Around Britain Without A Plane: 2010 roundup

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.

Monday, 3 January 2011

2010 roundup

Pete, Nicola, Lola and Nell love to travel - and try to do so in low carbon ways. This post is a summary of 2010 entries.

It may be better to travel than arrive but now we're in the fourth year of this blog (it was started in 2007) it is also a lot harder to find "new" countries for us to visit simply by using our imaginations in the UK.

Worth visiting
My top trips this year were to Ethiopia - via a coffee ceremony and music in my local London park, see here. I also loved the stop-off in Chile via Darwin-themed tour in another nearby park, see here.

We also visited the super dog-friendly Cheddar Gorge, a Somerset location that rivals just about any Alpian chasm, or Romantic- (as in 19th century German art) themed picture.

Just by making simple leaps of imagination - sometimes by choices of food, or doing the research, reading noticeboards or listening to the hubbub around us - our family stayed home but felt like we were tasting someone else's culture. I reckon we managed virtual visits to more than 35 countries including Nigeria, Bangladesh, Somalia, Croatia and Albania. I love the way this can happen. It just shows that 10 years of not using a plane has enabled our family to get to know the UK far better, and the UK's links with the whole world. Definitely one travel habit worth hanging on to.

Apologies for slackness
Just for the record, one reason my entries are down on this blog during 2010 is that I started up a new one, named after my book, Homemade Kids: thrifty, creative and eco-friendly ways to raise children which saw me post more than 60 times. Travel and kids, what could be better?

8 comments:

Karin said...: Happy New Year; 6 January 2011 at 16:45
around Britain no plane said...: Karin, I have such problems with spam on this blogsite now, but thank you for your hello. Hope all is well with you and here's to many happy days in 2011. Nicola x; 17 January 2011 at 20:54
Karin said...: I've noticed, Nicola. Aren't they a pain. I am well, thanks, and thanks also for your good wishes. It's good to see you continue to work your principles into your life, even with children who must be close to their teenage years.; 22 January 2011 at 09:18
Karin said...: With regard to spam, you have some options. When you go to make a new post you will see a set of headings in the blue bar above the box you write a new post in. One of these is 'Settings'. If you click on that you will have another row of headings just below, one of which will be 'Comments'. If you click on that you will see that you can choose that comments are not published until you have moderated them, or you can choose that anyone who leaves a comment must fill in a word verification box. You can also choose to stop anonymous users from commenting, although that could stop a few genuine people.

These things might help.; 22 January 2011 at 09:28
around Britain no plane said...: @Karin, I'm going to follow your ideas up for getting rid of spam (tomorrow!), thank you so much! Do you know about the enovel I've written Coconut Wireless - you can find it on amazon.co.uk on the kindle site. Nicola; 27 January 2011 at 21:27
Karin said...: Nicola, yes, I had seen you mention the e-book. Unfortunately I don't have an e-reader/kindle and am not keen on the idea. I love the physical attributes of books. Although our library seems to think this will be the way forward. :-(

Good luck with your anti-spam measures.

Karin; 27 January 2011 at 21:34
around Britain no plane said...: @karin, well I still love real books - was reading a chapter of Middlemarch (I'm nearly at the end of my first reading) and then a chapter of the wonderful Depletion and Abundance by Sharon Astyk (sp?) - I think you might like her work - last night alternatively as I'm so hooked on each! Will be slow cleaning up the spam as there is so much, but thank you again for your concern and ideas about how to do this! nicola; 27 January 2011 at 21:45
Karin said...: Thanks for the tip, Nicola, the Sharon Astyk book looks interesting. Our library doesn't stock it, so I shall put it on my 'to buy' list.; 27 January 2011 at 21:54