Follow the brown signs
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Follow the Brown Signs Blog - June, 2012
Topical Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 21: Celebrating World Oceans Day on Scotland’s west coast
June 8, 2012
Today the Olympic flame has crossed the Irish sea and nipped across to Scotland, the country it will call "home" for the next 5 days, and what a lucky torch it is. It's hard not to love the West coast of Scotland, it's scenery, people and remoteness are all so beguiling, it's the kind of place that demands you take it all in and enjoy it slowly and quietly so it's absolutely the kind of place I long to be. I've spent many a happy week climbing rugged rain beaten...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 20: Irish ribs and torpedo testing stations
June 7, 2012
We're on day 20 of my alternative torch relay already! We might be getting somewhat tired running around with our metaphorical torches but heavens above haven't we happened upon some great places by veering off the route to follow the brown signs?! Yes we jolly well have (caught the brown-signing bug yet? I very much hope so).
Yet again I can't include a picture of my Olympic torch relay map (I left it at home, God I miss it bad) but I can tell you that today the torch is back...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 19: Where ancient manuscripts and manga collide
June 6, 2012
The Olympic torch makes it's only trip outside the UK today (apart from Greece of course) when it visits Dublin in the Republic of Ireland. Not a great deal of choice for our destination of the day but Dublin is jam packed full of places to visit and as its recently been voted the 25th best city in the world by city break connoisseurs on Trip Advisor you'd expect it to be bursting at the seams with things to do.
So the prospects for the blog were looking promising today until I called...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Olympic Torch Relay Day 18: Permaculture: What it is and the amazing things it can do..
June 5, 2012
The Olympic torch leaves the Northern Irish coast today and heads inland through the deepest countryside of Omagh, where mountains, lochs and forest parks abound. Just looking at the map of the area made me long to be there and then Googling what it looks like in real pictures makes me even sicker to be sitting in my flat in urban South East London (I really need to move to the country, and quick). I had a look to see what brown signed attractions were around the area and settled...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 17: Why I love wind
June 4, 2012
The banks may be taking a day off today but me and the Olympic torch bearers most certainly are not. The torch makes its way from Portrush to Londonderry today all along the north coast of Northern Ireland, calling at the famous Giant's Causeway, 38,000 hexagonal blocks stretching out into the sea and Mountsandel Fort, Ireland's earliest settlement dating back to 7600BC, on the way.
Today I chose Limavady at random as my destination of the day and to my great happiness found this town to be packed full of great attractions, including...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 16: A cottage not belonging to an Irish president of the USA
June 3, 2012
The Olympic torch landed in Northern Ireland today and as I got into work at stupid o'clock this morning (for yet another double shift) my favourite live location tool showed me that the torch was just starting it's journey north up the coast to Portrush, currently heading through Carrickfergus. This town looks inviting, it's old and on the coast (2 things I like), it also has imaginatively named attractions listed on its council website (stuff I like even more) which include: Flame! The Gasworks Museum of Ireland, The Andrew Jackson Cottage and US Rangers Centre,...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 15: Those in peril on the sea around self-governed island nations
June 2, 2012
No bad photo of my official London 2012 torch relay route map today I'm afraid. I'm working a double as always on a Saturday and as I exited my bed approximately 15 minutes before I needed to be here, taming my enormous barnet (not picking up my A-Z of the UK) was more my immediate concern. I can tell you though that the Olympic torch left the mainland from Liverpool and headed to the Isle of Man in an aeroplane (was it still lit? Is that even legal? I want answers... OK...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 14: Glass blowing will never go out of fashion
June 1, 2012
When I saw that the Olympic torch was going to Liverpool from Bolton today I started thinking about all the cool places I've been around there which I could feature on the blog. The ones that stuck out were Anthony Gormley's Another Place, The U-Boat Story, Ness Botanical Gardens and the new Liverpool Museum which are all brilliant and inspiring in their own separate ways. But I've sung all their praises before on the blog and for me this website is all about discovering new people and places, so I did what...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 13: From King Canute to Millennium tapestries
May 31, 2012
The Olympic torch makes another of it's classic higgedly piggeldy journies today from Stoke-on-Trent to Bolton, including an eastward detour via Macclesfield (where I once sat in a KwikFit for 5 hours while my car exhaust got replaced after it fell off rather dramatically while ascending a steep hill in the peak district, not exactly the fondest of memories of Macclesfield I'm afraid).
Just up the road from Macclesfield though is Knutsford, somewhere I didn't have the pleasure of visiting but from the sounds of it I'd happily have spent 5...Read more >>
The Brown Sign Torch Relay Day 12: You just keep on pushing my ball over the borderline
May 30, 2012
The Olympic torch is being carried back into Wales from Chester today as it heads to Stoke-on-Trent taking a very long way round. A closer look at the map shows me that it doesn't cross the border just once though, as far as I can work out it crosses back and forth 4 times today and you won't be surprised to hear that I find this exciting. When I was travelling I was intrigued by the borders between countries, it's one of the reasons I travelled overland the whole time so that I...Read more >>