Wow! Five months of traveling: two months in Asia and three in Europe. Seventeen countries visited, countless trains, planes, busses and subways, many wonderful people met. Hundreds of new foods tasted and thousands of learning experiences; it's crazy to believe that our time overseas is over. As they say though, it's always good to go out with a bang, and what better place to do it than an English-speaking country! Although I like to believe Nicholas and I have become pros at navigating countries where you can't read, write or speak the language, ending our trip in a little bit of comfort sounded pretty appealing to both of us, thus, we ended our adventures in England.
We concluded our cruise, said our farewells to the Nygaard family and headed off to rent a car. England is not as simple to travel as other European countries; the train system is not as reliable and fairly expensive (comparatively speaking). We also wanted to visit 3 different areas, so decided it would be more affordable and effective to drive ourselves instead of navigating public transportation. This was quite exciting for Nicholas, because who doesn't want to experience driving a manual on the wrong side of the road?! The manual was much cheaper than an automatic, so that added a bit of excitement as well! Thankfully, my husband is an amazing driver (yes, I'll admit it, MUCH better than me) and he did a wonderful job!
Our first stop in the U.K. was Salisbury. Why you ask? Well, my inner nerd came out and I decided that we needed to see the best-preserved Magna Carta. It is housed in the Salisbury Cathedral, which is a stunning and beautifully maintained cathedral a few hours from Southampton. The grounds are a lovely place to walk, sit and talk. Out of the many cathedrals we saw, this one was quite possibly our favorite. (Our second favorite being in Bayeux, France). Stonehenge is also located quite close to Salisbury, but it is close to $35/person a visit, so we decided some rocks weren't quite worth $70.
After our day in Salisbury we headed to the Cotswolds. While in Guernsey, my cousin Laura helped us design an itinerary for our two weeks in England; we spent one day in Salisbury, three in the Cotswolds, three in the Lake District, and one week in London. It was the perfect amount of time in each area.
The Cotswolds are full of beautiful little villages and sprawling countryside. We took one day to rest at our AirBnB, visited Oxford the next day and drove through four other classic villages the last day. Oxford is a fun college town, and one of the fun things we were able to see was the Great Hall that they used as inspiration for the Hogwarts Great Hall. We also had lunch at one of the oldest pubs in Oxford. Our meal was good, but more exciting was the drink I tried, called Pimm’s Cup. It was really tasty, and I’d like to take this one back to the states with me! The next day we visited Bibury, Upper and Lower Slaughter, Stow-on-the-Wold, and Bourton-on-the-Water, walking through old cemeteries and churches, along the little rivers and across fields. It was a peaceful place to visit, which was nice after being on a busy cruise ship. The only downside was that it was a little drizzly throughout the day, but still very enjoyable. I introduced Nicholas to traditional British tea, complete with clotted cream and scones. At first he was a little unsure of why I was so crazy about it, but the second he bit into a freshly baked scone with jam and cream, he understood. In my opinion, it’s a quintessential part of visiting Great Britain.
Our next stop was Kendal, which is in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England, near Lake Windermere. We hit a bit of a bump in the road with our accommodations the first night; the room I had booked flooded and we were placed in a "spare volunteer's room.” Let's just say it left a lot to be desired. Nicholas and I even shared a twin bed that night. It wasn't the cleanest or safest feeling place, so we moved the next day. The owner of the hostel was very kind though, and gave us a full refund. We managed to find a different AirBnB room just 10 minutes away and loved our host! After that hitch, we started to enjoy visiting the lakes and surrounding areas. We spent one day visiting Lowther Castle, which had a financially tumultuous history. In order to pay for the castle, they have now removed the roof and opened it to the public. It’s very pretty, however, and the grounds are beautiful. On our drive back to Kendal, we stopped for some tea and pastries in an old, cozy farm house that was, in fact, part of the castle grounds. Also, we decided to take the scenic route, and drove around three fourths of Lake Ullswater. Our final day we decided take another driving tour, and this time plotted out stops along the way. We went the the highest point in the highlands (where Nicholas celebrated with a beer), stopped along several small trails, and a waterfall. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to finish our tour because a car accident closed the road, which forced us to turn around an hour after waiting, but it was still a nice day!
By the end of the week, we were ready to head to London and return our car. After NOT driving ourselves around for 4 1/2 months we weren't quite used to it, and there is significantly less personal responsibility in taking public transportation, which is quite nice when traveling. We returned our rental at the Heathrow Airport and then took the tube into Kensington, where our accommodation was. It was SO nice to be able to read everything! You don't realize how much more comfortable you are when you can understand everything going on around you. We arrived in London safe and sound, settled into our accommodations for the week, and decided our first day in London would be spent relaxing and spending time together. It seems like a crazy thing to say when you've spent five straight months together, but we've realized that it is important to be intentional with our time and interaction together; just because you're in the same room as someone doesn't mean you're maintaining or building a relationship with them (but that's a topic for a different blog). Needless to say, we spent some nice quality time together and ventured out to Harrods in the evening. Anyone who visits London must go to Harrods simply for the experience!
The next day we decided to visit the Parliament building, Big Ben, Westminster Abby, St. James Park and Trafalgar Square. Westminster is incredible; partly because of how many famous people are buried there. It's also huge and there are many examples of architecture and decor. After that we walked through St. James Park and had a late picnic lunch. We headed back to our home-for-the-week and got ready for date night! London has many different theaters, and I decided to surprise Nicholas with Les Mis tickets, which was really a gift from one of our church family members in Tulsa! We enjoyed our evening watching the show and had a late dinner afterwards. It was a full but fun second day in my favorite city!
The next day we went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, visited the free British Museum for a couple hours and then attended another show; Aladdin! The changing of the guard was really interesting and much longer than I expected. We then headed to the Museum. While we were in London I really wanted to take advantage of how many free museums there are. The most interesting part was seeing the Rosetta Stone. This was somewhat like the Magna Carta for me; my inner nerd definitely came out. We figured we had learned enough for the day and needed some more entertainment, so were excited to see Aladdin. It was a fun show to watch, although we were struck by how the acting/singing was not quite up to American standards, but the sets were. Nicholas and I both agreed we would like to see it in the states to compare.
Thursday we went to the Tower of London. Visiting the tower is a rather lengthy affair-there is so much to see! We bought an audio guide tour as well, which made it more enjoyable. Afterwards we took a bus to Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. We had originally planned to go to Harry Potter World, but didn't buy tickets far enough in advance. That was extremely sad, because I thought I had bought them. Quite possibly the most tragic mistake I made during the entire trip. The platform was still fun for me to visit though. For dinner we decided to go to Borough Market since it was close by. I bought some Indian curry for dinner and Nicholas had a sandwich with a special kind of British salted beef. It was fun to see a market in Great Britian compared to the ones in Asia.
Friday we visited Hyde Park and the National Gallery, a free art gallery in London. The museum is huge and full of beautiful works of art by artists across the world and ages. Afterwards we had tea at the Muffin Man Tea Room. One last round of tea and scones was a necessity before we headed home to the states, because let's be real, the U.S. just doesn't do tea and scones right and probably never will.
Saturday we headed off to the airport to head home to Minneapolis, MN. Our travels were done, or so we thought. We ended up spending about a day in Iceland due to flight delays, which turned out to be a lot of fun. The airline paid for our meals, transportation and accommodation and it gave us the opportunity to walk through Reykjavik, which is the capital of Iceland.
Ultimately, going home was bittersweet for both of us; we were ready to be back in the states and somewhere familiar, but sad to realize that all of our exploring across the ocean was complete for now. I can honestly say that even though we've seen more of the world than a lot of people, there is always more to see. There are always more trails to walk, cities to visit, foods to try, people to meet and experiences to be had. I don't think that spirit of wanderlust will ever fully go away in either Nicholas or me; it's part of who we are, and we're just grateful God gave us the ability to satisfy some of that. Until next time, readers...until next time.
N & K
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