What should I put on my UK bucket list?

[gator]

So looks like there's a good chance I'm going to be in the UK longer than expected. What sorts of awesome UK things should I put on my bucket list?

[gator]

Already completed:

Visit Edinburgh Fringe
Climb Arthur's Seat


To do:

Meet the Queen
Visit Shetland
Eat a Cornish pasty in Cornwall
Walk Hadrian's Wall
Climb Ben Nevis
Swim in the English Channel
See a show at the Globe Theatre
Go backstage at the Royal Opera House
Try Morris dancing

[ferrus]

Swim in the English Channel

Prepare to be grossed out! (Maybe it's not so bad any more) The best places for this are probably Sandwich or Deal in Kent, far away from the ferry terminals with the said ferrys dumping human excrement out into the water.

I've never seen backstage at the ROH. How do you get to see that, is it some kind of Mastercard platinum member privilege thing? I am thinking of seeing La Traviata in the summer there.

Also I go to the Globe pretty much every year, often 2 or 3 times. I would strongly recommend you get groundling tickets. It is cheap and surprisingly fun to stand up in a crowd watching the play. This year's line up doesn't look all that interesting though. (Personally I'm half tempted to see Measure for Measure as I'm not familiar with the play. The Oreistia triology could be good - it's just it's an unknown quantity right now.)

Recommendations:

Visit the Roman baths at Bath.
Go hiking in the Lake district/Windermere
Something my former boss clocked me onto is that you can get cheap tickets to Ireland (either Holyhead-Dublin or Liverpool-Belfast) with the train through a scheme called Sailrail. I've got tickets to Dublin for the Bloomsday stuff in June - £40 single from the place in Kent I live (probably cheaper from London). It's a really good bargain, you get a train to Holyhead and then across on the ferry. Personally my plan right now for the summer is to do a tour of Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool. Could be something worth checking out.
See the Isle of Wight
Visit Durham/Berwick-upon-Tweed/Lindisfarne
Visit Chester and Liverpool
Stonehenge, because, well because?

[Dirac]

I came here to say Shetland but oh well.

[gator]

I came here to say Shetland but oh well.

I'm going to need your advice about Shetland later. Might make it there for Shetland Wool Week, but also thinking that it might be a really nice place to visit in the summer, take my bike... when I finally get a bike.

Maybe I should put getting attacked by bonxies on my list.

[gator]

Prepare to be grossed out! (Maybe it's not so bad any more) The best places for this are probably Sandwich or Deal in Kent, far away from the ferry terminals with the said ferrys dumping human excrement out into the water.

I've never seen backstage at the ROH. How do you get to see that, is it some kind of Mastercard platinum member privilege thing? I am thinking of seeing La Traviata in the summer there.

Also I go to the Globe pretty much every year, often 2 or 3 times. I would strongly recommend you get groundling tickets. It is cheap and surprisingly fun to stand up in a crowd watching the play. This year's line up doesn't look all that interesting though. (Personally I'm half tempted to see Measure for Measure as I'm not familiar with the play. The Oreistia triology could be good - it's just it's an unknown quantity right now.)

Recommendations:

Visit the Roman baths at Bath.
Go hiking in the Lake district/Windermere
Something my former boss clocked me onto is that you can get cheap tickets to Ireland (either Holyhead-Dublin or Liverpool-Belfast) with the train through a scheme called Sailrail. I've got tickets to Dublin for the Bloomsday stuff in June - £40 single from the place in Kent I live (probably cheaper from London). It's a really good bargain, you get a train to Holyhead and then across on the ferry. Personally my plan right now for the summer is to do a tour of Dublin, Belfast and Liverpool. Could be something worth checking out.
See the Isle of Wight
Visit Durham/Berwick-upon-Tweed/Lindisfarne
Visit Chester and Liverpool
Stonehenge, because, well because?

Good suggestions. Will definitely check out the cheap tickets to Ireland. Can't believe that I left Stonehenge off my list.

I figure I can leverage my connections to get backstage at ROH. Same with meeting the queen.

I've seen Measure for Measure twice and I think it is probably my least favourite Shakespeare play. You can tell he was in a really cynical, dark mood when he wrote it.

[Polemarch]

I told you to usurp. I'm still waiting for results. Hurry it up

[Utisz]

Make sure you kick the queen in the shin for me.

As for Ireland, you can also keep an eye out for cheap flights ... esp. with Ryanair. I think the West coast has more interesting shit to do, check out the cliffs of moher, the burren, get some surfing lessons, maybe head for Donegal or Kerry, get some pints in Galway in the Crane bar, or get your hands on some Buckfast and find a bush to drink a bottle of it and then hit up a club. Head for the aran islands or one of the smaller islands. If you were feeling more adventurous, I think the best weekend I spent in Ireland was when we rented boats in Carrick and headed a couple of hundred clicks down the Shannon, hitting up some small towns on the way as we felt like it for pints and food. If you could get a gang of at least three or four interested, the boats are comfortable to sleep and cook in, it's not so expensive (if you have enough people, it's not much more than a hostel each), you can drink and drive, and you get to see quite a bit of Ireland in a short time and from a unique perspective. You don't need a license or anything ... just to sit through a hour prep talk and then get a quick tut on how to drive the boat.

[gator]

I've got some more ideas.

Knit a sanquhar glove in Sanquhar.
Pet a manx cat on the Isle of Mann.


Oh, and I found this map and now I'm going to do all the walks. Need to get some new hiking boots though.

It's actually kind of exciting because in Canada you can't go hiking alone because you'll get lost or injured and there's no cell reception and you will die, and you need a car to get anywhere. It's kind of a revelation to me that you can hop on a train, go hiking for a bit, stop at a pub for lunch and then hike some more.

[gator]

Make sure you kick the queen in the shin for me.

As for Ireland, you can also keep an eye out for cheap flights ... esp. with Ryanair. I think the West coast has more interesting shit to do, check out the cliffs of moher, the burren, get some surfing lessons, maybe head for Donegal or Kerry, get some pints in Galway in the Crane bar, or get your hands on some Buckfast and find a bush to drink a bottle of it and then hit up a club. Head for the aran islands or one of the smaller islands. If you were feeling more adventurous, I think the best weekend I spent in Ireland was when we rented boats in Carrick and headed a couple of hundred clicks down the Shannon, hitting up some small towns on the way as we felt like it for pints and food. If you could get a gang of at least three or four interested, the boats are comfortable to sleep and cook in, it's not so expensive (if you have enough people, it's not much more than a hostel each), you can drink and drive, and you get to see quite a bit of Ireland in a short time and from a unique perspective. You don't need a license or anything ... just to sit through a hour prep talk and then get a quick tut on how to drive the boat.

Thanks! Will have to put visiting my ancestral seat in Sligo on the list too.

And I have much experience of Buckfast from my time in Edinburgh.