The United Kingdom is home to 15 designated National Parks, areas of natural beauty and historic or cultural significance. Being an American National Parks lover, I was pleasantly surprised to find that while in Hampshire, we would be staying within one of the newer English national parks: New Forest National Park. At the end of this post is a bonus recipe for bread pudding.
While in Oxford, we visited the prestigious university, as well as the famed Eagle and Child pub, where the writing group known as "The Inklings" which included C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, met over pints to discuss their works.
Mentioned in many a Jane Austen novel, and famous on its own for its historic Roman Baths, the city of Bath in Somerset has much to do and see. In addition to the Roman Baths, we walked the Pulteney Bridge that spans the River Avon and, of course, we paid a visit to the Jane Austen Centre.
After visiting Stonehenge on our first full day in England, we drove to the historic city of Salisbury. We paid a visit to the medieval Salisbury Cathedral, a wonder in itself, which houses one of the last four original copies of the Magna Carta. This pivotal document, written in the early 1200s, formed the basis for our modern practices of due process, and has influences many governing documents in the centuries since.
Our first full day in England was spent at prehistoric Stonehenge and in Salisbury. Stonehenge is a designated UNESCO World Heritage Site and it thought to have been built in during the later part of the Neolithic Era and the Bronze Age between 3000 and 1250 BC. Today, it stands, millennia later, as a testament to human ingenuity.
The Cranky Camper 