In case you're interested in visiting somewhere old, England is it. Especially in Yorkshire. Not only is it beautiful country, but the architecture has been preserved so that you're not reminded that there's a modern world out there. I never asked a native to verify this, but there must be some building code in Yorkshire that forbids the building of homes with anything but brown stone or maybe brick. It's a nice look.
The churches are interesting; many interior walls are lined with placards explaining the history of the church. A couple had a listing of the church's pastors dating back to the 1100s!
When Jenny and I lived in England in the mid- to late-1990s, we made a trip to the Yorkshire dales as well as to York. I remember we were really impressed back then as well. The South has great cities, there's no doubt about it: Oxford, Bath, Winchester, and, oh, London's nice, too. BUT there are also many large towns and cities that are not nice, too built up with too much traffic to be able to enjoy them. We left England from Leeds/Bradford airport to fly to Prague, which is for the most part a return flight for Czechs who've traveled to England. At first, I thought to myself, "Why would Czechs bother to fly into an area SO far north of London?" But I get it now.
