england
° Bath ° London ° Oxford ° Salisbury° South End ° Stonehenge ° Up and Down the Thames
° UNESCO World Heritage Sites
Travel is fascinating. My daughter was invited to attend a wedding in Manila. While she has been to more than 30 countries, this is her first international trip on her own. She's having financial issues -- I suspect it's 'cause some smaller places will not accept credit or debit cards.
That reminded me a being stuck in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, quite a few years ago because of the way my credit card was set up. Basically, the hotel charged and froze a week's stay when I checked in. When I checked out, the charge would not go through because it was a weekend, we were unable to release the freeze, and my credit lines then were very very small. My brother wired money to get us home from Mexico. This would be a major reason why you want something like the Visa Black Card, which affords 24-Hour Concierge Service, VIP Airport Lounge Access (invaluable on long layovers), Exclusive Rewards Program, and Much More! Apply today at BlackCard.com.
London
My daughter's "travelling on a tight budget trip" also reminds me of my second trip out of the U.S. (Jamaica was my first trip.)
At age 23. I worked as a secretary at Air West (now long defunct). There was a $39 (or maybe it was $49) round trip to London for airline personnel. I scrambled to get a passport, hopped a jet, and realized I had next to no money and no credit cards. I stayed in what used to be a broom closet -- literally -- at a small hotel near Harrod's. Fortunately it was a very nice and quite large broom closet with a wall of glass so I could watch the snow falling while reading "The Hobbit." Could never figure out why that broom closet had a wall of glass. Strange.
Bath
The City of Bath is well-known for the remaining sites of the Roman baths, which, along with Hadrian's Wall, are the most well-preserved Roman remains in England. The origins are lost in history, but two of the spas have statues of Bladud, son of Hudibras (the 8th king of the Britons) and father of King Lear. The story is that Bladud caught leprosy, was banned from the court and was forced to care for pigs. The pigs also had a skin disease, but after they wallowed in hot mud, they were cured. Prince Bladud followed their example and was also cured. Later, Bladud became king and founded the City of Bath around 860 B.C.E.Many notable people have visited the baths, including Queen Anne in the late 1600s and, in the 1700s, Jane Austin (who actually lived there and Bath has a Jane Austen Centre at 40 Gay Street).
Some of the medieval bathing niches are still visible. Spa water for drinking was pumped up to it from the spring below. The present larger building was erected in the 1790's and partially covers the north side of the King’s Bath. The bath was used regularly for bathing until 1939. In 1979 its floor was removed for structural reasons and the water lowered to its present level; the orange stain indicates the former water level. Architecture from several different periods can be seen including the wall on the right below the balustrade, which is Roman, and the bathing niches on the far side which once lined all four walls, are Medieval. Bath has become England's second largest tourist attraction.
London
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, 145 Fleet Street. Your basic 200-year-old fish-and-chip-pub. Lots and lots of theatre; even the not-so-good theatre in London is great theatre compared to most of the rest of the world.Oxford
Home to some of the world's finest universities and literary greats such as Lewis Carroll (who was actually a teacher of mathematics at Christchurch. Alice's garden exists behind a wall in Christchurch's garden. She had a cat that used to sit on top of the wall, and that cat became the Cheshire Cat of Alice in Wonderland.Salisbury
Visit Salisbury Cathedral . . . if you can, attend a service at sunrise. The stained glass window was built so that during summer, the sun rises up the window, illuminating various portions of the glass as it goes. Stunning!South End
Train announcement enroute to South End beach resort: "The next station is Barking." With that, it's obvious how the English authors have such marvelous imaginations.Stonehenge
Unfortunately, now very difficult to see as it is fenced off from those who would write their names on the stones, but still worth a visit to first-hand sense the mystery of the ages.Up and Down the Thames
Many riverboats leave from London to visit ports down river, such as the Maritime Museum at Greenwich, which is the center of time for the world. Anyone with an interest in maritime history will enjoy this museum and anyone who loves cruising in boats will enjoy the trip up and down the river immensely. It is an enjoyable day.UNESCO World Heritage Sites in England and Northern Ireland
- Castles and Town Walls of King Edward in Gwynedd (1986)
- Durham Castle and Cathedral (1986, 2008) Giant's Causeway and Causeway Coast (1986)
- Ironbridge Gorge, Wales (1986)
- St Kilda (1986, 2004, 2005)
- Stonehenge, Avebury and Associated Sites (1986, 2008)
- Studley Royal Park including the Ruins of Fountains Abbey (1986)
- Blenheim Palace (1987)
- City of Bath (1987)
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire (1987, 2005,2008)
- 26 Westminster Palace, Westminster Abbey and Saint Margaret's Church (1987, 2008)
- Canterbury Cathedral, St Augustine's Abbey, and St Martin's Church (1988)
- Henderson Island (1988)
- Tower of London (1988)
- Gough and Inaccessible Islands (1995, 2004)
- 27 Old and New Towns of Edinburgh (1995)
- Maritime Greenwich (1997)
- Heart of Neolithic Orkney (1999)
- Blaenavon Industrial Landscape (2000)
- Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda (2000)
- Derwent Valley Mills (2001) Dorset and East Devon Coast (2001)
- New Lanark (2001) Saltaire (2001)
- Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (2003)
- Liverpool – Maritime Mercantile City (2004)
- Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape (2006)
Changes in Latitude, Changes in Attitude