What do Jimi Hendrix, Harry Potter and the Da Vinci Code have in common?

Answer: All found their way to the United Kingdom. From the rock guitar hero’s early gigs in London, to Harry Potter’s magical locations at King’s Cross, to the mysterious Rosslyn Chapel in Scotland where Dan Brown buried his secrets, the United Kingdom has lots to offer visitors beyond the typical Crown Jewels and London Bridge tours.

As we learned in our weeklong coach tour of the UK (which stopped off in Liverpool, as covered last week), Trafalgar Tours has a way of drawing guests deeper inside their destinations. Our tour took us through London, Liverpool, York and Edinburgh. And as we learned, whether it’s street art or designer ales, the UK is not just about tradition, it’s about innovation and keeping things fresh.

DAY 1 & 2: Hogwarts train platform and Banksy sightings

Our eight-day tour of the UK, courtesy of Trafalgar, started in London, a place most first-time travelers are already familiar with. (We flew into London on Cathay Pacific, with the assistance of Pan Pacific Travel Corp.) Rather than swing by the usual stops like Tower of London, Big Ben or the London Eye, Trafalgar arranges tours that are more in-depth and off the beaten path: we started with a glass of sparkling wine at a local gastropub, then half of us explored the restored King’s Cross area (visiting the train platform used in the Harry Potter movies where students enter the world of Hogwarts, as well as Thomas Hardy’s famous ash tree monument at St. Pancras Churchyard); the other half visited the cleaned-up East End, with its rich multicultural mix of foods, art galleries and bespoke shops, and its street art tours, including preserved pieces by Banksy and Space Invader. It’s the kind of place where you might catch artists Gilbert & George taking a Saturday stroll. We even caught a New York artist at work painting a wall mural — though he was quick to point out he “had permission.” Also a highlight is the original Rough Trade record store, with its hard-to-find vinyl pressings and live performances. Our first day in London was also somewhat vexing: we learned (too late) that Sir Paul McCartney had given a pop-up 20-minute live concert in Covent Garden during lunchtime. Oh, well, at least there was Liverpool to look forward to on Day 3!

DAY 4: Quarry Bank Mill and Whitwell Hall

We drove north via coach to Cheshire to visit the Quarry Bank Mill, founded by Samuel Greg in 1784. A still-functioning mill as well as a museum, it’s an in-depth glimpse at the birth of the Industrial Revolution: by the 1860s, the mill was one of the largest cotton manufacturing sites in the world. This is a double-edged sword: though the Greg family were noted for their generosity — they housed children and orphans, gave them food and remedial education — they also put them to work by the age of nine in the cotton mills, which, by any definition, was harsh. These were Blake’s “Dark Satanic Mills,” after all. Kids frequently got their limbs entangled in the waterwheel-driven mills, and the machines were stopped only long enough to drag the child out from the gears; what’s more, they became deaf within three months due to the incessant noise of the machines, or developed lung conditions due to dust and fluff. (I asked why the kids didn’t stuff cotton fluff in their ears to prevent deafness; the reason is the bacteria of the fluff would cause ear infections, and the kids apparently preferred to go deaf.) It’s worth noting that the Industrial Revolution — like just about every technological advance in history — seems to rely on human suffering: the empire of “Cottonopolis” used cheap cotton picked by slaves in America, turning it into cheap garments made by child labor. However you view it, the perfectly preserved Quarry Bank Mill (which Trafalgar has helped regenerate through its non-profit TreadRight arm) offers a powerful and unique glimpse into history.

That evening, after a drive north to York, we had another unique glimpse: dining with the Gillman family in Whitwell Hall, a nearly 200-year-old estate that has passed to current owners Christopher and Janie. Their daughter Letty was on hand to give us a tour of the house, packed with curios and conversation pieces. That unicycle in the corner? One of the Gillman kids learned to ride it as a kid (all of them wanted to be in the circus growing up). Letty wasn’t shy about showing us their spectacular vintage bathtubs. The flintlock pistols in the hallway were inherited from the Royal Navy. And that boar’s head adorning the entrance? It reminded me of The Royal Tenenbaums, though the Gillmans were open and friendly, not ones to harbor broody secrets. (I asked Letty if she’d ever encountered any ghosts in the old house; “Never,” she said, and you could see why: the place is cozy, not spooky.) This was our first Be My Guest dining experience, Trafalgar’s unique opportunity to enjoy a slice of life with an actual English family. We all enjoyed a sit-down home-cooked meal and conversation with this colorful, yet down-to-earth family.

DAY 5: Harry Potter  castle and Poison Garden

Day 5 took us to Alnwick, a picturesque town en route to Edinburgh where we visited Alnwick Castle — famous as the winter home of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, but equally famous as the courtyard of Hogwarts School in the first two Harry Potter movies. (You will recognize the exterior walls as the place where Harry first learns Quidditch.) The inside of Alnwick is equally thrilling, decorated by the Percy family over the past 700 years with Renaissance pieces, objets d’art and marble, and its Lower Guard Chamber wall is decorated with an impressive array of swords, axes and pistols (accumulated by the Duke from local residents when Napoleon was threatening to invade in the 1800s; he never did). After exploring the marvelous Alnwick Garden (and the Duchess’s famous Poison Garden used to grow medicinal plants), we headed north again to Scotland, to check in at the Apex Hotel on Grassmarket Square and enjoy a modern dinner at The Witchery, followed by a nightcap.

DAY 6: Taste of Scotch whisky and Scottish entertainment

Our next day started off auspiciously: with a taste of single-malt Scotch whisky. We enjoyed a wee dram (or two) at Glengoyne Distillery, home of the slowest distilled whisky in Scotland. We learned some of the secrets of single malt (single means the process can’t be duplicated or mass-produced elsewhere; malt is the grain of choice; peat is never added to Glengoyne whisky to dry the barley or enhance smoky flavor; warm air is used instead). The real story takes place in the barrels, most sourced from Oregon oak, where the spirit is allowed to age for up to 37 years. That’s a big part of what makes its special: 60 percent of the whisky’s flavor comes from aging in the barrel. You can bet the Glengoyne gift shop was a popular destination after the tour.
We traversed further north to the Trossachs, a wonderfully lush countryside in the Stirling district winding us past Loch Ard to the Ledard Farm, where sheep are sheared and Fergus Wood and his son Gregor entertained us during our second Be My Guest stop. We should have known something was up when our tables were divided in two, facing one another: sure enough, after dining and several songs by Fergus and son recounting the battles of William Wallace against the English, tales of Rob Roy and the benefits of inspecting a bride-to-be, we were paired off in a singing contest, the winner of which was to receive a (tiny) bottle of Scotch. Suffice to say: we was robbed.

DAY 7: Edinburgh Castle, ‘Da Vinci Code’ chapel and dinner on the Royal Yacht

A tour of Edinburgh wouldn’t be complete without visiting Edinburgh Castle, the most striking sight in the city overlooking both New and Old Town. Our kilt-wearing guide brought us to the top level of the castle, where we inspected the crown jewels of Mary Queen of Scots, and learned more of the fascinating history of Scotland, which claims the oldest monarchy in the world. (Mary, the legitimate heir to King James, took the throne as an infant, married the Dauphin of France, and was later executed after being found guilty of plotting to assassinate her distant cousin Queen Elizabeth I. Intrigues galore.) We stood at the rampart walls at 1 p.m. as a cannon fired off a single shell to sound the hour, then boarded the bus for another place of mystery: Rosslyn Chapel.

An hour or so outside of Edinburgh, Rosslyn Chapel was previously not much more than an ornate, 15th-century chapel with oblique decoration. Then The Da Vinci Code struck. Dan Brown’s book, and the subsequent movie, catapulted the small chapel to international fame; from a modest 30,000 visitors a year, they were tending to 176,000 by 2006, at the height of Da Vinci Code fever. No one really knows what all the symbology inside the chapel refers to — the Green Man carvings of males sprouting plants from their faces; the repeating flowers, stars and moons decorating the ceiling, etc. — or if the Knights Templar actually hid their sizeable fortune inside one of the stone pillars. It’s the kind of exquisite mystery that draws endless theories and speculation. One thing isn’t a mystery: the Rosslyn Chapel Gift Shop didn’t delay in putting out a product line to cash in on its newfound fame, including Rosslyn Chapel whisky, candy, puzzles, rain ponchos and other memorabilia. If only Dan Brown could have done the same for Manila!

Our Trafalgar UK journey was almost complete, but we ended on another high note: dinner aboard the HMY Britannia, which was a kind of floating Buckingham Palace for the Royal Family during its ports of call until the 412-foot yacht was decommissioned in 1997. Edinburgh won a bid to dry-dock the vessel, and as a bagpipe player welcomed us aboard, we enjoyed a tour that took in the VIP cocktail room, the royal Rolls-Royce (used by the Queen and her family to roll down to ports when appropriate transport wasn’t available), and a glimpse at the sleeping quarters of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth (decidedly un-swank, with a simple single bed); and the Honeymoon Suite of Prince Charles and Lady Diana (visible through glass, they had a double bed). All of this was another inside peek into what makes Britannia continue to fascinate even the non-Anglophile world.

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To learn more about Trafalgar holidays, visit Trafalgar.com or facebook.com/Trafalgar Travel, or on Twitter, tweet @TrafalgarTalk. To book a holiday, call Pan Pacific Travel in Manila at 523-1990 or 810-8551 in Makati, or e-mail trafalgarmanila@panpacifictravel.com.ph.