be able to cope but the rest of us need drivers to be more cautious on the roads, especially the back lanes. Diesel engines and unseasonably bad weather (ie, climate change) are doing a great deal of damage. Speeding vehicles wreck the efforts by walkers and cyclists to get out of their cars.

An eye-popping trip to Little Holland in E17

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. This post takes a quick peek at Walthamstow Village, E17 which over the past year has been transformed so much it's now known as Little Holland. Here's why...

Four cafes, a newsagent, Spanish deli, antiques shop and pub
make the heart of Walthamstow Village a nice place to linger.

Little Holland turns out to be just an enjoyable six mile cycle from my house, in what used to be traffic-blighted, rat-run ridden Walthamstow Village. 

For the past decade I haven’t been to Walthamstow much – it’s nice, but my two friends who used to live there decided to move to country towns a while back. Each time I visited them I remember thinking, this place is fab but there’s a huge amount of traffic on these cute little streets.

But that’s all changed.

The reservoirs and sewage works along Coppermill Lane, which leads
to Blackhorse Road, are a good place to spot giant birds.

Thanks to a £30 million grant the residential area around Walthamstow Village has been modal calmed – which means that cars no longer have priority. Cyclists are still allowed along the roads and pedestrians in many places have become king.  It seems so much nicer now – you can hear passers-by talking, kids are scooting around safely along what used to be pavements half-blocked by vehicles parked erratically. I remember my NCT mum friend having to wheel her buggy into the road frequently in order to get along the pavement! Now she’d love it – there’s room to walk hand-in-hand and the rat runners are just about gone.

Pollution-eating cycleway near Walthamstow tube (which also
boasts Brompton bike hire and commuter cycle storage). This pavement
allegedly locks nitrogen oxides - one of the pollutants
from car exhausts. They've had smog-eating pavements
in the Netherlands since 2013.

£30 million seems like a huge amount, but across the UK apparently only £1-2 per person is spent on cycling and walking -  even though a Parliamentary committee recommended it should be more like £10 per person.

In comparison in Holland it’s around £20 per person. No wonder more Dutch people cycle!

Islington cyclists on a tour of Walthamstow. The 12-mile round trip
can be made on a multitude of quiet routes including the edge of Walthamstow
Marshes near Coppermill Bridge.

Congratulations to Waltham Forest cyclists for achieving this. If you live in an area that could be made more like Holland, then have a look at theWaltham Forest cyclists’ website for top tips and FAQs about how to create quiet ways, village centres and improve road safety.

The first cowslip I've seen in 2016 - out in February at
the Islington Ecology Centre (the start and finish point
of Islington Cyclists ride to view Mini Holland).

The route from Islington to Walthamstow is blessedly flat (there is one hill near Springfield Park), just like Holland. And the day I did this ride the wind was blessedly behind us - may that be your experience on any long ride.

Islington Cyclists Action Group want quietways across the borough - and if they succeed, that will be another step towards making London a little more like Holland. I'm all for going Dutch if it means you can use roads more safely and hear what people are saying...

7 fun skills to learn as you travel

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. Here are seven skills to learn during your holidays - many your ancestors would know how to do, others are just fabulous fun. The bonus is you get to think Danish, French and Bulgarian along the way. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Reading Stations Eleven by Emily St John Mandel (a very good book)  in a very old tree at Norsey Woods, Essex.

1 Read in a tree
It's harder than it looks. First you need to find the perfect tree. Then you need to climb it. Then you must get comfy. Once you're comfy I find the atmosphere of tree, birdsong and green leaves immediately lulls me out of the book and into a meditative state. For instance: what was it like being Charles 1 hiding in an oak tree with the roundhead soldiers beneath you?

There are all sorts of tree adventures you can do in the UK:

• Go Ape exhilaration
• Learn how to climb a big tree using ropes in city parks. Have a look at the opportunities from the great big tree company.
• Try a zipline
• Learn tree ID. Try the Field Studies Centres (they also run art and natural history courses).
• Find out some more ideas from the people at Woodlands Adventure in Walsall.

Photo taken at 5.30am.

2 Learn to ID birds by tune & looks
The May dawn chorus is early, but if you can be in a woodland by 5am you should be rewarded with the wonderful sound of birds singing their territory. Chiff Chaffs are easy - they just shout chiff chaff. But can you distinguish between the tuneful blackbird or the melancholy robin?

Bird sanctuaries are amazing wildlife havens and often have fantastic education (and sometimes a tea room too). The RSPB bird charity has more than 100 sites around the UK, find them here.

3 Put the kettle on, then cook your own supper (a Danish skill)
Denmark is officially the world's happiest country - you can find some insights why this is in The Year of Living Danishly by Helen Russell. Obviously the Danes can block out misery with their genius for Lego, white interiors and tasty pastries, but they are also fine DIY cooks who have no problem grilling fish or boiling up a tea caddy in the great outdoors. These are not difficult skills, but for those of us who haven't honed them yet (and are not patient when it comes to making fires) they are close to impossible.

Great advice about firelighting, plus campsites that allow you to have a go from Cool Camping, here.

4 Explore another cuisine (Let's try Taiwanese)
Family cooking classes are popular - Jamie Oliver's chain runs all sorts of classes ranging from making perfect pasta to bread.

When you are on holiday you might find the place you are staying doesn't have the right equipment to make your own taglatelli, so maybe try building up your cooking repertoire while you are on a staycation in your own kitchen. I ask friends with a signature dish, like these tasty taiwanese noodles, to come over and explain how to cook it. It is flattering to the person invited to share their knowledge... and extremely tasty for the rest of us. Plus it's cheap.

5 Explore the local roads by bike (very French)
Benefits: you learn to read maps, you pare down your luggage, you notice wind direction and you enjoy having a rest.
Possible problem: but you don't have a bike, or enough bikes to fit your family...
Solution: hire a bike (check the local Tourist Information Centre for the nearest then ring up and talk to the cycle shop) or use a cycling company to pre-plan your route. There are some amazing French tours on offer billed as cycling for softies, but you can do something similar in the UK too. PIck an off road route using the national cycling organisation Sustrans' routes and their excellent book Traffic Free Cycle Rides, £15.99, which has 100+ cycle journeys.

My family don't like cycling at Tour de France speed, or burning up hills. They like easy to do rides that let them stop off to paddle at a river or visit a pub. Preferably both. They will go a bit further (15 miles, instead of 10) if I can be certain there is a tea shop open.

But if you enjoy pushing yourself then join a cycling challenge. In May you can pedal from the west to the east coast of the UK along the C2C; in June there's the 1040 mile Land's End to John O'Groats ride and in September a challenging 200mile coasts and castles ride.

The challenge rides are organised by Saddle skeddadle, which have masses of routes in the UK and Europe - a great way of having no idea where you are, but absolute certainty that you will make it home before last orders.

6 Talk to strangers (a peep into a Bulgarian forest)
Returning on the tube from a lovely Sunday walk along the River Thames a couple began to admire our dog. Our dog seemed rather enamoured by them, keenly sniffing their ankles. "We've been in the forest looking at bluebells," said the woman. Turned out that the pair are from Bulgaria and love the British woods. For starters we have bluebells and their forests don't. However Bulgarian forests do have wolves and bears, although she said she hadn't ever seen either while walking because "they don't like people". There's a move in the UK to re-introduce lynx (wild cats), if they promise to stay out of us walkers way then they're welcome.

Woods close to Roald Dahl's Museum in Great Missenden, Bucks.

7 Play in the woods

Now that so much of the country has internet coverage it's hard to escape the lure of your instagram feed. But spending time making your own entertainment is a real pleasure - the stuff of stories and family legend. A lot of my photos of time spent in the woods seem to be because we were hiding from the rain. But the one above is all about the joy of coming across a rope swing and then just spending the rest of the day in that spot often upside down.

Britain still has a lot of publicly accessible land - look for it on a map and then head to the woods for a picnic.  Some of my favourites are:

• Norsey Wood, Essex are famous for bluebells - nearest train station: Billericay, Essex
• Marked on OS maps. If you're cycling past stop to explore. If you are taking a walk pick a wood as a picnic stop.
• Woods along the Chiltern hills - you can reach these from stations like Tring, Herts and even the metropolitan tube line.

Over to you
What do you enjoy doing on your holidays?

Cakes and bikes : these are a few of my favourite things (Herts via Austria)

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. We do this in a bid to be less polluting and tackle climate change while at the same time keeping a global outlook. So when I discovered the weather would be cycling-friendly for the Easter weekend instead of driving to Hertfordshire the family took the train and our bikes, and along the way channelled the Austrian family in The Sound of Music who lived close to Salzburg. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

Pete and Lola fully kitted up for country lane cycling.

Not long ago politician Ed Balls said he'd gone on a Sound of Music cycle trip around Salzburg in Austria. Most of the interview was about politics, but this sounded like a fun family activity - regardless of age. Yes a bit schmultzy, but it would be an effortless way to get to know some of the musical/film's famous sights. Plus it's fun to sing when you cycle! Inspired I thought about going to Salzburg, and we may, but before we leave the country I figured I could organise a family cycle adventure that passed "a few of my favourite things" close to where I grew up around the green, gently undulating agricultural landscape of east Hertfordshire.

Besides, all of us wanted to go to Hertfordshire to stay with my brother/aunt/the cousins. Not everyone was so keen on the long cycling option so in the end Nell, 14, cycled there, and Lola, 16, cycled back. I'm sure Maria would have agreed to the compromise.

London is chock full of cafes, most selling two or three gluten options. Not so Hertfordshire! At Hopleys Cafe in the High Street of the gorgeous village of Much Hadham the cakes were heartily old-fashioned sizes and filled with flour and sugar. Perfect for cyclists - and there is the Bull Inn next door.

After six or so miles on the bikes we were happy to treat ourselves at Hopleys Cafe and garden centre in Much Hadham High Street. Opposite Hopleys is the house poet Walter de la Mare rented. Further up the high street is a museum where the blacksmith Mr Page lived and worked. He used to shoe my pony, but I remember him talking about the time he had shod horses heading to Channel ports and on to World War One.

Much Hadham is a really special village - it's full of grand houses, including a palace once used by the Bishops of London. Unfortunately when they decamped here in 1665 they also brought the black plague which killed many locals. On our cycle ride we went through the bluebell woods which I was told from childhood had been used for plague pits.

Not everything in and around idyllic Much Hadham is grand. On the road to the Henry Moore sculpture garden you might find the junk shop at Green Tye open. Defintely worth looking in here for treasure to wrap as brown paper parcels.

Much Hadham is still a commuter village, though how the residents must regret Beeching closing the train line back in the 1950s as they struggle to get a parking spot at suitable stations - Ware, Sawbridgeworth, Bishop's Stortford.

The weekend turned into a bit of a work camp for the adults, while the kids spent most of it on the trampoline. My brother left a list of instructions (I pegged it to the cherry tree) so that when he returned to work I could stay outside.

As a child I day dreamed I'd run a family business of field cleaner-uppers - I'm not sure such a job ever existed - picking up horse poo; pulling ragwort, docks and nettles; raking and turning hay; mending fences... It is not very aspirational, but funny to have ended up with my day dream granted now I have my own family. Not surprisingly it was only me who really enjoyed the graft, and that was partly because it meant I went to bed and slept soundly.

Nell and Pete on top of the pill box built during World War Two when this part of flat Hertfordshire, just west of Bishop's Stortford, was used as a military runway.

If you try and do a similar bike journey with your family, remember when buying train tickets that if your children (or friends) are under and over 16 that the tickets and discount cards are different. I managed to muddle this up, but was lucky to meet an extremely sympathetic Abellio ticket seller at Bishop's Stortford - "we're not all bad you know" who wrote a personal note for the inspectors at Liverpool Street which allowed our group of three to pass through on the tickets I had already purchased.

Anyone can use the cycle pump and cycle tools at this bike spa outside Euston station.

As we cycled along our last homestretch, through London streets - panniers stuffed with chocolate easter eggs - I heard Lola humming away and could see that Pete was really looking at the architecture (possibly thinking Salzburg??). Cycling is like that - it's an easy way to transport body and heart (assuming the bikes don't break) and as you get into the cycling rhythm you have the pleasure of starting to notice the world around you a bit more. I want to do this sort of trip again, but will have to be sure I'm selling it as an adventure, as my teens and husband are very suspicious of route marches, even when they come with pub and cake stops.

Our route: 
Stage 1: Sawbridgeworth station - Much Hadham (via Allan's Green, Green Tye)
Stage 2: Much Hadham - Bishop's Stortford station (via Little Hadham, Bury Green)
Tip: take an OS map - these back roads are not always clearly signposted, in a couple of places near Allan's Green the sign was facing in the wrong direction.

Much Hadham Forge Museum
Hopleys Cafe, Much Hadham
The Junk Shop, Green Tye, Much Hadham, Hertfordshire SG10 6JP.. Check times: 01279 842322
The Bull, Much Hadham
Henry Moore, Perry Green From 1 May -25 October, wednesdays to Sundays, 11am-5pm.

Over to you
Where do you recommend cycling? How do you get the bikes there? What essential kit do you take?

Keeping it clean with tweed and soap

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. On a short Saturday city stroll we met anachronistic cyclists, a Korean soap sculpture and a Madagascan rafia hat collector. Words from Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about my books and blogs).

At the weekend Nell, 12, and I went for a wander around London - bits we didn't know to cheer up some rather dull chores. Living in London it's easy to find new places to discover but we lucked out when 500 tweedy looking folk, some on Penny Farthing bikes, came to a halt beside us before commencing a parade around London.

Turns out they were on the Tweed Run - a celebration of well-attired gentlemen and ladies who raise a lot for charity. It looked a lot of fun wearing what is conventionally traditional clothing (and very beautiful) on a bike - a sartorially startling contrast to the luminous lycra most London cyclists wear.

This sculpture is made from soap by a Korean artist.

Bubbles
In Cavendish Square behind department store John Lewis there is a statue of the Butcher of Cumberland. It looks like marble, but on close inspection we discovered it is made from 2.7 tonnes of Honey I Washed The Kids soap. The idea is that it crumbles away releasing a Lush-like smell. It's made by Korean sculptor Meekyoung Shin, see a short video here. Disappointingly we couldn't smell anything, maybe it needs more sun and less rain.

Later that day we went to tea with a woman who has collected hats from all over Madagascar. There were baby hats, dating hats, keeping the sun off hats and purse hats - all whipped up with dried materials. Her hats were the real McCoy, collected 30 years ago, but on the web I found the Madagascan Hat Company, a Fair Trade outfit that makes amazing raffia hats using traditional skills but with a twist that makes them more suitable for modern, tourist heads, see here.

Not bad for a short day's city stroll!

Cold, need Canadian gloves

This blog is about family travel around the world without leaving the UK. Impossible? No. This February old snap leads to questions about how people cope in really cold countries.  This post is by Nicola Baird (see www.nicolabaird.com for more info about books and blogs). Pic is of my daughter Lola checking the post box hasn't frozen...  

Misery on my bike yesterday as both hands appeared to freeze during my 50 minute journey from Elephant and Castle back home. I wondered how cold it had to be to get frost bite. But I was wearing gloves - it's just that they are an old lady's pair, from a charity shop in Colchester. Moaning to fellow cyclists (forced to stop by me at red lights), all sympathised, but pointed at their cosy fingers claiming their gloves were warm as toast.

I think they meant bought in Canada or suitable for winter extremes.

"No such thing as bad weather, only bad gloves"
Although I have had toasty, ski gloves the problem is that one, then the other, always gets lost. Strangely I find it harder to ride my bike if I'm not in matching gloves (does anyone else have this problem?). So what I'd like to know is how to avoid losing wet gloves, damp hats and scarves. Do you know a system that makes it far harder to lose things? People living in cold places must have some secret - perhaps like gloves on a string I used when the kids were toddlers.

It's an east wind but shops are too hot
This particular cold snap comes with high pressure, and a very full moon so dry and bitter cold nights. You can see how the cold has leached the wet out of London's grey pavements. But on a shopping trip today (to get a warm duvet for Nell, for her birthday) Pete and I struggled to be warm enough for walking the streets, without dying of overheat in the Oxford Street shops.

Over to you
How do people manage this conundrum in really cold places like Moscow or Stockholm? Are there vast, efficiently run cloakrooms in their stores? Or do they just keep the store temperatures lower than we do in London .(In John Lewis quite a few of the staff were able to be in shirt sleeves - a habit which people often take home and might partially explain why the UK's carbon emissions rose by 3 per cent. It's the first time emissions have not been on a falling trend since 2003 (see story here). Horrible.

Big spin

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell are trying to visit as many countries as possible without increasing their carbon footprint. This entry is from Nicola

The mild spring days of February inspired us to get on our bikes to pedal around Broxbourne woods in Hertfordshire (reached via the train that seems to run from our doorstep straight to a hornbeam/oak ancient woodland). The stop is Bayford, and as an added bonus just a short cycle ride up the hill there's even a gastro pub specialising in home cooked food and real ale at the Baker Arms .

With the sun above, these lovely woods smelt of warming earth, and magic visitors to play. Nell set up a shop in one forked ash tree while I took loads of photos of buds and deer baskets (woven fences to stop the muntjac and other nibbly beasties from coppicing coppiced timber to death).

Pete wanted to time travel, so stared at the info panels hoping it would reveal how he could join the Celtic camp that's run annually deep in the woods near Brickendon. Sadly the panels didn't, but there's info here about how to join the history makers at the Celtic Harmony camp.

Walking the bounds

Pete, Nicola, Lola, 9, and Nell, 6, spent three happy months during the summer of 2007 traveling around Britain. Now we’re home but the travel bug is still there. Join us for occasional sightseeing plus tips on how to shrink your carbon footprint…

Pete and Nell were at a 7th birthday party (excitingly kids’ parties are no longer E Number fests they have transformed into a chance to provide an education boost. This one, for instance, had a science session which saw all the kids queuing up to get an electric shock!) which meant that Lola and I were able to spend a happy Sunday afternoon remembering routes around London on the pretext of finding Angostura Bitters in Fortnum and Masons, Piccadilly.

Our first stop off was the RA for a whistlestop tour of the Antiquaries in Britain show (1707-2007) and then on via St James’ church (which has solar panels) and Jermyn Street to restless Leicester Square, down past the back of the National Gallery and into Trafalgar Square where Lola bravely shimmied up a lion under Nelson’s Column. while I looked out for the 30,000 cyclists (most in red shirts) who'd taken part in the capital's biggest mass bike ride on mostly car-closed streets, the London Freewheel. There were plenty of cyclists around but though it was Sunday there was a lot of traffic in this area too, which made me glad that I hadn't forced the children out on their bikes as getting home would have been more than up hill. (And at the time I didn't even feel like a killjoy!)

We then walked up St Martin’s Lane dodged left down an alley to Charing Cross Road by the best value and tastiest eat-in falafel bar, Gaby’s, before taking the tube home.

It was exhausting – I just can’t shed my visitor mentality and find there’s just so much to see and do in London even if you're just looking for a loaf of bread, and some cocktail ingredients...