One of the great things about Britain is that there are many strange places to visit, often within an easy drive away and perfect, therefore, for a day's outing. Those motorists looking to save money, whether it be on their car insurance or elsewhere - may find British day trips a great money saving alternative to foreign holidays. Where better place to start your tour of the unusual than in the very heartlands of England, Shakespeare's own country, the Cotswold's, to the south of his birthplace Stratford-upon-Avon?
Everyone knows that the favourite national sport is football, or soccer, but in the pretty Cotswold village of Bourton-on-the-water they play it in the river - fully clothed! Who knows why - it's just one of the weird things they do in these parts during the summer celebrations to mark August bank holiday (the last Monday in August).
If you're after something a little more chilling and spooky, it's a short drive down to London, where you can take lunch in style by eating in the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields in the very centre of the city. The only possible drawback is that you'll be dining in the subterranean burial crypt of the church.
After lunch, you might want to take the cheese course by driving west for an hour or so to a hill - Coopers Hill - in Gloucestershire where the bizarre sport of "cheese rolling" takes place. Scheduled for one day in May each year, the weird contest involves locals rolling a 7-pound Double Gloucester cheese from the top of the hill, with participants racing, tumbling and stumbling headlong downhill after it. Although this very strange ritual is reputed to have been staged since Roman times, no one really knows why - least of all the crazy participants, many of whom end the day in hospital nursing bruised and broken limbs!
If lunch in a crypt, followed by cheese coursing at up to 70 miles an hour down hill, has failed to satisfy your appetite, what about a tasty puppy dog pie? That's right, during a late-September Sunday in the picturesque village of Painswick, still in the county of Gloucestershire, they still bake meat pies with cute puppy dogs in them! Whatever ancient food shortages might have driven the locals to such heartless measures, you'll be relieved to learn that the modern version of "bow-wow pie" in fact contains only china figurines of our canine friends. Children, at least, love them!
North of the border, Scotland is not to be out done in the weird Britain - strange places to visit in the UK - stakes. The British Isles are small enough for even a trip to Scotland to take up little driving time and once there, strange and weird places abound. A popular spot is the co-called "Electric Brae" between the town of Dunure and Croy Bay. On the otherwise unremarkable highway, prosaically numbered A719, it's possible to park the car, apply the handbrake, and admire the surrounding landscape. Release the handbrake, however, and you will be able to watch as the car appears to roll away - uphill! This is not evidence that the laws of physics simply don't apply in Scotland, but is rather an optical illusion made possible by the contours of the surrounding skyline.
Jon McGovern is from Tescocompare.com [], the insurance comparison site where you can compare car insurance [] policy features and prices.
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