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The following trips are designed for all students and costs are already covered by the program fee. You will receive an itinerary upon arrival in London and will be asked to reserve space on the coaches with a refundable deposit. Destinations are subject to change.
Yorkshire
Leeds, York and the beautiful Yorkshire Dales
Spend a weekend in one of the most beautiful regions of England. Experience England beyond London! English people are not only Londoners!
Where and what is Yorkshire?
Yorkshire is an area half way between London and Scotland. It's historical capital, the city of York, famous for its minister (the largest gothic cathedral in UK), It's an ensemble of tiny medieval alleys, castle ruins, tucked-away churches, riverside gardens and museums.
Leeds, where we will be based, is the funky capital of this area. If you want to experience English life and meet friendly northern people, this is the place. It's long been the region's cultural centre and a noted nightlife destination (with the advent of late-opening cafés, bars, clubs and eclectic restaurants).
The Yorkshire Dales, a region protected as a national park, a wonderful wild landscape of limestone hills and pastoral valleys, perfect for hiking and outdoors activities. This is the Brönte sisters' landscape, dotted with ruined abbeys and beautiful small villages.
The trip will start with a journey by train from London to Leeds, leaving late (not before 6.00pm). We will be based in Leeds where shopping facilities and the bustling nightlife will allow us to enjoy our staying, experiencing the warmth spirit of English people from the north.
The itinerary will include a day hiking in the Dales, walking through a wild and unspoiled territory, with a visit to the stunning Fountains Abbey; another day to visit York and the surrounding area, including a visit to Castle Howard, the gem amongst stately homes.
We will also include a visit to the National Coal Mining Museum, a real journey through time, back to 1790s, time of the industrial revolution. You'll get the opportunity to ride the paddy train, the mode of transportation used by miners to enter and leave the mines. Perhaps the best feature to the National Coal Mining Museum is its guided underground tours.
Last bit of information:
There is an extra charge for this trip, which includes the train journey, 3-night accommodation in Leeds (w. breakfast), all transfers to and from sites to visit, and all entrance fees.
Greenwich
Greenwich is the home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) and the Prime Meridian. The entire world sets its clocks by GMT. At its heart is the outstanding architectural set-piece of the Royal Naval College, overlooking the Thames. Crowning the hill in Greenwich Park, behind the National Maritime Museum, is the Old Royal Observatory, built in 1675. Set on a dry dock is the majestic Cutty Sark, the world's last surviving tea clipper.
The Docklands
Once synonymous with slums, sweatshops, and crime, as epitomized by antiheroes such as Jack the Ripper and the Kray Twins, the renovated Docklands area is a product of the Thatcher years. It lies along the Thames, from the Tower of London eastward, taking in all the Isle of Dogs, currently the geographical and ideological heart of the new Docklands, which reaches its apotheosis in Canary Wharf. This busy bit is best known as home to Britain's tallest building, Cesar Pelli's landmark tower, one of the highest buildings in Europe and the world's first skyscraper to be clad in stainless steel.
Stonehenge and Salisbury
Stonehenge, Britain's most famous ancient monument, is also one of the world's most astonishing engineering feats. Many of the stones, some weighing four tons each, were brought over 100 miles from the Preseli mountains in Wales to Salisbury Plain. Stonehenge's main axis is aligned with the sun on midsummer's day, probably for ceremonial and religious purposes. Salisbury is a preserved medieval city with a stunning cathedral whose spire is the tallest in Great Britain, rising a magnificent 404 feet above the rooftops. In the depth of its vaulted interior, Salisbury Cathedral hosts an original copy of the Magna Carta, and England's oldest clock (1386).
Experience London: The East End
Most visitors to the East End come for its famous Sunday Markets, and this Sunday trip features a staff tour from Petticoat Lane north to Spitalfields Market and Brick Lane, wandering through busy narrow streets, peeping into bizarre little shops with clothes/ accessories/objects/furniture of all kinds! Includes a visit to the Whitechapel Art Gallery, where some of London's most innovative contemporary art is exhibited.
Vale of the White Horse* and Runnymede
In connection with ETS 443-Reading the English Landscape, but open to all students, the Vale study tour is a 3-hour hike along the ancient Ridgeway path, all within sight of the millennia-old White Horse, a gigantic carving in the chalk hillside. Students explore "Uffington Castle," a spectacular hilltop site of an Iron Age fort-a practical exercise in reading some 5,500 years of English landscape.
Runnymede is the site of the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215.
*Note: A hike at Avebury (site of Neolithic stone circle and other prehistoric structures) may substitute for Vale of the White Horse hike.
Bath
The Georgian town of Bath is where Jane Austen wrote some of her novels, where Gainsborough established himself as a portraitist and landscape painter, and the home of Chaucer's fictional wife. The only town in England awarded a World Heritage Site, the Roman baths are the city's most famous attraction. Overlooking the baths is Bath Abbey, a 15th-century restoration of an earlier Norman structure, built on the site of the Saxon church where Edgar, the first king of a united England, was crowned in 973.
Kent: Penshurst Place and Dungeness
Another field trip in connection with ETS 443 and open to all students. Professor Forbes Morlock guides students to the estate, house and gardens of Penshurst Place, home of the poet Philip Sidney. Dungeness (within sight of the White Cliffs of Dover) is a fishing village where the North Sea meets the English Channel, an otherwordly, shingle-formation landscape and site of special scientific interest. Here you'll climb the old lighthouse, and visit the garden of the British filmmaker Derek Jarman with its sculpture constructed from drift material. (A minimal fee TBA is associated with this trip.)
Brighton
The nearest seaside resort to London, many Londoners commute to this lively town for the weekend. The best-known landmark of the town is the Royal Pavilion: built by Nash in 1823, it blends elements of Indian, Chinese and Islamic architecture and perfectly reflects Brighton's diversity, extravagance, and exuberance. Only one hour away from the metropolis, there's plenty of accommodation at every level.
Leeds Castle and Canterbury
Its stunning location on two small islands in the middle of a lake have earned Leeds Castle a reputation as the loveliest castle in the world. The original was built by the Normans nearly 900 years ago and converted into a royal palace in the 16th century by Henry VIII. Culpeper Garden is an aviary with over 100 rare bird species and a maze centered on a spectacular underground grotto adorned with stone mythical beasts and shell mosaics.
Canterbury is one of England's most venerable cities, and offers a rich slice through two thousand years of history, with Roman and early Christian ruins, a Norman castle and a famous cathedral that dominates a medieval warren of time-skewed Tudor dwellings. When St. Augustine converted King Ethelbert to Christianity in 597, Canterbury became the cradle of English Christianity: long stretches of medieval walls still stand around the magnificent cathedral, with its superb stained glass, stone vaulting and vast Norman crypt. A plaque near the altar marks the spot where Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in 1170 by four overzealous knights; his tomb has been a site of pilgrimage ever since.
Hampton Court and Twickenham
The finest of Tudor palaces, Hampton Court Palace (1516) is set on the banks of the Thames, 13 miles southwest of London. It was the favorite residence of Henry VIII and his wives. The tour of the palace includes the State Apartments, the Queen's apartments, the King's Apartment, the Tudor Kitchens and the Picture Gallery (with beautiful masterpieces). The extensive gardens were laid out by Charles II, inspired by what he saw in Versailles. The famous maze is a must-see. Twickenham is the area between Hampton Court and Richmond, a pretty settlement on the Thames. A pathway along the river leads to several English Mansions: Strawberry Hill, Ham House, Marble Hill, Pope's Grotto.
