On a little voyage – part one: England

Posted on by windandbone

I have heard it said that a holiday is experienced in 3 distinct phases.

  • Anticipation (researching, planning)
  • Participation (the moments, the actual adventure)
  • Reflection (analyzing, memorializing)

One might even suggest it’s actually 3 holidays – the one you take in your dreams, the one you live through, and the one you remember.

Our plans took shape over many evenings spent with our good friends, visiting and sharing our ideas. We watched YouTube videos, read books, and talked to real people about their experiences and recommendations. Slowly we made reservations and bookings, cancelled and changed bookings, updated our passports, and packed our bags.

Travel is an education. A realization that “our way” isn’t the only way, or necessarily the best way. Travel can be stretching. No – strike that – it is stretching. A situation arises that we didn’t plan for, and we have to pivot. Communication is not always easy (perhaps how we ended up buying two bottles of the French wine we so enjoyed instead of just one). And when you are travelling with friends, sometimes you have to work out a compromise or flip a coin. I don’t think anyone is worse off with a little education – and travel can be such a vivid teacher!

In the end, we come home weary but content, and maybe… just a little bit changed.

Moments, thoughts, and things from:

London – just a day and a half but we packed in a lot of sights and steps!

  • It was worth it to stay up after our red-eye flight to attend Evensong at Westminster Abbey. Of all the churches, cathedrals, and abbeys we took in, being part of a service – the architecture, sounds (the boys choirs were spectacular) and the smell of incense wafting through the great stone halls resulted in a truly immersive experience which will stick with me for a long time.
  • If you are searching for a pub, just look for hanging flower baskets and overflowing planters
  • Our friend Steve was interviewed in front of Buckingham Palace at night – the BBC was looking for comments on the Prince Andrew situation and we Canadians were all they could find.
  • We were struck by the intersection of old and new in London.
  • I made sure to visit the Broad Street Pump – the site where Dr. John Snow (not the Game of Thrones guy) discovered that cholera is spread by unclean water. My Public Health friends would be proud.
  • Be sure to find somewhere to see the city from up high – we chose the Sky Garden, and enjoyed a delicious lunch at the top as well.

Oxford, The Cotswolds, and Bath

  • Oxford has its own colour – Oxford blue, a deep navy, is painted on doors and shutters all through the city
  • If you like marmite, which I do, then you should definitely try marmite butter!
  • The Cotswolds – all the little towns with pretty or unusual names – like Chipping Campden, Bourton-on-the-Water, and Lower Slaughter, were a delight to behold, even in the rain. The golden Cotswold stone, low ceilings with exposed beams, and curved stairways with narrow treads were features we saw everywhere.
  • For fans of C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkein, there are signs of their past presence if you know where to look.
  • The narrow, never-straight roads with arched canopies of red leaves left us awed and occasionally a wee bit nauseous.
  • Scones and clotted cream – always and forever a treat
  • Bath – where we had the best pizza, admired Jane Austen’s hometown, and listened to Verdi’s La Traviatta sung by a busker in the square outside the Bath Abbey