Sportsnutd Lotus Crystal
 
Title : GC's Dark Mercury.RAINBOW DASH BEST PONY! Posts : 6893 Join date : 2015-06-29 Age : 39 Location : Littleton, Colorado
 |  Subject: Fun and Hip times in the UK  23rd August 2017, 10:35 am | |
| I personally love to go places and have a good time and in the United Kingdom there are hundreds of things to do and events to attend that will possibly keep you up all night long...and day too. We will highlight some of those popular places and events that might make you save up some Green to go visit the UK someday. how about we start the tour in: Cotswolds The glorious, honey-coloured towns and villages of the Cotswolds look as if they have strayed into the 21st century from another era. The area is characterised by gentle dynamism, with lively galleries, vibrant festivals and a liberal endowment of intriguing museums. Covering nearly 800 square miles across five counties (Wiltshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire), this region of 'wolds', or rolling hills, is the biggest of the 38 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in England and Wales.Every season here has intrinsic appeal. Crowd-free winters are ideal for bracing walks, fire-side pub sessions – and lower hotel prices. Come in spring to see lambs and wild daffodils. Visit in summer (inevitably with many others) for magical light, particularly in the long evenings. Or make an autumn excursion for a quieter atmosphere and wonderful leaf colour, especially at the two great arboreta, Westonbirt and Batsford.Next destination will be:
DevonCraggy coves and cream teas, surf breaks and strolls, picnics and pints in pub gardens – holidays in Devon are wholesome, simple and scenic. Most people are drawn to the magnificent beaches on the south and north coasts, but inland Devon has its appeal, too.A visit here mixes two of life’s loveliest pleasures: good food and the great outdoors. Devon folk make the most of the rich larder of food on their doorstep. Lamb, venison, pheasant, pork and seafood are staples, and the county’s farmers’ markets are full of artisan producers selling delicious cider, apple juice, cheese and ice cream.our third lovely place is:
Alnwick Posion GardensBehind big black gates, the carefully curated garden contains about 100 legendary killers like Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), Strychnos nux-vomica (strychnine), and Conium maculatum (hemlock). Guides explain their deadly properties while keeping ne’er-do-wells and curious children away from the plants, warning them: “Do not touch any of the plants, don’t even smell them. There are plants here that can kill you.”The duchess herself is an unlikely patron. Until 1995, she was just Jane Percy, mother of four. Then in 1995, her husband unexpectedly became the twelfth Duke of Northumberland following his brother’s untimely death, and the next thing they knew they had a castle to deal with. As she inspected her newly inherited digs and expansive gardens, much of which had been meticulously designed by the famous landscape designer Capability Brown, she came across an overgrown, neglected section. Formal gardens had been planted in that spot by the first duke in 1750, and it passed through several incarnations until World War II, when it was converted from a place of Italian ornamental splendor into a victory garden of vegetables. By 1950, it had closed. She decided to restore it, not to its former glory, but into a new, modern garden.The poison garden opened in 2005 as just a portion of the ambitious 14-acre new gardens. Wanting in part to hark back to old apothecary’s gardens, the duchess shied away from planting healing medicinals and instead sought out hard-to-get deadly poisons. Also included in the gardens are narcotic plants like opium poppies, cannabis, magic mushrooms, and tobacco. Many of these required special government permission to grow. Because the danger posed by poisonous plants is very real (some can kill or sicken just through touch), some plants are caged, and the garden is secured each evening behind gates under a 24-hour security watch.Other parts of the garden include an enormous multi-level treehouse and a bamboo labyrinth. You may also find the looming Alnwick Castle strangely familiar, having seen it stand in as Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter films.The gardens are planned in several phases, some of which are still incomplete - funds in the millions of pounds have not been as forthcoming lately.next up is:
Witley Wonder Underwater BallroomThe main house on the estate was a 32-room mansion, and Wright had three artificial lakes constructed, the 9,000+ acres lavishly landscaped and reeking of wealth and means. Perhaps the most famous addition to the palatial properties was the underground conservatory/smoking room with aquarium windows, an epic statue seemingly rising out of the manufactured lake on the underwater dome that gave the glorious below-ground room a ballroom-like appearance.Whitaker Wright wore many hats throughout the years, but when he finally settled into something, it was something big - big and illegal. London and Globe Company floated stock and bonds in the realm of the mining industry, and at first Whitaker’s business dealings were simply misleading, not particularly criminal. The line was crossed into outright swindling when, after floating a large, unwieldy bond issue for the Waterloo Railway (an expensive endeavor quite out of his usual comfort zone) everything went south, straining his finances. To keep investors from seeing him struggle, he began to issue himself a series of loans and shuttle them between his companies. Unable to keep things afloat, in 1900 he fled, leaving his floundering investors in a panic, and single-handedly terrorizing London’s exchange.Now considered a scourge and a scoundrel, Wright was retrieved and forced to stand trial. Needless to say, it didn’t go well. Convicted of fraud, he was sentenced to seven years in prison by the Royal Courts of Justice in 1904. In a court anteroom, Whitaker Wright took his own life by swallowing a cyanide pill immediately after sentencing, and was found dead on the floor with a revolver in his pocket–assumed to serve as a backup in case the cyanide failed to finish the job.Wright did not face public disapproval alone - his estate actually attracted the ire of fellow countrymen as well, with its extensive acreage and resource-sucking extravagance. Once he died, the estate was auctioned off, much of it purchased by Irish shipbuilder (of Titanic fame) and businessman William Pirrie, who changed its name to Witley Park and extended the property to include a deer park.In 1952, the mansion was destroyed in a fire. While new houses have been built, the landscaped park and the now ancient-looking ballroom remain. Witley Park is a private property, and while permission is occasionally granted to view the ballroom, it isn’t open to the public. Last stop will be: Puzzlewood "Mysterious, fantastical woodland inspiration for "The Lord of the Rings" It’s filled with beautiful moss-covered rocks, bridges, and fantastic rock and tree formations that can be accessed by miles of winding pathways. Puzzlewood, used as a filming location for Merlin and Dr. Who, covers more than 14 acres and is considered one of the best examples of pre-Roman Celtic open cast iron mines.The paths were laid in the early 19th century by the owner at the time. It didn’t open to the public until 100 years later.
An enchanting place, Puzzlewood is said to have served as the inspiration for J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. A frequent visitor to the area, Tolkien may have considered Puzzlewood and the Forest of Dean when he created the Old Forest, Mirkwood, Lothlorien, and other places in his Middle Earth.
In addition to the forest, there are farm animals, outdoor picnic tables, a cafe, a gift shop, and a children’s playground in the area. Some of the animals kept in Puzzlewood include cattle, wild fowl, rabbits, donkeys, Soay sheep, goats, and Shetland ponies. The area around Puzzlewood is a working farm.
Over the years, evidence of Roman occupation of the area has been found in the form of over 3,000 coins from the third century. Over the hundreds of years since the Romans left the site, the trees and moss have grown unchecked to cover any man-made structures that may have been left behind for mining. |
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Sailor Makoto Pyramidal Crystal
 
Title : (GC's Official) Makoto/Jupiter Posts : 1866 Join date : 2013-02-21 Age : 44 Location : Palm Springs area Cal USA
| | Subject: Re: Fun and Hip times in the UK 15th September 2017, 4:03 pm | |
| The county Kent in the southeast end of England 40 miles from France (the European continent) is famous for the white cliffs of Dover. I visited Dover in Kent in June 1996 by ferry and again - to Folkestone through the Euro-tunnel bullet-speed train, a subterranean tunnel under the English Channel from Calais. Dover has the Dover castle and a WW2 bunker museum. |
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Cosmos-Hime Moderator
 
Title : ﾐ☆ GC's official Sailor Cosmos! ﾐ☆ Posts : 12832 Join date : 2014-11-14 Age : 31 Location : ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
| | Subject: Re: Fun and Hip times in the UK 15th September 2017, 4:15 pm | |
| The underwater ballroom looks like it'd be haunted or something. Can't blame people for closing it off, though. Being underwater, It'd be somewhat difficult to refurbish-though it must have looked gorgeous in its prime. |
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Sailor Arkas Lotus Crystal
Title : Guardian of Uncontrollable Curiosity Posts : 1491 Join date : 2017-07-12 Age : 31 Location : Georgia Mountains
| | Subject: Re: Fun and Hip times in the UK 15th September 2017, 7:42 pm | |
| Oh, I would love to go see the Poison Garden. Actually, I have a list of places in the UK -and for that matter, around the world - I want to visit (mostly just a huge list of museums), and I am going to add the poison garden to it, along with the Puzzlewood. I love anything to do with plants, and both look fascinating. Plus, if I could take my nephews and nieces, we could have the older ones read the Hobbit first and make it an awesome adventure! I don't think that will happen with seven kids, but it is awfully fun to daydream.  |
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