House Sitting in England - is it Different to Sitting in Australia?

After nine months house sitting in Australia, we were keen to try it in my own home country (England). So we did. We did it in the Forest of Dean (South West) which is looking very good at the moment:

We wanted to do a post about the differences between house sitting in Australia and house sitting in England, but really the differences are more about the countries themselves than the houses. And anyway, each house sit is different in their own unique way it all depends on the pets / home owners /  house / location, so many things. So instead of doing a post about the differences, we decided to do one on the firsts in house sitting for us:

Sheep 

Never had we ever looked after sheep before. In the end it turned out that they were easier than cats and loads easier than dogs. They basically look after themselves! During the summer they eat the grass in the field so you don't have to feed them (or mow the garden), they put themselves to bed at night too. What I'm feeding them in the above picture is sheep nuts, which is a treat for sheep, so they only get a tiny amount at this time of year.  They went mad for it and were very eager to eat it. Other than that it was just moving the mineral block every morning. 

However, saying how easy they were I'm sure they would have been a lot more work than dogs/cats if they had needed a vet - you can hardly get them into a carrier and into the car! But luckily no such kerfuffle occurred. 

If we had the house/land we think we would have sheep. They keep the lawn tidy (ish) and definitely have distinct personalities! However, I think to start off with we'd have dogs and.. 

Chickens!

Again a house sitting first for us and again an easy one. The chickens were a bit more work than the sheep, but not much and they gave us rewards (eggs). Chickens are usually fed once or twice a day, in the summer they need less as they dig around for worms and things. Again they put themselves to bed at night and we just had to lock them in so the fox wouldn't get them. Talking of foxes...

Foxes and Badgers 

This was the first time Tanbay had seen them in the wild.

The house also had two sweet cats, but that wasn't a first for us.

So there you have it, house sitting in England isn't that different from house sitting anywhere else, looking after chickens and sheep is more rewarding than it is taxing :) and foxes and badgers are always great.

P.S. We got all of our house sits from www.Trustedhousesitter.com

Stonehenge and Salisbury

The Stonehenge you can see today is about 4,000 years old. I think for that reason alone 'visiting Stonehenge' should be top of your British bucket list, but you know you better than I do, so don't let me force you. As Salisbury is it's closest city, with such a gorgeous cathedral, my recommendation is that you visit Salisbury too.

Stonehenge

So Stonehenge; older than The Parthenon, the Easter Island Statues and the Great Wall of China it's definitely worth a look. They've revamped the site in the last few years - the ticket area and parking is now a couple of miles away from it. It costs £14 to get in, which I think is quite a lot, however the money is used to maintain not just Stonehenge's area, but also other English heritage sites across Britain. As Stonehenge makes the most money, it has to support the others - like a husband in the 50s. (We actually got in for FREE because my dad has a heritage card) 

You can walk the two miles to stonehenge, or take one of the jurassic park type 4 by 4s:

they go really slowly, but also really regularly.

Anyway, here it is:

Stonehenge!

There are always quite a few people here, but as the area is quite vast it doesn't feel crowded or touristy. We didn't have to wait to get a section that was free from people to get an iconic photo:

There is a rope around Stonehenge which is well thought out, the rope is more oval than circle, so at certain points you're really far away:

and at other points you're really close up: 

which makes for a more interesting walk around the edge. The rope is inoffensive too, it's not a nasty 'we don't trust you barbed wire and concrete' barrier, it's just a rope. You could easily jump over it, which lots of people do to try and hug the stones - then they get chucked out by security. If you really really want to get in, and don't want to be chucked out, you can get a group of people together and book a private Stonehenge tour in the morning, or in the evening during summertime - there is a waiting list though. 

You can get the 4 by 4s back, or you can walk. If you walk you get to see the round barrows where they used to bury their dead:

There are also two big ditches called the cursus, and they don't know what they were used for, but they are super super old (nearly 6,000 years old):

it's just that flattened bit of grass 

At Stonehenge's visitor centre there are also toilets (clean), a gift shop (stuffed toy crows), a restaurant (£4 sandwich) and a really informative exhibition centre.

The exhibition centre is really well thought out, you enter a room and surrounding you on the walls is a projection of the stones, so you can watch them change throughout time.

Our favourite part was when they explained the history of Stonehenge:

At the beginning there was just a circle of blue stones, which looks really creepy, but amazingly the stones came all the way from Wales - a hundred miles away, without a lorry! Later on they added the big stones that you see today, and over time a few of these fell over/were nicked. They also incorporated the earlier blue stones into today's layout - though to us they looked grey.

The other thing that the wall projection shows you is how the stones are perfectly positioned for the shortest (and longest) days of the year. On the shortest day (Dec 21st, also known as winter solstice) the sun sets between the biggest stones.

This midwinter sun sets exactly opposite to where the midsummer sun rises, so on the longest day of the year (June 21st, summer solstice) the sun rises above the heel stone and into the centre.

This is the heel stone:

For years modern day people have flocked to Stonehenge on the summer solstice, to stay up all night and watch the sun rise. However, archeologists now believe that back in the day, the winter solstice was a lot more important, olden day people would honour their ancestors and pray for the sun to return.

In the exhibition centre there is also a timeline that puts everything in perspective. There are also things that have been collected on site including bones, daggers, pottery and jewellery.

All in all, we enjoyed the stones and hope you do too!

How do you get to Stonehenge?

There are a lot of tours that go to Stonehenge from London/ Bath/ Bristol/ Salisbury. We personally hate tours, they're normally too constricting and annoying - and the British ones are the worst in the world for making up rules that aren't necessary. Plus they are expensive! So alternately there is a train station in Salisbury and from there you can get the bus to stonehenge. This bus costs £14 for just the bus and £26 for bus and entry to Stonehenge. As normal Stonehenge entry costs £14 and you understand that 14+14=28 you should definitely opt for the £26 option. That's still so expensive though, especially if you include however much your train fare was.. So you could just hitch hike for free. I would recommend the hitch hiking, even though we are normally too cowardly to do it.. How did we travel to Stonehenge then? My dad drove us :)

Salisbury

About half an hours drive from Stonehenge is the city Salisbury (pronounced Soulz bury). It's a sweet little place with lots of cute old buildings:

On the way to the cathedral is a nice arch, which is the gateway to the cathedral close:

I really like this photo, it's very British (apart from the German in it):

The spire in the above background is from Salisbury Cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral has the tallest church spire in Britain, the oldest clock in the world, and at the moment the best copy of the Magna Carta. It's also without a doubt the most beautiful British cathedral that I've ever seen (sorry Gloucester). Here it is:

and here's it's spire:

The best out of the four copies of the Magna Carta lives in this cathedral, it dates back to 1215! The Magna Carta is the first bill of rights in the world. I just think it's incredible that we are able to see something from eight hundred years ago. You're not allowed to take photos of it, but I took a photo of a photo of it: 

The Cathedral itself dates from around the same time (1220 onwards) and that's impressive too. This is my favourite part, the cloisters: 

I think it looks a lot like the cloisters in Harry Potter, but according to the internet it's not. Lots of cloisters in the UK look like each other okay!? 

Inside the cathedral, it's gorgeous:  

and there's lots of nice little details everywhere: 

Near the entrance is an infinity pool (also the baptism font) which cleverly reflects the ceiling, so you don't have to crane your neck:

This is the oldest clock in the world, it doesn't have a face but it dates about 1386 and still works - by ringing a bell on the hour every hour!

Just as we were leaving, a tour guide started talking to us and insisted on showing us this water gauge: 

Salisbury Cathedral was built on a high water table, but as the foundations are made of flint that's a good thing - without the flint the cathedral would sink, and without the water the flint would shift. It's like magic! She lifted this metal square, stuck a wooden pole in and showed us that the water was only 3 ft below us. 

Edward Heath, one of Britain's Prime-ministers is buried in the cathedral: 

The tall spire on the top was added on after the main building was built and as a consequence the pillars lean: 

It was really nice of the lady to teach us so much, she was very knowledgeable. 

We really enjoyed Stonehenge and Salisbury, and hope you do too! Whilst you're in the area we highly recommend that you check out Dorset and stay with Dream Cottages Dorset. 

Top Things to do in Birmingham

Poor Birmingham, it has an undeserved poor reputation. Southerns think it's in the North and Northerns think it's in the South (I'm Southern, so I can tell you Birmingham is actually in the North). 

Birmingham used to stand for dirty, dangerous, rough, grimy and everything everyone hates about England, it was also Tolkien's inspiration for Mordor - apparently. But since Tolkien's time, Birmingham has had a lot of money pumped into it (i.e. the Bullring) and is now a hub of culture, a haven for foodies and a perfect mix of historical buildings and brand-spanking-new ones. 

Birmingham is actually Britain's second city (no it's not Manchester) and is a must for anyone who comes to Britain and  makes it out of London. 

But what should you do there?

Visit the University 

It's the only university in Britain with it's own train station, so it's very easy for you to hop off on your way into the city. The architecture is stunning and it's a red brick university. 

The clock tower is the tallest free standing clock tower in the world and yes, it's bigger than Big Ben. They actually sell shirts at the university which say 'My clock is much bigger than yours' or something like that. He's called Old Joe and he inspired J.R.R. Tolkien who went to school next door (don't you see the resemblance between Old Joe and the big eye thing in LOTR)? 

There are so many books in the library that if you pilled them all up the pile would reach the moon! Thus the library is sinking a bit..  

Can you tell that I used to be a tour guide for the university?

The Bullring/ Bull Ring

The easiest and most popular place to shop in Birmingham is in the Bullring. To confuse you, the Bullring is located in the Bull Ring - an important historical landmark. Like most things in Birmingham the Bull Ring started off as something illegal (in this case an illegal market).

The Bullring is easily identifiable by the sexiest bull that I've ever seen. They normally dress him up accordingly - during the olympics he patriotically wore a British flag as a jumper, at Christmas he wore a jolly santa costume, and here he is in Spring looking macho:

The Bullring has over 160 shops inside it. Personally we don't like any of them. They are cloney and boring. Okay, okay there is one shop that we like: Selfridges. There are only four Selfridges in the world and they sell very expensive fancy things. On the bottom floor though there is the food section where it's great to browse around - and if you're lucky they will have free samples/ reduced the nearly out of date stuff to normal human prices. There is also a great alcohol section which features every type of alcohol ever, including the alcohol with bits of gold in it. You can also create your own cocktails there. 

St Martin's Church

Make sure that you pass St Martin's Church.  It's located right in the centre of the Bull Ring (so in the middle of the Bullring). I always found that it was a great, tasteful and ancient oasis inside the modern Bullring: 

It was built in 1873. We never went inside, even though I used to pass it like four times a week on the way to kickboxing or fruit and veg shopping. Visitors are welcome though and we will definitely go there when we're back in Birmingham. 

Birmingham Bull Ring Markets

Bull Ring Open Market

Located near the old Bull Ring, the markets are incredibly fun, or at least I think so. Tanbay and my sister both hated them. It's like being transported into another, more vibrant country. You can most definitely barter with the prices and get the fruit and veg you want for the prices you actually want (i.e. a lot cheaper than Tesco). 

Be warned though, if you are a white female with (dyed) blonde hair, like myself, you may get a lot of unwanted attention, but if you're lucky it may work in your favour: One veg guy used to give me free strawberries, and although it was completely creepy, free food is free food. 

Also, don't buy any of the dairy products. That tip isn't really specific to the Bull Ring Open Market it's for outdoor markets in general - do you really want dairy products that have been sat out in the sun?

The Open Market is open 9-5 Tuesday to Saturday. The later you go the more likely they are to bring the prices down. They normally do a big bowl of fruit or veg for a quid, but nearer the end it's not worth them taking it home so they'll do two or three bowls for a quid. Bargain. 

Bull Ring Indoor Market

We never had much luck in the indoor market. There's lots of meat and fish but it often smells kind of funky and the sellers are even dodgier than the fruit and veg sellers. HOWEVER, they do sell roasted cashew nuts quite cheaply and are yummy. 

FOOD

There are loads of excellent places to eat in Birmingham and it's not all curry (though the curry is the best in Britain). 

The Bullring has a hundred restaurants to eat in - each more cloney than the last. We don't like the Bullring or it's cloney shops, but even we'll admit that we're partial to Wagamamas and Cafe Rouge. If you have never been to a city in the UK, Wagamamas is Japanesish food and Cafe Rouge is Frenchish. Wagamamas is pretty cheap and Cafe Rouge often have vouchers which makes it cheaper.

Our favourites restaurants in Birmingham were not in the Bullring though. They were Wok Your Way Noodle Bar and San Carlo. Wok Your Way is located next to the train station and serves cheap and tasty noodles. You can watch them prepare them right in front of you. It's quick and delicious. San Carlo is a lot more expensive but serves the most beautiful Italian food. Yum. 

Cafe Deli is pretty good too!

The Custard Factory 

A 20 minute walk out of town gives you some impressive ever changing, free to view, modern art work and some great vintage clothes shops. The clothes shops are really great. Also there's a bead shop. Tanbay bought me a 3p bead once (true love). Here's some of that great art: 

I am also pretty sure (though I've never been) that there are clubbing type things at night. 

Birmingham Art Gallery 

Whilst small, it has a lot of variety and some great pieces here.  Compared to the National Gallery in London it's complete rubbish, but if you haven't been to that, I think you may be impressed by this. They have good temporary exhibits too - they had some of the ancient egyptian stuff and they had the Saxon gold too at one point. 

Chinese Quarter in Birmingham

We LOVE the Chinese Quarter/ China Town in Birmingham. There are authentic restaurants and shops there. They have a supermarket type store where we used to buy our noodles. They are much cheaper and nicer than tescos. We only ever went to one of the restaurants there, it was all you can eat. 

Jewellery Quarter

Over 40% of British jewellery is made in the jewellery quarter. We had a fun day walking around, we had an amazing Italian lunch and then went and pretended that we were engaged (this was before we actually were). They let me try on the rings and taught us a little about the cuts, clarities and other things.

Catch Some Classical Music

Okay the granny in me is showing her face again, but I don't know what you're into, and if you do like classical music and first class musicians, Birmingham has a lot to offer you. Go to the Birmingham Conservatoire where I saw Benjamin Grosvenor or the Birmingham Symphony Hall where we saw the CBSO, they do the best Christmas concert: 

Birmingham's Broad Street 

I'll be the first to admit that clubbing isn't really my thing. I literally went clubbing twice whilst I was at uni. However, I do know that Broad Street is the place to go if you want clubs and clubbing and a disgusting night out. The two clubs that I've been to were Gatecrasher (biggest club in Birmingham) and Oceania? Is that still around? Let me know.  

I have actually heard good things about snobs.. I've never been but I trust the people who've told me. Lol.

Essentially though we're probably the wrong people to ask. But with at least three universities in Birmingham, there are a lot of people to ask. 

Parades along New Street

We used to have a beautiful and amazing apartment in the centre of Birmingham, but whilst it was beautiful and the best place ever to live, it was also very expensive so we used to spend a lot of time doing free things. One of the best free things to do in Birmingham is to watch a parade. We saw the Christmas parade, the neo nazi parade, the pro muslim parade (those two actually clashed there was police everywhere), the Easter parade and an anti David Cameron parade. But by far the best parade was the Gay Pride Parade!

There were lots of Adam and Steves, Annas and Eves, drag queens, people on stilts, people dressed as rainbows and lots and lots of fit gay guys without shirts (yum). There were also people not dressed up at all and some who'd clearly walked off the street to show their support :) 

I'll tell you another thing, which you can choose to interpret anyway you like. Throughout all of the parades that we watched not one person looked up and saw us on the balcony - until the Gay Pride Parade and loads of them looked up at us and waved!! 

The Mailbox

The Mailbox is the less crowded much more expensive version of the Bullring (thus better ;) ). Saying that though there are some nice cheap eateries especially at lunchtime. Plus the BBC lives there and you can get your photo taken with the Tardis. 

The Mailbox is also the start of one of Birmingham's greatest bits which I've almost forgotten about.. 

The Canals 

There are loads of canals in Birmingham - 160 miles of canals. The train that runs from Birmingham centre to University runs directly next to the canal and on a good day it looks quite pretty. (If you're taking the train into Birmingham from the south you will no doubt be on that line). 

I have a funny story about the canals which, if you've seen them / do see them you might find funny too: A guy at the university took magic mushrooms and then went for a walk along the canals and thought he saw the Northern Lights. Ha ha. I didn't know this person and now can't even remember who it was who knew this person and told me about it, but whatever. 

The canals look particularly impressive in winter when they freeze. Please don't go skating on them and die. 

Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market

This market is actually really good and pretty German. The mullled wine is extremely good and perfect for when it's cold (which it always is in Decemeber). It runs along New Street up into Victoria Square. It gets bigger every year and is now the largest outdoor Christmas market in Britain. You can get authentic German beer and sausages here too, plus you can talk to the extremely defensive guy who sells reindeer pelts.

Anything else?

I don't normally recommend other people, because I am the best person, but if you need more convincing that Birmingham is beautiful check out Verity Milligan, she's a genius! If you love Birmingham and feel like we've missed anything out (or have anything to add) just let us know! 

London on a Budget!

LONDON: The capital of England - both geographically and fashion wise. See the iconic historical sites, the English pubs, the cute British royalty (or at least the palace where they hang out). Here we give you some tips on how not to spend all of your money here and still have fun!

How expensive is London really?

It is true that, in general, London is a lot more expensive than the rest of England (and indeed the rest of the United Kingdom). I have a great example to illustrate this: in England, students are given grants to live off whilst they go to university. Those who choose one of the universities in London get given a lot more money, which still isn't enough to cover rent in the grimiest of places!  

But, luckily for you, if you're travelling through London you don't need to rent a grimy place. With our tips you can do London in style and not have to max out your credit card..

Accommodation

Depending on where you're visiting from (and hence how much your travel costs are), chances are accommodation is one of your biggest expenses (if not the biggest). London is so vast with so much history and culture you have to spend at least a week there, a weekend on its own won't cut it. A week in a hotel or even a hostel can be super expensive. Don't worry though, we've got you covered: 

• House Sitting Yes, even Londoners have pets and go away, House Sitting is your biggest chance of free and luxurious accommodation. If you're on a budget this is the only way to stay somewhere 'classy' and London does class like nothing else. We are with TrustedHousesitters and sits for London come up at least once a week. 
• Couchsurfing is another way to completely eliminate any living costs, it won't be as luxurious as House Sitting but as London is so big there's lots and lots of options. 
• AirBnB, now this may not be cheaper than a hotel, but it will probably be more comfortable and with access to a kitchen. Furthermore, you may find that hotels are more expensive in certain areas, but AirBnB is not. We found this to be very true when we tried it out AirBnB in Paris.

Food Prices in London

If you look in the right places food prices are cheap because there's so much competition. Avoid supermarkets unless you find a really big one, the rule with supermarkets in England (not just London) is the bigger they are, the more likely they are to stock value/ own/ essential stuff (i.e. cheap stuff). Go for up and coming, independent places - they have a lot of competition and so can't bank on the hipsters overpaying for them. 

Site Seeing

This is what the rest of this post is about, because once you've sorted your bed and food you can address your other necessity - seeing the world. The great thing about London is that most of the iconic sites are free!!

Big Ben 

Big Ben is arguably London's most easily recognisable feature. It was built in 1854 and is 96 metres tall. 

Actually Big Ben is the nickname for the giant bell inside the clock. The actual tower itself is called Elizabeth Tower. If you're lost and looking for it though, you're probably better off asking for Big Ben, I don't think everyone knows it's called Elizabeth Tower. Or ask for the houses of parliament - Big Ben is on the end. 

You can walk up her for free, but only if you are a UK resident whose booked more than 6 months in advance through your local MP... 

So instead take a photo from the outside is just as good!

Westminster Abbey

Right next door to Big Ben is Westminster Abbey, Joey and Chandler have been there (Chandler was Westminster Crabbey) and Prince Wills and Kate Middleton got married there. If those two facts don't interest you (why?) you may like that most Monarchs of England have been crowned here. If you don't like that then I don't know what you'd like to hear, I just like it because it's famous and the architecture is beautiful.

Entry is absolutely ridiculous (£18 for an adult, £15 if you have a valid student ID..) I thought Abbeys were God's house and were free? Humf. Entry to St Margaret's Church which is next door is free. We just settled for a photo outside. 

British Museum

The British Museum is great, they have everything. It was founded in 1753 and has remained open ever since (apart from in world war one and two). It was free back in the day and is still free now (though donations are appreciated). Our favourite part is all the Egyptian stuff:  

I wouldn't be surprised if they have more ancient Egyptian stuff than they do in Egypt.. There are rooms and rooms of it. The best bit is of course is the really old, and hopefully dead, mummies:

Even the entrance to the British Museum is beautiful - it's really really white. 

Even if mummies and white rooms aren't your thing, I can still guarantee that  the British Museum won't disappoint! 

The Natural History Museum 

This is the best museum ever. No doubt. If you're a fan of David Attenborough, blue whales or dinosaurs this is a must do for you (and if you're not a fan of any of these what's wrong with you)?! It's absolutely free and is fantastic!

In one room they have a life size model of a blue whale which is actually the biggest creature ever! Who knew. There's another level that's about earth quakes and tsunamis and you can stand in a room where they stimulate an earthquake for you.

Take a Ride on the London Underground 

I find the underground really grubby and completely confusing, but I still love it! London is pretty big so I would recommend that you go everywhere on the underground, if you walk you'll see half the stuff and be knackered. 

Before you get on the tube, you'll need to listen to this song and watch this film in preparation.

Other 'must do' attractions to check off your list are the London Eye, Buckingham Palace, the V and A, Tower of London, Tate Modern, Madam Tussauds, the Aquarium, see a show, Camden markets, Piccadilly, Trafalgar square and so much more! Head to Oxford Street if you want the run of the mill Topshop, Primark type shops - Selfridges is there too which is definitely worth a look. Lonely Planet can help you out there.