Colchester - located the eastern corner of England !

Colchester, is located the eastern corner of England, in the county of Essex, just slightly to the north of London. Due to its long history, there are many places of interest to visit in Colchester - in fact, there is such a lot to occupy your time here that a single day here is quite simply not long enough. Around the county of Essex there is a huge diversity of things to keep the visitor busy.

For the hardy, outdoor visitor, try NOMAD Sea Kayaking, which even caters for complete beginners, or visit the watersports and outdoor education centre at the Southend Marine Activities Centre which belongs to Southend Council and, being fully accredited RYA and BCU, is licensed to provide courses for the general public as well as schools' visitors. Staying with the great outdoors, visit the River Lee where you will find Lee Valley Boat Centre. Here you can hire a vessel for private function, or take a leisurely hourly cruise along the river.

For the culture buffs, there is the Mercury Theatre, situated at Balkerne Gate. For those of you who are entranced by Colchester's past, you will find St Botolph's Priory, built during the 12th century, close to the mainline railway station. The museum, at Colchester Castle is a mine of information. The castle, which was built on the remains of a Roman temple, features one of Europe's biggest Norman keeps and, although this part is in ruins, other areas of the castle house the museum and contains many original Roman artifacts, and other items of interest from British history. Apart from museums, there is a zoo, featuring a new sea lion enclosure, at the castle, and the Layer Marney Tower, built during Henry VIII's reign. This is a particularly famous Essex landmark.

Colchester also features an excellent shopping centre - including many of the smaller, individual specialist shops that sell a myriad of miscellaneous and unusual items. To keep the children from getting bored, a visit to Rollerworld will soon buck them up: recognised as being the best roller rink in Europe, Rollerworld has innumerable other features to claim the attention of the most jaded youngster - such as Quasar, a laser game, and Bowlingo which is a bit like ten pin bowling.

If your children are still looking for more fun, take them along to the One Minet Skate Park which is a concrete skate park built on American lines - even total beginners can enjoy themselves in the landscaped grounds where a mini-skate park is available for them to get the hang of this activity. In Essex, it really is the case of 'too little time - and too much to do'. Enjoy your visit and be sure to return.

Cambridge

The city of Cambridge lies about 50 miles north east of London in the county of Cambridgeshire in England. This city has an astounding and marvelous landscape and bridges along the River Cam. The name Cambridge is thought to have been derived from the name of this river.

This city is home to one of the oldest universities of the world, the Cambridge University, which was founded in the 13th century. There are a number of colleges that come under the umbrella of this famous university. King's College which was founded by King Henry IV in the year 1441 is one of the oldest colleges. This college houses a chapel which is more than a hundred years old and currently being used for some concerts and college events. Trinity College is another constituent college of this university and it was founded by King Henry VIII in the year 1546. Other constituent colleges of this University include St John's College and Magdalena College.

It is worth a visit to all these colleges. Each of these colleges is structurally engineered well and offers the tourists a feast for their eyes. The beauty of the chapels, courts and gardens of the colleges are beyond compare. The city of Cambridge also has many public parks and gardens which are a haven for children to play football or tennis. These gardens and parks also serve as apt venues for picnics, walks or even just to relax.

The Cambridge leisure park in the city offers a lot of leisure activities to the tourists visiting Cambridge. This park houses a gym, café and a 9 screen Cineworld cinema. It also has 28 lane tenpin bowling alleys along with a number of restaurants and bars.

The culture of sports is most prevalent in this part of England. The rules for the first game of football were drawn up in the Cambridge University. Rugby is another game Cambridge is famous for. Boating is famous water sport in Cambridge because the River Cam runs right through the center of this city.

The Large Town of Reading, Berkshire !

As far as population centers in the southeast region of the country, the large town of Reading, Berkshire, England is an attractive and interesting area to visit and appreciate for its medieval architectural influences. Reading is also the county town of Berkshire, which is one of the Home Counties surrounding London.

With a current population of around 144,000 people in the town itself and a total of 233,000 people in the urban area, Reading is a vibrant, bustling university town - it has two of them - with a large student population. Its history goes back to its founding in the 8th century as Readingum. Scholars believe that name was most likely of Anglo-Saxon origin.

An interesting historical note is that the town was overrun by the Vikings in 871. This group of people wasn't really interested in colonization, for the most part, so by the property survey of 1086 (the Domesday Book, commissioned by William I), there were only around 600 people who called the area home. Another fascinating example of the role Reading has played in history is that many of the ruling elite relocated to the town from London when the Plague swept through the city back in the 14th century.

Over the centuries, Reading has continued to expand, with much growth occurring through expansion and also annexation of surrounding smaller towns and villages throughout the 1920s through the 1950s. It has since expanded to the edges of the M4 motorway, which is now the southern border of the town. Housing development continues apace to this day, and many people now use Reading as a base from which to commute to other cities and locales.

Berkshire as a county is also home to Windsor Castle, a royal residence of the current monarch. Because of this, Berkshire additionally is entitled to claim the title of Royal County. It has a current population of about 813,000 people, and is among the oldest actual counties in England, dating back to probably at least 840. Both Reading and Berkshire are historic and attractive examples of the ideal of England as a force throughout history.

Bristol - city in the south west of England .

Bristol is the largest city in the south west of England, and is the second largest city in the whole of the south of England. It is 105 miles west of London, borders the counties of Gloucestershire and Somerset, and is also close to the historic Roman city of Bath.

There are 34 places in the world also sharing the name Bristol. Most of them are in the United States, but there are also some in Canada, Peru, Costa Rica and Jamaica.

Bristol had developed into an important port by the 12th century, and was used for a lot of England's trade with Ireland. Around this time Bristol also become known for its shipbuilding and manufacturing industries.

By the time the 14th century had arrived, Bristol, along with York and Norwich, was one of the three main medieval towns in England after London. It is estimated that Bristol had approximately 15,000 to 20,000 inhabitants when the Black Death struck in 1348.

Bristol is known for its slave trade, and from 1700 to 1807, during the height of the slave trade, over 2,000 slaving ships were fitted out in the city. These were used to carry an estimated half a million slaves to the Americas from Africa.

A large part of Bristol was bombed during the war, and had to be rebuilt. However, despite this, there are some wonderful historic parts to the city. The centre of the city had undergone recent redevelopment, with the creation of the new Cabot Circus shopping area, which is like a cross between an outdoor shopping centre and an indoor shopping mall.