I gather writercon is in Coventry? Given you've never been to England... here's what I've done.
London: did this with Dad, so all the historyish stuff. We did W. Abbey and paid extra to take the Treasury Tour, which was totally woth it and beats Madame Tussauds any day. The Tower Bridge tour was good, The Tower of London was great, Hampton Court was gorgeous, the British Museum was great, St Paul's was great. Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park, etc, etc are just fun to be in. Of course, all the other stuff that Dad isn't interested in was more tricky to arrange. Like - he took me to Speakers' Corner but didn't tell me that it's only really one day of the week that people talk there. >:( K and I are DESPERATE to see The Globe Theatre, which hadn't yet been rebuilt when I was there.
Plus, you can do day trips from London and get to: - Windsor castle - Oxford - Cambridge - Stratford - and even further like Canterbury or Portsmouth or Hastings if you wanted to get carried away...
I lived there for 6 months and got three weeks off over Christmas plus 1 week in London before coming home. - Maidstone - place to stay, no company during day, one outing to a castle. Not so good. - London - place to stay, no company during day, London shops to visit, nice guy to talk to all night and go to pub with. Pretty good. - Somerset - place to stay, nice guy to have romantic walks with, family to have Christmas with. Pretty darn good. - Edinburgh - place to stay, friend to spend days with, also pretty good.
- 5 days doing: York - Manchester - Liverpool - Cardiff - Oxford - Stratford. Hostels evey night. Yummy sightseeing ... by self.
That was quite enough to be going on with. I couldn't have coped with any more time alone.
Although they were yummy places to see, I got much more out of just being there, things like shopping in Norwich, or having a weekend in... town I can't remember offhand, or just BEING IN ENGLAND WITH ENGLISH PEOPLE AND PLACES AND DOING THINGS TOGETHER.
In summary, don't go to England by yourself unless you're intending to live there for a while. There's no point in going for a month by yourself, you'll be bored. But if you have the chance to be there living doing stuff with fun people, TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT. Go to Writercon and see everybody then spend a week and a half sightseeing, and base yourself in London. You will have a BALL.
Couldn't you arrive slightly earlier to extend the August stay? January is a grey, chilly, grim month to be here.
I could show you round quite a few Midland places if you wanted to stay - Stratford, Kenilworth, Warwick etc etc...
I've known people have a wonderful time here without even touching London. It's worth looking at where your flist lives so you could get local native guides.
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Given you've never been to England... here's what I've done.
London: did this with Dad, so all the historyish stuff. We did W. Abbey and paid extra to take the Treasury Tour, which was totally woth it and beats Madame Tussauds any day. The Tower Bridge tour was good, The Tower of London was great, Hampton Court was gorgeous, the British Museum was great, St Paul's was great. Picadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square and Hyde Park, etc, etc are just fun to be in.
Of course, all the other stuff that Dad isn't interested in was more tricky to arrange. Like - he took me to Speakers' Corner but didn't tell me that it's only really one day of the week that people talk there. >:(
K and I are DESPERATE to see The Globe Theatre, which hadn't yet been rebuilt when I was there.
Plus, you can do day trips from London and get to:
- Windsor castle
- Oxford
- Cambridge
- Stratford
- and even further like Canterbury or Portsmouth or Hastings if you wanted to get carried away...
I lived there for 6 months and got three weeks off over Christmas plus 1 week in London before coming home.
- Maidstone - place to stay, no company during day, one outing to a castle. Not so good.
- London - place to stay, no company during day, London shops to visit, nice guy to talk to all night and go to pub with. Pretty good.
- Somerset - place to stay, nice guy to have romantic walks with, family to have Christmas with. Pretty darn good.
- Edinburgh - place to stay, friend to spend days with, also pretty good.
- 5 days doing: York - Manchester - Liverpool - Cardiff - Oxford - Stratford. Hostels evey night. Yummy sightseeing ... by self.
That was quite enough to be going on with. I couldn't have coped with any more time alone.
Although they were yummy places to see, I got much more out of just being there, things like shopping in Norwich, or having a weekend in... town I can't remember offhand, or just BEING IN ENGLAND WITH ENGLISH PEOPLE AND PLACES AND DOING THINGS TOGETHER.
In summary, don't go to England by yourself unless you're intending to live there for a while. There's no point in going for a month by yourself, you'll be bored. But if you have the chance to be there living doing stuff with fun people, TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT. Go to Writercon and see everybody then spend a week and a half sightseeing, and base yourself in London. You will have a BALL.
no subject
Still eyeing my bank account dubiously, but I just might go...
no subject
I could show you round quite a few Midland places if you wanted to stay - Stratford, Kenilworth, Warwick etc etc...
I've known people have a wonderful time here without even touching London. It's worth looking at where your flist lives so you could get local native guides.