Though Romans, Saxons and Vikings came and went, York's true glory is Medieval. A pristine and fascinating walled city to visit.
The Olympic Flame, ignited in Greece,is on its way to the UK. Join me to greet it and to send it off on its epic 8,000 mile Torch Relay around Britain on Saturday. I'll be live blogging from Cornwall 18-20 May. Follow the flame with me right here.
5am
On our way since 4:30 am to Land.s End. Just a few hours until the launch of the torch. Fireworks over Falmouth harbor last night and Union Jack bunting all over the place.
This morning we're chugging along in faithful Dumpy, the 54-year-old Bedford Butterfly Bus. Pictures and local color of the big events ASAP - (depending on Wi-Fi and 3G reception here). See you later.
İFerne Arfin
7:37pm
Really wowed in the National Maritime Museum , pictured above, in Falmouth where a display of Olympic winning sailboats going back to 1968 is on until June 24. One of the galleries is underwater -the only one of its kind in the UK and one of only three in the world. Outside the windows, sea bass and mullet were schooling and tiny barnacles were crawling up the glass - did you know they have little mouths that you can see moving? And my goodness, who knew a Sea King helicopter was so big?
Harbor cruise on The Matthew showed off the best of Falmouth from the sea. What a lovely, pastel colored town. The Matthew is an exact replica of the ship sailed by John Cabot when he discovered North America (no John, New Foundland was not the Northwest Passage). The Matthew will be anchored near Tower Bridge for the Thames River Pageant of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee at the beginning of June.
Found out that Ben Fogle, Atlantic rower, Arctic explorer and all round handsome UK adventurer will be bring the torch to the Eden Project tomorrow.
We'll be heading out for Lands End at 4:30am in "Dumpy", a vintage 1958, Bedford Butterfly Bus that's our local transport for the duration. Off to hear sea chanties now. See you tomorrow.
...you're in for a big surprise. That is, if you are still looking for something to do in the Midlands between May 25 and May 27. Somewhere, in a secret woodland around Nosely Hall - not far from Leicester, they've been erecting stages and various bits of wood art structures for the Noisily Festival. It's a celebration of techno funk, dance music and all sorts of local indie sounds in the woods. Audience members don't find out exactly where it is until they buy a ticket. All they'll say for now is that it's about half an hour from Leicester and two hours from London, somewhere between Leicester and Market Harborough.
Day tickets and camping tickets are available and if you bring a campervan it'll cost you an extra tenner.
Find out more about the lineup and the festival by visiting their website. Then go make like a druid who's into techno soul and what the organizers describe as a "weekend of unrestrained hedonism."
Or, plan for later this summer by checking out some of the other music festivals around.
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Elizabethan manor houses from England's Golden Age reflect that era of confidence and abundance with the exhuberant ornamentation of the blatantly nouveau riche. Powerful people had plenty of money and plenty of self-confidence in the age of Elizabeth I and they weren't afraid to show it off.
The four houses built by Robert Smythson, Master Builder to the Queen, were among the most advanced and spectacular. One of them, Wollaton Hall, is now Nottingham's Natural History Museum, but three others have been kept as true to their Elizabethan origins as possible and you can visit them, in Wiltshire, Derbyshire and East Yorkshire.
One of them, Longleat House, is home to our all time favorite safari park - where we hear you can now run with cheetahs (well drive with them, actually). But if you visit the safari park, do also make time for the house and its many treasures.
İLongleat
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