Britannia2's VirtualTourist Home Page

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England in the late winter

Try and see not so well known places

Visitors to the UK always seem to want to visit the major tourist towns. I guess we all would do the same wherever we went and I have done so myself. However as people will know I always recomend places that are not widely known in the forum page.
The pages here shows some well known places and some places probably not so well known but equally well worth a visit.
Hull is my birthplace and I still work here but live just a few miles out. Perhaps its because I come from such a maligned city (unjustly so) I can see the value of visiting other under visited places.......

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Avis Hill 1954 - 2008

About me

I was widowed in late August 2008 - we had been happily married for 22 years. My wife was very disabled and a wheelchair user. Travel overseas had not been possible for some years due to Avis' health and we were very much confined to the UK but this is such a beautiful country and we always found places to go.
So life is about to change dramatically and perhaps if finances work out I can start to travel - it will perhaps ease the pain of losing Avis. We shall see.
I will certainly not forget the needs of the disabled traveller and continue to put disabled access tips within my pages. Remember - we are all potential wheelchair users.

I have been interested in photography for many years and am a member of the Brooklands Photographic Club ://www.hill.karoo.net/brooklands/brooklands.html.) All the photos are my own with the exception of a few. I will eventually replace these with my own photos. Until March 2006 I used a simple 2 meg camera but bought an 8 megapixel camera in March 2006 and all photos were taken on this until April 2007 when I moved up to a digital Pentax SLR. Now updated to a 15mg Canon EOS500 from May 2009. This also takes HD video so look out for more videos too in 2009.
The overseas travel pages have photographs scanned from slides and this is why the quality is not my new digital standard.

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The man who spent a weeks housekeeping on wine

Travel

I got the travel bug when I was at school and my sister and I were lucky to be able to be taken all over the UK by our parents but never overseas.
It seemed the parents of the 1960s had an aversion to anything foreign! I loved the BBC travel show presented by Cliff Mitchelmore in the late 1960s and envied his foreign travel. I remember how in one episode he went to Sydney and bought what he said was a very reasonable bottle of wine for 17/6 (82p in todays money) and my dad said he could feed us for 17/6 a week! That made my mind up - I wanted to travel like that too and live a lfe of luxury. It never happened but I have seen a lot of Europe but would one day love to see the world. That's why I enjoy VT so much - reading about peoples travels and hoping one day we could make some great journeys too.

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Trans Pennine express at Northallerton

Travel by train if you can in the UK

Not only is it more environmentally friendly it can be faster than driving although admittedly not always as convenient. The rail system is at long last getting some investment and although there is still room for improvement the rail system is not as bad as some tabloid newspapers show it to be. Many trains in the UK and now mainly run on set interval timetables on dedicated routes that interlink with other routes well.
If you are coming to the UK from a country that drives on the other side of the road to us I would recommend you use the trains at least on your first visit.
I realise UK train travel is expensive but the link below shows how it is possible to save money on rail travel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6442947.stm and also http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/travel/cheap-train-tickets

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Swanland

Where I live

I lived in Hull all of my life until we moved to Swanland in 2004 in rural / urban East Yorkshire. I say rural / urban because this is Hull and Leeds commuter land and it is not very far from anywhere else. The A63 thunders by a few minutes away on its way to and from Hull but this is still a tranquil village that is a good place to live. There are very few country people left here - high property prices have changed the face of the village and most people seem to be from Hull just like myself although there are lot of people from the south who have moved here for cheaper property.

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Here to help

Advice given in forum pages

I really enjoy answering the travel questions in the VT forum pages on the United Kingdom. This is my main reason for joining VT - I have been to every county within mainland UK and visited every major city. I love looking at maps and can find my way around every city and major town in the the north and midlands of England without a map.

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A VT birthday cake

Eating out

England can be expensive so here are some sites to ease the burden of eating out.
www.toptable.co.uk - eat out at half price.
www.pizzaexpressoffers.co.uk - regular offers on a good chain of restaurants.
www.burgerking.co.uk/offers - regular vouchers on line to print off.
www. guardianrestaurantbookings.co.uk - regular discounts with up to 50% discounts in London.
5pm.co.uk - discounted deals on set menus across the UK
However only I get a Vt birthday cake - this is my 2009 cake expertly baked by my sons partner.