Dating back thousands of years, to Pagan times Halloween can be traced back to a festival of the celtic people who populated Britain, Ireland and Northern France.  Pre-dating christianity, this celtic festival marked the transition from the spring and summer seasons of life, growth and warmth to the colder, darker winter, essentially symbolising a transition from the world of the living to the world of the…dead!  They believed Oct 31st marked the night when the mortal world would be revisited by the dead.  In response Celtic Priests, the Druids, would light bonfires to ward off evil sprirts.  Today there are many theories that the standing stones at Stonehenge are related to the ancient celts and particularly the Druid Priesthood.

It is believed the festival continued in some form after the invasion of Britain by the Romans in 43AD although over the course of several hundred years it adopted some characteristics from the Roman traditions and celebrations including a the tradtion of “bobbing for apples” which is still a popular game played by children in the UK today.

Following the Romans in the 5th century the germanic clans of the Saxons invaded pushing the celtic peoples to the north and western extremes of Britain including Scotland, Wales and Cornwall.    And shortly after this the Christian religion was introduced to Britain and imposed upon much of its people.  The Christian festival of “All Hallows Day” which traditionally remembered those who had died for their beliefs, was moved from May to Nov 1st to coincide with Pagan festival and help assimilate the Pagan people in to Christianity.  The Pagan night therefore became All Hallows Even which over the centuries became Halloween.

As with many other countries, modern day Halloween is still widely celebrated.  Excited groups of children take to the streets to “Trick or Treat” namely dressing as skeletons, witches, ghosts, vampires and other creepy characters.  They wander from house to house demanding sweets and treats.  Others have Halloween parties, again involving scary costume, and the telling of ghost stories by candle light.  Some games are played including bobbing for apples where children dunk there heads in to a bowl of water to fish for floating apples with their mouths.  And of course, as in many other countries, children here hollow out pumpkins, cutting faces in to the side and lighting them with candles.

Surprisingly it’s not the same everywhere as there are some isolated areas of Britain where broadband looks to be many moons away. For instance one of the b&b’s that we use for those of our guests that want to get away from the pressures of the mobile phone and the PC Is The Lion Hotel in Gwytherin.

Gwytherin is a village of 200 people in situated near Llanrwst in Snowdonia, North Wales and is the setting for Ellis Peters’ first Cadfael novel “A Morbid Taste for Bones”. The Lion, a classy 6 roomed b&b and restaurant is also the village pub so a great place to meet up for a pint with the locals after a hard day’s walking or visiting the castles of Conwy, Caernarfon and Beaumaris .

The thing about Gwytherin is that not only does it lack broadband and a mobile phone signal – the normal phone reception suffers when more than a handful of the villagers use their phones at the same time. Little wonder that the red public phone box is also a meeting point for villagers. It’s also conveniently close to the pub and the only phone box that I know that always has a vase of fresh cut flowers.

This lack of signal must be a little annoying for the villagers but for the rest of us this is just perfect for a few quiet days.

The build-up is very much the same both sides of the pond and will remain so until a few minutes prior to kick off when it’s time for the National Anthem. In Colorado the crowd will unite with Jordin Sparks (sorry I don’t know her either but she won “American Idol” if that means anything to you) and stand proud in the singing of “The Star-Spangled Banner”. In the rugby matches a sub competition occurs at this point when each nation involved sings its own anthem. It’s a proud moment with the power to bring tears to the eyes. I know I’m not the only one.

For instance take the match between England and Wales at Twickenham, London tomorrow afternoon. This is the one match that every Welshman wants to win. Wales beating England at “Twickers” (say this in a posh English accent) the home of rugby. As the Wales rugby coach Warren Gatland summed up “It’s not just a game of rugby. It’s nation against nation and bragging rights – not for a few days, but for a whole year”. Over in the USA I can imagine that Patriots supporters will have bragging rights for a lifetime if their team wins!

In Twickenham, when the brass band hits the opening chords the thousands of visiting Welshmen will, as one, launch into “Mae Hen Wlad fy Nhadau” (“Land of our Fathers”) with all their hearts . Then, they’ll be respectfully quiet as the English sing “God Save the Queen” knowing full well that the Welsh Anthem wins hands down with its power to stir the soul. This respectful scene on the playing of the Anthems will also play out in Croke Park, Dublin where Ireland entertain Italy and in Murrayfield, Edinburgh where Scotland play France.

In the singing of the Anthems in all of the above matches I’m sure of one thing – most of the crowd will not know more than one verse of their own National Anthem.

C’mon Wales…… and Go Patriots.

Prices have not yet been released but if you want hassle free flying between these cities in 2009 and willing to pay for it I’d suggest that this may be the flight for you.

Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, Matisse, Kandinsky, Tatlin, Malevich are all represented in this exhibition and with highlights such as The Dance by Henri Matisse it is sure to draw in the crowds.

So, Art lovers if you’re in London you’ll not want to miss this. The Royal Academy of Art, Burlington House, Piccadilly is hosting the exhibition until the 18^th April.

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race!
Aboon them a’ yet tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy o’a grace
As lang’s my arm.

As a Welshman I can’t say that I understand much of what is being said above any more than I understand why people eat haggis. Washing it down with a wee dram though is a splendid tradition. To all of you celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday, have a great night.

Dwynwen was the prettiest of the Celtic King Brychan Brycheiniog’s 24 daughters (he also had 11 sons!). At one of the parties that King Brychan held regularly Dwynwen fell in love with a handsome prince called Maelon Dafodrill. However her father refused her permission to marry him as he’d arranged for her to marry another. Maelon was so angry that he raped Dwynwen and left her.

Dwynwen was distraught and fled into the woods. Here, through her tears and grief she prayed to God to help her forget Maelon Dafodrill, before falling asleep under the trees. In a dream she was visited by an Angel with a potion to help her forget her cruel lover as well as turn him into ice. God also granted Dwynwen three wishes. Her wishes were 1.That God thaw Maelon Dafodrill 2. That he met the hopes and dreams of true lovers 3. That she would never marry.

All her wishes were fulfilled and Dwynwen devoted the rest of her life to the service of God and established a church on the small island of Llanddwyn just off the west coast of Anglesey, near the village of Newborough. The remains of the church can still be seen today and the tidal island can be reached on foot.

The popularity of St. Dwynwen’s day seems to have increased greatly over the last ten years in Wales and you’ll find Welsh speakers celebrating it with parties and concerts, although not to the same level as St Valentine’s Day. Why it’s celebrated on January 25^th I really have no idea. Here’s a card to all you romantics from all of us here at myguideBritain Cerdyn Santes Dwynwen

There seems to a good number of costume dramas on the TV currently and I for one am not complaining. The latest success we’ve had is the series “Cranford” that was an adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s novel of the same name amalgamated for TV with her other books “My Lady Ludlow” and “Mrs. Harrison’s Confessions”. This will air on US television in May and you’re in for a treat. We’ve also had Charles Dickens’ “Oliver Twist” and “The Old Curiosity Shop” on over Christmas.

Why do we watch these series’ in our millions? Are we all a bunch of nostalgics? I think not. My view is that although they’re visually stunning, evoking the period in which they’re set, they are without doubt brilliant stories that have withstood the test of time.

Although some of these will be partly studio based a great many will be filmed on location around Britain. Most of the scenes from Cranford were easily recognizable as being set in Lacock and West Wycombe just to the west of London. You’ll find that Lacock will usually feature very strongly in a good number of these period dramas as it’s a living, working village that’s changed little over the centuries and is now owned by the National Trust. The money from these films must add a lot to their coffers and go towards the upkeep of the village. I’m not sure if I’d enjoy living there though with so many film crews taking up residency there. It’s not a period drama but the Harry Potter crew also shot some scenes in the Abbey at Lacock. It’s a very easy to get to as you drive to Bath from London sitting just south of Chippenham eight miles out of Bath.

The dramatizations of Dickens novels generally conjure up pictures of London that are probably far from the truth. I can’t imagine that London was a very healthy place to life in the 1800’s. Imagine the raw sewerage flowing in gutters into the Thames, horse manure from the thousands of horse drawn carriages, smoke belching from each house’s chimney – not to mention the unwashed hordes and the prostitutes, pickpockets and drunks. Not the sort of place that most of us would find comfortable – it must have stunk to high heaven. It’s rather more pleasant today thank goodness. If you want a good day out and find out more about Dickens’ London then I could recommend a day out in Dickens’ World in Chatham, Kent where Dickens lived for a time. It promises to immerse you in “the urban streets, sounds and smells of 19^th century London”. Thankfully it fails in the smells department otherwise I imagine we would all be physically sick.

On the way we stopped off for morning coffee at Llangoed Hall, a country House hotel owned by Sir Bernard Ashley, widower of Laura Ashley. It was either that or The Little Chef in Builth Wells. No competition. Sorry Little Chef. There’s no reception desk at Llangoed Hall, so you really do feel that you’re walking into your very (very) rich uncle’s house. We wandered into the drawing room that looked out over the croquet lawn towards the farmland beyond, introduced ourselves to one of the staff, and ordered a coffee. I could have easily spent the rest of the day being waited on hand and foot reading the latest Grisham novel, but Lake Vyrnwy beckoned so off we set.

The rain didn’t stop on the journey north through the undulating Welsh hills giving them a mystical appeal as we headed towards Lake Vyrnwy and the hotel of the same name that sits overlooking this lake. This area of mid Wales if sparsely populated with no large towns so a great area for driving, where you can easily venture off the beaten track onto one of the side roads to find some amazing spots. No need for sat nav – just follow your nose.

Lake Vyrnwy is man-made and has major political significance in Wales as it was the first valley to be flooded to supply water for the industrial towns of England. The recipients of the water were (and still are) Liverpool and coincidentally on the day we visited, the dam was celebrating 111 years to the day since its taps (if that’s the right technical term) were closed to allow the water to start building and drowning the valley behind. As part of the project the inhabitants of the son to be flooded village of Llanwddyn were moved lock, stock and barrel to a newly built village a few miles below the dam. The iconic tower in the picture is part of the dam’s workings.

The hotel has an enviable position overlooking the lake and is a great base for exploring mid Wales. Anthony Rosser, General Manager had kindly invited us to lunch and as I sat there discussing Spa and Activity packages I could not help thinking that I was a very lucky fellow indeed to make a living doing this. The view over the lake from the hotel was stunning even though the weather was wet. Surprisingly there were still quite a few Gore-tex clad ramblers around. I guess that when you’ve got the right clothes there’s no such thing as bad weather.

This is a great hotel that make you feel immediately comfortable and at home – the sort of place in which to spend a few days to recharge one’s batteries. They have a fabulous newly opened spa with some amazing treatments and can offer a good range of outdoor activities ranging from walking tours to clay pigeon shooting. With enough dollars in your pocket they would also arrange some pheasant shooting for you. I can imagine that the shooting party made up of wealthy industrialists that were staying at the hotel when we visted would keep the hotel in pheasant meat for weeks to come as well as paying a handsome bill for the privelege

So two great hotels in one day that I would no doubt be seeing again in 2008 (with wife in tow of course). So it was that I set off on the journey home in a particularly good mood. In fact it was one of those “wonder were that road leads to” moods that meant, of course, that I got lost twice and reached home about an hour and a half later than expected. However on the up side I found myself in the small town of Montgomery, on the Wales England border, for the first time. With its bow windowed Georgian houses and cobbled pavements and dominated by a ruined 13^th century castle it was certainly worth getting lost for. If I’d had Sat Nav I never would have seen it. Thanks nose!

The Norfolk Broads is Britain’s largest protected wetland and one of its largest inland waterways with the status of a national park. I fancied renting a sailing boat there and pottering around for a few relaxing days. My wife did not. The other option on the table was a long weekend bird-watching and walking, a few miles north on the North Norfolk coast. Since this option came with a few nights in a great hotel, my wife thought it a no brainer. We stayed at Titchwell Manor Hotel in Brancaster – an award winning hotel overlooking the salt marshes and only a 10 walk from the Titchwell RSPB bird reserve and the vast (think Sahara when the tide’s out) golden sands of Brancaster Bay.

If you’re a bird watcher the Titchwell reserve is famous for its Avocets, Bitterns and Marsh Harriers as well as the tens of thousands of Geese that migrate south from the Arctic for the winter. You walk through the reserve to get to the beach which is more like a desert when the sea is out. When the cold wind blows in this part of England it can chill you to the bones during the winter months so the thermal vest and long johns had been packed in readiness (and they were definitely needed!). It’s called a lazy wind by the locals. It’s too lazy to go around you so it goes through you. The beach here in common with most North Norfolk beaches are fabulous, and more importantly, deserted.

The villages in this part of the world don’t seem to have changed much since the time of the great sea hero Horatio Nelson who was born in Burnham Thorpe 250years ago where his father was the village rector. Cley next the Sea was a busy fishing village in the middle ages but the sea retreated leaving a mile of marshland in its wake and Cley no longer next to the sea . Burnham Market’s village green is surrounded by many fine buildings dating from the 17th and 18th century and it’s collection of small shops and boutiques attract a cosmopolitan bunch from far and wide. When we visited, the collection of Rolls Royces, Bentleys and Range Rovers in the car park of The Hoste Arms certainly showed why this village has become known as “Chelsea on Sea”.

Just a couple of miles from Burnham Market is the Palladian mansion of Holkham Hall built in 1732 by Thomas Coke, 1^st Earl of Leicester whose descendant the present Viscount Coke still lives in the Hall with his family. It’s one of the great Country houses of Britain that houses many art treasures by painters such as Rubens and Gainsborough and surrounded by a three thousand acre deer park.

It’s not an area where many of our guests venture because it’s a little off the beaten track and not easy to fit into itineraries when there’s so much else to be seeing in Britain during your stay. But if you do decide that this area is worth exploring then you won’t be disappointed