Nov 15th, 2009 at 2:30PM: In anticipation of the Christmas Day release of the new Sherlock Holmes movie (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law), Visit Britain has developed a microsite to help guide fans to the London locations used in the film. The site also offers possible itineraries for a Holmes-themed tour of London.
The list of London stops on the Holmes tour includes St. Paul's Cathedral, ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
England posts
Explore London with Sherlock Holmes
Nov 15th, 2009 at 2:30PM: In anticipation of the Christmas Day release of the new Sherlock Holmes movie (starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law), Visit Britain has developed a microsite to help guide fans to the London locations used in the film. The site also offers possible itineraries for a Holmes-themed tour of London.
The list of London stops on the Holmes tour includes St. Paul's Cathedral, ...Drunk pilot arrested in London
Museum Junkie: Oxford's Ashmolean reopens today
Nov 7th, 2009 at 9:00AM: The long wait is finally over for the grand reopening of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology. After being partially or completely closed for the past three years, the museum's vast collection is finally open to the public again, with twice the exhibition space it once had. The Ashmolean is the oldest public museum in the world, having opened in 1683, and while there have been a lot of ...Museum Junkie: Manga and Moctezuma at the British Museum
Oct 31st, 2009 at 5:30PM: Trust the British Museum to have two completely different but totally cool special exhibitions at the same time. There's still time to catch Moctezuma: Aztec Ruler, a dazzling collection of art from one of Mesoamerica's greatest civilizations. It focuses on the reign of Moctezuma II (1502-1520), who died at the hands of the Spanish conquistadores. He ruled over a large, complex civilization from ...Pub Etiquette: This ain't no American bar
Oct 30th, 2009 at 4:30PM:
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/30/pub-etiquette-this-aint-no-american-bar/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
Pubs are a cornerstone of English life. Most English people go to them and many are regulars at their "local." Because of this, pubs are a great way to meet and learn about the English. Even if you don't drink, go ahead and order a juice and soak up the atmosphere. I've ...Neighbors bothered by naturist B&B
Oct 29th, 2009 at 8:30AM: Neighbors of Domain Farm, a recently opened naturist Bed and Breakfast in Staffordshire, England, are complaining about seeing more than they want to of the guests.
The B&B is a converted farm and features a sun deck, hot tub, and barbeque area, and while it's set in a rural landscape, it is within sight of other homes. This brings it into the ongoing controversy, not limited to naturism, ...Great drinking and dining at London's gastropubs
Oct 28th, 2009 at 4:30PM: The pub is a fine British institution, but the eating is rarely as good as the drinking. When you order food at most pubs, what you get is a preprepared meal that's heated up in a microwave, not something that's cooked especially for you. Some pubs do have good kitchens where they make everything from scratch, like The Fir Tree, my local in Oxford, but it can be hard to tell just by looking at a ...London's Tube will have (some) air conditioning next summer
Oct 24th, 2009 at 3:30PM:
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/10/24/londons-tube-will-have-air-conditioning-next-summer/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
Londoners love to hate the Tube. The London Underground is said to be overpriced, overcrowded, and prone to breakdowns and strikes, but perhaps the biggest (and most valid) complaint is that on hot summer days the lack of air conditioning turns the cars into ...Gatwick Airport to be sold, modernized
Oct 23rd, 2009 at 8:30AM: This week's announcement by the British Airports Authority that it will sell London's Gatwick Airport has everyone wondering about the future of the city's second busiest hub.
The BAA, owned by the Spanish group Ferrovial, sold Gatwick for £1.5 billion ($2.49 billion) to Global Infrastructure Partners, owned by Credit Suisse and General Electric. The deal comes after the UK government ...The ten toughest castles in the world
Oct 16th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Castles make a pretty backdrop to any vacation. They conjure up images of brave knights and damsels in distress, but the reality was less romantic. Castles were fortifications built to defend important cities, ports, fords, or mountain passes. The best military minds in the world devised ways to destroy them, when they weren't figuring out better ways to build them. Here are ten castles that ...London Restaurant Festival opens today
Oct 8th, 2009 at 2:00PM: England has an unfair reputation for bad cuisine. While this is the land of jellied eels and mushy peas, things have changed in recent years and now there are a lot more choices, especially in the nation's capital. From October 8-13, the London Restaurant Festival will highlight the amazing range of eateries in the city. You can find literally any kind of food here from familiar favorites such as ...Avebury--more awesome than Stonehenge
Sep 25th, 2009 at 3:00PM: Everyone's heard of Stonehenge, the enigmatic stone circle on Salisbury Plain, but just seventeen miles to the north stands an even more imposing monument--Avebury. Actually it's a whole landscape of monuments. For miles around the rolling fields are dotted with the burial mounds of forgotten chieftains, and many hilltops are protected by ancient ramparts. Avebury itself is a massive stone circle ...Museum Junkie: Anglo-Saxon treasure goes on display
Sep 24th, 2009 at 2:30PM: Prize pieces from a huge horde of Anglo-Saxon gold are on display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. The horde, found in Staffordshire by a metal detector enthusiast, is believed to be the largest such find ever in the UK, rivaling even the famous horde of the Sutton Hoo burial ship, pictured here. The Staffordshire Horde contains 1,500 pieces of gold and silver and appears to be the ...5000 year old navigation system discovered
Sep 15th, 2009 at 11:30AM:
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/15/5000-year-old-navigation-system-discovered/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
A primitive, yet highly effective, navigation system was used by ancient man to navigate their way across England and Wales historians claim, proving once again that ancient civilizations were far more sophisticated in their approach to engineering than was once ...Travel from the rest of the world to the U.S. falls ... again
Sep 12th, 2009 at 12:00PM:
Travel fell again in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data, as a weak economy put pressure on both personal and corporate travel budgets.
Only 3.6 million people arrived from other countries, marking a decline of 11 percent from June 2008 to June 2009. For the six months of the year, international arrivals were off 10 percent year-over-year. The spending situation was even worse. ...Heathrow up, other UK airports see traffic fall
Sep 11th, 2009 at 1:00PM:
Vacationers compensated for business travelers at Heathrow last month, helping the airport realize its busiest August in history. Airport operator BAA Ltd. noted that its total traffic, though, had fallen 3.1 percent for the month. Heathrow is Europe's busiest airport, and 6.4 million passengers passed through, a slight increase of 0.3 percent compared to August 2008.
The other London airports ...Through the Gadling Lens: photographing autumn
Sep 10th, 2009 at 11:00AM: Here in the United States, Labor Day is now over, and all of the kids are back in school -- sure signs that, despite the actual calendar date, summer is gone and fall is right around the corner. This makes me happy: while spring has those beautiful blue skies, winter is certainly pretty with all its whiteness and, let's face it, summer gets all the really great press, in my opinion, autumn is ...Hiking Hadrian's Wall--the practicalities
Sep 9th, 2009 at 3:30PM:
tweetmeme_url = 'http://www.gadling.com/2009/09/09/hiking-hadrians-wall-the-practicalities/'; tweetmeme_source = 'Gadling';
If this series on the Hadrian's Wall Path has sparked your interest, why not walk it yourself? It's one of the more interesting and less challenging of the UK's fifteen National Trails. The total length of the trail is 84 miles. It is well signposted and difficult to get ...Hadrian's Wall Day Six: reaching the coast
Sep 8th, 2009 at 3:30PM:
It's the last day of my hike and I wake up excited. I have only fifteen miles to go to finish walking across the country! Sure, I've been going along one of the narrowest parts of England, but it still feels good. I'll be staying at the same hotel in Carlisle, the Brooklyn House, again tonight, and that means I can finish up my hike with only a day pack. Back in Roman times Carlisle was called ...Hadrian's Wall Day Five: across the lowlands
Sep 7th, 2009 at 4:00PM: Getting up early I take a last look at the crags that I crossed yesterday before heading west and towards Carlisle. I'm now in the lowlands and after scrabbling over steep rock for the past two days it's very easy going. Add the fact that it's sunny and I only have eleven miles to walk today, and I have an easy ramble ahead of me. The countryside is more populated here, and I pass by hedges, ...
