Northwest England: Travel Details
This is a quick and handy source for details on the sights, hotels, tour guides and restaurants featured in "Northwest England" show. For much more (and updates), see this year's edition of Rick Steves' Great Britain guidebook.
- Blists Hill Open Air Museum
- Funny Girls Burlesque-in-Drag Show
- Keskadale farm
- Birkrigg Farm
- Castlerigg Stone Circle
Blists Hill Open Air Museum
Blists Hill Victorian Town: Save most of your time and energy for this wonderful town. You'll wander through 50 acres of Victorian industry, factories, and a re-created community from the 1890s, complete with carriage rides, chemists, a candy shop, an ancient dentist's chair, candle makers, a working pub, a greengrocer's shop, a fascinating squatter's cottage, and a snorty, slippery pigsty. Don't miss the explanation of the winding machine at the Blists Hill Mine (demos throughout the day, call for times). Walk along the canal to the "inclined plane." Grab lunch in the Victorian Pub or in the cafeteria near the squatter's cottage and children's old-time rides. The board by the entry lists which exhibits are staffed and lively (with docents in Victorian dress). The £2 Blists Hill guidebook gives a good step-by-step rundown (£8.75, daily 10:00-17:00, tel. 01952/583-003).
Funny Girls Burlesque-in-Drag Show
Funny Girls — Blackpool 's current hot bar is in a dazzling location a couple blocks from the train station. Most nights from 20:15 to 23:30, Funny Girls puts on a "glam bam thank you ma'am" burlesque-in-drag show that delights footballers and grannies alike. Cover is only £5 (£7 on weekends, dinner before show-£15, dinner reservations required). Get your drinks at the bar unless the transvestites are dancing on it. The show, while racy, is not raunchy. The music is very loud. The crowd is young, old, straight, gay, very down-to-earth, and fun-loving. Go on a weeknight; Friday and Saturday are too jammed. While the area up front can be a mosh pit, there are more sedate tables in back, where service comes with a vampish smile. You can pay £12 for VIP seats on Sun and Tue-Thu to avoid lines and look down on the show and crowded floor from a mezzanine level (shows Tue-Sun, closed Mon, must be 18 to enter, 5 Dickson Street , to reserve in advance call tel. 01253/624-901).
Keskadale Farm
Keskadale Farm B&B is another good farmhouse experience, with ponderosa hospitality. One of the valley's oldest, the house is made from 500-year-old ship beams. This working farm has lots of curly-horned sheep and three rooms to rent. While her boys are now old enough to help dad in the fields, Margaret Harryman runs the B&B (Db-£54, £2 extra for one night, cash only, non-smoking, closed Dec-Feb, tel. 017687/78544, fax 017687/78150, www.keskadalefarm.co.uk, keskadale.b.b@kencomp.net).
Birkrigg Farm
Birkrigg Farm is a fine and grandmotherly farmhouse B&B. Mrs. Margaret Beaty offers visitors a comfy lounge, evening tea (good for socializing with her other guests), a classy breakfast, and a view of the surrounding territory. Take your toast and last cup of tea out to the front-yard bench (£21 per person in S, D, T, or Q; two night minimum, discounts for kids; cash only; 1 shower, 1 tub, and 3 toilets for 4 rooms; closed Dec-March, Newlands Pass Road, tel. 017687/78278).
Castlerigg Stone Circle
For some reason, 70 percent of England's stone circles are here in Cumbria. This one's the best. These 38 stones — 90 feet across and 3,000 years old — are mysteriously laid out on a line between the two tallest peaks on the horizon. They serve as a celestial calendar for ritual celebrations. Imagine the Woodstock-like ambience here, as ancient people filled this clearing in spring to celebrate fertility, and in fall to confront their fear of death. Festival dates were dictated by how the sun rose and set in relation to the stones. The more that modern academics study this circle, the more meaning they find in the placement of the stones. The two front stones face due north, towards a cut in the mountains. The rare-for-stone-circles "sanctuary" lines up with its center stone to mark where the sun rises on May Day. (Party!) For maximum goose pimples (as they say here), show up at sunset (free, open all the time, 3 miles east of Keswick — follow brown signs, 3 min off A66, easy parking).