England Articles

Scotland may be the home of golf, but it's also a great place for skiing enthusiasts. With numerous world class resorts, and such a depth of history and culture, Scotland is a great place to visit on your vacation, regardless of your interests and hobbies. When you think of Scotland, you might think of kilts, and rural mountaintops and sheep, but if you actually get to know the place, you'll find it is both beautiful, with its bustling, classy cities, ensuring you're going to have an enjoyable vacation wherever you go in the country.

Aviemore is based in the highlands of Scotland, with impressive mountain views, and surrounded by country-side it stands 26,000 feet above rural farmland. The area is renowned for skiing, having recently had 2 European Level Competitions on its snowy peaks in the last two months. The ski resorts success, with professional skiing has also lead to success with tourists, having 12,000 people hitting the slopes each month. These massive numbers are also attributed to snowboarding, with boarding specific slaloms on one side of the mountains.

London is a very visitor friendly place and traveling around in London is very suitably provided by various forms of transportation. The most common mode of transport is the London Underground http://tube.tfl.gov.uk and it operates through out the day [from early morning to late night]. Other forms include buses, taxis etc. The whole city is divided into 6 zones with zone 1 and 2 referred as 'Central London'.

Windsor Castle is one of the many homes of the present Queen of England, several of her royal ancestors, and "non-royal" spirits, one of whom, according to legend was an ancient Saxon hunter named Herne, who was renowned thought out the area for his outstanding hunting abilities.

Church, burial ground, coronation site and much more, Westminster Abbey continues to attract visitors over 900 years after its founding.

Trafalgar Square is the center of England in more ways than one. At its south end lies what used to be Charing Cross, the point from which all distances to London are measured. Long since, the cross erected by Edward I in 1290 (as a tribute to his wife, Eleanor) has been replaced by a statue of Charles I atop a horse.

For the London traveler looking for variety, the West End is the place to be. Piccadilly Circus is next door, where antique book shops mix with the latest restaurants and Covent Garden is not far. And, then of course, there's the world-renowned theater - the rival (some would say tutor) of Broadway.

Few prisons can claim to be as popular as the Tower of London, an attraction - unpleasant for some - for over 900 years. Its twenty towers are filled with an ancient tradition of royal blood, armor and jewels and the history to match.

London has such a long history, filled with great churches, monuments, art and history museums that seeking nature here often isn't what immediately comes to mind. But that's an error, since London is home to one of the oldest zoos in existence and one of the newest aquariums.

Since its founding in the mid-19th century, the Natural History museum has offered one of the largest, most diverse collections in the world. The dinosaur exhibits are world-renowned, but there are dozens of others equally deserving of a visit.

Throughout its troubled history, the National Gallery in London has persevered to maintain one of the greatest art collections in the world.

One of the best ways to see London is from the air. Unfortunately, that was fairly difficult until recently. Now it's as easy as stepping onto a platform that moves slower than the average escalator into the London Eye pod.

Like most museums in London, The British Museum is free of admission (though some events and special exhibitions have an admission charge). But were it the most expensive attraction in the city, it would be worth the price. Often rated the number one tourist attraction, it houses millions of artifacts from around the world and through history.

For three hundred years St Paul's Cathedral has served as one of the enduring symbols of London, a role it richly deserves. Completed in 1708, Sir Christopher Wren's masterwork is recognized the world over by its large dome and classical architecture.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre is in fact long gone - closed by Puritans in 1642 and taken down 2 years later. Fortunately for fans of the bard, there's a faithful reproduction housed only a few hundred meters from the original site.

To most, the question "What time is it?" is mundane. But to the men and women whom, over the centuries since 1675, have worked at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich it is of huge importance.

At the junction of Regent Street and Shaftesbury Avenue lies a trapezoidal area near London's West End known to the world as Piccadilly Circus.

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum is one of the very few attractions in London that is both centuries old and completely modern.

"It's good to be king!" announced the Austrian ruler in Amadeus. Well, it wasn't so bad to be a wealthy merchant either. Kew Palace, known at Dutch House until 1827, was built in 1631 for the Dutch merchant Samuel Fortrey.

Perhaps most famous for the Speaker's Corner, where citizens stand atop a soapbox and shout their views to the crowd, there's much more to see and do here than listen to political opinions.