I have been working as a language assistant in Northern Spain for just over a month now and whilst I have enjoyed introducing myself and talking about culture in the UK I have noticed that many Spanish students, teachers and friends of mine seem to think that the UK has only one place to visit – London!
Whilst of course London is our capital city and a fabulous place to visit, my personal opinion is that it is a big grey city with too many people and so I think that foreign visitors should really explore the UK a bit more! Living in Spain, I often have to explain to people that there are lots of other beautiful places to visit in my country which also have impressive historical or architectural features.
For example, my home in the UK is in the historical city of Chester. In Spain, hardly anybody has heard of this city and so I describe the location by saying it is near Manchester (of Manchester United football club) and Liverpool (the home of The Beatles). Yet Chester is a beautiful and important city in itself! As it is a Roman city we have city walls circling the city centre, Roman ruins and even an amphitheatre! In addition, the majority of the buildings in the city centre were built in the 1300s which means that most of the houses and shops are very pretty black and white striped buildings.
For these reasons, Chester is a very popular city amongst Asian and British tourists who want to see the historical sites, yet the majority of Spaniards don’t seem to know about it! Other beautiful places to visit in the UK include York, Bath, Cornwall, the Lake District, the Cotswolds... The list goes on!
It seems that most Spanish people who have visited the UK stayed in ‘The Big Smoke’ (London’s nickname due to its industrial origin) and didn’t venture anywhere else. What a shame! I hope that after reading this article, if you get the chance to visit my beautiful country, you might be a little bit more adventurous and travel outside of the grey bubble of our capital city.
