General: England

Advantages: Beautiful, historic, friendly
Disadvantages: EXPENSIVE!

I spent September 1984 and September 1986 traveling through England, Scotland, and Wales with a girlfriend. We had a fabulous time and I always wanted to go back for more, but life got in the way and I never did. It wasn't until last year, when our choir was invited to sing Evensong services for a week at the York Minster cathedral in York that my husband and I started making plans. He'd never been there, and I immediately laid out a terrific trip ...
...see in two weeks everything I had seen in two months, we did some serious pruning. Nevertheless, we were in the UK from August 28 to September 22 of this year, and every minute of the trip was wonderful. Well, almost every minute... Here are the basics: We stayed in one large hotel, five Mum-and-Pop B&Bs, and my sorta-cousin's home in London. We rented a car which we picked up at Heathrow and returned 24 days later at Gatwick. We spent the first ... Read review

Advantages: Great walk through history
Disadvantages: None for me!

West Yorkshire in England is something of a walker’s paradise, being close to both the Yorkshire Dales to the north and the Peak District to the south. While the attractions of both of these national parks are well documented, West Yorkshire itself boasts some smaller but no less impressive areas ideal for walking and rambling. One of my personal favourites for its sheer diversity is the nineteen mile circular walk which connects Hebden Bridge to ...
...small town founded in a steep sided valley during the Industrial Revolution. Much of the town you see today was built during the period 1750-1850. Like many of the towns in West Yorkshire, Hebden Bridge was created by the growth of the textile industry, and large solid stone mills were built along the valley bottom. Today, most of the textile mills have closed – in the recessions of the late 70’s and 80’s English textile companies found that they ... Read review

Advantages: Police get more and more of are dosh
Disadvantages: Cause acidents

Speed kills, but you will find it kills much less than the cameras trying to control it. Speed cameras are becoming more and more of a problem in are modern motorised society. Up until recently all speed cameras were based on an analogue system, meaning that photos of speeding drivers had to be taken on film. These films had to be regularly changed, and proved very expensive and time consuming for the police, and so very few were about. They were ...
...find that all cameras have been changed to a digital type of system, being linked to a central monitoring station. The cameras have no need for any king of un-replaceable film. All photos of offenders are sent through a link to a computer system in the central traffic station. The officers watching can print off photo’s that have caught offenders going at a value of 10% +2 over the speed limit. This means that if you are in a 30 miles an hour ... Read review

Advantages: Brightens the Dark November Sky and chases away the blues
Disadvantages: Scares the dogs

It's dark and wet and windy and all of a sudden, the sky is illuminated with Fireworks! As if someone mixed up a Ray Bradbury story with the 4th of July in the USA! ... or Dominion (sorry, CANADA) Day! On November 5 (or the weekend before or the weekend after), is Guy Fawkes Day (Night) and it is celebrated (?) with fireworks and with a HUGE Bonfire. So who/m is Guy? According to www.googlism.com, guy fawkes is the person most associated with the ...
...is remembered each year on november 5 for his audacious attempt to blow up the houses of parliament and is traditionally burned in effigy atop the bonfire night pyre. BUT, if you are a Harry Potter reader, he is referenced in chapter nine of "harry potter and the sorcerer's stone" when harry says offhandedly ...BUT WAIT, I DIGRESS! Being a mixed Canuck and Yankee, I find the UK winter months (from August 31 to July 1) sometimes a wee bit depressing, ... Read review

Advantages: Good Location Nice Residential Areas Good Food
Disadvantages: House Prices are High Night Life A tad Limited.

Many, many, years ago like a lot of other young men, I was stationed in the Aldershot area In those far-off days when a cup of tea cost about 2 pence, Aldershot was widely regarded as the "..... Home of the British Army...". The town housed the famed "...Red Devils..." - no not Manchester United but the Parachute Regiment! The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC), the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME), the Royal Engineers (the Sappers), ...
...Royal Army Ordnance Corps (RAOC) and the dreaded "...Red Caps...", the Royal Military Police (RMP), all had units in the area. Just down the road so as to speak were the Officer Cadets at the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst whilst the Women’s Royal Army Corps (WRAC) were not far away at Guildford. Guards regiments were stationed at nearby Pirbright and there was an Apprentices School at Arbourfield. On a Sunday night, most of the young ... Read review