2025: 2 week UK road trip

This year we did go to the UK again. And yes, with the train again. I blogged as we went, but because I hadn't managed to get this blog up-to-date before we left, I blogged on Polarsteps. So I'll copy/paste my contributions here (ps: underneath the photos there's a scroll bar, you can't see it properly, but it is there, so you can scroll to see more photos!).



Brussels

Okay, we're technically not in Brussels anymore, but I had to put in a location and it won't accept "train to London". We were supposed to be nearly there, and we were supposed to travel directly from Amsterdam. An electrical problem in a railroad tunnel in Rotterdam changed all that. All earlier trains to London had been cancelled, but our train was not cancelled. That was, until we had just arrived in Amsterdam. Then we got the message that our train was cancelled as well. No way! So we went to the service desk to ask "now what?". If we ran, we could board the Eurostar to Brussels. It might mean we would have to stand, but it would take us there, so we could then board the train to the UK. So we ran and got on that train in time. It was really full, but we were on it. Along the way, more and more people got on the train during the stops. Yikes! "Sardines in a can" came to mind. In Brussels it was another mad dash to get through the check in and through customs. Then a mad dash to the correct carriage because it was "any seat" (and no longer our reserved spots). Sadly, we all have single seats next to others, but the girls and I found a spot, so we should arrive in London today after all, albeit with an hour delay and sore bodies from the uncomfortable positions. Let's hope this 'adventure' won't be a precursor to the rest of our vacation, because we have a lot more train rides to look forward to hahaha.


London



Last night we arrived in London. The train ride from Brussels to London was smooth, even though the boarding was anything but. Everyone got assigned new seats. Basically, you were told in which carriage you could take place, in the carriage you could take any seat. Because we hadn't been in the front of the train on arrival in Brussels, we were among the last to enter the carriage. This meant we could not sit together.... So, the second leg of the journey was more comfortable, but not more enjoyable. Where in the train to Brussels I got the chance to talk to some people, I sat next to people that went straight to sleep after boarding. So, yeah, not fun. Luckily, our hotel has a 24/7 front desk. So our late arrival (near midnight local time) wasn't a problem. We were extremely glad to be able to crawl into our beds after we arrived. Today (the 14th) we did get up on time, because we wanted to visit the Natural History Museum. Luckily I had pre-booked tickets (even though they are free), because the line for those without a ticket was really long! The museum itself is impressive, but for us the building it is in is secretly the star of the show. It was extremely busy and also pretty warm, so we didn't see everything, but we enjoyed ourselves a lot. After this, we visited the Victoria & Albert Museum. Surprisingly, you couldn't pre-book, so I feared the worst. I was surprised (again!) when we got there and we could just walk in. It wasn't busy and the temperature was lovely. We had lots of fun here as well.  

After those 2 museum visits, we went for lunch in a nearby pub. We had some lovely sandwiches and our first pint (non-alcoholic, we figured we'd better start out with sodas). After lunch, we took the tube to Tower Bridge Station, because Gaia really wanted to see the Tower & the bridge again. We ended the day with an early dinner (in another pub) and an early night in. We have some sleep to catch up on!  


London

Our main plans for this day: visit Notting Hill, go to the National Gallery and go to the play "The Mousetrap" in St. Martin's Theatre. So first we went with the tube to Notting Hill. It truly is a beautiful area, with all those colorful houses. But we totally get why the people who live there are fed up with tourists. Yes, we are tourists too, but quite a few of the other tourists behaved as if the area is there for their entertainment, not an area people actually live in. They are loud, annoying and have no regards for things like streets or traffic. We never want to be that kind of visitor anywhere, we're guests when we visit other places. We were very happy to come across the antique shop that was featured in the Paddington movies. We also walked past a house where George Orwell used to live. And the girls looked up the famous blue door from the Notting Hill movie. In the afternoon we first went to the National Gallery. We've visited before, but one of Gaia's favorite paintings wasn't there at the time (it was on loan to another museum). She's very happy she's seen it in real life now. Something I noticed while watching the paintings, is that I tend to look at things differently now. Ever since I started taking CUID (Culture & Identity) I have been challenged to not just take things at (my) face value, but think about what I see/hear/read. Because of this, I now see more, which the girls also found interesting. Talking about what you see in a painting or work of art is something we did before, but now I feel as if I can add a bit more to the conversations, which is nice. After this, we walked through Chinatown on our way to MiniLima, that is a store for 'Potter heads' (more commonly known as Harry Potter fans). The store is owned by two artists who created much of the original artwork for the original Harry Potter movies. It was great to see the artwork. The prices were a bit too steep for me, but it was fun to see it and to walk around in something that felt like a movie set. One of the things we really wanted to do, was eat curry somewhere in London. We chose to go to Govinda's. It's a vegan Indian restaurant that has been around for like 50 years. It looks like a run down snackbar, with really shabby tables & chairs (and not all that clean), but the food was absolutely amazing. That explains why it was completely packed. First you stand in line to order your food, after that you find a place to sit. We shared a Govinda's thali and added some samosas (2 different kinds) and some mango lassi. We were glad we didn't buy more food, because what we got was more than enough. The food was really good. The finale of the day was our visit to St. Martin's Theatre to see The Mousetrap. It's an Agatha Christie "Whodunnit". It was great, although we were sitting really high up and the seats were highly uncomfortable hahaha. This was our last full day in London, tomorrow we'll be travelling to Dover, hopefully that train ride will be more relaxed than the ride to London!

Dover

Wednesday we went from London to Dover. This train ride was pleasantly uneventful, just how we like it. The train was roomy and not busy at all. When we got to the B&B, the kind lady who owns it (Grace), had already prepared our room for us, so that we could check in 3 hours earlier instead of leaving our luggage there. That was so nice of her! We also had a nice chat about what living in a monumental house is like. Even though the houses are absolutely gorgeous with their high ceilings and everything, the upkeep is a struggle. When a window pane breaks, you have to repair it with the same kind of pane. No replacing them with double glass panes! Her neighbor had done that and got a missive from the city council telling her to bring it back to it's previous state. All in all it cost her GBP 25,000 extra! Dover is very proud of its historic buildings. Maybe even more than a lot of other English towns because most of Dover got bombed in WWII. It was somewhat painful to hear that owners of these kind of buildings have to carry all the costs, but that they have very little say about how they repair their houses if it's needed, they have to fulfill the demands of the city council. The council will not help them financially. After a bit of a rest, we went exploring. We've visited the town hall (gorgeous building!) and the Dover Museum. The bronze age boat was really impressive. Sadly, the Roman Painted House was closed. Online it said it would be open in July and August, but I suppose it is only open during school breaks or something. After a nice bit of dinner in a pub we made it an early night, because we would be visiting Dover Castle the next day.

Dover

Thursday = Dover Castle Day! Before we went I've prepared by reading in my travel guide, visiting some travel blogs and by watching the Time Team special about the restauration of Dover Castle. Even if you don't plan on going to the castle, it's fun to watch (you can find it on YouTube). Because of that research, I knew it was a really steep climb to the castle. One of the top tips was to take a taxi. So, we did. We took one from the city center to the castle and the driver told us a lot about the castle and how most people in Dover have a personal link to it as well. He told us how, as he was growing up, people could go there and visit the grounds for free. They used to have a picnic there on sunny days. You only paid to visit the keep back in the day. The tunnels were known, but closed off. After the restauration of the keep and the opening of the tunnels, that was no longer possible, because the entrance had been moved to the outside of the battlement walls. He also told us how his grandfather had been a part of operation Dynamo (to get the surrounded soldiers out of Dunkirk). There was still some graffiti his grandfather had made in the war tunnel (a poem he said, there was a lot of graffiti, so we didn't find it, there wasn't time to look at everything written/engraved on the walls). The castle itself is beautiful. It is amazing that it survived WWII intact, whereas Dover itself most certainly did not (most of the city center was destroyed by mortar shells shot over the Channel from the shores of France). We first visited the church and the pharos (Roman lighthouse). We then visited the Spur tunnels and casemates and the Spur. After that, we went to the war tunnels to join the first tour of the day. We arrived there just in time, because there's a maximum number per group and it had been almost reached. The tour leaves every 20-30 minutes, so it wouldn't have been disastrous if we had to wait, but still. It was nicely fortuitous we could still join. The wartime tunnels are quite impressive. They've been kept a (public) secret for a long time, until 1987. A part of the tunnels are still not open to the public, because they are officially still nuclear bomb shelters. The tour was really impressive, it gave you a good idea of what life in the tunnels would have been like during the war. We weren't allowed to take photos in the biggest part of the tunnels. we did secretly sneak one photo in the self guided part of the tour. On it you see one of the relay points, where signals were boosted (because the signal deteriorated over distance) and usually they were also multiplied, so that the signal could be sent to up to 6 receivers. The inside of the keep was impressive as well. Because I'd watched that Time Team special, I could tell the girls how they restored it, and why certain choices were made. Even though I'd seen it on tv, it was still impressive to see things in real life. The girls loved that everyone was allowed to touch almost everything (we just weren't allowed to take photos, so no photos of the inside of the keep). We climbed to the top of the tower to see if maybe we could see France, but there was too much mist (actually I think it were low hanging clouds). After exploring the castle for 4,5 hours we were pretty tired. We could have visited the last things (like the Avranches tower), but we knew we still had to walk back (the taxis usually don't wait up there, they return to town). So we decided to call it a day.

Rochester

On Friday we went from Dover to Rochester. I thought I'd found a hotel next to the train station (and therefore close by the old town). The hotel is next to a train station alright, just not next to the one we arrived on. Apparently, the hotel isn't in Rochester itself, but in Strood. I felt bamboozled to be honest, but I guess I didn't check things properly. It was a 1,4 km walk from the station to the hotel, in the heat and over a bridge (that is kind of steep going up and going down). Not a fun combination when you have your suitcases with you. Luckily we could already check in at the hotel (an hour early, which we were very grateful for, we could freshen up and rest a bit before going into town again). After a bit of a rest, we went back over that bridge (in the heat) and we walked through the High Street and visited the Restoration House. It is still actually someones house, but it is also something of a museum during weekdays. There were a lot of volunteers throughout the house, willing to tell you all about the house, it's former inhabitants and the artifacts in it. We weren't allowed to take photos inside (because it's actually someones house), but Gaia did take a few photos from the garden. The house was impressive, especially since they've been trying to restore it back to how it was back in the day. So, back to the original floors (beautiful old wood!) and original colors on the walls. The King's Room was very impressive as well. The name of the house derives from the visit of King Charles II on 28/29th May 1660, when travelling from Dover to London for his restauration as King after 15 years of exile. The room is very luxurious, with gorgeous silk wall hangings. The bed isn't the original bed, but a close approximation. We were given a lovely booklet after buying our tickets with photos of the inside of the house and lots of explanations as well. The gardens are something they are especially proud of. At first we didn't really see why. Yes, they are lovely and extensive, but not extremely special compared to gardens we've seen elsewhere (mostly on the mainland by the way). After reading the booklet, it makes more sense, because they actually had to fight to get the land back, including going to court. A lot of the archaeology was lost, but they've tried to rebuild things as close to the orignal as possible. So, put in that light, the gardens are impressive as well. After the visit to the Restoration House, we decided to call it a day. It was exceptionally warm and the heat really got to us. So we found a nice pub, had some ice water and after that settled in for some nice British food and a pint.

Rochester

Today we had the whole day to explore Rochester. The weather is completely different from yesterday. The warm weather is gone (for now) and we have some rain. But hey, it wouldn't be a proper England trip without some rain! When we walked into the historic center of Rochester, someone handed us a flyer about the open days in the Bridge Chapel and Chamber. Something worth visiting according to him. We started at the Guildhall Museum. The building was absolutely gorgeous. The exhibition about Charles Dickens was interesting and we really liked the hulk prison exhibition. The museum is not overly large, but is was fun. An appetizing start of the day. After this we wanted to visit the Rochester Cathedral first, but there was a wedding ceremony about to begin, so we decided to visit Rochester Castle first. Unlike Dover Castle, Rochester Castle is a ruin on the inside. Most of the outside walls and their inner walkways have survived, so it was interesting to explore them. We could also catch some glimpses of an ongoing excavation inside the building. The only real downside was the presence of pigeon corpses on the netting spanning the inside of the castle. Apparently the pigeons are hunted by crows. The crows are a protected species, so they can't do anything to prevent them from hunting. They've spanned the netting and made safe places for the pigeons to enter the inner castle for safety. They can get in & out, while the crows can't get in. But sometimes a pigeon gets caught outside and its carcass will remain on the netting until it falls through during decomposition. The girls were pretty horrified by just the bones of the legs and pelvis of a pigeon still hanging from the netting by the claws. The views to the outside were beautiful though, so I tried to encourage them to look at that instead of the inside of the castle when we were on the top level. When we left the castle, it started raining a bit. We were close by the location of the Bridge Chapel, so we figured that we could visit there for a bit. We were really happy we did that! The two connected buildings were beautiful and the exhibition was interesting as well. We learned quite a bit about John Thorpe, a physician, antiquarian, senior warden of the Rochester Bridge Trust and Fellow of the Royal Society while exploring the two buildings. Unlike the Guildhall Museum (said to be free of charge, but apparently not anymore), here all entry was free of charge, something we Dutchies can appreciate of course. We thought the rain had stopped, but a few steps out of the building, it started raining in earnest. It was lunchtime, so we ducked into a little place that serves an all day breakfast (until they close at 15.00). Isis had the vegetarian breakfast, I chose the regular one and Gaia had a jacket potato with beans & cheese. We polished off our plates, so it was an inspired decision to eat here. They also sold cakes that looked amazing, but we couldn't eat another bite. Luckily we could take the cakes to go, so that's what we did. I'm certain we'll enjoy them later today as dessert. Now we're chilling for a bit after all the exploring we've done this past week. Catch up on some reading, etc. We need to recharge somewhat, because tomorrow we'll visit Canterbury!

Canterbury

This day had been on my wish list for a long time. This day we would be visiting Canterbury! We went by train from Rochester to Canterbury. It was raining a bit when we arrived, but that couldn't spoil the fun. That's what raincoats are for, glad to know I didn't bring them along to not use them ha ha. From the station to the Canterbury Cathedral (our first stop of course) was a bit of a walk, but we arrived perfectly on time to be amongst the first to enter the grounds (after an enormous group of foreign students!). When you enter through the gate, you get your first full view of the Cathedral. And yes, I gasped. It is huge & beautiful. We've spent about 2 hours exploring the cathedral and the grounds. There is so much to see! The Canterbury Cathedral is the primary seat of the Church of England. Kind of like what the Vatican is for Catholics. Now, we've visited both those places. In our opinion the understated, but still awe inspiring, look & feel of Canterbury makes it feel more like a peaceful place of worship. The Vatican on the other hand is much more opulent. It may be prettier, but to us the richness & glitter detracts from the feeling of true worship. It's a really personal thing of course, but this is the conclusion we've drawn based on our personal feelings & observations. After exploring the cathedral, we went exploring in Canterbury it self. It is absolutely gorgeous. We loved the really old buildings. We've visited the Crooked Bookshop (and bought some 'blind date with a book' books, the proceeds of which will go to a charity. We haven't gone on 'our date' yet, we plan to do that today (the 21st) after we arrive in Cambridge, with some wine and snacks. We've also visited the Old Weavers House, a beautiful old pub on High Street. Next to it is an example of a ducking stool. According to lore, a ducking stool was used to see if a woman was a witch. If she was chucked in the water, she wasn't a witch. If she remained 'floating', she was a witch. According to specialists, this contraption wasn't really used in the south in Medieval times, but in the north. It was interesting to see it anyway, even if it isn't actually medieval or accurate. We also wanted to visit the ruins of the Norman castle in Canterbury, but sadly it was closed because of the danger of falling rocks. They are working on excavating it, checking each stone to see if it is safe and if it is not, they are repairing it. They expect this to take a few years and during that time, the castle is closed to the public. To bad, because we walk quite a bit to find out it's closed (it wasn't on the website). After a lovely diner (and maybe a pint or two), we took the train back to Rochester. The overall consensus is that this was the most beautiful place we've seen so far this trip.

Cambridge

The 21st was a travel day. We checked out shortly before 11 and went to Strood station, the nearest station. Our tickets were from Rochester station, but that was farther away, so we decided to go to Strood. It did mean we had to wait a bit longer, but it was absolutely worth it, because now we didn't have to cross that bridge with our suitcases. From Strood we went to London, in London we could board a train to Cambridge. We thought we had a train from King's Cross to Cambridge, but apparently we had the train from Tottenham Hale to Cambridge. Oops! A kind man from rail-services told us how to get there the quickest (he happened to live in Tottenham Hale!), so we made it with time to spare (we wisely used that time to get ourselves a lunch deal at the little market at the station). The train rides weren't quick, but it wasn't busy in the trains and we've had some very nice views. The check-in at the apartment was quick and then we had some time to relax. We used it to have an 'unboxing party' (with some wine and some snacks) of the 'blind date with a book' books. We were all surprised by the books we got. By going on a 'blind date with a book', you might read a book outside your comfort zone and be pleasantly surprised. Or at least, we hope we will be. The 22nd is going to be a very busy day, so we decided to stay in and watch some tv (for the first time in over a week!).

Cambridge

Today is going to be a busy day! We started reasonably early to get some nice breakfast. After that we went punting. Renting our own boat would have been cheaper than going on a guided tour, but it also would have meant that we had to punt ourselves. Given everything else planned for the day, I was happy (well, kind of) to pay extra for the guided tour. I am convinced we saw more and went further than we would have otherwise. The information the guide gave about the colleges was very interesting as well. Things like how old the colleges were, the rivalry between Trinity College and St. John's College (the first founded by Henry VIII, the latter founded by his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, and built by John Fisher, the bishop of Rochester (he made certain Lady Margaret's final wishes were fulfilled). There was a religious rivalry going between Henry & mum, so of course the king had Mr. Fisher executed (it seems he really liked executing people.....). The college was afterwards named St. John's College in remembrance of this. We've also seen some beautiful bridges, the most famous of which is the Bridge of Sighs. After the tour, we saw some cows that were allowed to roam free there. The girls had a dream come true, because the cows allowed them to pet them. After this lovely interlude, we walked towards the city center. We walked through the daily local market (which sadly, like in so many other places, mostly caters to tourists now instead of the local people) and we saw some churches and colleges from the outside. Right now, we are chilling a bit. In about 45 minutes, we'll take the train to London, because we're going to see the musical Evita (with Rachel Zegler). After the musical, we'll return to Cambridge. Here in Cambridge, we rented a small apartment for 2 nights. It is really cute and comfy. It is nice to have an actual kitchen for a few days, even if we aren't actually cooking here. Just the sense of being able to putter around without others watching you all the time is nice.

London

The show was amazing last night! The train ride back not so much, but I'll get to that. We arrived nice & early in London. After a little snack break, we decided to go there early, to take some photos of the theatre before the big crowds arrived. The building itself is beautiful and we saw the balcony from which Evita will sing "Don't cry for me Argentina". Oh, sorry, that is a spoiler, but it is pretty well known by now. The most iconic song isn't sung on stage, but from the little balcony you see on the photo, so out in the open. People gather outside every show to hear her sing there. The actual audience can see the performance on a screen. The upside is that you can really see all the emotions on her face. The downside (for some) is that you don't get to see it in real life. For us, it added to the enjoyment, it didn't detract. The show is minimalist, everything happens on a staircase shaped stage, hardly any extra props. The cast was amazing and Rachel truly was the star of the show. That girl can sing, act and dance, it was amazing. Like nothing I've ever seen before, we were utterly spellbound and the audience went wild, clapping and hollering between songs as if it was the end of the show. Afterwards, the roar was deafening and I've lost count of the number of bows. The show had run a bit late (and we didn't want to leave early), so we had to run a bit to catch our train. We made it with 4 minutes to spare. The first half of the journey went great (although the train was amazingly crowded for the time of day). But then the train stopped at a station and stayed there. After a bit, the driver announced that there was 'a police situation at Stevenage', so all trains to and from Stevenage were stopped. After a while it turned out that there were people trespassing on the tracks, so for safety reasons the police had to remove them before the trains could safely continue. The delay was over 20 minutes in the end. The uncertainty of how long the delay will be isn't the best feeling when you're already tired and just want to go 'home'. Luckily we didn't have to catch another train like some others did. We're pretty certain they've missed their connection (the last train of the day). We heard lots of people calling loved ones to ask if they could please come pick them up. About half past twelve we stumbled into the apartment. Today (the 23rd) we have to checkout before 11. We're going to drop off our suitcases at the head office of the company that owns the apartment, because we'll take a walking tour through Cambridge. We're eager to learn more about the colleges and visit 1 or 2. (PS: the photos hadn't uploaded yesterday, they've been added to the first step in Cambridge!).

Cambridge

Our last day in Cambridge. We had arranged to leave our suitcases. Sadly not at our address, but at the head office of the company, further down the street. Luckily, the Uber from Cambridge to Northampton somehow got cancelled, so I re-booked, but now with a pickup from the address where our suitcases were. Serendipity we call that. After we dropped off our suitcases, we went to the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. It had an impressive collection. After that we went to the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. This museum was maybe even more impressive, with quite a few dinosaur skeletons and lots of other fossils. In the afternoon we had a guided walk scheduled. Our guide Dave took us past several of the colleges and also quite a few churches. Dave was a fountain of information. He told us lots about how Cambridge evolved over the ages, the founding of the colleges, the history surrounding them, the alumni, etc. He told us lots of things, from the earliest beginning of Cambridge, to the Vikings, Romans, Normans, Saxons, Angles, and so on. He also told a lot about the royal history (intrigues, murder, war and so on). Sadly, our group was too big to visit most of the colleges (on Viator it said there was a maximum of 10 to a group, but the group was much bigger, the proceeds of the tours go towards the upkeep of the Round Church where we convened before the start of the tour, so that's probably why....). We did get to visit one college: Emmanuel College. After we went through the forecourt, we entered an enormous park-like area, it was gorgeous and so peaceful! Amazing that was there, you wouldn't know when you walk through the busy streets outside the colleges. We could totally understand why students like spending time there. After the tour (which took quite a bit longer than expected) we had to hustle to be back in time for the Uber pick-up. We made it with a few minutes to spare, which was a good thing because he was slightly early. We had chosen to travel by Uber because it would have taken a really long time to get to Northampton by train. Added benefit was that we would be picked-up and dropped-off at the correct addresses, so no walking with our suitcases, yay! It was our first time using Uber and we really liked it. Yes, it is somewhat expensive, but less expensive than a taxi and trains aren't cheap either. So, in this case it was absolutely worth it. The family-owned hotel we're staying at isn't fancy (some things in the building can really use an upgrade or at the least some fixing up), but the room is roomy, so that's a plus. We'll see how breakfast is in the morning.

Cambridge

I totally forgot to add some things to my previous post! First of all: a funny thing the girls and I noticed during our trip. Since we're all students, we get WiFi whenever we're near a university ha ha ha. Our Eduroam accounts automatically connect whenever we get near a college or university, we love it! Another fun fact: the girls get serious discounts at the museums that aren't free because they are full time students. Nice! The final funny story: at Trinity college, there is a statue of Henry VIII above the gate. He used to hold a golden scepter, but it kept being stolen. So they've replaced it with the leg of a chair! The current king Charles went to school there. After his coronation, he had it replaced with a real scepter again. For fear of it being stolen again, the administration of the college put the scepter in a special case in the door and put the chair leg back. The scepter in the special case is called the coronation scepter.

Northampton

Like we said yesterday: the hotel is roomy, but could absolutely do with some updating. The breakfast however, was the best we've had so far! It really made us like the hotel a whole lot better ha ha. Today we had an afternoon tea. For this, we went to Westone Manor. The idea was to go by bus, but it arrived early (and we weren't at the bus stop yet), so we missed it. Ugh! The choices were: being late (not really an option, we hate being late), speed walking a big part so that we might catch the bus connection, or taking an Uber. Since our experience was great yesterday, we chose the latter ha ha. The driver arrived within a minute and took us there. So instead of late, we were early! Westone Manor Hotel is really big and beautiful. It seemed completely empty though. After wandering about for a bit in what we hoped was the direction of where we were supposed to be we came across a hotel employee. She directed us to the restaurant where there was a lovely setting prepared for us in front of the fire place. We enjoyed ourselves a lot and managed to finish off almost everything on our plates (it was a lot!). After the afternoon tea we went to the town center to explore a bit. The idea was to visit the historic Guild Hall. It is usually open, but for some unknown reason it wasn't today, so that was a bit of a bummer. We did visit a beautiful church nearby and we went to a museum (Northampton Museum & Art Gallery). We saw an exhibition about the history of Northampton, we saw lots of shoes and boots (Northampton's main industry for ages), some very interesting art made from recycling materials and an exhibition about gladiators (the space was huge, but there sadly wasn't much material to see). Oh and some paintings made by local artists that were for sale. Some were quite nice, but the prices scared me off, so we didn't buy anything. Afterwards we did a bit of shopping (we bought some books and Gaia & I bought a dress for our birthdays). We also had dinner (and a pint of course) in a pub and after that we went back to the hotel. Tomorrow is going to be a long and busy day, so we figured an early night in might be just the thing.

London

We started the day with another great breakfast at our hotel in Northampton. We can say all we want about the hotel, but the breakfast is really good. The past few days we've been using Uber to get to places we otherwise wouldn't have been able to visit in the amount of time we had. So, we decided to treat ourselves and get another Uber to the station (instead of taking the bus). Because of this, we did have more waiting time before our train would arrive, but in my opinion it was worth it. After an uneventful train ride we arrived in London. From Northampton, we could only go to London Euston, so we had one more stop to make with the tube. We were again lucky that we could check in a bit earlier into the hotel (our 'old friend' near King's Cross/St Pancras). We freshened up a bit and went to another old friend: Judd's Books, our favorite bookstore in London. It may not look like much from the outside, but it has a lot of books, both 2nd hand and new (out of print versions, or B-versions, so you can buy the books for a seriously reduced price). We also looked up a pastry shop I'd seen on social media (Fortitude Bakehouse). It was the middle of the afternoon when we got there, so a lot of things were sold out already, but we did get a strawberry, elderflower & cream pastry. It was absolutely amazing. After grabbing a meal deal at a supermarket we went back to the hotel. We had a really early dinner and went to the Royal Albert Hall. We had tickets for the BBC Proms. It was amazing to witness a performance at the hall. The orchestra was really good. We really enjoyed our evening.

London

Our last breakfast in London before our departure. We went to O’Neill’s because they have an amazing Irish full breakfast, both normal and vegetarian. Before going to St Pancras, we also picked up a meal deal for during the train ride home. Luckily there was no drama with the Eurostar ride home. We were even sitting together. For some reason there was no direct train from Amsterdam to Zwolle, so we had to transfer to another train in Almere. We would have 6 minutes, so it should be doable. Setback 1: the nearest stairs were closed. Setback 2: the escalator didn’t work at the other end (so lugging suitcases down a complete set of stairs, ugh!). And then the biggest surprise: Isis had entered the train, Gaia and I meant to follow (there were 2 minutes left before it would leave) and the doors closed! What??? They wouldn’t re-open and the train left with Isis in it. There were a lot of people still on the platform that wanted to board the train, all of us stranded because the train left early for no apparent reason. I’m really happy the girls are experienced travelers by now. Half an hour later Gaia and I also took the train to Zwolle, to be reunited with Isis. And that was the end of our 2025 UK trip!

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8-6-2022: Glasgow

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The hotel in Glasgow had amazing beds. That's why it was pretty painful that breakfast was from 7-8.45. It was worth getting up for though. Like in York there was a lot of choice, we could order and it would be delivered to our table.  At first we had planned to go to The Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery at opening time. But the weather prediction was pretty bad and it was raining cats and dogs at the time we would have left, so we decided to wait an hour (the rain would lessen after an hour). The prediction was correct, so an hour later we left for the museum. It has a lot of different things: from a dino skeleton to medieval things (mostly weapons) and paintings and art. A small impression: We went to the MacTassos streetfood cart for lunch. I'd read a tip online that their Greek food was absolutely amazing. The tip is 100% valid, because we really enjoyed our lunch there. After our lunch, we walked tot Glasgow University. The buildings were stunning. They really gave Hogwa...
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Our plan for 2022: Epic UK Road Trip!

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On Saturday 15th January 2022, we decided what we wanted to do when travel resumed. That year the girls were taking their school exams. After 5 years of bilingual and/or IB education, with a focus on the UK, the girls wanted to go to the UK instead of the USA (our previous plan). On their wishlist: London, 221b Baker Street, British Museum, see a musical (West End), Harry Potter Studios, Edinburgh, Glasgow, a ride on the Harry Potter train. Thus the idea for our Epic UK Road Trip came to be. We would leave after the last exams and we'd return around the time the results would be shared. So, passed or not, we'd hopefully have had an amazing trip!  Flying there and then renting a car might be the most logical choice, but driving on the left side of the road? That terrifies me. Waiting for hours on the airport before you can board the plane for a planeride of half an hour? Also not really our jam. So, this time we were going to try something completely new to us: travelling by tra...
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