Patricia Routledge on the Lake District, London and eating kangaroo

'The scenery on the Pacific Coast Highway is thrilling'

Patricia Routledge is patron of the Beatrix Potter Society

I enjoy London more now than I did when I lived there.

My favourite place is Kensington, where I used to live and which I enjoy visiting when I'm back. The Thames is wonderful – so varied and exciting. I love anywhere along the river.

My first holiday memory was Hoylake on the Wirral Peninsula.

My parents took me there when I was a child because it was near where we lived. I remember the soft sand, paddling in the sea and the sunshine. It was all that a three-year-old could want.

I loved the Lake District before Beatrix Potter came into my consciousness.

It's exquisitely beautiful, and I am now patron of the Beatrix Potter Society. I go there to enjoy the beauty and peace of the countryside.

I always pack a good biography for holiday reading.

I recently read A N Wilson's Victoria: A Life, which was brilliant.

Venice is my favourite city.

It's obvious why – the history, the water, the restaurants, the beauty and character of the place; the ability to wander through the city.

I adore Australia – and the people.

I have many Australian friends and have worked there several times. The Hotel Windsor, in Melbourne, is my favourite; I love the building itself, the service, the atmosphere and its history – this, after all, is where the Constitution of Australia was drafted in 1898.

I saw the Great Barrier Reef from a mini submarine.

It was 15 years ago; I saw some sharks and was very glad there wasn't a leak in the vessel or that the window didn't break. Everything about it was wonderful – the life and colour below the surface of the sea was so beautiful, it really was beyond my expectations.

I will never forget the sunrise near Darwin from my plane window.

It was out of this world. I also took the most magical journey by cable car from Cairns to Kuranda over an enormous rainforest. I couldn't believe it. I kept shrieking with delight.

Pacific pleasure: the highway at Big Sur George Oze (Alamy)

I took a road trip along the Pacific Coast Highway 50 years ago.

The scenery and the proximity to the sea were thrilling. We travelled between Los Angeles and San Francisco, and stopped off in some wonderful places including Carmel-by-the-Sea, which was delightful.

I wouldn't try kangaroo steak again.

I tried it once – I was in Australia and had seen these delightful creatures jumping about and I felt an affection for them. The meat was quite tough. Never again.

My ideal holiday now is a sea voyage.

I plan to go on a cruise soon, probably to the Balkans. I love being on the ocean, but it has to be a special cruise. I tend to book with the same line, Swan Hellenic, because they usually have very good lecturers. You get to know as much as you can in the short time that you stop off at various places.

I had a particularly bad railway experience many years ago.

I was on an unheated train between the south coast of England and London in the winter. We were stuck at a station for about two hours; it was freezing.

The historian and travel writer John Julius Norwich would be my fantasy travelling companion.

He has a great sense of history and a great wit. I'd be asking him questions all the time. I'd learn so much from him and enjoy his delightful company.

Patricia Routledge will be performing Admission: One Shilling at Champs Hill Music Room, Petworth, West Sussex on 11 March. She is patron of the Beatrix Potter Society which is celebrating 150 years since the writer's birth this year (beatrixpottersociety.org.uk)