London Day trip

Novelisto
Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:26:08 +0000

Bath is accessible by train…the station is at the lower end of town and everything else is up hill, a consideration if you are older.

Hampton Court is (or was) accessible by Tube…a bit of a walk from the station to the site.

I guess it depends on your interests. If you are a Jane Austen or Lord Nelson fiend, go to Bath. If you can’t get enough of the Tudors, got to see Hampton Court…in that vein, you can head up to Stratford, though it’s pretty touristy. If you are New Age-y or fond of the pre-Christian era, head off to Stonehenge…but plan something else that day as well. It’s a magnificent structure and a fascinating artifact but it is not something you spend the whole day going, ‘wow’. You see it, it looks just like its photos, and you go somewhere else.

One of the most beautiful ‘hidden gems’ in England – depending on the time of year and the weather – is a place called Stourhead Gardens – half an hour from London by car. Built in the 1740’s, it is (as was said of another garden) what God would do if he had the budget. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-stourhead

If you want to read a good book before you go, try any of Bill Bryson’s travel books featuring England. Funny!