England

Besides London there are many more places of interest in Britain which are worth seeing. The white chalk cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle may be the first you see when you approach Britain by sea.

Stratford-upon-Avon is probably the second most visited town in England. It was founded by King Richard I in 1196 and became famous as the birthplace of William Shakespeare. The top attraction is the house in Henley Street where Shakespeare was born. The house where he later lived with his family and died does not exist any more, as it was pulled down. Now there is a beautiful Elizabethan-style garden in its place. In the Holy Trinity Church tourists can see the grave of Shakespeare, his wife and other members of his family. Then there is an old Grammar School where Shakespeare is believed to have learned at. Not far are the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (1932) and the Swan Theatre (1986) overlooking the river Avon. The centre of Stratford is full of magnificent half-timbered medieval houses which also include Harvard House, the home of John Harvard, the founder of Harvard University, Cambridge, and USA.

About two miles away in nearby Shottery you can visit the House of Ann Hathaway, Shakespeare’s wife.

Near Stratford there are two magnificent castles – Kenilworth and Warwick. Kenilworth was a Norman castle which became a royal residence and now it is one of the finest and most extensive castle ruins in England. In the 16^th century it belonged to the Earl of Leicester who entertained Elizabeth I here. It was dismantled in the 17^th century. Walter Scott set one of his novels in this castle.

Warwick, the home of the Earl of Warwick (1428-1471) – a prominent politician of the War of the Roses. The castle and the town below were founded in the 10^th century and enlarged in the 14^th century. The fortress, one of the greatest medieval castles in England, was never breached, although it was partly destroyed by fire in the 19^th century. Now there is a museum there.

Oxford is the seat of the oldest English university (12^th century) which includes 34 colleges now. Additionally there are other notable academic buildings such as the Bodleian Library with the reading room in the Radcliff Camera, the Ashmolean Museum, and the Sheldonian Theatre designed by Christopher Wren.

Cambridge, whose history goes back to Roman times, is the residence of the second oldest university in Britain (13^th century).

Canterbury is the seat of the Archbishop and magnificent cathedral whose oldest part originated in the 11^th century. It is the place where the first convert on the British Isles was established by St. Augustine who came here by order of the Pope to convert England to Christianity. Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered in the cathedral by order of the king in 1170 and soon this made Canterbury the biggest pilgrimage site in England. The pilgrimage to Canterbury is also reflected in Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Apart from that there are fine medieval houses and also remains of the Roman settlement (castle, walls).

York is the residence of the Archbishop of the Anglican Church of the Northern Province and a superb Gothic cathedral called York Minister. The cathedral boasts impressive medieval stained glass, particularly the beautiful Gothic windows known as the Five Sisters. The city originated in the Roman period, 71 AD, and it has preserved much of the 14^th century city walls and four gates as well as medieval streets called the Shambles. The excavations also revealed remains of Viking houses over 1000 years old, now shown in the Jorvik Viking Centre.

Winchester originally a Roman town and later the capital of Wessex in Anglo-Saxon times. The remarkable Winchester Cathedral, whose oldest part dates back to the 7^th century and which was rebuilt in the 12^th century is the longest medieval church in Europe (the nave being 170m long). The city houses one of the oldest Public Schools in England, Winchester College (1382), and a few royal palaces and other old buildings.

Hastings is a seaside resort on the east coast whose nearby village of Battle was the battlefield of William the Conqueror’s victorious battle over the Anglo-Saxons in 1066 which began the Norman history of England. Not far along the coast lies Brighton a fashionable seaside resort and a spa whose prosperity began with the building of the Royal Pavilion by King George IV in the 19^th century. He had it built in oriental style as his summer residence.

Arundel Castle, one of the mightiest and largest medieval castles overlooking the River Arun in West Sussex, was built in the 11^th century. It is the home if the Duke of Norfolk among who are e.g. the Earl of Surrey, the Elizabethan poet and courtier, and the uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, later to becomes wives of Henry VIII.

Folkestone is the port and resort on the south coast where the terminal for the Channel Tunnel leading to Calais, is situated.

Cornwall, the southwest county of England, is known for its beautiful landscape. The southernmost peninsula is called Land’s End.

Neighbouring Devon is the region of wild moors and granite blocks (called tors) which can be seen especially in the National Parks of Dartmoor and Exmoor. There are numbers of prehistoric remains. The area is known for Dartmoor Prison and frequent rainfall which gave the region the name „Mother of Rivers“. Apart from its natural beauty the area became famous through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel „The Hound of the Baskervilles“.

Stonehenge, 8 miles north of Salisbury on Salisbury Plain is a megalithic monument dating from about 2,800 BC. The ruins stands in the centre of a huge circle 98 m in diameter formed by a bank (0,64m high now) and a ditch (2,1m deep). The ruins consist of two stone circle and two horseshoes. The upright stones in the circle were joined by a continuous line of stones, which lay on the top of the uprights to from a circle about 30m. But most of these have fallen down. Within these circles were two horseshoes arrangements and in the centre of the inner horseshoe there is the Altar Stone. The purpose of these is unknown but may have been ritual. Stonehenge is only one of a number of prehistoric structures on Salisbury Plain.

Avebury, also on Salisbury Plain, is Europe’s largest stone circle constructed probably in the Neolithic period 3,500 years ago. The village of Avebury was built within the circle.

Salisbury is the seat of the magnificent Cathedral of Saint Mary (built in the early 13^th century) which has the highest spire in England (123 m). The Cathedral library contains one of only four copies of the Magna Carta in existence.

Bath has been one of the oldest spas in the valley of the river Avon since the Romans built baths there. Many attractive spa houses were built here in the 18^th century.

Coventry, an industrial city in the West Midlands now manufacturing especially cars and bicycles, originated in the 7^th century. In the square stands a statue of Lady Godiva whose legend is very popular there. She was the wife of the Earl of Mercia (11^th century). The legend says that her husband promised to reduce the heavy taxes on the people of Coventry if she rode naked through the street at noon. The grateful citizens remained indoors as she did so. Sights include the Cathedral from 1962 which retains the ruins of the cathedral destroyed in an air raid in 1940. Coventry and Lidice became sister cities after the war because they shared a similar fate during World War II.

Liverpool is one of the largest cities in England, founded in the 12^th century. It is an important port and the city of the Beatles and well-known Steeplechase for horse racing.

The Lake District, the region in Cumbria, which contains the principal English glacier lakes such as Windermere (the largest one, being 16 km long and 70m wide), Grassmere or Coniston Water. They are separated by wild uplands; the highest of them is Scaffel Pike (978m). The district has associations with pre-romantic writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge or John Ruskin who were inspired by the natural beauty of this region. It was made a national park there in 1951.