Someone recently posted a magazine article with the top 25 things you MUST do if you go to England. Some made sense, but most left me scratching my head.
Go to Cambridge (but not Oxford?). Liverpool Maritime Mercantile City? And not Buckingham Palace? Why the heck put SoHo and Chinatown over the wonderful RAF Museum or St. James Park? It just goes to show you:
a) Anyone can write an article (even me).
b) Everyone has different tastes.
People ask me all the time for hints and tips on places to visit in England. Because I love the country and have spent a LOT of time visiting and studying it… I’m tempted to just throw up my hands in despair.
My tips and tricks may not be yours (and they certainly wouldn’t be favored by the writer of the magazine article!) And yet, I’m tempted place my list here just to give my current preferences a face. My list changes with each trip I take! Next year’s list, I’m sure, will be different than this one.
However… here goes! Stand back! And these are in no specific order:
- Westminster Abbey (London)
- The glass walkway over Tower Bridge (London)
- St. Nectan’s Glen (Cornwall)
- Kilburn, Yorkshire (White Horse Cliff and Mouseman)
- Keswick, Cumbria
- Tintagel, Cornwall
- Glastonbury (Glastonbury Tor, King Arthur’s tomb, Chalice Well, hippy shops)
- Favorite pub: Wig and Quill in Salisbury
- Ripon (Cathedral, Fountains Abbey, Market)
- York Minster
- Lindisfarne
- Hadrian’s Wall
- RAF Museum (London)
- West End Show (London)
- Imperial War Museum (London)
- Camden Market (London)
- Knaresborough, Yorkshire (Viaduct, Castle, Mother Shipton’s Cave)
- Buckingham Palace – Changing of the Guards (though it looks like I’ll be at the trooping of the color this year!!!)
- Royal Horseguards (London) – changing of the guard is wonderful!
- Houses of Parliament and Big Ben (touring this year!!!)
- Greenwich (Royal Maritime Museum, Cutty Sark, Royal Observatory)
- Salisbury Cathedral (you can go to Stonehenge easily from here, but I’m as sick of it as I am of the Alamo – go to Avebury to see the stone circles instead)
- Durham Cathedral
- Warwick Castle
- Cotswolds
As I was making this list, I kept saying to myself: “But what about… and what about…?”. I think England’s lists could go on forever. It’s a good thing I wasn’t doing a list for all of Great Britain!
Anyway, here’s my suggestion: GO! See it! Make your own lists. I’d love to hear about your adventures. 🙂