Tour Code

Depart London

Return London

KEE

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NIGHTSTOP

DAY ONE - SUNDAY

We leave London following the Thames towards the North Sea. Our sightseeing today features a range of fantastic sites, many evoking London's maritime past including a pub with connections to 'the Mayflower', and the wonderful Greenwich (where you'll straddle the meridian line separating east from west, see the Cutty Sark and visit the naval museum). Then, there's the Pocahontas memorial, Henry VIII's Chatham docks and last but certainly not least, the tiny city of Rochester.

Rochester is an undiscovered pearl and deservedly on a Back-Roads Touring Co. Ltd itinerary taking you behind the tourist facade. There's an exquisite cathedral, a well-preserved 12th century castle and a medieval shopping street. It also boasts connections with Charles Dickens who lived here and set many of his tales in the city.

Kent

DAY TWO - MONDAY

The mighty Canterbury cathedral, the pretty Leeds Castle and historic Dover are the main features of our day's touring. All are major icons and, being essential must-sees for the visitor to the UK, are often visited as a day tour from London. As we're based in the area, we'll be enjoying a much more leisurely day than the day-trippers will be having! And, in typical Back-Roads style, we'll be able to add one or two other attractions, such as the fishing village of Whitstable, an emotive Battle of Britain memorial and a few real back road drives through this scenic county of England.

We'll begin another memorable day's touring with a drive across Romney marshes, once a haunt of smugglers, to the old cinque port of Rye. This picturesque town, so loved by the novelist Henry James, always has our tour participants cooing with delight and spending much film! It's another day where you'll see coastal fortresses built to repel the invader, though this time Napoleon.

Then to a place all have heard of, Hastings! We'll explore the site of this most famous of battles. 1066 changed the course of the history of the English-speaking peoples and it is a spine-tingling exercise to walk part of the actual battlefield.

Next on our itinerary is Chartwell, home to Winston Churchill. Here you can almost still smell the great man's cigar smoke as we tour the house to discover his life and times.

Add to these attractions more scenic touring through 'the garden of England' and a few 'serendipity stops' and you have a perfect day!

An hour or so drive sees us at our first stop, the university city of Cambridge. This sleepy, easily walked medieval city provides a superb gateway to East Anglia. We'll visit one of the colleges, and see students punt on the backs of the River Cam. There's also the excellent Fitzwilliam Museum to visit and great shopping! We continue into the county of Suffolk and make our next stop the museum of East Anglia life in Stowmarket. This 70-acre all weather museum has reconstruction of buildings, including a water mill. There are displays on Victorian domestic life, gypsies, farming and industry, plus historic films and videos, all of which make it an ideal place to spend a couple of hours.

Our first stop today will be at one of the UK's most important archaeological sites, that of the Anglo Saxon Royal Cemetery at Sutton Hoo (www.suttonhoo.org). Here you'll see the uncovered remains of our earliest Saxon ancestors, and learn about their way of life and death.

Next on our itinerary will be the impressive Framlingham Castle, a superb 12th-century castle which, from the outside, looks almost the same as when it was built. From the continuous curtain wall, linking 13 towers, there are excellent views over Framlingham and the charming reed-fringed mere. At different times, the castle has been a fortress, an Elizabethan prison, a poor house and a school.

Then we'll follow the coast road visiting charming coastal villages like Aldeburgh (home of classical composer Benjamin Brittain) and Southwold.

Further north there's an area of outstanding scenic beauty, the Norfolk Broads. The Broads is a network of 200 miles of internal waterways, initially dug to drain the local fens and reclaim the land. Now there are used extensively for leisure activities and are home to a wide variety of wild life and birds.

Lavenham is often referred to as the prettiest village in England. It's certainly historic with its streets of restored Tudor timber-framed buildings. One such is the Guildhall Museum with exhibits on wool industry of East Anglia. The garden contains examples of plants used in wool industry, plus a parish 'lock-up' and mortuary!

Nearby, Sudbury offers us a completely different attraction, the home and studio of the 18th century artist Thomas Gainsborough with its large display of artists' work, 18th-century furniture and memorabilia.

We've some lovely rural scenery to tour through and at certain times of the year we'll see the great lavender field in bloom.

On our return to London, we'll tour through Essex, and definitely take in the villages of Thaxted and Finchingfield where the typical black and white cottages, gathered around village ponds, make it seem unbelievable that barely an hour's drive away is the great London metropolis.

We'll arrive back into London by 6 p.m. Your accommodation tonight is not included but can be booked on your behalf at our Back-Roads central London hotel base, if required.

© As we publish full tour descriptions, you may find others offering our unique itineraries.  But, just as you find when others sing the songs of Paul McCartney, they're often not quite as good as when sung by the original composer!