So, it appears I am working my way around all the Tussauds Group of “experiences”. A couple of weeks ago it was Thorpe Park, and this time around its Alton Towers. Unlike Thorpe Park, Alton Towers is nowhere near as easy to get to. Its located in Staffordshire which is good for the theme park as there is plenty of space to expand. With a car it is maybe 3 hours drive away. Luckily for us non-car owners Virgin Trains have this package which combines transport (train then bus) and park entry. Its a pretty good deal provided you use it in non-peak times, preferably during the weekdays. This is because you basically only get just over 6 hours in the park (a strict scheduled 10.40 arrival and 17.15 departure ) so you don’t want to waste any time dealing with weekend/peak queues.

As with Thorpe Park, Alton Tower rides are rated but this time into Adrenalin Buster, All-round Fun, Absolutely Splashing and Family Friendly. I’m not going to rank the rides that we managed to get on this time around as the rides at Alton seem less varied with a larger emphasis on rides that will get your heart pumping (meaning there were hardly any rides that would even rate a puke factor!) So, here are my thoughts on some of the rides:

The Alton Tower rides, though larger in number, didn’t appear as fast or exciting as the rides at Thorpe Park. The park itself also didn’t feel as well planned as Thorpe Park as getting around this admittedly bigger park often involved going around attractions rather than through. Still, it is set in some gorgeous surrounds and even has a beautiful garden to relax in and its otherwise a good theme park to spend your day.

Nemesis	Ripsaw	Fly through the “Air”	Spinball Whizzer
Enterprise	Corkscrew	Chicken on Corkscrew	The two of us
The Gardens	“Celebs”	Pepe freakin’	Pepe still freakin’

Thorpe Park is just one English theme park that I intend on visiting during my stay in the UK. If you can’t tell by now I love theme parks so the more the merrier. Thorpe Park is located in Staines in Chertsey, Surrey and is a whole lot easier to get to than Whipsnade. There are regular trains to both Staines and Chertsey from Waterloo and also regular buses leaving both stations to get to the actual park.

The park is themed into nine “lands” though borders between each them are not really distinct. The rides are rated by the park into Extreme Thrills, Thrilling and Fun and Young Thrillseekers. For the serious thrill seeker definitely spend most of your time getting around to the Extreme Thrill rides. We got to the park at 9.30 and didn’t leave until 18.00 and within that time managed to ride most of the interesting rides. At this time of year (and especially on a bank holiday weekend) and if you’re keen to ride the bigger rides at least once I would definitely consider paying a little extra for the fast pass ticket because there WILL be long lines so to avoid disappointment it is probably worth a few extra quid. Today the park was heaving and without a fast pass we had to make sure to hit as many rides as possible in the morning when lines were relatively short.

Here is my ranking of what we rode today:

Thorpe Park is a pretty good well-rounded theme park with a nice range of rides, reasonably priced food, good ride layout and the usual money making side show alley games. The park, however, could improve on their information on the approximate ride wait times and Stealth, the new ride added in March, needs a lot of work to make sure its running without breaking down (today there were at least three stoppages that we heard of which caused our wait to blow out to nearly an hour and a half!) I think we had a very satisfying day, except I think S was a bit peeved that we couldn’t win a giant Tigger. She was sooo close on the giant claw-thing game too!

I hadn’t even heard of Whipsnade before this weekend (or before we started planning to go this weekend) but I’m always open to going to see some cute wild animals. Whipsnade is located in Dunstable, Bedfordshire. Yea – exactly. It is a mammoth journey to get out there and I would well recommend actually have a car available. We took the public transport route – catching the train from Kings Cross Thameslink to Luton Airport Parkway only to find out that trying to catch a bus out to the Park would take practically an hour an a half, eating up valuable animal watching time! Actually we had initially planned on catching a taxi but when S and I arrived at the station there was no taxi in sight. Just as well one finally turned up (and A made sure he grabbed a card to call a taxi for when we later left the park.) It will cost around £18 one-way to get the taxi to the Park from Luton Airport Parkway so its definitely not a cheap 10-mile journey.

Okay well I’ve spent quite some time chatting about how hard Whipsnade is to get to so I think its best to move on and talk about the park. As I stated earlier having a car is a pretty good idea because not only is it handy in getting to the park you can also actually take your car INSIDE the park and drive around certain areas. In fact there are some areas which can only be reached by car so all around its handy to have one. Alternatively if you don’t have a car you can catch the Jumbo Express (a short steam train ride with tour guide that costs £3 for adults.) It doesn’t go around the entire park but does take you through the Elephants, Camels, Yaks, some Deer, the Greater one-horned Rhino and Przewalski’s horses (the only TRUE wild horses in the world.) There is also a free Safari Bus but we didn’t ride it so I’m not sure where it takes you.

The park is very walkable. S and A are convinced that we walked more than the approximately 10,000 steps I’d logged on my pedometer but I’m fairly sure we did a lot of standing around rather than walking. Many of the animal enclosures are also fairly massive but we didn’t actually have to walk around them to see all the animals.

The following are the animals which were easily the most entertaining: Eurasian Brown Bears, Rosy Flamingos (gorgeous bright rosy orange colour), Giraffe, Hippos (though they were being rather lazy when we saw them), Penguins (go visit them for their great view over the valley), the Rhinos, Sealions (definitely see the show) and the amazing Tigers (easily better than the one male and female African lions.) The Children’s farm is also great if you want to get up close and personal to some donkeys, goats, pigs and lama.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my day at the park with one of the highlights being catching the Brown Bears playing with each other late in the afternoon. If you go make sure to get your transportation to the Park right and make sure to get there in plenty of time to catch the feedings/shows which guarantee that the animals are awake and moving around and, unless you don’t mind getting soaked, don’t get too close to the sealioins at the sealion show. You’ll see what I mean.

But, here is an animal that you won’t see in the park:

Today, J and I went along to Tate Britain as she was interested in one of their current exhibitions – the Gothic Nightmares. The exhibition is themed on the supernatural and on terror with the focus being on the paintings and drawings and influence of Henry Fuseli. For most of the rooms I meticulously looked at each and every piece read every accompanying description. In most cases I could see that the description was very apt so in this sense the exhibition was fabulous in explaining each piece of work. As a result I’m not sure how much added value the audio tour would would have been. There are eight rooms in total with an entire room dedicated to Fuseli’s The Nightmare, which has not only been copied and lampoony times but has been used for the inspiration for horror movies, including Dracula and Frankenstein. For those interested in gothic art this is an exhibition you should definitely attend.

This is actually the first time I’ve stepped into the Tate Britain after all my time in London (yes, a little bit shameful) so it was the perfect opportunity to explore what else it had to offer. I’m not sure how often the collections are turned over if at all but the collections currently on display at the Tate cover British Art from the 1500s-1900s (Historic) and from the 1900s on (Modern.) The Historic displays, while I’m sure contain some important displays including two rooms dedicated to John Constable and the extremely popular Millais’ Ophelia, I found myself more drawn to the Modern displays. I find it absolutely fascinating what passes for art these days. One of the more interesting displays, and I’ve attached a photo to the right, was Chris Ofili: The Upper Room (on display until 1 May.) It is easy to miss so be on the look out for it in room 30. You walk into a room and take a left to walk down a lit corridor and when you turn the corner you are confronted with a chapel-like room. Low warm lighting with thirteen paintings lining the walls. The description suggests that the arrangement of the paintings represents Christ and his Apostles. There is also talk of it representing civilization vs untamed nature, and the religious vs the secular. Hmm .. that is certainly much deeper than I would have thought but stepping into the room definitely gave me some sort of chill.

Overall, the general collection at the Tate was probably a little outside of my usual tastes and as a result I can’t see myself returning too often. However, the visit wasn’t too bad for one as art-illiterate as me and definitely wouldn’t turn down the next interesting exhibition.

Strangely enough I haven’t really acted like a true tourist around London (except of course the fact that I will take a photo of just about anything!) since moving here nearly two years ago. I guess I hit a lot of tourist spots back when I was here in 2003 but haven’t visited much else since then.

So early this morning (and it was a huge struggle to get up) S and I hit Madame Tussauds. They say you should get there early (half an hour was early enough today) and this is definitely good advice. In addition to the fact that you don’t have to wait in line for hours on end, there will be less people milling around inside and getting into your snaps. It doesn’t last very long though so take advantage of the relative smaller crowds in the first half-hour or 45 minutes that it is open. S and I had a good time taking all our happy snaps. We also went into the Chamber of Horrors which was … absolutely frightening. Okay – we knew there were going to be actors/actresses jumping out at us and chasing us through but we were still screaming in fright. Our hearts were still beating strong long after the event!

If you’re not interested in getting your photos taken with every single wax character you could easily see the whole collection in about 20-30 minutes but we managed to stretch it out for about an hour and a half. It is a good attraction with a better collection than I remember from a few years ago but it is fairly hefty so those not earning pounds might not find it great value for money.

See more photos here.

For those interested in crafts there is a little gem of a gallery, housed by the Crafts Council in Angel, which hosts a revolving programme of craft exhibitions. The current exhibition hosts the work of eight crafters shortlisted for the Jerwood Applied Arts Prize 2005: Metal. Gold, silver, iron and steel, etc. have been manipulated by these crafters into the most interesting of objects. For novelty factor check out the magnetic wall that plays hosts to visitor comment cards.

Today my brother took me along with him to visit a friend of his, Kath, who is currently studying at Oxford. She was lovely enough to give up her day to take us around – and she did a fab job. Thanks Kath! We were a bit worried that the weather wasn’t going to come to the party – but it did, with bells on! Thank you to this Indian summer that pretty much delivered a blue sky (if not a warm sun) all day.

It was soooo easy getting up to Oxford so I’m not sure why, in my nearly 18 months here I haven’t made it up there. Not a minute walk from my place is a stop along the route of the Oxford Tube. This bus service operates ALL day and generally speaking between 9am-10pm comes every 10-15 minutes. Fabulous. A very comfortable ride and if you’re lucky your seat might even come with an electrical socket.

I loved the feel of this University town (city?). It is an entirely different feel from my local, very touristy, area in London and it was very refreshing. It was great also to have an inside tour guide, so to speak, in the form of Kath. She even took us in to her college. I always get excited when I see really green grass (okay – so I’m a bit wierd) so when we commented on particuarly green and gorgeous patch of grass inside the college Kath told us about this funny email sent around by the head of the college stating that the grass “privileges” were that it was not to be used except in the summer, between 11 and 1, and only for sitting and/or playing croquet. Can you imagine, after having heard that story how much more I wanted to just roll around in the grass? 🙂

There is enough around Oxford to fill your day. This site has some great walks to do covering such points as the Carfax Tower (gives good views over the High Street), the cobblestones of Radcliffe Square featuring the Radcliffe Camera (“Chamber” – one of the finest buildings in Oxford), the Bridge of Sighs, the Bodleian Library (new and old) and all the churches and colleges you can poke a stick at. You may also encounter Blackwell’s Book Shop on Broad Street which, from the outside appears to be the size of a smallish book shop, but once you enter and go underground – you’ll be absolutely amazed at its size. Also worth a visit are the Covered Markets – a mish mash of meat/fish/veg stalls and some rather ones such as pets and records.

Finally, if there is two things you must do it is to visit grab a George and Davis intensely and interestly flavoured ice cream (or G&D’s as the locals refer to it) and take it over for a stroll through Christ Church Meadow by the River Thames (or the Isis).

If there is one thing you should remember about Oxford it is to make sure that you look up and you may just be surprised by all the varied gargoyles gazing down at you.

Windsor is a comfortable train ride away from London and makes for a nice day out. There are the typical attractions of Windsor Castle, Eton College, and of course Legoland. But Windsor also has great shopping and great food.

Although the weather wasn’t the greatest at least it didn’t rain on us and the company more than made up for the average weather. Briefly:
– Windsor Castle is fairly impressive and not just a little bit massive! covering 13 acres. As the Queen’s principal place of residence it makes it the larges inhabited castle in the world. The free guided tour is a good idea if you don’t want to shell out money for the audio tour. The State Apartments are lavish but like any of the other royal residences I’ve visited (including Hampton Court Palace and Buckingham Palace) seem excessively so. I enjoyed the exteriors more than the interiors. The thing we missed (due to the length of the queue) was Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House which is apparently an amazing doll house built on 1:12 scale complete with running water and electricity.
– Eton College. Just down the road from the Castle and across the Thames is Eton College. A quick visit didn’t really excite though the Chapel probably would have been impressive if we’d taken a tour. More interesting were the shops that line the Eton High Street – with antiques, dolls, art, teddy bears and many other novel items on sale. Check out this cute gollywog doll and monkey
– Windsor Royal Station. The station has been attractively refurbished and has many little shops.
– Windsor High Street. The High Street has all the shops you would expect to see on a London High Street and it is even home to the Queen’s officially appointed Waitrose supermarket.
– Crooked House Tea Rooms. The stream of tourists taking a photo of this tea house seemed endless as we sat observing the goings on from a nearby pub whilst eating our lunch. We did think about having a cream tea there, but a closer look at their prices scared us off.

In front of the Crooked House Tea Room	Eton College	On the River Thames

More photos here.