A-Z activities

A-Z countries

What's this blog all about?

Hi, I'm Nicola - welcome to a blog begun in 2012 about family travel around the world, without leaving the UK.

I love travel adventures, but to save cash and keep my family's carbon footprint lower, I dreamt up a unique stay-at-home travel experience. So far I've visited 110 countries... without leaving the UK. Join me exploring the next 86! Or have a look at the "countries" you can discover within the UK by scrolling the labels (below right). Here's to happy travel from our doorsteps.

Around 2018 I tried a new way of writing my family's and my own UK travel adventures. Britain is a brilliant place for a staycation, mini-break and day trips. It's also a fantastic place to explore so I've begun to write up reports of places that are easy to reach by public transport. And when they are not that easy to reach I'll offer some tips on how to get there.

See www.nicolabaird.com for info about the seven books I've written, a link to my other blog on thrifty, creative childcare (homemadekids.wordpress.com) or to contact me.

Thursday, 16 August 2007

A better set of ruins

Nicola, Pete, Lola and Nell want to travel the world with a difference. We hope to get a taste of many countries without adding to climate change (with needless emissions from aeroplanes) or having to waste hours of holiday time in airport terminals. We hope our adventures inspire you to take a Grand Tour of your neighbourhood whatever the weather. This post is from Nicola

We've been conned: the pamphlets say that Jervaulx is the second best preserved abbey but really it is just a few stone walls compared to the amazing remains left at Easby Abbey which all Coast to Coast walkers pad past.

We took our borrowed dogs (Daisy and Truffle) to the lovely market town of Richmond for a walk by the river and were stunned to see that Easby Abbey - once inhabited by the White Monks - still has chunks of roof and double height walls. There wasn't time to play games this time but we had fun seeking out pigeon nests using Pete's torch (carried for emergencies and shadowy bits of historic buildings).

No comments: