Falconry lessons in Gloucestershire, England

Handle birds of prey
There is no CV that can’t be substantially beefed up with the addition of falconry in the skills section, and any sane employer has got to be impressed with a candidate that turns up with a tamed hawk on his or her arm. No?
Irrespective of how useful it is, the National Birds of Prey Centre’s five day course is certainly something different. Based in Gloucestershire, England the course trains participants how to handle, care for and hunt with winged predators, including owls and eagles.

More information: The course costs £450 per person and by the end, you should know how to train a bird from scratch.

The Bognor International Birdman Contest - Bognor Regis, England

Men (and women) were not born to fly, and should any further evidence of this be needed, then the annual Bognor International Birdman competition in Sussex, England is ample proof.
Held on the first weekend of September every year, this is a contest between eccentrics, fancy dress enthusiasts and wannabe aviation pioneers to see who can fly the furthest after running off Bognor's pier.
Some take it rather seriously, spending a small fortune adapting their hang-gliders into fancy flying machines. Alas, these noble inventors rarely get much further than the comedy entrants dressed as fairies, pirates, library books and cowering donkeys.
Any competitor that manages to fly 100m off the pier under their own power wins a GBP25,000 prize.
However, the contest has been going since 1971, and no-one has yet managed to conquer that distance.
So, while there is a vague element of serious competition, the whole event is largely about giving the general public a chance to watch a lot of people in silly costumes making an exhibition of themselves.
And getting very wet.

Getting to Bognor Regis, England

Nearest international airport: London Gatwick is the closest, although Bournemouth and London Heathrow are fairly accessible from Bognor Regis.

Using public transport: Bognor Regis is in Sussex, on the the south coast of England. The nearest major city is Brighton, from which there are regular buses and trains. However, there are also regular trains from Central London and Clapham Junction station, from where the journey should take just over an hour.

More details: Bognor Internationial Birdman Official Site

Great Gorilla Run in London, England

There’s nothing better to send traffic veering into bollards than the sight of a thousand gorillas rampaging through the streets of London, brandishing bananas as weapons.
Ostensibly run to raise funding for the protection of gorillas in Africa, most of the Great Gorilla Run’s participants are clearly there for the chance to get dressed up in a ridiculous costume and monkey about for the cameras.
The costumes don’t stop at the gorilla outfit either – most taking on the 7km run adapt their outfit to add an extra dimension; hence the gladiator gorillas, Baywatch gorillas and ballet dancing gorillas pouring over Tower Bridge. The Great Gorilla Run takes place in September each year.
Check the official site for more information.

Getting there to the Great Gorilla Run in London, England

Nearest international airport: The event takes place in the City of London, so London Heathrow and London City are nearest airports, although London Luton, London Gatwick and London Stansted aren’t far away.

Using public transport: The event takes place in the City of London, so London Heathrow and London City are nearest airports, although London Luton, London Gatwick and London Stansted aren’t far away.

More details: Great Gorilla Run Official Site

Beatles tour in Liverpool, England

Few cities play on their musical heritage as much as Liverpool does, but it has good reason to boast. Amongst many other bands ancient and modern, Liverpool was the birthplace of The Beatles, and there are plenty of sights linked to the Fab Four within the city.
Many of these are covered by the Magical Mystery Tour, which visits the houses that John, Paul, George and Ringo grew up in, as well as famous landmarks from their songs. It stops outside the most famous Salvation Army prayer centre in the world – Strawberry Field was formerly a children’s home near John’s childhood home - as well as Penny Lane.
It also visits St Peter’s Church, which hosted the festival where John and Paul met for the first time. Eleanor Rigby’s tombstone can be found in the graveyard.
The tour finishes off at the Cavern Club in Mathew Street. This is a reconstruction on the site of the original venue, but with its basement archways and cramped stage it’s brilliantly atmospheric. It’s not difficult to imagine what it would be like in the early 1960s when the Beatles played one of their 275 gigs.
Spare a thought, though, for the poor souls that live next to the childhood houses of the Fab Four. They must get sick of the visitors prowling around with cameras.

Getting to Liverpool, England

Nearest international airport: Many budget airline and domestic UK flights go Liverpool John Lennon airport, but from further afield, the most convenient major airport is just over an hour away in Manchester.

More information: The Magical Mystery Tour leaves daily from the Albert Dock.

Dog Collar Museum in Leeds Castle, Kent, England

Within the walls of one of England’s most popular tourist attractions – Leeds Castle in Kent this collection of canine neckwear is proudly billed as the only one of its kind in Great Britain.
It’s difficult to imagine there being a frantic clamour to create some serious competition on this score, but it’s an undeniably impressive collection. If you’re into that sort of thing.
There are over 100 intricately engraved and sculpted dog collars in the museum, be they for hunting hounds or domestic pooches. All seem specifically designed to make that scraggy bit of leather around Fido’s neck look tatty and common.
Rumours that the only visitors are vicars and fetish club owners are consistently denied, although it is difficult to see what sort of travellers such an odd museum is trying to attract.
Entry to the Dog Collar Museum is included in the entrance fee to Leeds Castle.

More information: Leeds Castle

Teddy Bear Museum in Wimbledon, London, England

Quite why the bear has gained this soft image is inexplicable. Try cuddling up to one in the wild, and it’s one big clawfest. Blood, tattered clothes, internal haemorrhaging and probably being consumed alive await if you try and take a grizzly to bed with you.
Still, the less damaging versions have been regarded as the perfect bedside companions for decades, and many have been saved from a lonely fate in adult attics by England’s Teddy Bear Museum.
Originally in Stratford-upon-Avon, the museum moved its 700-strong collection to the Polka Theatre on Wimbledon Broadway, London in 2007. They missed a trick – they could have taken Paddington back to his rightful home.
Nevertheless, it’s a fascinating collection, dating back centuries. And the old tatty fellas have considerably more charm then the bright pink concoctions with movable parts that children choke on today.

Getting to the Teddy Bear Museum
Nearest International Airport: London Heathrow.
Using public transport: On the London Underground, take the District Line to Wimbledon, or use the Overground service to the same station. Turn left as you get out of the station and walk for about ten minutes to the Polka Theatre.

More information: Teddy Bear Museum website

Pencil Museum in Cumbria, England

The Lake District in Cumbria, Northern England is one of the most beautiful places on earth, perfect for walking through marvellous scenery.
But if it’s raining – and it drizzles/ hammers down almost permanently in the Lake District - indoor attractions are needed. Cleverly, the Cumberland Pencil Museum in Keswick has exploited this gap in the market, pitching itself to frustrated walkers and utter dullards.
Billing itself as the “Perfect All-Weather Attraction”, the museum celebrates 350 years of pencil-making in the area. It include a reconstruction of the mine where the graphite for the pencils is dug out, as well as packaging from yesteryear and the true highlight – the longest coloured pencil in the world.
It’s yellow, by the way.
Alas, its future is not looking too promising. Derwent, the pencil-making company that runs the museum as an add-on, has moved elsewhere in Cumbria to Lillyhall. It’s not known whether it will continue to be viable to have a pencil museum in Keswick. If, of course, it was ever viable in the first place.

Getting to Keswick
Nearest international airport: Liverpool John Lennon, Manchester, Newcastle, Durham Tees-Valley and Glasgow Prestwick are all within a couple of hours’ drive.
Using public transport: Get to Penrith or Workington by train, then take the X4 or X5 bus to Keswick.

More information: Cumberland Pencil Museum

Hard Day’s Night Hotel review – Beatles themed hotel in Liverpool, England

The Hard Day’s Night Hotel is a new luxury hotel in Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It opened in 2008 as part of the city’s European Capital of Culture celebrations.

A dirty weekend with Ringo Starr?
“I’ve brought a scarf,” said The Good Lady, clearly pleased with her innovative solution to what had become a distressing potential problem.
“Why?”
“Just in case it’s Ringo,” she responded, with an air of conspiratorial wisdom. “The others I can cope with, but I’m not doing anything with Ringo looking down on me.”
Similar thoughts had gone through my mind, although a blindfold for Ringo was probably a little excessive. We were going for a dirty weekend in the world’s first Beatles-themed hotel, and weren’t really sure what to expect. The Hard Day’s Night Hotel has only just opened in Liverpool, and all we had to go on were a few rumours.

Beatles theme
Just how Beatles-themed would it be? The odd signed album cover in the lobby, or full-on regalia in each room? I was plagued by the image of looking up mid-flow to see Paul McCartney grinning, with his thumbs aloft. That sort of thing could scar for life.
And there were other hideous thoughts too. What if the TV suddenly burst to life with “A Little Help From My Friends” the moment that a few saucy extras were pulled out of the suitcase? Would there be Sgt Pepper dressing gowns? Or John and Yoko dolls in the bed on arrival?

Grade II listed building
Mercifully, it appears as though the taste police have largely held sway throughout the whole operation. The Hard Day’s Night is in a Grade II-listed building with marble columns and staircases, and gives off the air of a grand old hotel that has been given a modern twist.
The Beatles-theme is relatively prominent but unobtrusive. It’s feasible that the perpetually unobservant simply wouldn’t notice if they didn’t know in advance.

Statues of the Fab Four
The classic example of this is on the outside. There are four statues (no prizes for guessing who) adorning the building’s imposing facade, but they seem like they’re supposed to be there. A passing glance, and you probably wouldn’t twig it was the Fab Four, despite the guitars they’re holding.
Inside, it’s in the same vein. The staircase is lined by a stream of limited edition photos taken throughout the Beatles’ career, but that’s probably the most in-your-face aspect.

Modern-looking lobby
A modern look is in place for the lobby – a circumspect reception desk and some bold, stylish furniture. The rounded orange chairs would ordinarily not fit well in a building like this, but as everything from the lift to the rooms has been moulded to the contours of the building, everything looks just natural enough to pull off some of the odder quirks.
Throughout the lobby are cabinets containing memorabilia, such as the musical score for Yesterday, and there’s the odd totally incongruous artefact placed for a bit of fun. That’ll be the Yellow Submarine Jukebox then.

Blake’s restaurant in Liverpool
The restaurant – Blake’s - has a sleek modern-classic look to it, with the occasional maverick touch, such as the massive lights with seemingly hundreds of bulbs in. It’s named after Sir Peter Blake, the designer of the Sgt Pepper Album cover, and there’s a hanging wall of his photographs. All of them feature people who were on the world’s most famous record sleeve, and again it’s surprising that they seem to slip into the background.
The bar is a little more heart on sleeve, but the big splashy-paint pictures of the boys are pretty cool, and work nicely amongst the wavy chocolate carpet and settees melded into the wood panelling.

Expensive cocktails
However, it does strike the hotel’s first bum note. It’s trying to appear a lot classier than it is – there’s a £750 (AU$1,635) cocktail on the menu, and even the normal ones cost £8.95 (AU$19.50). That could work if they didn’t have tacky names like Honey Can’t Buy Me Love, Strawberry Fields With Pepper and Yellow Matter Custard. The latter isn’t even yellow.
Bar Four leans a little bit towards what a footballer’s wife would regard as classy. And, sad to say it, it’s impossible to get delusions of grandeur when the cocktail waitresses have broad Scouse accents.

What are the rooms like?
But let’s face it, no-one goes for a dirty weekend to spend their time looking at furnishings downstairs. It’s the rooms that count, and that’s where the true horrors potentially await.
We opened the door nervously, half expecting a movement sensor-triggered blast of “All You Need Is Love” as we crossed the threshold.

Facilities including wireless internet
Such fears were – unfortunately, for those of a more childish disposition - unfounded. The rooms are rather stylish, and mercifully subdued. All the mod cons are there – wireless internet, flat screen TV built into the wall, rain showers and heated towel rails in the bathroom – as well as a few neat extras. You can’t go wrong with a free fruit bowl, complimentary chocs and some posh biscuits near the coffee-making facilities.

Temperature control
There’s a computerised panel by the bed for light dimming/ turning off and temperature control. However, unless you’re made entirely of ice, you’ll probably need to open a window. Who in their right mind thinks that 22 to 28 degrees is a reasonable range of temperatures to sleep in? They may as well park a radiator under the bed.
In fact, we could only find two Beatles-themed touches. The first was on the bathtub’s showerhead – it’s shaped like a microphone, which is unquestionably dead cool.

Picture over the bed
The second, of course, was the picture over the bed.
“Praise George Harrison’s Sweet Lord... it’s not Ringo.”
It was Paul, but mercifully not the Frog’s Chorus and Mull Of Kintyre wacky thumbs version. A young, beardy incarnation, wearing something of the granddad cardigan, his gaze is averted from the bed. Good job there’s an alternative use for scarves...

Getting to the Hard Day’s Night Hotel in Liverpool, Merseyside, England
The Hard Day’s Night Hotel (Central Buildings, North John Street) is just around the corner from the famous Cavern Club in central Liverpool. It’s within easy walking distance of Liverpool Lime Street Station.

More information: Hard Day’s Night Hotel website

The Plymouth- Banjul Challenge – from England to the Gambia

Not got the money for the Paris to Dakar Rally? Well why not try the low budget alternative race between Plymouth in England and Banjul in the Gambia?

An alternative to the Paris to Dakar Rally
A novel take on the more established (and infinitely better-funded) Paris to Dakar Rally, the Plymouth - Banjul is about willpower overcoming rusty engineering. And the fact that it doesn’t even go to Dakar is irrelevant, despite also calling itself the Plymouth to Dakar rally in order to get attention.

Banger run through the Sahara Desert
The idea is that the route has to be covered, completely unsupported by back-up crews and the like, in a vehicle that costs under £100. Essentially is a great banger run over two continents, risking all manner of trauma in the harsh, isolated conditions of the Sahara Desert.
Just to make things a little more interesting, the organisers have no specialised arrangements with the governments of the countries that are raced through (unlike the Paris – Dakar).

Travelling as a tourist, not a sportsman
Everyone travels as a tourist, having to detail with little problems like Senegal not letting in cars older than five years old (unless customs officers escort them all the way to the Gambian border) and a Gambian ban on right-hand drive vehicles.
The challenge is almost as much about keeping sane with bribe-hungry officials as keeping sand out of the engine.

More details: Plymouth to Banjul Rally

Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, England

In the courtroom
The door of the dock is closed and the judge stares with a piercing gaze. He seems remarkably young for the job, but there isn’t really time to concentrate on this, as the prosecution lawyer is already launching into me.
In his eyes, I am scum, the lowest of the low, and there is a dreadful sense that this is a show trial. I’m going down, no matter how good my defence is.
For the purposes of this reconstruction, I am George Beck, a bit of a trouble-maker who has finally been collared for burning down a silk mill.

Freedom fighter in a kangaroo court
I’d like to think of myself as a bit of a freedom fighter, a martyr to the cause of getting the vote for the poor and disenfranchised, but this kangaroo court in front of me doesn’t seem to agree.
A public execution on the courthouse steps awaits, as I’m led down the stairs to the cells.

Mock trial in Nottingham, England
This mock trial is all part of the tourist experience at the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, England.
We’re greeted by an actor in his full Victorian lawyer’s garb, then taken through the history of the courtroom by throwing us all straight into it.
Everyone’s a witness, defendant, officer or member of the press, and we play out a miniature version of Beck’s excuse for a trial.
Beck was just one in a long line of rabble-rousers that has shaped this city’s attitude over the years.

The Reform Act of 1832
His particular bugbear was the House of Lords refusing to pass the Reform Act in 1832, which would have made Britain’s laughable excuse for a democracy of the time a whole lot fairer.
The gentry, of course, didn’t particularly like the idea of giving those ghastly middle classes a say in how the country was run, and blocked it.
Understandably, the bulk of the population wasn’t happy about this and started rioting.
Nottingham took a particularly nasty hit in the melee, with various buildings being set upon by the mob, and the city’s castle being burnt down.
Beck was thought to be behind that torching too.

Prisoners’ quarters
Following the trial in the old courtroom, we get a look at the conditions in the prisoners’ quarters.
We’re greeted by the gaoler, another actor in character. He makes no secret of the fact that if we want decent treatment, we’re going to have to continually grease his palms.
He walks us past all manner of nasty instruments of torture. There are stocks, in which people were put all day, having things thrown at them. There are whips, used to flay backs raw. There are scold’s bridles, which literally hold the tongue, and prevent speech.

The horror of the cells
That’s bad, but then comes the room. Three people share it, and there is room for nothing but the three hammocks.
The prisoners would be expected to live, sleep and eat in this room, and all waste products would stay with them, ready to be cleared out with the bare hands the next morning.
The only natural light is covered by bars, ensuring that it’s unbearably stifling in summer, and intolerably icy in winter.
“And that’s the good room,” the gaoler says, as he takes us further down into the dungeons.

The pit of hell
With no bribes, it seems, you get consigned to hell. It’s a pit, with no light, in which 30-odd men are expected to sleep in a cramped circle, elbow to elbow.
Disease-ridden, sleeping in their own filth, these men had no life at all. True, some of them may have been murderers, but we’re all given a convict number so that we can check what we’ve been sent to this hideous place for.
I stole some linen, and that’s enough to consign me to this fate.

Getting to the Galleries of Justice in Nottingham, England

Nearest International Airport: East Midlands International Airport is the closest, but Birmingham International Airport is a better bet for intercontinental flights.

Using public transport: The Galleries of Justice are on High Pavement, within easy walking distance of both Nottingham train station and the Broadmarsh bus station.

More information: Galleries of Justice

Peak District Cave Boat - Speedwell Cavern in Castleton, England

Castleton, a pretty little village in the heart of Europe’s most visited National Park, isn’t exactly short on caves. The whole landscape of this part of the Peak District is dotted with underground caverns.
Of these, the Blue John and Treak Cliff Caverns are well worth a visit, as is the amusingly-named Devil’s Arse. But for sheer novelty factor, Speedwell Cavern wins hands down.
Entrance is via over 100 rather steep steps, so it’s not suited for visitors of limited mobility. Or, for that matter, anyone who suffers from claustrophobia.
What makes the Speedwell Cavern tour unique is that once down those steps, visitors leap aboard a small boat, which then ploughs its way through a flooded mining tunnel.
There’s not much room for manoeuvre in this tunnel. Tall people need to bend over a little, while any fingers dangling over the side of the boat are liable to get crushed against the sides of the walls.
The tunnel took four years to build, and the boat chugs through, the tour guide tells horrific tales of the life of a lead miner.
They would spend eight hours a day in these dark, dingy conditions, blowing up the rock and getting all manner of poisonous dust into their lungs.
The boat goes past the tiny holes that three or four miners would cram into to escape the blasts, and it’s easy to see why life expectancy didn’t even hit 30.
The cavern at the end of the boat ride is actually something of a disappointment, but this is one instance where it’s the journey that counts.

Getting to Speedwell Cavern in Castleton

Nearest international airport: Manchester International Airport
By public transport: Castleton is on the Hope Valley train line between Manchester and Sheffield. Buses also go reasonably regularly from both cities.

More information: Speedwell Cavern

Loughborough, England – the world’s oldest package holiday destination

People have been leaving their home town to have an explore somewhere else for centuries, but the first time it was done in an organised manner was 1841, when Thomas Cook arranged the first package holiday. Yep, that’s the same Thomas Cook that the major holiday firm is named after.
Ironically, given the hard-drinking reputation of today’s packaged trips, the tourists were all temperance campaigners, going from Leicester in the English Midlands to nearby Loughborough for a rally against the perils of alcohol.
The 11 mile journey can still be done in the same way today, by steam train on the Great Central Railway.
Once in Loughborough, you’ll find an archetypal market town, the main claim to fame of which is the world’s largest bell foundry. The John Taylor Bellfoundry Museum has a small museum on site, and can arrange tours.
Loughborough’s other claim to fame is that it’s home to the largest indoor cricket centre in the world – it’s where the England and Wales Cricket Board trains cricketers in its National Cricket Academy.
And, on a less important note, it’s also the home town of the creator of Bizarre Places. And he can well understand why no-one organises package holidays there now.

Getting to Loughborough

Nearest international airport: Nottingham East Midlands airport is a short bus ride away, and a train connection is in the planning process.

Using public transport: Loughborough is well connected to London, Sheffield, Leicester and Nottingham by direct trains.

London Transport Museum in Covent Garden, England

For those masochists that just can’t get enough of the crammed commute into work, there is the opportunity to see even more Tube carriages at the newly revamped London Transport Museum.
The museum was re-opened in November 2007 after a major makeover. Perhaps they realised that a few old tube carriage decorations didn’t constitute much of a collection. And there was clearly a demand for a bizarre museum about England’s most unpleasant mode of transport, wasn’t there?
£21m was spent on beefing the museum up, and now flashy interactive stuff sits alongside the ancient trains.
London Underground geeks will be delighted to hear that there’s the chance to see the original Tube map and have a go on a train driving simulator.

Getting to the London Transport Museum

Nearest international airport: A close run thing between London Heathrow and London City, though it’s just as inconvenient getting to Covent Garden from them as it is from London Gatwick, London Luton and London Stansted. Never was a city blessed with so many airports in so many ill-thought out positions.
Using public transport: The museum is at 39 Wellington Street. The nearest tube station is Covent Garden although Leicester Square, Temple, Holborn, Charing Cross and Embankment are also within a kilometre’s walk.

More information: London Transport Museum

The British Lawnmower Museum in Southport, England

The best bizarre museums are the ones with such a narrow speciality that they cannot possibly be commercially viable. And the utterly ridiculous British Lawnmower Museum in Southport is a classic case in point.
It forms the upper floor of a lawnmower shop in this traditional British seaside town, and it’s an exercise in slavish devotion.
The carpet is green (of course), and it seems as though they have tried to cram in as many lawnmowers as is humanly possible.
As visitors go up the stairs, a tape is played, and it explains the history of lawnmowers in such microscopic detail that it borders on scary.
Amongst all the creaky old models are some racing lawnmowers. Formula One it ain’t.
But most bizarre of all are the items that have been donated by celebrities. Most of them are ‘celebrities’ in the loosest sense of the word, but comedian Joe Pasquale’s strimmer is on show, as are Fred The Weatherman (from This Morning)’s shears and Paul O’Grady’s pink-and-fluffy lawnmower.
Brian May’s donation was unfortunately in for repair when Bizarre Places visited, but the star of the collection was there. Taking up one corner is the large ride-on mower given to Prince Charles and Princess Diana as a wedding present in 1981. A framed picture of them adorns it. How sweet.

Getting to Southport, England:
Nearest international airport: Liverpool John Lennon International Airport is nearest for UK domestic flights and some European flights. However, for most international flights – certainly ones from the US and other intercontinental destinations – Manchester International Airport is the best bet.
Using public transport: There are regular trains to Southport from Liverpool Lime Street station. The journey takes less than an hour.
More information: British Lawnmower Museum