Itchy Feet

Since I went to Canterbury last weekend, my inner tourist has awoken from it's dissertation writing/winter slumber. Aside from being just in time for what some might say has been the worst week of weather all winter, it's also the beginning of spring, which may be the ideal time to start planning enough day trips to last me through the summer. My hibernating Britain guide book has come off the shelf and I've been 'researching' on wikipedia. And I don't know if it's really a problem in a bad way, but there are too many places I want to go! I don't know how to a) prioritize or b) fit them all in. Now that I've gotten Canterbury out of the way, as it had been lingering at the top of the list for ages, the possibilities are seemingly endless so I need some input on what I should be going to see.

Category 1: Castles
This place is knee-deep in castles, and coming from a land where we call big old things 'mountains', I find the idea of visiting them extremely novel. In order to differentiate them from palaces and stately homes, castles not only require the word castle in the title, but as such must have some sort of defensive role and maybe some big stone walls with towers and such. The ones at the top of my list, for reasons of proximity and levels of possible coolness, Bodiam Castle and Leeds Castle are my top choices for 'old castles in moats'. Both are in the general direction of Dover and Hastings and well, are old castles with moats. However, I fear they may be redundant and so at this point will probably only go to one. For the more 'lived-in' castle category, there's Arundel Castle not too far from Brighton and of course the stones throw away Windsor Castle, which I've been to but it was a bit rushed and wouldn't mind going back. In the final category, of 'slight theme park slant', there is Warwick Castle which is owned by the Madame Tussauds group and has a giant, ummm, you know those things they used in medieval times to hurl flaming bales of hay over walls and such, and apparently you're allowed to use it.

Category 2: Palaces and Stately Homes
I suppose really just stately homes, but this includes Clivedon, which is also not too far from Windsor, the former home of the Astors and some other ones that I have temporarily forgotten the names of. They all basically consist of stately homes with 100s of room and well-manicured gardens. Most of them were or are owned by people with titles such as 11th Viscount Stuffypants (note: not an actual title). Some of the very coolest ones are in remote parts of the North, such as Chatsworth, so can't really get to those ones and back in a day!

Category 3: Stuff in London
Going through before mentioned guidebook, I'm really quite surprised home much stuff there is in London that I haven't even considered seeing or doing. There are a great number of smaller specialty museums, like the Museum of the Docklands, or the Darwin Museum, Keats Museums, and then about a million museums covering private collections or art and other forms of museum-like things. You can't help but wonder how many of them are actually worth visiting, but of remaining London attractions, the Museum of London (covering the history of the city since olden times), Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon, the Zoo, Vinopolis and Kensington Palace. Now a lot of these are just expensive enough to keep me from going, but luckily some of them have 'deals'.

This being the haven of wonderful weather that it is, my main issue throughout the spring and summer will be finding nice weekend days that lend themselves to these activities. So I need to be prepared when one of them finally comes along! While I feel like I get no sympathy for having such issues, but I wouldn't mind some thoughts on what sounds worthwhile!