Tips and tidbits for travel and for fun

Room of One’s Own


Hilton Liverpool, Liverpool

Location, location, location. Forget for a minute that the Hilton is a modern, city-center hotel. Forget that it has all the amenities, comforts and expense of a top-drawer four-star hotel. If you’re going to visit the Liverpool of the Beatles and Merseyside, this is where you want to stay. Just across the street are Albert Dock and the Merseyside waterfront. Adjacent is the remarkably green and friendly bustle of Liverpool One with a cornucopia of shopping and dining options, just the other side of which is Mathew Street and the Cavern Quarter. All rooms have great views of the city or the docks. If there’s ever a time to go city chic, this is it.

Hilton Liverpool Hotel
3 Thomas Steers Way, Liverpool L1 8LW
Tel: 0151 7084200
www.hilton.co.uk/liverpool

COURTESY OF HILTON

The British Heritage

PUZZLER

Last issue we posed this: “I am a fictional character with a shaky reputation, based in part upon a Norfolk knight. Though I originally appeared on stage in three Elizabethan dramas, I have also inspired artists such as Elgar and Verdi. Who am I?”
Sir John Falstaff is a principal in Shakespeare’s Henry IV plays and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Falstaff is generally regarded as being loosely based on Sir John Fastolf of Caistor Castle, Norfolk (near Great Yarmouth), who was knighted for distinguished service at the 1415 Battle of Agincourt.

THE GRANGER COLLECTION, NY

Now ponder this: When British Heritage began 30 years ago, this Nottinghamshire village was still surrounded by working collieries. Now, the pit heads are all gone, but you can still walk through the scenes of one of English literature’s greatest autobiographical novels. What village would this be?
Do play the Puzzler and email your answer to BritishHeritage@weiderhistorygroup.com.
All entries are acknowledged.

In the British Heritage Mailbag


Sad News from Sandra Lawrence
“Firstly, you may or may not know that the Circle Line is no longer circular. Transport for London in their wisdom have given it a weird “fork.” In two visits to the BBC, I’ve been unable to complete the journey on the Circle Line as it no longer joins up.
Secondly, Free French in London must have been crying into their pastis on Wednesday—the French House (which I wrote about in my diary in January), General DeGaulle’s base in the war, has been sold to an Italian restaurant. I’m gutted, as indeed the restaurant is. They’ve wasted no time in moving in upstairs. Sad days, Dana, sad days.”

“My husband and I just returned from our third trip to England and Scotland and once again we were overwhelmed by the wonderful hospitality we received! When I’m there, I feel like I have come home! We always use our copies of British Heritage to plan part of our trips. This last trip, we saw much of the area featured in November 2010’s “Durham, Northumbria and the Borders.” What a thrill it was to walk on Hadrian’s Wall; visit Melrose Abbey; follow the river Tweed to Berwick-upon-Tweed; and drive out to Holy Island and back before the tide came in and covered up the road. We were also in Windermere for the first time. Beautiful! We were surprised by the number of families who included their dogs on their holidays! Thanks British Heritage for all your great information and recommendations! I can hardly wait until our next visit to the British Isles!”

Mickey Nearhood
Portland, Oregon

Penny Wise


Picking a Hotel in London

London is is one place where you really do not want to arrive without having prior arrangements for lodgings. Unless you have private accommodation with friends and family, or take a self-catering flat for a week, that means a hotel stay—at some point on the budget continuum.
Nowadays, it’s true, almost everyone ends up using the internet as a resource for booking London. In addition to the “usual suspects” like Orbitz and Expedia, www.londontown.com and www.london-discount-hotel.com are valuable resources for current London rates and availability across the budget spectrum. Be very careful to check the location of hotel properties, however, or you may find yourself outside the central city. You probably want to stay within the Circle Line (see Sandra Lawrence’s comments). Another serious consideration to keep in mind is the distance between the hotel and the nearest Underground station. Even in central London it can sometimes be quite a hike to the Tube station.
While we have all found ourselves making choices that sacrifice creature comforts or convenience for the sake of the budget, most American travelers find that their expectations for a hotel stay are best met by four-star hotels in London. If you are coming to Great Britain at the doing-it-on-a-shoestring phase of life, the best and most conveniently located aggregation of good, inexpensive B&B hotels is in Bloomsbury. Another source of current information always worth checking is www.britainonthecheap.com.

Fort Nelson


Fareham

COURTESY OF THE ROYAL ARMOURIES

Coming Up in British Heritage



  • For All the Celtic Saints

  • Great Day Trips from London

  • On Lady Godiva’s Trail

  • Diary of an Oxford Summer

  • Yorkshire’s Abbeys

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