England: The Broads National Park
The Broads National Park is not really a national park but rather a series of wetlands, marshes, rivers, and lakes in the eastern Norfolk that are referred to as a “national park” or “the Broads” as a ploy to draw nature enthusiasts to visit. It’s basically some pretty countryside with a few visitor centers and birding stations to observe whatever waterfowl there is (English are all obsessed birtdwachers). I visited the Ranworth Broad, one of the largest and supposedly most spectacular – nice hiking across marshes on boardwalks with yellow irises and northern orchids, wildlife observation center with a couple solid sightings of rare species, a medieval church in a somewhat out of the way village that had an abandoned feel to it (and I climbed the tower for some panorama of the Broads).
