Travelog for: Travel Ted

The world was smiling on Travel Ted. He only had to wait a little while longer until Christmas (which was also his official birthday), Isobel and Neil had made him Voyager of the Week, and he was about to embark on another exciting excursion. As he finished wrapping his Christmas presents Travel Ted felt very blessed.

Life holds many disappointments, thought Travel Ted glumly as the realisation dawned on him that business trips weren’t nearly as much fun as holidays. Instead of exploring all the Edinburgh attractions he had spent his day sharpening pencils and looking for lost paperclips. Besides which, making cups of tea with that great big kettle required all his acrobatic skills. This wasn’t what he’d had in mind at all. On the bright side, at least the breakfast menu looked promising. He wished he’d brought his dictionary to look up what the ‘haggis’ was.

Travel Ted was thrilled to bits with the new Christmas camera, although he had to admit there was still room for improvement on his mastery of the self-take function.

During his latest weekend away the rain stopped just long enough for Travel Ted to take in some of the sites of Bath. He saw the old Roman Baths, the Abbey and the River Avon, on top of which he was able to watch a clever man making chocolates in a shop window. Travel Ted wanted to have his photo taken with him but was far too shy to ask.

On a crisp winter's morning there was nothing Travel Ted enjoyed more than a gentle stroll through the park. He loved the view from outside the Old Royal Observatory. From there he could look down on the Queen's House and the Royal Naval College, which now cowered incongruously in front of the skyscrapers of Canary Wharf on the opposite side of the River Thames.

Travel Ted especally liked the flower gardens where he could visit lots of birds and animals. On this particular morning the ducks and geese were too busy squabbling with one another to pay much attention to him. The deer were keeping their distance (although he thought this might not be such a bad thing as the stags with the great big antlers did look rather intimidating). All the fluffy young squirrels loved Travel Ted though, and he was very pleased when they scampered over to say hello.

Travel Ted set his alarm clock to wake him from a short hibernation in time for his next excursion. After his disappointing trip to Edinburgh, he was thrilled to have another chance to explore Scotland. His first glimpse of the town made him a little anxious as to how much Dumfries had to offer an adventurous bear but a trip to the tourist information office reassured him that there was no shortage of possibilities for exciting outings.

Travel Ted felt quite confused. After a lovely car journey through fields, forests and hills, he found himself in most unexpected surroundings. This place looked nothing like the pictures in his Scottish guide books. Eventually he plucked up the courage to ask a dragon for some information and learned that he was at the Samye Ling monastery and Tibetan centre – the first and largest Tibetan Buddhist centre in Europe. Travel Ted found his visit both pleasant and educational. All in all it had been a very satisfying day.

Travel Ted began his adventures in the Lake District with a trip to Aira Force. By the time he had climbed to the top of this impressive waterfall his stumpy little legs were very tired, but the magnificence of the view made his efforts seem well worth it.

On the way back to the car he had a rather frightening experience. While having his photo taken with a seemingly friendly pony, a nudge at his back warned him just in time that ponies eat small bears whole. Between raging torrents, precipitous drops and savage animals, it's just not safe in the countryside thought Travel Ted.

Travel Ted's next stop was Grasmere where he went to see the grave of the poet William Wordsworth and bought some traditional fudge. When having his photo taken he made sure there were no hungry ponies behind him.

In Windermere Travel Ted met some more scary local residents in the shape of a couple of very big swans. He spotted a fire engine that looked ideal for a quick getaway but there seemed to be a problem with the accelerator...

Although Travel Ted was back at home for a while, life was not uneventful. The first thing he had noticed on his return was the snow. He wished he could afford the orange snorkel jacket he’d been eyeing up. A much more pleasing development was that his new friend Frank had joined the Toy Voyagers community. Reading about his chums’ adventures made Travel Ted very happy, and he was delighted to see Ivor was back in action too.

Travel Ted was off on his adventures again. After a very exciting flight over the sea, and over cities, mountains, forests, lakes and rivers, he arrived in Switzerland for the very first time.

Travel Ted couldn’t wait to get down to the lakeside, where he watched a steamship embark on its journey to the French town of Evian-les-bains on the opposite side of Lake Geneva.

After wandering along the shore of the lake he found himself in the gardens of the Olympic Museum where he demonstrated his athletic prowess by climbing (a little way) up the Swatch clock tower.

In the centre of Lausanne Travel Ted explored several museums housed in the Palais de Rumine. In the Zoological Museum he visited the largest stuffed great white shark on display anywhere in the whole wide world. At nearly six metres long Travel Ted found him a little bit intimidating. He thought that he must have been a very great voyager in his heyday and considered it rather sad that he was now cooped up indoors for tourists to come and stare at.

Back at the apartment Travel Ted hummed quietly to himself as he unpacked the weekend provisions from the groovy edelweiss shopping trolley.