I have been watching a lot of garden/travel based shows from the U.K. and Europe; one thing that has really gotten my attention is all the canals that once were used, and still are to a lessor degree in the U.K.
Since I was a small boy, boats and waterways that were used for commerce have greatly interested me; I did not know that the U.K. had so many.
In the U.S. there are some in the East, although Illinois has some, onein the North (a large steam paddle boat once traversed from Chicago to the Mississippi River) and in the middle of the State , and Indiana has/had the Whitewater Canal.
NorthWest Minn. had one up by Detroit Lakes 100 plus years ago but the railroad pretty much stopped it from becoming as it was origianlly designed, along with the Red River water levels not always being high enough for commercial boats.
IF I had money to travel to the U.K. (or Europe) , auto-boat-plane-train related items would be what I would spend time visiting most of the time.