Off to Salcombe with Westbury Park Strollers

We are off to Salcombe this coming Saturday (28th) - this trip is now fully booked
but take a look to see where you get to in a day out from Bristol by train and bus.

91 greenish trips for the first five years of retirement

The Page lists days out , short breaks and longer trips from Bristol which have all been taken since the date of my retirement in October 2008.
A number of them are detailed in posts on this blog or the green charity challenge blog. More will be. Please contact me about any individual trip. A recent contibutor to Clare Balding's BBC Ramblings reckoned it takes five years to get used to retirement - trips and travel are part of that process.

The 91 identified trips were taken in generally "green"- low carbon - ways: cycle, bus, train, occasionally ship (but sea and cruise
travel is under represented). MORE DETAIL AND LINKS WI|LL BE ADDED.

Visit Italy without leaving Bristol!

The 2014 spring programme for the Bristol Anglo-Italian Circle is now available. There is a range of talks on the second Tuesday of each month and may include the occasional visit to an Italian-related place in the area around Bristol.

Recent Publications by David Bruce are listed

Three recently published Baedeker related book chapters and publications mainly on walled towns are listed on the David M Bruce Publications page

Charity challenge by green travel.

an earlier Grumpy trip

The 'Grumpies' David, Michael, Roger, Ken and Nigel
set off from the Far East (...of England that is) to cycle the 400 or so kilometres back from Lowestoft in Suffolk to Bristol over five days via London. In keeping with the principles of green travel, we leave for Lowestoft by train from Bristol at 6am tomorrow morning and with judicious ticketing we should get there before midday with our cycles for just over £20 each. We pay that our B&B's and all incidental expenses on the way back. See more at  http://www.green-charity-challenge.org/. Any money you donate via http://www.justgiving.com/Michael-Duffy8 all goes to Teenage Cancer Trust

Dusk from the Briancon Sleeper

Night train at Chorge

Lac Serre-Poncon from the night train

Every night the train leaves Briancon high in the French Alps and arrives in Paris in the morning. Every night the reverse train takes you to the Alps. This Wednesday 17th July 2013, Embrun and Chorges will feature as start and end of a time trial along Lac Serre-Poncon for the Tour de France. Lake is great for swimming too. Details and booking from SNCF or RailEurope.

Dawn from the Scotrail Sleeper

DMB photo 2008

Leave grimy Euston at 9pm arrive at the edge of the Highlands next morning!Scotrail Caledonian Sleeper Bargain Berths start at only £19 each!. Bookable three month ahead.
Visit the walled town of Stirling on your way home.

24 hours in Paris.

12th Feb - Wedding Anniversary but it might have been an early (or late) Valentine – In Paris for 24 hours.

Paris by Eurostar from Bristol with an hotel and restaurant in St Germain is not the cheapest 'greenish' trip described in this blog.  

We set off with our bus passes at ten to nine in the morning.

The bus obligingly waited a minute or two (it was running ahead of schedule) to let us get on free on the stroke of nine. It took us down to the  Bristol City Centre, from where we could walk across Queen's Square along the line of only completely pedestrianised (until the 1980s) dual carriageway that I know, by way of the baste bridge over the floating harbour, past St Mary's Redcliffe (Queen Elizabeth's “finest Parish church  in all England”) to Brunel's grand Temple Meads Station.

Green ways to reach Berwick-upon-Tweed Walled Town

Starting from Bristol (but it could quite easily have been London - see note at end) a trip by public transport to the strongest fortified town in the British Isles - Berwick-upon Tweed - makes a fine short break. With the Border Country and/or Northumberland it can be the centre for a wonderful longer holiday or stop off on the way to Scotland.  Lowry loved Berwick for holidays and painted many views of the town. Berwick-upon Tweed  is a member of European Walled Towns for friendship and professional co-operation and was previously a member of Walled Towns Friendship Circle (see DMB Walled Towns Research Pages). 
Berwick is on three Sustrans Cycle Routes 1, 68 and 76 and is the centre of a network of bus services.
Photos and a note on rail travel follow.

Grey day - green ride to Chepstow

Happy New Year but what to do on a grey day in January?
Well from Bristol you can take an X14 bus (FREE on an English Diamond Concessionary pass) over the sea to Wales Monday to Saturday every daytime hour. See Traveline South West for the strange route and stop variations of the two operators - Stagecoach in South Wales and First Bristol - each takes about one hour.