Walk this way on Mother's Day

Mother's Day is this Sunday, March 14 in the UK. In Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the USA Mothering Sunday will be celebrated on Sunday, May 9. Mother's Day is an opportunity for those of us lucky enough to still have a mother to say thank you for all the things that they have done, or continue to do, for us.

Expressing our thanks is a simple act, but actually physically getting round to show tangibly our regard for a loved one is not always easy, as we have different pulls on our time.

Many sons and daughters will seek to give their mother a present to say 'thank you'. You could look to buy your mother something a little different - which will last longer in the memory than a bunch of flowers or a box of chocolates.

The Houses of Parliament is sometimes referred to as the Mother of Parliaments. John Bright, a nineteenth century Radical MP with strong links to Manchester, said "England was the Mother of Parliaments". Listeners to the Manchester: Then & Now Walk Talk Tour can hear more about Bright and the world's first industrial city.

The statue of Bright (below) is in Albert Square in front of the Town Hall, where the Walk Talk Tour of Manchester starts.

You could buy your mum a Walk Talk Tour audio tour guide. Listeners are able to discover some of the pomp and ceremony of royal and monumental London with the Palace Trail. Like the other Walk Talk Tours, the Palace Trail is composed of commentary points/stops where listeners hear about a particular attraction or landmark - like the Houses of Parliament.

Hear about some of the characters associated with the new Palace of Westminster. Take in Mounting the Guard at Horse Guards or Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace - the final stop in this tour. For more information on the opening times and admission charges of many places of interest along the tour take a look at our Where & When page.

Buy one tour and get a second free by entering the following code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Once you have downloaded your tour, it is yours for keeps. Listeners can enjoy hearing about the sights entirely on their own terms. Simply download and away you go.

Four quirky facts about London Bridge

Bridge Ahoy. There is something about walking across a bridge that appeals to me. A bridge offers the road user or pedestrian convenience, by cutting down the journey time between two points, but a bridge can also be a thing of beauty and for the firm of architects, engineers and builders involved in the construction a labour of love. The precision, the calculations, the commitment, the time; these are all qualities that we will have displayed in our own lives at one point or another - even if we are not architects or civil engineers.

The current London Bridge might not be the most attractive of London's river crossings, but its predecessors have some interesting events associated with them. And some quirky traditions are still associated with London Bridge.

1. The first recorded crossing point of the River Thames was built by the Romans in the middle of the first century AD close to the current site of London Bridge. The first stone bridge completed in 1209, was funded by a tax on wool.

2. The practice of driving on the left hand side of the road in Britain can be traced back to 1722, when the Lord Mayor of London ordered that the traffic crossing London Bridge should keep to the left in order to better facilitate the movement of people and animals.

3. Freemen of the City of London have the right to drive their cattle over London Bridge. In September 2008, the Lord Mayor of London and around 500 Liverymen (freemen) exercised their right to drive sheep across London Bridge, free of charge, in a bid to raise money for two charities: - Wellbeing of Women and Orbis.

4. In late July, what is said to be the oldest rowing race in the world, the Doggett's Coat and Badge Race, is run over a course on the Thames stretching over 4 miles 5 furlongs (7,400m) from London Bridge to Chelsea. As many as six Watermen compete for a red Waterman's coat and silver badge. The race's founder, Dublin born Thomas Doggett, was an actor and later theatre manager. The Doggett Coat and Badge Race was first run back in 1715, its founder died five years later.

London has many interesting bridges. Pedestrians can enjoy crossing Tower Bridge and London's newest river crossing, the Millennium Bridge, as well as hearing more about London Bridge, with The City & South Bank Circular audio tour guide. To hear a short audio extract from the tour guide please click here.

Pictured left is the iconic dome of St Paul's Cathedral. The picture top is of London Bridge today.

There are five Walk Talk Tour London audio guides, all of which are available in French, German and Spanish. Each tour is composed of commetary points like tracks on a CD or iTunes album and comes complete with a map for listeners to print out. Select your chosen tour(s), download and away you go!

Get a Hooke on London

I am interested in provenance - the who, what, why, where and when of people, places and history.

London is associated with many inspirational and famous people. March 3 marks the death of Robert Hooke, a famous physicist who passed away in 1703. Hooke was a contemporary and friend of Sir Christopher Wren, the man famous for designing the new St Paul's Cathedral in the aftermath of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Hooke and Wren designed the Monument, which stands on the site of the first church in London to fall victim to the flames. The centre of the Monument is hollow, so Hooke and Wren could hang a pendulum for scientific experiments.

Hooke discovered the law of elasticity known as Hooke's Law, (in 1660) which states that the stretching of a solid physical structure (like say metal or wood) is proportional to the force applied to it.

The Monument is a memorial to the Great Fire of London, but it is also a tribute to an important scientist whose achievements are sometimes overlooked in favour of more illustrious contemporaries like Wren and Sir Isaac Newton.

There are a myriad number of ways to experience London. But have you heard about Walk Talk Tours? The Monument is a stop/commentary point on two of our five London tours: the City and the Tower and The City & South Bank Circular.

Listeners can download our five London tours to their iPhone, MP3 Player, cellphone or MP3 Player. Unlike a regular guided tour there is no set timetable which you listeners must adhere to, or time in which the audio guide must be listened to - once you have purchased your tour you can take as long or as little as you wish to explore the sights en route.

What's more all five Walk Talk Tours of London are available in French, German and Spanish as well as English.

At the time of writing, an adult ticket on a London Duck Tour starts from £20 and a discounted individual adult ticket on the Original London Sightseeing Bus starts from £22. (Prices obtained from respetive official websites on March 3, 2010).

Each Walk Talk Tour of London costs just £5.95. Enter the following code in the shopping basket page to buy one tour and get a second free: BI123.

Black Day for the City of Chester (and football)

Friday, February 26, 2010 will go down in history as a Black Day for the City of Chester after the city's professional soccer team, Chester City, was expelled from the Football Conference, the fifth tier of professional football in England, with immediate effect.

The Club had breached five Football Conference rules and was booted out of the league after a meeting of the member clubs.

Colin Peake, the Press Officer of the Football Conference said: "Today’s events are unparalleled in the history of our national sport... The Football Conference are very sad that any club should go such a way, but especially one with a proud 125-year-old history. So it should come as a wake-up call to all clubs that they must live within their means."

To the wider world, Chester might be more readily associated with horse racing, but Chester City had long held the affections of local people.

Supporters of lower league football teams are a loyal bunch who often spurn the chance to watch more glamorous local teams within easy reach, to follow their hometown or most local team.

I have found memories of going to the Deva Stadium to watch my local team Macclesfield Town.

In a prepreared press statement the club's largest supporters group said:

"City Fans United are dismayed and saddened that this situation has been allowed to occur.. However, we have previously stated our belief that years of financial mismanagement meant that this decision was inevitable.. We are angry that Chester City FC was allowed to fall into such a sorry state.. And we call upon the football authorities to review their rules on the ownership and financial control of football clubs, before the supporters of another football club are forced to endure the pain felt by fans of Chester City FC."

City Fans United will be no doubt try and emulate Accrington Stanley, the first professional club in England to go bust in 1962, who now ply their trade in the fourth tier of professional football (confusingly called League Two) in England. The Lancashire club were forced to give up their place in the old Fourth Division because the club was unable to pay their players' wages, their creditors and fulfil their fixtures, in a scenario all too familiar for Chester City fans.

The city of Chester itself has a long and colourful history, stretching back to Roman times which visitors can hear more about with the Chester Revealed Walk Talk Tour audio tour guide.

Burke and Hare: Edinburgh Thriller

London has its fair share of figures synonymous with murder like Jack the Ripper and Sweeney Todd. North of the Border, there seems to be renewed interest in William Burke and William Hare - two equally notorious characters, who are infamous because of their deeds in late 1820s Edinburgh.

Burke and Hare will soon be brought before a new audience, when a production for the small screen airs on tv. The dramatization is directed by John Landis, who directed Michael Jackson's Thriller video.

Burke and Hare were a pair of enterprising residents of Edinburgh's Old Town. Hare and his wife ran a small lodging house. When one of their tenants (who had been in rent arrears) - and was referred to simply as 'Donald' passed away, Burke and Hare removed his body from his coffin and replaced it with bark. They then sold the cadaver to Robert Knox, an anatomist at Edinburgh University.

There were not enough bodies for dissection available as only the bodies of convicted murderers could legally be used. Burke and Hare spotted a gruesome 'gap in the market'. Tales of unscrupulous individuals robbing graves, in order to sell the cadavers to anatomists were common place. These men were called 'resurrectionists'. But in early 1828 Burke and Hare went one step further and turned their hands to murder.

Hear more about the notorious deeds of Burke and Hare with the Old and New Towns audio tour guide. The tour begins outside Edinburgh Castle continues to the Grassmarket, before continuing into Princes Street Gardens and onto St Andrew Square. The tour, which is composed of stops/commentary points like tracks on a CD or iTunes album, concludes in Charlotte Square. To hear a short audio sample from the tour please click here.

The precise number of people to die at the hands of Burke and Hare is unclear. It is thought that they killed at least fifteen people. In a final twist to the gruesome tale, William Hare escaped the hangman's noose by turning king's evidence on his accomplice, William Burke. Burke was hanged. The saying 'scot free' is said to have originated from Hare's escape.

The image (top) was retrieved from The Scotsman newspaper on September 4, 2009. It is a depiction of William Burke which was created by Bijan Moghbel, a former student on a MSC Forensic Art course at Dundee University.

Carbon Fast no mean feat

Lent is upon us. Are you going to give anything up? And if you are, what difference will it make in the greater scheme of things? In a consumer society, many Christians will often choose to give up one of life's little luxuries - like chocolate.

How about giving up making short car journeys and using your feet instead? Giving up using a car altogether is an unrealistic proposition for many people.

Part of Lent is surely about savouring what we have by sacrificing some of things that we do not necessarily need. The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, advocates a 'Carbon Fast' (a concept first put forward by the Tearfund) whereby individuals abstain from using technical gadgets for a day each month. The Rt Rev James Jones was quoted in The Daily Telegraph earlier today as saying that: "Lent is a period when we should look at how we live our lives... Giving up chocolate is a symbol of that but giving up technology is a more serious way of looking at the issues that face us as a global community. It is a statement [of solidarity] with a world that does not have that ability to communicate the way we can and a reminder to us that perhaps we may have got beyond ourselves in terms of our own consumption of technology."

I agree with the Rt Rev James Jones that we should reflect on how we live our lives. (Lent or no Lent). Modern gadgets like iPods, iPhones, cell phones and MP3 Players can actually help get people to use their feet to experience the best of some of the UK's favourite cities and get fit in the process (Britian is said to be facing an obesity time bomb and walking is one of the most democratic activities there is).

Going walk about with a Walk Talk Tour audio tour guide does not involve the burning of precious fossil fuels as taking a ride on tour bus does. In addition, listeners can take in the sights on their own terms. And once a listener has downloaded their tour it is theirs for keeps. There is no compulsion to use a tour within a certain time frame as is the case with more traditional sightseeing tours.

A statue of John Wesley, who was one of the founding fathers of Methodism, is pictured above. The statue stands in the gardens of St Paul's Cathedral, which is featured in The City and the Tower, audio guided tour. It has been estimated that John Wesley preached some 40,000 sermons during his lifetime and travelled some 250,000 miles. No mean feat, particularly in the days before the automobile and the aeroplane.

Buy One Walk Talk Tour and get the second free by entering the following promotional code in the shopping basket page: BI123.

Chester Cathedral is pictured above. Discover the delights of the Roman city's history with the Chester Revealed audio tour guide. To hear an audio sample from the tour please click here. Simply download and away you go.

Endangered Tiger apt sign for tough times

Today is the first day of the year of the Tiger. The Tiger occupies the third spot on the Chinese Zodiac behind the Rat and the Ox.

Events have been staged in Birmingham and Manchester today, while celebrations are due to be staged in Liverpool on February 21.

People born in the year of the Tiger are said to brave, competitive, generous and at times unpredictable characters.

Sadly, only an estimated 3,500 tigers are currently thought to be at large in the wild. Perhaps it is apt then that that an endangered species, like the tiger should be the zodiac sign for what promises to be a tough year for many economies.

The UK economy was the last of the major economies to officially emerge from recession. Official data published on January 26, 2010, revealed that the UK's economy had grown by 0.1 per cent in the final three months of 2009.

Consumers want to know that they're getting value for money. If you're looking for an innovative, entertaining, and affordable way to experience the sights in some of the UK's most popular cities then you've come to the right place. Listeners download our audio tour guides to their iPhone, iPod, MP3 Player or cell phone.

Unlike a conventional guided tour with a Walk Talk Tour listeners do not have 'to do' their tour within a certain timescale. Once you have purchased your tour it is yours for keeps.

Each tour is composed of commentary points like tracks on an iTunes album or a CD. Listeners hear about a particular like the Houses of Parliament in London, and then receive instructions explaining how to reach the next commentary point. Listeners can stop and start as they see fit.

Buy Walk Talk Tour and get a second free by entering the following code in the shopping basket: BI123.

Image retrieved from The Daily Mail, September 3, 2007.