Back in 2017, Grace and I started making plans for a trip to the UK. But for one reason or another, the trip was delayed for another year, and another, and in 2020, you know, things happened.
Finally, we were able to make that trip happen.
Our first few days in the UK were spent driving. We landed in London and immediately went to Oxford. I was pretty nervous about driving in the UK, since driving on the other side of the road was going to be a big adjustment, and I didn't know how others would be.
Fortunately, the fundamentals were the same. Gas petal was still on the right, the paddles behind the steering wheel still went to turn signals and windshield wipers, and speeds were still expressed in MPH. Still, having spatial awareness of your proximity to others when in the other seat can still be challenging, and on the second day, I lost our sideview mirror passing a semi on the left.
At least we had the foresight to get insurance through the broker and the rental agency, so we'll be fine. Oh, and if anyone complains about gas prices, after the conversion, gas was about $8.76/gal when we filled up.
Once we arrived in Oxford, we had our first actual meals in the UK. I had Fish and Chips, and Grace had Bangers and Mash. I really liked mine, and the next day we walked around the city a bit.
After Oxford, we went to Cardiff in Wales, and had lunch in a park. Driving into and around Wales, you get to see all the signage in both English and Welsh. The biggest thing for me as a driver was how narrow some of the roads were. I've been on some tight ones before, and these were definitely some of the tightest.
Our plans the next day had us going to Alton to visit Chawton and Jane Austen's houses. So we drove from Cardiff and stayed in a hotel near Sutton Scotney. The hotel was a resort, but looked to have been a country estate before. There was your typical manor house, along with a barn, surrounded by open green areas and woods. We had dinner at the hotel that night, and it seemed our waiter was one of the few hockey fans in the UK. They were already planning on later watching the highlights of the Avalanche winning the Stanley Cup.
The following day, we made our way to Alton. Grace wanted to take a try at driving, and we figured that the 30-45 minute drive would be enough. The route also avoided many highways, so we figured it would be pretty easygoing.
We were wrong.
The roads leading up to Alton, were not only narrower with a lot of blind corners, but standard highway speed limits. There were more than a couple of occasions that either we or the person coming the opposite direction had to suddenly veer to the left to make enough space for the other to pass. And the drivers behind us were very unhappy we were going below the speed limit. All while missing a sideview mirror.
Once we made it to Alton, things were far calmer, and we were able to walk around and explore the two houses. Chawton House was nice, though it was clearly built before stair steps had a standardized height. I enjoyed looking at the library in the house with floor to ceiling bookshelves along all the walls.
After Chawton House, we went to Jane Austen's. Hers was pretty modest, but still had the areas needed for servants to perform their duties. For example, the main kitchen was in a separate building next to the house and would be where the meals were prepared. Grace definitely had a lot of fun here. Once we were going through the gift shop, we told the cashier about our driving experience and she told us that it really is just one of you either moves out of the way or you both crash into each other.
Returning the car was far less stressful expected. They just gave me some forms to complete and told me how to submit a claim with the other insurance.
After that, we made our way to Scotland. We decided to take a sleeper train as that would be more direct and less time consuming than driving. The Caledonian Sleeper train from London left soon before midnight and arrived at just after 7am in Edinburgh. The sleeping quarters were definitely small as was the hallway that led to them. The beds were actually not that bad.
We had quite a bit of time to kill between arriving in the city and checking into our hotel. We got some coffee, stored our luggage, and walked around the city. I didn't know just how hilly Edinburgh is. While walking around, we visited a few different monuments and went to a textile museum near the castle. We tried to go to the castle but there were no tickets available. But at a nearby fabric museum, Grace got to see a bunch of fabric types and we had a couple pictures of ourselves taken in Scottish garb.
After we finished at the museum, we made our way to the National Library to get a snack and sit while we made further plans. Grace had to get some specialty yarn from a store that was a bit away from the train station, and it had started to rain. After the library, we got the yarn and came back to the train station, catching a bus to our hotel.
The next day, we caught our morning train back to London, a five hour journey more or less. Along the way, we played a game of "rock or sheep?", where we would guess if the small white clusters along the hills were rocks or sheep. Most of the time they were sheep.
Once we got into London, we arrived at Kings Cross station and walked past the Platform 9 3/4 shop in the station. We made our way to our hotel next to Hammersmith Station, left our luggage in our room, and went to Goldhawk Road to browse the fabric shops. We went to many different stores, and each one had multiple levels with different fabrics.
After browsing, we went to get dinner at an Indian restaurant called Dishoom in Kensington. The food was pretty good and we got to walk back to our hotel along High Street.
The next couple of days were spent doing some things together and some apart. We went to the British Museum together and looked through the collections. We then split up as Grace wanted to go fabric shopping now that she knew what she was looking for, and I wanted to relax at the hotel. And when she went to the Victoria and Albert Museum, I went to the Churchill War Rooms. On the way there, I got a good picture of Big Ben, which had been covered in scaffolding last time we were in London.
Here are some pictures that Grace took while on her own.
From the Churchill War Rooms, I walked through Saint James Park, past Buckingham Palace on my way to get lunch. Here are some ducklings I came across.
One of my own highlights was going to a weekly tournament in Croydon just south of London. Now I can say I'm an international Smash competitor. I didn't win but that's besides the point.
The next day was when we would be heading back home. Not too much happened, we got to the airport super early, got through security, and waited to board. Thankfully, it was a direct flight from London to Heathrow, and the United flight had a really good selection of movies. I watched all three Hobbit movies that flight (7 hours and 54 minutes runtime). Grace watched the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, and reportedly cried many times while cramped with strangers.
Check back for our next adventures.
- Isaac
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