What a diverse country the UK is! Just like the weather and climate!
I have always lived here: I have lived in England, I have lived in Wales, I have holidayed in Scotland and I have never visited Northern Ireland, nor the Channel Islands, nor the Isle of Man. I was born on the Isle of Wight. An island of islands!
London is one of the great cities of the world, one of the foremost commercial centres, full of historic and cultural interest. Birmingham has fine shopping, eating places, a world class concert hall and more canal networks than Venice! Manchester is the great northern centre with its own music academy and concert hall and famous football teams! Newcastle-upon-Tyne boasts shopping, entertainment and Roman history, being the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall. Cardiff enjoys the fine Millenium sports stadium, great shopping and dining and colleges. The famous university centres of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham are tourist havens with much culture. The cathedral cities of Hereford, Worcester, Gloucester, Exeter, Lincoln and Coventry are all busy county centres with fine old streets and an atmosphere of learning. York and Canterbury boast universities, a cathedral, and ancient town walls. Many other cathedral cities are regional beauty spots of timeless historic grandeur, such as Chichester and Lichfield.
Yet more towns have sprung up in recent years from a regional need for improved shopping and civil facilities, towns like Telford, Milton Keynes and Redditch have modern road layouts to benefit the local population. Some towns and cities are historic docks and ports: Dover, Aberdeen, Liverpool and Southampton. Smaller seaside places are beautiful ancient harbours and fishing centres: Newlyn, Great Yarmouth, Cromer, Padstow, Brixham, Hastings, Oban, Cardigan, Thurso. In latter years small rural airfields have increased importance: British Airways now fly regularly to Rhoose for Cardiff, Newquay in Cornwall and the Second World War airfield at Lydd has become London Ashford! Birmingham's airport is as busy as Gatwick and many towns have an International airport.
Look at an older map of Great Britain and then a modern one: you will be astonished at the difference regarding road and rail networks. I saw an old map showing the Severn rail tunnel at Bristol but no motorway road bridges: a different way of life is portrayed as traffic had to negotiate the tricky winding road through the Forest of Dean down to Chepstow in order to enter South Wales: now a short journey over the massive River Severn brings you within a few miles of Newport, Cardiff and Swansea. Older maps will show Victorian railways now long since dismantled. As huge lorries tussel for road space in front of annoyed car drivers I wonder if Beeching was wise to axe so many local rail services in the 1960's.
A yet older means of transporting goods were the cleverly designed canals and before even those, the great rivers like the Severn, the Humber and the Tamar. Surprisingly, the deepest natural harbour in Europe is the mouth of a small Cornish tidal river, the Fowey. Ships dock in Fowey to load china clay from the Cornish mines. Cornwall once mined tin in great quantities. South Wales mined coal and much of the wealth of Cardiff grew from the coal industry. Northumberland once mined gold! Welsh gold, mined commercially since Roman times, has long supplied the family rings for the British royal family and is the rarest metal in the world.
Few nations have held so much influence on the world and its events as the tiny island fortress of Great Britain. Regions are amazingly diverse: how different is Cheltenham beside the Cotswolds to Skipton, gateway to the Yorkshire Dales, yet both areas have gained their wealth from sheep farming and the woollen trade through the centuries.
The King in earlier centuries enjoyed the hunt in the great royal forests - few now remain but some glimpse of former glories is seen in Sherwood Forest and the New Forest: the forestry of Scotland and Wales is mainly new commercial evergreen, but the ancient forests of England once supplied oak for the hulls of Nelson's navy!
What is your favourite part of the UK? What are your local traditions? Local dishes?
Whatever your pastime or sport you will enjoy this country! Skiing in Scotland, walking in Cumbria, fishing around the coast, soccer and cricket everywhere in season, rugby in Wales.
Vive L'Angleterre!
Adwello
http://adwellosalesbonusreviews.com
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