Plymouth London Train

Plymouth is a city in the county of Devon in the south west of England. The city is roughly 190 miles from London and lies on the mouth of the rivers Plym and Tamar, where they join Plymouth Sound. Plymouth grew into a major commercial shipping port during the Industrial Revolution handling imports and passengers from the Americas while nearby Devonport grew as an important Royal Naval shipbuilding and dockyard town.

During the summer guided tours are available to the Royal Citadel which was built in 1666 to defend the port from naval attacks, to suppress Plymothian Parliamentary leanings and to train the armed forces. There is also Smeaton's Tower, built in 1759, and also there are 20 war memorials of which nine are on The Hoe including Plymouth Naval Memorial. A mile upstream and on the opposite side of the River Plym is the Saltram estate which has a Jacobean and Georgian mansion.

Plymouth is often used as a base by visitors to nearby Dartmoor, the Tamar Valley and the beaches of south-east Cornwall. Kingsand, Cawsand and Whitsand Bay are popular. Plymouth is also an important centre for watersports, especially scuba diving and sailing. The Port of Plymouth Regatta is one of the oldest regattas in the world, and has been held regularly since 1823. In September 2011, Plymouth hosted the America's Cup World Series for nine days.

Located in the south east of England, London is divided into thirty two boroughs and is a vibrant, multicultural city. It is the largest city in the United Kingdom and also the largest city in the European Union and is regarded as an international capital of culture, music, education, fashion, politics, finance and trade.

The commercial capital was the City of London. This had a dense population and all the other pre-requisites of a medieval city: walls, a castle (The Tower of London), a cathedral (St Pauls), a semi-independent City government, a port and a bridge across which all trade was routed so Londoners could make money (London Bridge).

A few miles upstream was the government capital (Westminster). This had a church for crowning the monarch (Westminster Abbey) and palaces. As each palace was replaced by a larger one, the previous one was used for government, first the Palace of Westminster (better known as the Houses of Parliament), then Whitehall, then Buckingham Palace. The two were linked by a road called The "Strand", old English for riverbank.

The 'green lungs' of London are the many parks scattered throughout the city including Hyde Park, St James Park and Regent's Park. Most of the larger parks, such as Richmond Park, have their origins in royal estates and hunting grounds and are still owned by the Crown, despite their public access.