March and England

The weather is usually better as you get more into Spring. Also the Spring flowers will be in better bloom during April and it is overall a prettier and warmer month to travel to England than March. It may still be chilly, with chances of rain and overcast days. I am not sure exactly what cities/towns you are looking to travel to and whether you are going to rent a car or use public transportation/or bus tours. There are lots of opportunities to stay in cottages throughout England. For that time of year, you could get a very nice cottage for a decent price. (300-600 pounds for 7 days) You could also do B&B (about 30-40 pounds per night for each person) It depends on the part of the country you will focus on. check out http://www.cottages.com/england. In 14 days you could see a lot of England, but I would try to concentrate on just a few areas.

I can't give you details about soccer (football) tickets but I think it will be relatively easy and not too expensive to get tickets for a game. (someone else will need to help you out here). I saw West Ham play last year at a friendly match and it was not expensive.

Margaret

Go for April over March - no one knows what the weather will be like, but April have more daylight and stately homes, castles will more likely be open. Bear in mind that 14 & 17 April are public holidays.

Inexpensive and Premier League do not often go together. The fixture list will not be out for another couple of weeks and matches for next year will be moved to accommodate TV schedules. Buy tickets from the clubs - not dodgy resellers who rip you off. if you can't get Premier League look at the Championship clubs (next level down).

A fixed base is possible depending on where you want to go. You can do day trips from London, but of course that may not be practical if you want to visit other areas of England.

For trains use this to plan http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

If you're driving - drive on the left!

Out of curiosity, I googled "John Wesley's life journey" and got Savannah, Georgia (spent 2 years there).

If you give us the places you want to visit in England, experienced travelers will be able to give you good advice, even though they aren't Methodists and haven't followed his path, just as you have given good advice on Spain without being Catholic, Muslim or Jewish ☺

He studied at Oxford. Will you want to visit there? It's easy to day trip from there to London, or from London there. Will you not want to spend a few days in London?

St Pauls Cathedral in London has a memorial to him, in the churchyard to the north of the Cathedral.

In fact he and his brother have traces all over London.

There is a Blue Plaque erected in 1926 at 47 City Road in Islington showing that he lived there.

Methodist Central Hall is quite impressive.

Another vote for April, the later the better.

You can visit John Wesley's home which includes a Museum of Methodism. Just across the road from the house is the Bunhill Fields Burial Ground which is the only surviving cemetery in central London and includes some other Nonconformist celebrities.

Here's another vote for April rather than March because of the chance of warmer, longer days.

We've spent a lot of time in London and taken many wonderful day trips using the well connected transportation systems.

I highly recommend that you spend a Sunday in London so you can attend a service at Wesley's Chapel then visit the museum on the grounds and the Wesley family house next door. Loved seeing the pump organ many of those hymns were composed on. After the service they offer a 1h+ walking tour of other Wesley sites in the area ending at St. Paul's Cathedral.

Chapel, museum and home at
49 City Rd, London.

EDIT: here's a link to a London walking tour and useful website:
http://www.methodistheritage.org.uk/londonwalkingtour.htm

Getting soccer tickets for the Premier League is both daunting and expensive. It usually involves joining the club's supporters association and crossing your fingers. There is far more demand than supply for top team tickets. Manchester United, for instance, sold out its season tickets for the next go-round by February of this year. Your chances might be better with teams in the second-tier league, confusingly called the Football League Championship.
This overview may be useful: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016%E2%80%9317_Premier_League#Ticket_prices

An old saying applies to London weather in the spring: If you don't like it, wait an hour. In early April, on a sunny afternoon, I walked out of a museum into a sprinkling of hail, apparently confined to a few city blocks.

@Southam Do you think this strategy might work for tickets? I think a group of our students told us they got tickets for a soccer match by joining the non home team's organization so they had a better chance of getting tickets. It was several years ago and I don't remember the details they described. It was a highlight of their semester study abroad trip ;-)

non home team??

So for example a match between Chelsea v Liverpool, where Liverpool is the away team and they got tickets from Liverpool?

Well that would mean they would sit with the Liverpool supporters, which is OK unless they supported Chelsea in which case they'll likely end up being ejected for their own safety. Plus away tickets are in shorter supply than home team tickets and can be even more difficult to get hold of.

It might work, but no, I don't think it's a better strategy.

First, thanks to all contributors as their input is helping to shape the structure of this journey.
Second, it is becoming clear of the need to stay at least in two locations. Soon I will add a list of destinations in order to gain input on recommendations of where to stay.
Third, the input on places to follow in the footsteps of Wesley are greatly welcome. Please keep adding your experiences on this subject.
Fourth, your soccer guidance is helping set real world expectations and prioritization for attending a game. I am not giving up on this dream, just striving to craft a realization of how and. "If" this is a doable event.
Finally, I truly cherish the input from the RS family as our journeys have always been enhanced by your contributions.
Be well!

My wife and I were in England for a month back in 2001 and we did a Methodist heritage tour of our own, looking up places where John and Charles Wesley did things during their lives. We spent some time in Oxford since that is where they started the "Holy Club" that branded them as "Methodists". You can look around the colleges and attend an evensong, which we did and really enjoyed. We drove down to Bristol to see the place where they held worship regularly. That was very much worth doing. We also took the train to Birmingham and then a bus to the suburb Wednesbury where the big riot happened when John Wesley preached on a large rock and that rock has been preserved and is housed in a local Methodist church in that suburb. You can see the rock and stand on it to have your picture taken (as I did). The folks at the local Methodist church were very friendly as was their pastor. I would return to any of these sites if I had the chance. I hope this helps you out somewhat in the Methodist area.

There is a group called Educational Opportunities that offers an official Methodist Heritage Tour. You can learn about it at www.eo.travel.com. It costs $3148 and is a 9 day tour.