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ENGLAND
London is the place to start. Nowhere in the
country can match the scope and innovation of
the metropolis, a colossal, frenetic city, perhaps
not as immediately attractive as its European
counterparts, but with so much variety that the
only obstacle to a great time is the shockingly
high cost of everything. It's here that you'll
find Britain's best spread of nightlife, cultural
events, museums, galleries, pubs and restaurants.
The other large cities, such as Birmingham, Newcastle,
Leeds or Liverpool each have their strengths:
Birmingham has a resurgent arts scene, for example,
while people travel for miles to sample Newcastle's
nightlife. These days Manchester can match the
capital for glamour in cafés and clubs, and also
boasts the inimitable draw of the world's best-known
football team.
England's ancient cathedral cities, such as Lincoln,
York, Salisbury, Durham and Winchester, cannot
be equalled for sheer physical beauty. Wherever
you're based, you're never more than a few miles
from a ruined castle, a majestic country house,
a secluded chapel or a monastery. In the southwest
there are remnants of a Celtic culture that was
all but eradicated elsewhere by the Romans, and
everywhere you can find traces of prehistoric
settlers – most famously the megalithic circles
of Stonehenge and Avebury.
Most beguiling of all are the long-established
villages of England, hundreds of which amount
to nothing more than a pub, a shop, a gaggle of
cottages and a farmhouse offering bed and breakfast.
Devon, Cornwall, the Cotswolds and the Yorkshire
Dales harbour some especially picturesque specimens,
but every county can boast a decent showing. Then,
of course, there's the English countryside, an
extraordinarily diverse terrain from which Constable,
Turner, Wordsworth, Emily Brontë and a host of
other writers and artists took inspiration. Exmoor,
Dartmoor, Bodmin Moor, the North York Moors and
the Lake District are the most dramatic and best
known of the national parks, each offering an
array of landscapes crisscrossed with walking
routes.
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