Category Archives: travel

The Lock Inn Cafe – Bradford on Avon

ACR |Travel Tip: Sometimes you do not have to travel far to feel like you are getting away. Even ‘playing tourist’ in your own backyard can be a fun way to see the world with eyes renewed. While you are dreaming up your next vacation, fuel your wanderlust by sharing the close destinations near to where you live!

This week for Travel Tuesday I wanted to share a nearby town to Bath, called Bradford on Avon. It is a lovely place to visit if you are coming to Bath for a visit and quite a number of great places to see within the town. I am looking forward to sharing my favourite spots in Bradford on Avon with you and I begin with a walk down to the canal. You can walk, ride bikes, or even float down the canal in a canoe or kayak. This is something my family took adavantage of along the canals near our home outside of Bath this past summer. You never know what you might find or who you will run into when visiting the canals. Though I secretly hope to run into Johnny Depp’s character from Chocolat.

We were surprised upon finding one of the cutest cafes along the canal in Bradford on Avon and stopped in one evening just for desserts. At the Lock Inn Cafe you have a vast array of choices of where you can choose to sit and eat. Perhaps the picnic tables out front or nestled inside the pub. There are also many great places to choose from outside that can either be great for soaking up the rays of sun, or when you need a little shelter from the rain and cold. What could be more romantic than sitting in the cafe’s own canal boat for a dinner for two? My boys chose one of the cute cabins that holds one table each and we were glad to find that heating was also provided to keep us all toasty.

We rested our feet and enjoyed a pot of tea as you do when you are living in England. We each chose a different dessert and then we shared them in twos. Despite the cold the boys opted for ice cream and my husband and I chose a crumble and spotted dick both covered in warm sweet custard. While the desserts were simply lovely, the Lock Inn Cafe has a wonderful array of foods for any time of the day. Which means we will just have to go back to the canal to try out some of their other menu favourites when we are next in Bradford on Avon.

LockInnCafe_BradfordOnAvon

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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

1. Share a post about travel! From road trips to trips abroad and from past travels to dream vacations. You can write about travel tips and tricks, favorite places to stay, or anything in between! Just make it about traveling somewhere!

2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link!

3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday after 9 am GMT.

4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!

5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

Horrible Histories Spies – Imperial War Museum, London

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It is Tuesday and so you know what that means: Travel Tuesday! I have really enjoyed looking through all the links up this past week. I was homesick by by Louisa with her P is for the Perfect Pacentro, learning about how Kate’s Dad Lives in Kenya, and having my wanderlust fueled further by Lindsey’s travels to Thailand. I cannot wait to see where you are all sharing travels and stories of wanderlust from this week! You all make this link up so much fun and inspiring!

For Travel Tuesday I take you to the Imperial War Museum in London, England. We had the opportunity to visit this summer with my family. The reason for our going was to visit the limited time Horrible Histories Spies exhibit that was going on at the museum. My boys love the Horrible Histories television programme and so we left it as a surprise until we arrived at the IWM.

Horrible Histories is a British children’s television series based on the Terry Deary book series of the same name. It aims to provide entertainment while also informing its audience about history, thereby making a stereotypically boring topic fun – Wikipedia

The exhibit was very hands on and geared towards kids and the child in all of us. In fact I am not sure who had more fun: my sons or all of the adults. The boys got a special new Horrible Histories book and a special stamp sheet that they could use through out their experience at the museum. In different stations they could get an embossed stamp to signify they had completed that part of the journey.

In typical Horrible Histories fashion they were able to provide the truth of spies with real artifacts coupled with gruesome tales and sometimes disgusting things you as an adult would not really want to know. They had pictures and videos and many interactive areas where they could engage with computers to learn more about spies through out history.

Of course at the gifts shop they had every gag spy item imaginable as well as their book series for purchase. They even had quite a bit of books and films for the adults in the fiction and non fiction genres of war and spies.

One of the most fun activities we enjoyed was becoming spies and making our own faux passports to fit our secret cover identity. We then had to memorize our cover story and get questioned by the passport control to see if we could stay in the country. It was all quite fun and the whole family was entertained.

The Imperial War Museum is a great museum to visit when you are in London, England. After we visited the Horrible Histories Spies exhibit (and had a break for tea, of course) we went to see other areas of the museum. They have a pretty impressive area about war and spies geared more for adults though my children had almost as much fun as before. Even if you have young children like mine I would recommend taking them because we found it to be a great home education resource. It opened up dialog for more conversations about history, war, and spies. My boys were most impressed with all the artifacts they had that spies really used in this part of the museum.

Here were some favourite captures taken from the day:

More on Horrible Histories

Want to know a little more about what Horrible Histories is all about? I definitely recommend checking out their website below and you can find plenty skits and songs on youtube as well. My family’s favourite is the RAF song as we have history with the USAF and the RAF. It definitely brings in a lot of memories of my dad and I think he would have thought this song was so hilarious. I think you will too so I have shared it below.

horrible–histories.co.uk/‎

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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉

3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.

4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!

5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

London Blogger Tea a Success

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Today I had the amazing opportunity to go to London for an awesome London Blogger Tea arranged by the beautiful Selena. It was so great to meet so many of my blogger friends in person after following their blogs online. I met and made new friends and the event flew by so fast. I want to post on it properly in a few days once I get my photos online and share more about the event. Until then make sure to check out all the wonderful bloggers who attended and send them some encouraging shout outs. I know my life was made better having met each and every single person tonight. Thank you for a perfect night out in London.

Melanie from Melanie Fontaine

Selena from Oh, the place we will go!

Gina from Sweet Serenity

Mandy from Emm in London

Erin from Erin Out and About

Sarah from The Experience Collection Project

Sarah from The Wanderblogger

Tina from Girl Meets Globe

Jacintha from Urban Pixxels

Anna from Eat, See, Do

Emma from Adventures of a London Kiwi

Janelle from The Halfpenny Diaries

Jaklien from Passport and Toothbrush

Kara from Pen Plus Passport

Sarah from The Secret Life of an Unknown Housewife

Shobha from NYLon Living

Annie at Sew Graceful

Kelly from Around the World in 80 Pairs of Shoes

Samantha from To the Days Like This

The Cosy Club in Bath, England

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This monday my husband had a vacation day off from work and so we had a rare day date while the boys were both at school. Since we needed to go into town to run some errands we look forward to going somewhere nice for lunch. We have both come here once before with other friends and this was our first time here together. I was looking forward to tea and cake, but we got swayed by the delicious looking options on the lunch menu. Just another excuse to return for a heavenly slice of victoria sponge cake. My favourite thing about being at the Cosy Club is the interior design and atmosphere inside. Like the mix of grey concrete ceilings with sparkly chandeliers, the collage of art and mirrors on the walls, the mix of primary colour choices with damask wall textures. It is a great place to stop in after a busy day of errands, shopping, or sightseeing in the heart of Bath.

“Think gents club meets village hall meets cricket pavilion.

Quirky, eccentric and playful the Cosy Club

offers casual dining, drinking and lounging.”

www.cosyclub.co.uk/‎

Unit R4, Southgate Shopping Centre,

Southgate St, Bath BA1 1AP

01225 464161

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Q: What is your favourite thing to order when you go to a cafe?

Portobello Road Market & Notting Hill

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Travel Tuesday is here and since it is our first Tuesday of the month it means our themed post! November’s prompt is ‘relationships’. I love solo travel but I just as much appreciate the relationships I have when I travel with family and friends. On a recent trip to London with my visiting family we made the rush from where we were in Wales to get to the Portobello Road market. We were not sure we would make it in time and I am so glad that we did because we had a great time! While we were out I spotted with my camera this couple enjoying their relationship with a passionate kiss in the middle of Notting Hill. I had to recreate this romantic gesture with my husband and have shared the pair of kissing photos below.

I hope you will love the rest of these…there were just so many things to photograph and my eyes were on sensory overload. I loved all the silver and found the antiques and old cameras my favourite things to look at in the market. My sister, a level II sommelier enjoyed all the smells of the food stalls like the lush varieties of mushrooms. Even my sons found some interesting things to purchase while they were out exploring. If you have seen Notting Hill, the travel bookshop was in the blue ‘Notting Hill’ store front you see in the photographs. I definitely recommend making the point to go to this market when you are next in London and venture into Notting Hill. Much thanks again to my friend Lauren for letting us stay at your place while we were in town.

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Share your Travel stories and wanderlust addictions.

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS:

2. Grab the lovely button. If you run into trouble, just make sure to mention Bonnie in a link! 😉

3. Linkup goes live every Tuesday at 9 am GMT.

4. Hop around and meet new travel loving bloggers! Link up will be open for a few days, make sure to check back to visit some of the newer travel posts!

5. Please only one linked up post per blogger. Save other posts for future linkups!

6. The First Tuesday of every month will be a themed prompt if you want to join in!

Get Paid to See the World

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How would you like to get paid to see the world? The girls of Girl Gone International have spent weeks working it out and now you can read all about it in the third issue! Interested in becoming a Girl Gone International? You can read the first twelve pages complimentary and subscribe here. One lucky reader of my blog has even won big from GGI!

CONGRATULATIONS TO JENN!

Jenn has just won herself a complimentary issue of

Girl Gone International magazine

from A Compass Rose’s October giveaway!

N o t a W i n n e r ?

You can still win big! Subscribe to Girl Gone International magazine today and read our current third issue packed full of information on traveling, living abroad, and in this issue long distant relationships.

Satisfy your wanderlust with the destinations found inside the third issue of GGI and start fueling your future plans of where to go next!

An interactive online magazine you can read from your computer, your tablet, and phone…anywhere in the world!

CLICK TO READ A PREVIEW

FIND GGI ONLINE:

OUR MAGAZINE | http://www.girlgi.com/

EMAIL GLOBAL MANAGER | anne@girlgoneinternational.com

GGI PAGE | www.facebook.com/GirlGoneInternational

WEBSITE | www.girlgoneinternational.com

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INSTAGRAM | @GirlGoneInternational #girlgi

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SPOTIFY | Girl_GoneInternational

* Girl Gone International images original to GGI | http://www.girlgi.com/

** Photograph of Jenn sourced from her blog: http://weiderjl.blogspot.co.uk/

Mayor’s Parlour – Bath, England

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This week my kids have off of school and the city of Bath have Heritage Open Week going on for all the families that live here. One of my favourite things about living in Bath is being able to have my Discovery card, which can get me into many places free or with a nice discount. The Heritage Open Week is tied into the Discovery card and twenty two different locations within Bath. Despite the heavy rainfall on Monday we hopped into a taxi and headed into town to explore.

Our first stop was the Mayor’s Parlour at the GuildHall in the city of Bath. I have been to the Guildhall Market before (an indoor shopping area) but have never step foot within the building that often will have a blushing bride and groom outside its doors. When we finally found the Maylor’s Parlour we were greeted by two different individuals who gave as a great tour of the room. They were both amazing at giving out information about the Mayor and history of the Mayor’s Parlour to a children’s level. We got to see the book where all the royal families sign when they visit the city, Peppercorns that were once used by the city as payment, and the robes that the Mayor wears. They even had a neat smaller size one that the kids could dress up and wear.

The only thing we did not get to see was Mayor’s chains as he was wearing them that moment for a meeting in the Guildhall. Perhaps we will pop in later this week and see if we can meet the Mayor!

Q: Does the Mayor of your city get to wear historical dress like ours in England?