Go and play the markets
Tomes are a-changing For more great holiday ideas, see page 39
set off along the river with Salters Steamers, salterssteamers.co.uk. Then go for a drink at the Trout Inn, as Morse and Lewis habitually did at the end of every case. See thetroutoxford.co.uk.
Famous five Isle of Purbeck
Despite the name, Purbeck is not an island, but a huge lump of limestone on the western side of Poole harbour that kicks off Dorset’s Jurassic Coast. It remains surprisingly remote, with villages that seem to grow organically out of weathered rock. Routes to Swanage, its main resort, are through the village of Corfe, dominated by its FANS of Christmas markets should love a five-day coach break to Germany, visiting traditional stalls in the towns of Heidelberg, Speyer and Rudesheim. The £379 per person deal includes four nights’ accommodation, daily towering sight of an 11th century castle. Enid Blyton used to come here for her holidays, and most of her Famous Five adventures are set in thinly disguised Purbeck locations. Meanwhile the region’s one-man-and-his-dog limestone quarries are still worked by the sort of characters you’d find in a novel by Thomas Hardy, for whom Dorset was fertile ground for stories. FEEL THE MAGIC: Take the restored steam-hauled railway up from Swanage to Corfe, swanagerailway.co.uk. And find refreshment in the cosy and authentically historic stonemasons’ pub the Square and Compass in Worth Matravers. Pints and pies are served through a hatch at the back, just as they would have been in Hardy’s day. See squareandcompasspub.co.uk. breakfast, three dinners and the three market excursions. You can be picked up at various points around the UK. The price is based on two sharing. See shearings. com or phone 0344 874 8220. Windswept moors where cruel but handsome aristocrats live in crumbling manor houses with names like Wuthering Heights and Wildfell Hall were bread and butter to the imaginations of the Bronte sisters, who grew up in a parsonage in the Yorkshire town of Haworth. Also writing in this part of Yorkshire was James Herriot, whose veterinary practice in Thirsk in the Dales brought him into contact with a wide variety of pungent characters. His books became the TV series All Creatures Great and Small. FEEL THE MAGIC: Walk through Swaledale, admiring the drystone walls and lovely, rolling terrain. Then overhear doughty Yorkshire ladies gossiping over the French fancies in Betty’s tea rooms in Harrogate. See bettys.co.uk.
ALEGER Battlefield Tours has a four-day coach trip that takes in the Armistice commemorations in Mons plus battlefields, the St Symphorien Military Cemetery and Mons Military Museum. It costs £349pp, departing November 9, including B&B in a three-star hotel, executive coach travel and guide. See legerbattlefields.co.uk.
Great Rail Journeys has a five-day trip, Bruges and the Battlefields of Ypres, taking in Ypres battlefields, the Menin Gate and the Last Post ceremony and German Bayernwald Trenches. Leaving April 28, it costs £675pp, with Eurostar and B&B in a four-star hotel. See greatrail.com. Blinkist Free to download
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