Saturday 28th and Sunday 29th March.
Best of Britain and Ireland Show
at Olympia, London
Information about the show can be found at www.britainandirelandevent.co.uk
Free themed tours by Blue Badge tourist guides from across the United Kingdom were offered to showcase the Best of Britain and Ireland Show.
Our 30 minute tours around the exhibition stands focused on the themes of the show – countryside, coastal, heritage, flavours, active, and luxury. We also did a very popular family trail. Guides had a light hearted, well researched and informative approach with tales of grisly deeds, unusual buildings and up to date information on events and festivals.
To give you a flavour of the experience, I sampled the “Spoon with a View” tour. Along with just the right amount of background information, we sampled smoked mackerel from Hastings, English wines from Kent, pies from Melton Mowbray, gingerbread from Grasmere, rhubarb smoothies and dandelion and Burdock cake from Yorkshire (very moorish); finally a welcome cuppa and mini scones from Sussex by the Sea had me raring to go round again..this time to discuss malts with the experts from Ireland and Scotland ..hmm which do I prefer? There was even a Northumbrian malt which compared very favourably..
The 8 tours were titled:
Fish and Trips - voyage round our coast
Bricks and Slaughter - If walls could talk.
High and Mighty - The buildings of Britain
England’s Green and Pleasant Land
Mountains, Merlin and mystery –Celtic countryside
Because you’re worth it! - the luxury trail
Mud, Sweat and Beers - sports for all sorts
A Spoon with a View - fabulous fare from fantastic places
Under the glass roof of elegant Olympia, and with the bright green “grass” of home (well a carpet), this was a picture postcard view of Britain - from the Channel Island stands covered with sweet smelling spring flowers, to the whiskies and fudge of the Orkneys and Shetlands stand.
You could strum a guitar at the Liverpool stand; handle a piece of 500 year old rope from the wreck of the Mary Rose at Portsmouth; try your hand at horse racing at Ascot; and practice your golf swing in Ireland.
Hercule Poirot sat in a comfy 1930s armchair with the beautiful Cornish coast as backdrop. Moira Cameron, the first female yeoman warder in the 900 year history of the Tower of London - known to many London guides - was on patrol, along with a Viking from Dublin Museum, the Lord Mayor of Caenarvon in Wales with his gold chain, and costumed actors from West End show ȁPriscilla Queen of the Desert”.
There were talks and demonstrations on offer throughout the 4 days: including “the effectiveness of Blue Badge guides” , Elizabethan costume with Globe theatre experts and wine tastings by Denbies vineyards.
A Scottish piper opened and closed proceedings every day and a lovely team of colour coordinated Irish lassies put their hearts and souls into melodic harp music concerts on the main stage.
The most spectacular stand had to be the brand new carriage from the North Wales Ffestiniog railway. Build at a cost of around £250,000, it featured ospreys on the paneled walls, plush seats and a wrap around observation window – and anoraks galore to tempt you with tales of timetables and scenery. They were fired up with the passion that inspires those who work in the heritage business –in fact you could have chuffed all around the show, picking up steam train and tourist route timetables from all over the country.
The overwhelming impression is of the sheer variety and beauty of our land and sea scapes: from the Giants’ Causeway of the Irish Coast to the grandeur of Hadrian’s Wall (lit up for the first time in hundreds of years with a beacon trail to start British Tourism Week), and of the endless fascinating possibilities of a holiday at home. Not just the big players like Historic Royal Palaces, Houses of Parliament tours, and Longleat House but the smaller contributors such as the Keswick pencil museum, the new free Stratford armouries museum, the Wedgewood museum - which won the Art Fund prize as Museum of the Year in 2009 - and the Geffrye Museum with its historic London interiors. South East Tourism launched their “Year of the Museum” at the show –they have over 300 fabulous places to visit on offer – try one for each day of the year. This great cornucopia of things to do can be experienced in every nation and region of the British Isles.
See you next year - Why go anywhere else!
Eileen Cox
