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Hi Lars och Jennifer Så trevlig att ni vill besöka mitt hemland! Jag har bott 30 år i ditt. Det finns mycket att se och uppleva i England och tro mig när jag säger att det inte bara är grått och regnigt. Nu tar jag resten på engelska så att resten av gänget kan komma med kommentarer. A lot depends on how much time you have at your disposal and what your interests are. Like Sweden, the UK has a rich and varied landscape. It's easy for a swede to think that England is synonymous with 'London' and 'dirty' industrial towns but this couldn't be further from the truth. Certainly, England has its fair share of leftovers from the industrial revolution - and these give an interesting insight in themselves - but it also has a great deal of rural history. It surprises many to know that at the height of the industrial revolution, England probably had the best (meaning most sensibly) dressed and fed working class population in Europe. This was largely thanks to the wool industry and its copious bi-product - meat (mutton). I've taken guests from Sweden to England on several occasions and always try to balance the industrial/urban side of England with the rural side and most are more than pleasantly surprised to find that England has vast areas of devastatingly beautiful countryside.. If you're starting out from Edinburgh head south towards Bedlington following the coast road. Look out for and make a stop at: Holy Island (Lindisfarne), Bamburgh and Craster (you must eat at least one kipper!) before heading inland towards Alnwick. Continue south towards Morpeth and Bedlington. The advice given by Andy above, regarding the heritage leaflet is well worth noting. Have it on your phone/ tablet or print it out before you leave home. It is, unfortunately, only available at the local council office during opening times. You can't visit Bedlington without looking into the history of our mines and the men who worked them. These men were the backbone of the industrial revolution in England. Without them, and the coal they produced, there would not have been much of a revolution. Steam power may have powered many innovations but it was sheer human muscle power that provided the raw material for the steam. I agree with Eggy, http://www.experiencewoodhorn.com/ is a good place to start. While in the Bedlington area I would also recommend a day out to Beamish Open Air Museum near Stanley, County Durham http://www.beamish.org.uk/ to see how miners and their families lived and worked during the period of the industrial revolution and the war years. Very interesting. Also interesting, for you Lars, is that wherever you go in the Bedlington Area - indeed all over the north east - you are walking on ground that is being held up by wood from Scandinavian forests. Britain's mining industry was one of the biggest importers of timber (for pit-props to hold up the roof in the mines) from Scandinavia. While in the North East, and not far from Bedlington we have Hadrians Wall http://hadrianswallcountry.co.uk/ and from there it's a nice journey over the moors to Carlisle or Penrith and the lake district. As you approach Cumbria (the lake district) another point of interest for a swede is to start looking at the place names. In this area the Scandivians influence is very much in evidence. Look for names ending in by (swedish 'by'), thorpe (swedish 'torp') and toft (swedish 'tomt'). These all came to Britain with your forefathers - the vikings. From Penrith, I always think a nice round trip in the lake district starts at Penrith and heads west towards Keswick and Cockermouth before turning southwards to Buttermere, Ambleside and Windermere but it's very individual. It might be worth noting that it is packed with tourists in August so you'd be wise to book accommodation in advance. It's a beautiful area, in many ways like Sweden from a point of view of nature. However, if you want to see, what I think of as the 'real' England you should start your journey south taking a route through the peak district of the Pennines - the backbone of England. There's some fantastic walking on the Pennine Way (sometimes referred to as England's longest footpath http://www.nationaltrail.co.uk/pennine-way) and (http://www.peakdistrict.gov.uk/visiting). I hope this is of some help and if you want to know about some of my other 'typically English' places which I usually show visiting swedes then please feel free to ask. There's loads to see and do between the Lake District and London.

Hi all! We are a couple from Sweden that's going to be road tripping thru parts of Scotland (landing by plane in Edinburgh and going down to London) and England. We have a lovely ten-year-old Bedlington Terrier that we will have to leave at home unfortunately but the history of the breed and your town is presenting us with too good of a story not to come and pass through your lovely town. We are wondering if there's anything we simply can't miss and if there are any traces left of the coal mines or anything related to the history of the dogs and the people? We will probably come through on the 8th of August. We will take a detour on our way to the Lake District via the coastline from Edinburgh, so it's not a trip for rushing but for adventure and sights! Hopefully someone will have some good tips for us! Sincerely / Lars and Jennifer (and Nova the Bedlington terrier!)

A brief intro to Bedlington heritage and a walking tour can be found in the leaflet in the following post which inevitably covers a small bit of terrier history too.

That's a great picture of the Wooden Bridge. The property's you mention unfortunately is not Staith Quay. The location is along the river, looking eastwards. A bus company has a yard there now, and previously I think it was a factory. The original location is sutuated just below the car road bridge on the Spine Rd. When driving southbound it would be on your left , just as you start to drive over the bridge. Regards Peter