Visited: May 2017
In the spring of 2017 I went to Europe for a trip with various friends and spots. In some ways this trip inspired me to move to Europe finally which happened in October of 2017.
A Foreword
On this trip, my former flatmate Courtney said London is the greatest city in the world. And while I still think this is up for debate her statement is certainly defendable.
It is so odd to write about an England trip in hindsight after having lived there for over a year. I have a fondness about London and the UK in general that's tough to explain. Even though it was a tough year at times I think the experience and the city have left an undeniable mark on me. Anyway here goes!
England in May of 2017
In April of 2017 I lost a very good lifelong friend unexpectedly. Aside from the deep sadness and shock, it also brought on a sense of urgency to do more things I felt were important. One of them was to travel more again to where I wanted to go and another was to spend more time with friends. This trip was a great opportunity to do both!
It started with an overnight flight to LHR to meet my good friends Peter and Ash. Peter and Ash had already been in London for 4-5 days in an Airbnb in Islington and had done a bunch of London touristy stuff. They picked me up and we hired a car to travel west towards a few spots: Stonehenge, Bath, Cardiff, Tintern Abbey and Oxford.
Stonehenge
First stop was Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument build out of very large blocks of stone around 90 minutes northwest of London. It dates back apparently to 2000-3000 BC and was built as an astrological, worship type site with various groups and improvements happening over the years.
The site is so hyped up it was tough to say it was worth it. You do get a great view from the highway and I suppose like many top tiered tourist sites it's a solid box checker to see, but getting in there was underwhelming.
You arrive first off at the parking spot and then head into the visitor centre to buy tickets. There are some interesting exhibits at the visitor centre and it's worth a quick stop to read. At almost £20 it's not cheap but few UK major sites are (think Tower of London, St Pauls, London Eye, etc..). You can get in for free with an English Heritage membership which I now have! If you are going to see a few sites with English Heritage over the coming year it's worth a membership.
Anyway after the visitor centre you walk around 500 meters (I think) to the site where you can walk around it for as long as you want. You can't get in too close, maybe 10 meters away from the blocks but you get a good view and you get a sense of just how big the stones are. Apparently in the past you could touch them and such but this was not the case while we were there unless you wanted to have a run at them and risk getting cursed at by the security folks.
Some people claim there is a lot of energy there, which I did not feel but again I couldn't touch the stones and with all the other tourists there it was tough to get intimate with the site.
We hung around the site for around half an hour. I had napped in the car on the way but felt pretty tired again and was happy to wrap it up after a quick visit. Overall I'd say it's worth a visit but at the end of the day it's a bunch of big stones which are heavily marketed as a convenient day trip from London.
Bath
It feels like a broken record writing about Roman build sites in Europe. See France posts #1, #2 and #3. Bath was founded by the Romans in 60AD or thereabouts as a spa city due to the hot springs in the area. I would say there are two key things to see in Bath.
The Baths! The mostly restored not quite ruins in Bath are the centerpiece of the city. The Romans built a pretty solid complex here and the site is quite extensive and impressive when you look at the entire architecture and engineering behind the water flow.
We walked around the site for at least an hour there was a lot to see. There are multiple levels and you can get a great sense of how the site works just spending time following the self guided tour. There may be a proper guided tour option as well but we didn't look.
The Abbey!
Bath Abbey is one of probably 100+ amazing religious sites in the UK. Founded in the 7th century and rebuilt in the 12th & 16th centuries it is one of the largest examples of Perpendicular Gothic architecture in the West Country. The Abbey is beautiful inside which isn't surprising and has many nooks and crannies to explore.
I would say we spent only around 20 minutes in the Abbey but it was worth the visit.
On to Cardiff (Wales!!!!)!!!!!
Let me tell you about the first thing I did in Cardiff - I feel asleep for the night! Ash's cousin lives there and the plan was to go out for dinner and drinks with him but I didn't make it I ran out of gas and had to call it quits for the night - going to bed around 830pm which was a good mood because I woke up the next morning early enough and in decent shape.
Let me tell you about Cardiff. It is the capital of Wales which is a country within a Kingdom (or is the UK also a country?). It is the biggest city in Wales with almost 500,000 people. It is the 11th biggest city in the UK. It was hosting the Champions League Final in 2017 - June 3rd which we missed but saw work they were doing to get ready. It also has a nice port which we saw after having a nice English breakfast.
Photos of Cardiff
After our nice walk around we went to see the Dr Who experience which was run by the BBC and apparently closed!! Good thing we saw it while it was there. I think Peter was the biggest fan but I had watch the show too and the exhibit was quite extensive with a action tour and many, many pieces of the set and costumes. If you don't know Dr Who. just read here.
Dr. Who Experience Photos
Tintern Abbey & Oxford
After Cardiff we started driving back towards London. Before we got back though we stopped at Tintern Abbey. Many Abbies, churches, Cathedrals, etc. are well kept and maintained in the UK, this one however was an exception. The Abbey itself, which was founded in the 12th century, is in Monmouthshire, Wales right on the border with England.
It was the 2nd Cistercian foundation (which had associations with the Templars - a book I'm reading and will write about later) in all of Britain. The Abbey fell into ruin after the Dissolution of the Monasteries (thank you Henry VIII) and hence it's current state is ruins.
Photos of Tinern and the Abbey
From Tintern we headed off to Oxford which is in Oxfordshire! The town (city?) is best known as home to the University of Oxford one of the world's 2nd oldest continuously running university after Bologna. I found out in my visit to Cambridge that the University of Cambridge was founded after a spat and hence divide between academics who stayed at Oxford.
Photos: Walking around Oxford
We walked around Oxford for a couple hours trying to soak in the University feeling. In hindsight now Oxford was not quite as interesting or grand as Cambridge. Or at least that's my current perception of it. We went in a couple buildings and generally sauntered around the city until we could bear no more and headed back to London town!
A couple days in London
Was this a preview to my future? Well yes I guess it was now that I know! We returned to London, dropped off the car and then took the tube back into the AirBnb. Now that I know London well I can say we likely took the Piccadilly line to Kings Cross and then the Circle line or similar to Farringdon station. The first night out we went out for dinner and a drink and just walk around the area close to homebase.
Photos: Peter under Peter's Lane and Ash and Peter (in reverse order!)
The following morning we got up and went for breakfast at the Albion which is now apparently closed! But I did get one of my favorite photos there.
Yum: Albion Coffee
From there we walked down to the Thames and caught a boat ride from Tower Bridge to Westminster. I've done this a couple times since and it never gets old.
Photos: River cruise
From there we split up as I headed back to meet up with the aforementioned Courtney for a drink before we headed over to the Magic Roundabout where Pete and Ash joined us again.
My walk to towards Shoreditch - did I walk the whole way? I don't remember. Then the zombie drinks at the great bar who's name I forget. Yikes!
Ash and Peter left the next morning for Toronto. I still had more trip to go and first dropped my bag off at Liverpool station where I would later have to catch the train to Stansted for my flight to Bliboa. Before that though I went to the Tower of London which was first built by William the Conquerer (at least the White Tower) in 1086. The Tower has been expanded over the years and is most famous for 1) the site of many well documented executions, 2) the home of the Crown Jewels and 3) the Beefeaters and Ravens who inhabit and care for it. It's a huge tourist attraction. I was lucky enough to go on a beefeater tour which was very interesting indeed.
Photo: The one and only Tower of London!
Following the Tower of London I walked west past St. Pauls, along Fleet/Strand towards Trafalgar Square and Piccadilly Circus / Covent Garden before eventually heading back to the train station and flying out to Bilboa!
See ya London - until I moved there I mean. hahahahahahaha!
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