While planning my upcoming trip to Egypt I started thinking about my former trips and decide to do a short review of some of them. So I am going to start with the destination of one of my all time favorite places...England.
I have traveled to England 6 times and every time is amazing and great. England is one of my favorite destinations. The people are very friendly, speak English (sort of) and its very easy to get around London and the rest of Great Britain. I usually travel at the end at the end of May which is the end of the shoulder
season so prices are still reasonable and the weather is fairly good.
There are 2 major airports in London, Gatwick and Heathrow. Heathrow is the best one. On this trip I was traveling with my mom and 7 year old son. Upon arriving at London Heathrow we caught the Britrail, which you can catch right in the airport. We took the Train to Paddington Station. We walked straight out of the train station, across the street, up one block to Westbourne Terrace and there was our guest house we were staying at. It was the perfect location. The quiet streets in this area were lined with small guest houses. It had a very homey feeling. There was a subway station at the train station, which was very really great. There was also several places to eat nearby as well as several small shops and one of my favorite places t
o shop Mark & Spencer’s. A great department store with good prices. This was the perfect location.
One of the first places we visited was the Cabinet War Rooms. They are located on King Charles St. The Cabinet War Rooms are a series of rooms in which Winston Churchill and his military cabinet ran the war during World War II. It is not well advertised on the street so you kind of need to know where you are going. It was much more extensive then I thought it would be. I thought it would be a couple of rooms but there were several rooms. It was like an underground city. People spent several months down
there at a time. The most interesting room was the control room with all the phones, desks and papers. You get to see the actual items rather then replicas. It was very interesting. Even my son enjoyed it. He is a bit of a history buff.
We took a river boat up the Thames River from London to Greenwich which is at longitude 0. Here you can stand on both the western and eastern hemisphere at the same time. It’s pretty cool. The Greenwich Royal Observatory is there as well as a museum. it’s a very nice area. We took the train back to London which was just a short ride.
I had purchased a 7 Day Britrail Flexi pass which allowed us to travel on the Britrail any 7 days within a one month period. With the pass we were able to get on and off the train as much as we wanted as well. We ended up traveling up one side of Britain and down the other. Some of the highlights included a visit to Leeds Castle in Maidstone. You can only take vehicles so close to the Castle and then you have to walk the rest of the way or catch a shuttle. it’s a little bit of a walk but very pretty. At one point we had to pass through a gated area that contained peacocks. One of the male peacocks took a shine to me and followed be around showing off his feathers. Several other tourist asked me to stand there so they could take pictures of the peacocks. The castle itself was well worth the walk.
We spent the night in York, which is about half way to between London and Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a really cute Viking city. Its like going back in time. We walked the ancient city wall, took a city tour and found out why the grass was so green just outside the city gate. That’s where they buried the people who died from the plague. We spent the night at a very nice Bed & Breakfast. Next headed to Edinburgh, which is a great city. The first thing we did was take a city tour, which was filled with some really great history. We walked the Royal Mile which starts at Edinburgh castle and ends at Holyrood Palace with lots of shops and fun places to look at along the way. At the city clock tower, located on the Mile, was our meeting point for our catacombs tour, which was very cool. Later that day we jumped back on the train and headed to Linlithgow, Scotland, home to some of my ancestors for an overnight stay. During the early evening we paid a visit to Linlithgow Castle. The following day we stopped by the Lilliput Lane factory for a tour and
then on to Carlisle, England for an overnight stay and finally back to London. What a great trip that was. On our last day in London we took a short train ride to the city if Bath which is a great little city. After the city tour we paid a visit to the Roman Baths which is very impressive. The main bath is still intact and filled with water. There is a restaurant where you can taste water from the natural spring that feeds the baths.
There is so much to see and do in Great Britain, I don’t think I will ever get tired of going there.
I have traveled to England 6 times and every time is amazing and great. England is one of my favorite destinations. The people are very friendly, speak English (sort of) and its very easy to get around London and the rest of Great Britain. I usually travel at the end at the end of May which is the end of the shoulder
season so prices are still reasonable and the weather is fairly good.There are 2 major airports in London, Gatwick and Heathrow. Heathrow is the best one. On this trip I was traveling with my mom and 7 year old son. Upon arriving at London Heathrow we caught the Britrail, which you can catch right in the airport. We took the Train to Paddington Station. We walked straight out of the train station, across the street, up one block to Westbourne Terrace and there was our guest house we were staying at. It was the perfect location. The quiet streets in this area were lined with small guest houses. It had a very homey feeling. There was a subway station at the train station, which was very really great. There was also several places to eat nearby as well as several small shops and one of my favorite places t
o shop Mark & Spencer’s. A great department store with good prices. This was the perfect location.One of the first places we visited was the Cabinet War Rooms. They are located on King Charles St. The Cabinet War Rooms are a series of rooms in which Winston Churchill and his military cabinet ran the war during World War II. It is not well advertised on the street so you kind of need to know where you are going. It was much more extensive then I thought it would be. I thought it would be a couple of rooms but there were several rooms. It was like an underground city. People spent several months down
there at a time. The most interesting room was the control room with all the phones, desks and papers. You get to see the actual items rather then replicas. It was very interesting. Even my son enjoyed it. He is a bit of a history buff.We took a river boat up the Thames River from London to Greenwich which is at longitude 0. Here you can stand on both the western and eastern hemisphere at the same time. It’s pretty cool. The Greenwich Royal Observatory is there as well as a museum. it’s a very nice area. We took the train back to London which was just a short ride.
I had purchased a 7 Day Britrail Flexi pass which allowed us to travel on the Britrail any 7 days within a one month period. With the pass we were able to get on and off the train as much as we wanted as well. We ended up traveling up one side of Britain and down the other. Some of the highlights included a visit to Leeds Castle in Maidstone. You can only take vehicles so close to the Castle and then you have to walk the rest of the way or catch a shuttle. it’s a little bit of a walk but very pretty. At one point we had to pass through a gated area that contained peacocks. One of the male peacocks took a shine to me and followed be around showing off his feathers. Several other tourist asked me to stand there so they could take pictures of the peacocks. The castle itself was well worth the walk.
We spent the night in York, which is about half way to between London and Edinburgh, Scotland. It is a really cute Viking city. Its like going back in time. We walked the ancient city wall, took a city tour and found out why the grass was so green just outside the city gate. That’s where they buried the people who died from the plague. We spent the night at a very nice Bed & Breakfast. Next headed to Edinburgh, which is a great city. The first thing we did was take a city tour, which was filled with some really great history. We walked the Royal Mile which starts at Edinburgh castle and ends at Holyrood Palace with lots of shops and fun places to look at along the way. At the city clock tower, located on the Mile, was our meeting point for our catacombs tour, which was very cool. Later that day we jumped back on the train and headed to Linlithgow, Scotland, home to some of my ancestors for an overnight stay. During the early evening we paid a visit to Linlithgow Castle. The following day we stopped by the Lilliput Lane factory for a tour and
then on to Carlisle, England for an overnight stay and finally back to London. What a great trip that was. On our last day in London we took a short train ride to the city if Bath which is a great little city. After the city tour we paid a visit to the Roman Baths which is very impressive. The main bath is still intact and filled with water. There is a restaurant where you can taste water from the natural spring that feeds the baths.There is so much to see and do in Great Britain, I don’t think I will ever get tired of going there.
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