London & Edinburgh Trip Report: A Mother–Daughter UK Adventure

We map a mother–daughter journey through London and Edinburgh, showing how a smart South Kensington base, well-timed museum visits, and scenic rail travel turned a packed plan into a calm, joy-filled trip.

Highlights include the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Borough Market food finds, and a Cotswolds day trip plus first-class train travel to Edinburgh and unforgettable meals along the way.

In this episode we cover:

• choosing South Kensington as a quiet, walkable London base
 • using first-class trains instead of flying to Edinburgh
 • late-night museum strategy to skip the crowds
 • the Ceremony of the Keys as a signature history moment
 • Hampton Court and Windsor on a guided coach tour
 • a Cotswolds in a Day tour with GoCotswolds for rest and village charm
 • art highlights at the V&A, National Gallery, and Tate Britain
 • why St Giles’ Cathedral and Holyroodhouse won over Edinburgh Castle
 • food wins: Borough Market, Dishoom, Fortnum & Mason afternoon tea, Makar’s Mash Bar
 • managing food allergies and navigating UK meal deals
 • coping with Tube strikes, taxis, and long walking days
 • packing smart, luggage storage, and souvenir strategy
 • one key takeaway: pick a base you genuinely enjoy staying in

You can find photos from Amy’s trip, plus links to her hotels, tours, and restaurants at:

👉 https://uktravelplanning.com/episode194

🎧 Listen to next

• Episode #142 – Exploring the Tower of London: History, Highlights, and Helpful Tips
• Episode #58 Edinburgh Travel 101: Essential Tips for First-Time Visitors
• Episode #186 – Eating Your Way Through London [What, Where + Food Tours]
• Episode #38 – A tasty Introduction to some of Britain’s most iconic foods 

If you would like to support the podcast, as Amy kindly does each week, you can sponsor us via this link from just three US dollars a month. It’s less than a cup of coffee and helps us keep producing the show to help you plan your perfect UK trip.

🎟️ Sponsored by Walks Tours & Devour Tours. Explore London with expert guides, from sightseeing to food tours.

👉 Book London sightseeing tours with Walks
👉 Book London food tours with Devour

Transcript

Welcome And Sponsor Message

SPEAKER_03 0:00

What really makes the UK trip work? In this episode, Amy shares the choices that shaped a trip, where she stated how she got around and the experiences that made it so special.

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK travel planning website, Tracy Collins. Each week, Tracy shares destination guides, travel tips, and itinerary ideas, as well as interviews with a variety of guests who share their knowledge and experience of UK travel to help you plan your perfect UK vacation. Join us as we explore the UK, from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, from picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Trip Report Setup And Goals

SPEAKER_03 0:40

Before we get started, we'd like to thank our sponsor, Walks and Devour Tours. If you're planning a trip to London, you'll already know the challenge. There's a lot you want to do and only a limited amount of time to fit it all in. That's where the right term makes all the difference because you want experiences that are the best use of your time with more access, less waiting, and a deeper sense of the city. That's why we recommend Walks and Devour Tours. They offer walk-in tours and food tours designed to make your time count, often with early or after hours entry. You'll also be with exceptional local guides who add the stories and context so you leave with a richer understanding of what you're seeing in a trip that feels genuinely memorable. If you're visiting London as a couple with family or you simply prefer a more intimate experience, walks and devour tours also offer private tour options. To learn more, you'll find the link in the show notes. Now let's get into this week's episode. Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planner Podcast. Now today I'm sharing our first trip report of the year, and I'm chatting with Amy about her mother-daughter trip to London and Edinburgh, from how she planned it and the experiences that stood out the most. So we're going to cover choosing the right area to stay in London, travelling by train, fitting in tours and food experiences, and how those choices influence the overall trip. Now let's get into the conversation. Well, I'm actually really excited to say, Amy, that this is the first trip report of 2026. Now I know you did the trip last year, um, and we've been chatting for ages about having you on the podcast to do it. First of all, I actually want to say a huge, huge thank you to you actually, because um you are one of our podcast sponsors, and I can't tell you how much Doug and I appreciate how much you support what we do. Um and the reason I say that is we we have about eight people only who support us. We have thousands of people who listen to this podcast every month. We get tons of emails from people going, we love your podcast. It helped us so much with our trip, which is lovely, and the words are really lovely, but it's just nice when like yourself kind of go, we recognize the value of what you did and how much it helped us, uh, and that you provide us that support. So that's actually a heartfelt thanks from myself and Doug for doing that.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

You guys gave us resources for an absolutely phenomenal trip. I'd have never been able to do it without them.

SPEAKER_03 3:11

Well, it it just it means the world. So I wanted to start off by saying that because it it's it's important and it's important for us. Anyway, I've got that. I've said the thank you, and which we really, really appreciate. But now let's get to the nitty-gritty of your trip. So, Amy, would you like to introduce yourself, tell us where you're from, and tell us a bit about um who you went on the trip with um and for how long and where you went. Do give us the whole spiel. Tell us what you did.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

I'm really excited to hear. I take turns doing things with the two of them. Um, she let me do 90% of the planning. Um, I did skip things like the Churchill war rooms because I knew that there was absolutely no appeal there. When the girls were young, like second through fifth grade, we actually lived in Vienna, Austria. So they're good little travelers. They know they've seen, I think, 46 castles and countless churches. But we had been to Scotland twice when they were young, we've been to Ireland. We had a nine-hour layover in London, and I knew I wanted more time in London. We were there for it was a two-week trip. Um, we did four days in the middle in Edinburgh, which we had been to once before, but briefly. And uh I came up with an enormous list of things I wanted to see in London, and then I grouped them by location using one of your your maps, and then we decided what was doable, what wasn't. I still put more on the schedule than was doable, and we did what we could.

SPEAKER_03 4:53

I do that every time, Amy. I I'm always saying to people not to do it, and guess what? I do it. It's just because we get so enthusiastic about thinking, I really want to see this, this, this, this, this, and then you kind of realize that it's actually not doable, but you know, putting it in there and giving it a go sometimes, and then you've got more flexibilities.

Planning London By Neighbourhood

SPEAKER_01 5:11

We were very happy with everything we did, and there I have a to-do list for next time. Um, and I might someday be brave enough to go on my own. But the we stayed in I like having a home base, and I picked South Kensington for a hotel there. And I think that was a brilliant move because there we both got sick during the trip. When we got home, we found out it was COVID. Um, we pushed through to the best of our abilities, but there were days where we just really couldn't go on anymore. We were right across the street from Kensington Gardens. So we were able to, we weren't feeling great, we'd rest, but we'd go over, and I have to tell you that one of the highlights of our trip was feeding the squirrels and the birds. And we must have done it five times. They would actually take peanuts right out of your hand. So if you're not, we may have hidden the signs that said don't please don't feed the animals a few times so they didn't ruin our pictures. Um, we verified it wasn't a law, it was just a request.

SPEAKER_03 6:16

You know what? I think that's more about the pigeons, but don't quote me on that either, because because that that there's they're I think they're a bit of verm. Now it that I don't know if you know the difference in the UK between the two types of squirrels. So we have the grey the grey squirrel who's come in and they're kind of just uh decimated our native red squirrels. So um I know there are pockets of red squirrels all over the UK, but that but I think probably it was in London it was probably the grey squirrels, but they're still cute. Um but we also have a little native uh uh British squirrel and it's red and it's tiny, it's a cute, cute, cute little thing. Um so that's possibly why, also because they're I I guess they they're not as popular with um with London as probably as much as visitors, but they are cute.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

We did see lots of Londoners feeding on them, which is why we were brave enough to do it ourselves.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

Well, I guess you know, some people love squirrels, some people love pigeons, and you know, I I think squirrels are very cute. Pigeons are not sequencing, but we mostly chased off the pigeons.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

We um we got we kept hearing the parakeets, but we had trouble finding them because of the same color as the trees. And when I finally found the first one, it was hanging upside down, so I'd been looking for the wrong profile. But my daughter actually got one to eat out of her hand with much code.

SPEAKER_03 7:33

Yeah, people don't expect to see parakeets in London, but yes, there are lots of parakeets um wild. Uh people, I assume, just let them out of cages, they're pets, and and now there's there's just huge flocks of parakeets, which is very strange when you I I've got uh I stay at my friend's house in uh South London, and often I'll wake up and all I'll hear is parakeets, and I'm like, am I back in Australia? Yeah, very, very strange, not not necessarily what you expect.

SPEAKER_01 7:57

I researched it and they believe that it started, they were filming African Queen at the Serpentine, and they think that a bunch of them got out, and London is temperate enough that they just survived and went crazy.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

They they they absolutely do. So so you were you were uh you were spending time in London, then you went up to Edinburgh for a few days, and you you came back to London. So that that's basically um your itinerary. Yeah, we took the took the train to to Edinburgh for the middle. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. So when when you were in London, um, I guess you used the tube buses to get around. Obviously, a lot of walking, there's so much walking to do, and then you took the train. How was the train up to Edinburgh? The train was lovely.

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Um we did the first class carriage. Um, we had done the Cotswolds tour the day before, and it was nice to have just time to sit and relax on the train. And I'd considered flying, but by the time you factor in the time to and from airports, and it's it's not shorter.

SPEAKER_03 8:58

No, you don't see anything on the aeroplane, do you? At least only on the train, you get to see a lot of the English countryside.

South Kensington Home Base

SPEAKER_01 9:04

The view was beautiful, and it was it was a lovely trip. But we um my goal was for to see lots of the parks. Uh, the day we walked the most was 13 miles. We took the tube to Westminster and got off, and we walked back from there. We actually got to see them filming. I don't know if it was Pride and Prejudice again, but it was along those lines. So we're walking down the street, and there are all these people in period costumes and horses standing in the street, and we were a little bit confused. Um, we wandered our way back to uh St. James Park and we started that there, and we walked like the full loop. That was probably my favorite of the um most beautiful of the parks.

unknown 9:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:48

Pelicans were a highlight, the swans. We made our way from St. James to um Green Park, and then trying to get from Green Park to Hyde Park, we got caught in the middle of the changing of the guard, which was not on the uh plan for that day, but we were told that we were gonna watch it whether we liked it or not. So we were able to scratch that off the itinerary.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

I guess you weren't allowed to cross roads and stuff because they they do kind of yeah, they get a bit strict.

SPEAKER_01 10:22

Here you are. You're like, okay, here we are. Um we made it to Hyde Park, we felt like we'd won a victory. We walked through Hyde Park and um got to enjoy the Rose Garden and walk the length of it until we hit the Royal Albert Memorial, which was like a block from our hotel. And then we had to walk as quickly as we could through some lovely little parks to get to uh Knightsbridge because we had uh a Sunday roast booked for that day at Hawksmore, which is absolutely fantastic. And from there we braved Herod's, which is not my favorite place. Um, I liked the toy department, I liked the gift shop, everything else was very crowded and very heavily fragranced, and I couldn't get on fast enough.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Yeah, I I it a lot of people mention or ask about going to Harrods, and I I like going to the food halls because they're very pretty and the food's amazing, but they are so so busy. Um, I don't particularly like departments, I never have since I was a child. I've never liked department stores because you walk in, usually it's a perfume department, and it's like, oh no, overload, century overload, I just can't deal with it. Um, but I tend to say to people, if it's during the summer, not to go to Harrods because it can get incredibly, incredibly busy and uh uncomfortable. But um, the food halls are yeah, oh, the food that you can buy. It's expensive, but but it's amazing. And the toy department is also really cool.

Parks, Wildlife And Serendipity

SPEAKER_01 11:53

We had just eaten at Hawksmore, so the food department held no interest for us. Um, one of the things I wanted to see most was the Egyptian elevators, and it took us a while wandering through the store to find the middle of the store to find the escalators, and then we rode all the way down and all the way back up. And then I enjoyed their gift shop, and then we escaped and went back to the hotel. But we had when we bought the tickets, I bought the tickets in October of the year before. I started listening to your podcasts in August and making my wish list, and um we bought the tickets in October. We were planning on getting laid in in the evening, and then about six months in, they changed our flight, and we got in 10 hours earlier than we'd planned. So we got there and dropped our stuff at the hotel, and we did XSFA was the best choice in the world. This was not an economy trip for us. We flew upper class with um Virgin Atlantic. They let you bring each three person can bring three 70-pound suitcases. I think we did that between the two of us. So it was not something we would have been able to do on a subway or in a taxi. Um, but I wanted to see Temple Church, and I was looking at the hours, they're open, and they're only open during the week, during the day. And the way our schedule was set up, we were there in London mostly weekends. So we went straight to Temple Church and we walked the gardens and we went to twinings, and my daughter hated me just a little bit because she did not sleep at all on the plane, and I kept saying, Nope, we're gonna, we're already on this side of town, we're staying here. We had had um reservations made for the cheese, the pick and cheese.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

Pick and cheese, my favorite, another one. Uh yeah, it's all food, have you noticed? Yeah, pick and pick and cheese is amazing.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

It was it was so much fun. And I have a friend whose daughter lives in London, she met us there for dinner. So we got to meet her and have dinner with her, and then she was our first introduction to the tube. She got us we walking from Temple Gardens trying to find pick and cheese. We walked seven dials like 30 times, walking in circles, ending up in the same place in a drizzle. Everybody we asked had no idea what we were talking about. Finally, I found Humble Crumble and I knew where it was in relation to Humble Crumble. Because we kept saying it's the place with the giant bananas. And no, no help. But then she got us back. Um, she got us back to her hotel, and our hotel was halfway between two subway stations, and the one they claim they're closest to, um, I wasn't crazy about, but it was equidistant to South Kensington Station, which is lovely. And the walk from the hotel to South Kensington Station was past all the museums. So why walk down the street in a business area if you can be walking past the VA?

SPEAKER_03 14:50

Uh well, yeah, except I can't walk past it without it's uh there's a magnetic force that pulls me in, so I can never walk past it very easily. Um, it's a nice actually, it's an area that I'm planning to stay in when I'm back in in London. Uh I try to stay in different areas every time I'm back, and uh South Kensington is the area that I've picked for this this trip to spend some time. Um Doug says it's very yeah, Doug says it's very dangerous because he said you'll be too close to the VA, I'll never see you. Uh but yeah, it is a good area to choose, and you're very, as you say, very close to park, very close to uh museums, uh they've got tube stations there, so it's really good. I'm just gonna shoot back, just to ask you a little bit when you were creating your itinerary, because you very kindly mentioned um the podcast. So uh it was that our kind of the podcast your primary kind of uh go-to from our resources that you used to help you?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

Absolutely. I I started listening and it I had had a trip to Egypt planned with my older daughter, and that got cancelled, which then made my trip with my younger daughter, which we had been planning on Scotland, get bumped up. And then I started listening to your podcast, and although I still wanted to go to Scotland, I wanted more time in London. So I started using the podcast and making lists of things I wanted to see, um, things I wanted to do. I checked out all your online resources, got the ebooks, um, all the train resources, and we just started piecing things, things together. Um, I'm a little old-fashioned. I started out with an actual map and little sticky dots and numbered them, and then determined what was in an area and what we could do in the same day. Um, we used That's a good idea.

SPEAKER_03 16:25

It's a sensible, a sensible approach. It really is. Otherwise, you can just be crushed-crossing, especially London, you'd just be here, there, and everywhere, and wasting your time kind of crossing over London to get from place to place. So it's a it's a good strategy.

London To Edinburgh By Train

Big Walks And Unplanned Moments

SPEAKER_01 16:37

And we did end up with more taxis and Ubers lifts than we did the tube. The tube was on strike the last several days we were there. But my daughter, the day that we went to Westminster and then walked all the way back to Kensington with the detour to Knightsbridge, she we walked almost 14 miles that day. She ended up with horrible blisters. Oh no. And she was the best sport ever. But I figured if we minimized the walking to get to the places we were going, then she'd have the energy to to do the things that we wanted to do there. So I I we spent, I totaled it up when we got home, and it was just an obscene amount of money for Uber and Lyft. And then the last few days there was really no other option with the um I thought we were gonna get run down by bicycles uh when the tube was on strike. It was it was uh dreadful. But we had planned on getting in late at night on Thursday, so I had planned a bus trip for the next day, a coach tour, because I knew I didn't wasn't gonna be up to thinking clearly. And through one of your affiliates, we um booked a golden tour to uh uh Hampton Court Palace in Windsor, and I'd never seen Hampton Court Palace, and we ahead of time ordered all of the tour guides for the places we were going so I could because I knew otherwise I'd be carrying them around Europe with me. Um that way I was able to read them all before we went, and I was able to give her the tour of Hampton Court Palace. I was like, oh, this is this. That means if we turn right here, we're going to get to the passage for the chapel. And it's unique from all of the other castles because you have wings from different eras, which you don't typically see. So it was really neat to be able to go from the Tudor to the Regency period and walk through that. And it had been raining when we got there, and it stopped just as we got there. And the gardens, there was a huge puddle blocking the entrance. Well, I decided I was gonna squeeze around it. She and I had the gardens for the first 45 minutes all to ourselves. Beautiful pictures. Perfect. And then we we did that, and the the tour guide Tish was absolutely lovely. Um, we had our time at Hampton Court, and then we took the bus to Windsor and we enjoyed walking through Windsor, and we happened into a changing of the guard there that wasn't planned either. Uh, we weren't allowed to leave because of that one. And then we spent a little time in the town of Windsor having I think I ate more pastries there than I have my entire life put together because there were pastry shops everywhere. Um, and we took advantage of the Victoria and Albert being up until 10 that night. So when we got back to our hotel at five, we changed and walked over to the VA. We had dinner there in that lovely um Art Deco cafeteria. Isn't it beautiful? It is beautiful. And for Doug, we tried Victoria's Sponge, we tried it three times, and I either we got it bad three times or Doug has very odd taste.

SPEAKER_03 19:42

I'll tell him. It's it's not my favorite, but he he he absolutely it that's for him, a cup of tea and a Victoria Sponge. Let's let's talk about then some of the because that you did a lot of stuff, and yeah, I'm sure you had a lot of favorite things. So otherwise, I know we could probably talk for about two weeks about all the stuff you did because you you had a you did a really good trip, you had a lot in it. Um, so what were your favorite experiences and your favorite places that you visited in London and or Edinburgh?

SPEAKER_01 20:09

Um in London, and I absolutely love going to Hampton Port Palace just outside of London. It was like I said, it's different than anything we'd done even while we were living in Europe. But the the closing ceremony at the tower was I am so glad that we listened to you in that. It was the neatest thing I've ever done. We got there on a weird night, they had some special bigwigs there, and they actually forgot our tour group. We stood out there for like a half hour waiting, and finally, so we got to work with um two different your human warders because one of them who'd never done it before came up and said, Ah, this has never happened before. I don't I don't know what to do. He said, I think I'm just gonna walk around and tell you stuff, and we're like, Yeah, we're all good with that. That's what we thought we were getting. And we had a quite a bit of time with him, and they felt bad, so they actually put us in like the best position humanly possible for the ceremony, which bumped the rich people off away because they were the reason that we had gotten missed out on. But because of that, then we actually got to work with another one of the human mortars later, so we got to hear stories from both. Um, they let us stay quite a bit after closing before they saw us out to make up for the time difference. And I think it it made it more special. Um, we fell in love with their a little little cat. Uh, I think we have more pictures of the cat walking through the poppies than we do with the picture itself. But it was just it was an incredibly unique experience and it it made the trip.

SPEAKER_03 21:44

It is, it's really special. And um, you know, I I guess people in the if you listen to the podcast, there's a couple of things the E and A that I love, and I love the ceremony of the keys. And whenever I talk to to walks and devout tours about it, they know that that's the one that I I love all the tours, but that one, I just think you feel that you're part of history. And your name goes down. You have to give your name because it goes down in a book. And because that ceremony's been going on for hundreds and hundreds of years, um, the same, exactly the same ceremony done night after night after night after night. I I just love, I just feel that being kind of experiencing that sense of history and being part of it is really special. Um, and also the opportunity which you don't get during the day if you go when it's really, really busy, even if you get the free yeoman water toe, you don't get the opportunity to do what you can do with at that evening toe. We could ask them all sorts of questions. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:32

That's really cool.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Yeah, lots of chit chat. And they were yeah, they were telling us stories and they were showing us like the videos on their phones, but it was just absolutely fantastic. Um I I would do it again. And I don't like huge crowds, so I'm usually at something the minute it opens. And neither my daughter or I are crowned jewels type girls, so that wasn't the priority to us. So when we got the opportunity to still see the tower, but to see it at night when it wasn't crowded was absolutely phenomenal. Um, we went to to museums when we could when they were open late at night because they were less busy. Uh, I could live in the casting courts at the VA. Those that was aren't they?

First-Day Wins And Navigating The Tube

SPEAKER_03 24:15

Aren't they? I could. I I literally I I I know I've said this again numerous times, but I can sit in those cash courts for hours and just just I just take it all in, isn't it just spectacular? I mean phenomenal. I I just love them. I think uh yeah, I you can you can travel around the world and see treasures from the world around the world that we haven't stolen, which is also refreshing. Um and that we have uh we've we've just did copies of in the Victorian era, and it it's just fab absolutely fabulous.

SPEAKER_01 24:48

And it's the thing we feel is very funny. Yes. I have a picture of that. But I think my daughter's like, Tracy said we need to go to the basement. She's like, okay, she was right about the Tower of London. So we we went to the basement, and since we were staying in that area when I wasn't feeling well, she was able to just wander back over to the VNA and explore some more. Um lots lots of museums. Uh, we managed to fit in. We went to the Tate Modern briefly. If I had realized that the impressionists were there, we would have spent more time there. I'm not a real modern art aficionado, but we had started at Borough Market that morning and then we walked along the river, and then I wanted to go across the Millennium Bridge and come up looking at St. Paul's. So we basically used um the Tate Modern as a 20-minute visit and a potty stop before we went on our way. But she wanted to see the painting of Ophelia, which she thought was there. I was like, no, no, that's Tate Britain. So we walked across the Millennium Bridge from there and we circled St. Paul. We didn't tour the inside. Then we found the subway, which I was very proud of myself because there were actually transfers involved, and um took that to the Tate Britain, and that is phenomenal. The building itself is beautiful, and the um paintings. I'm now love with in love with John Singer Sargent. Oh we got to do that, and then um what we went to a nighttime um opening of the National Gallery in London, and again, the Impressionists were were our goal there. We went to the National Gallery in Scotland and the Museum of Scotland. Um she was not feeling well. We got back from Scotland on Friday afternoon, and my plan was I don't think she had any idea what was in the National Gar Gallery in London as far as the Impressionists were. She wasn't feeling well, and she kept, she's like, let's just wait, let's just wait. And I was nagging her, and I was driving her crazy. When she got into the Impressionist galleries, I think she understood why I wasn't ago. And I mean the home museums are phenomenal. We also I wanted to hunt down Da Vinci, I needed to see Da Vinci, but most of what we wanted to see was the Impressionists, they're just stunning, and there's numerous paintings there.

SPEAKER_03 27:16

And the other thing about the museums, because there's uh we've actually just done a um a podcast about our favourite museums in London, and a lot of the museums in London are free as well, which often people don't realise. So you can go in and out when you want and wander around see bits of them, and um yeah, so you don't have to pay. Uh, if it's busy, like I say, like if at a weekend and it's a rainy weekend and the kids are off school and school holidays, then then you might want to get a slot for someone at the Natural History Museum. But generally, um, you're absolutely fine. British Museum can get very, very busy as well. But um, but they're all free, so um it's it's just pitch up and and go and enjoy it. Just don't do too many in one day. That's what I would say to people. I tried to do the VA, the science museum, and then the natural history museum in one day, and I was like, no, I was I I I just couldn't physically do it. I was like, it was it was too much. So um I'll be doing a bit not more. Now I just have to ask you though, because you're a nurse, did you make it to the Florence Nightingale?

Late Open Museums Strategy

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Um did not. That was it was it would have been taking time away from the day the way our plans were set from the the tape written, and I didn't want I won I knew she'd enjoy that so much more. Um they actually in the Museum of Scotland they actually have a nice selection of medical history items, which was which was really neat to see. Yeah, that was uh I don't think we did two museums in a day, other than the brief stint in the Tape Modern and then Tape Written. Yeah, I trust it was a one-a-day thing. And I had wanted to fit Kensington Palace in while we weren't feeling well, and that was when she's like, Mama, I don't want to go to another palace.

SPEAKER_03 28:57

Yeah, you can get a bit uh castle castle and palace fatigue and cathedral fatigue after a while because there's just so many. Um and I've heard that what from people who have visited Italy as well, always hear that fittely said, I just I just couldn't do another church. Um but yes, in the UK it's definitely uh castles and and palaces can be can get a bit like, oh not another one. Um we love St.

SPEAKER_01 29:20

Giles. Oh, it's lovely, isn't it? In Denver. I think I enjoyed that more than Westminster. And I Westminster is definitely the grander scale. But St. Giles, you were able to get closer to things, you weren't being you weren't in a flood of people. Um the I don't know what they call it, where they they sit in their funny little chairs and all the knights, the knights of the thistle room in St. Giles, which is the same as the Knights of the Garter in in Westminster. That was really, really neat, and we were able to get up close and personal with it.

SPEAKER_03 29:56

And it's very pretty, it's very pretty inside. It's uh it's I've got some beautiful pictures actually inside St. Giles. I'll be in Edinburgh in a few months' time, so I shall I shall I shall go back in and get some some more pictures and and videos because it's it's on the Royal Mile, it's an easy one to just pop in and and and have a look. Um, did you go to Edinburgh Castle when you were there? Did you we did not?

SPEAKER_01 30:16

Um we that's the one thing she had done before in Edinburgh, and um medieval fortresses are not our favorite. Uh and we went to the Tower of London, so that kind of did it. But we stayed at the foot of the castle. We stayed uh in the wild apart hotels there. I figured since we were in a room together for nine of our nights, I wanted to give us a little more space while we were in Edinburgh. Yeah, we actually didn't have to go to bed at 8:30 with mommy those those few nights, but um our room had a view of the castle, so every time we left our our hotel, we got to walk past the castle. I wanted to see Holyrood House. Um I'd never done that, and we loved that, and the Abbey was even better. And we were there early, it was not raining, we got some stunning pictures and just loved wandering the garden. She wanted to go to Botanical Garden while we were there, and we knew we weren't sure we could make Q happen, so we did the one in Edinburgh, which is also stunning.

SPEAKER_03 31:20

It's lovely. The glass house there is just gorgeous, isn't it? Absolutely. We were closed this year. Oh no. Oh well, in fact, I'm when I'm when I'm actually in Edinburgh in in May, Hollywood House is shut for a couple of weeks. So my friend that I'm going with has absolutely got it. I was like, oh no. Unfortunately, yeah, that can well, next time I I've I've I'm making a list for you for next time, maybe of things that you uh you can add into your itinerary. Um you've mentioned that you did a few tours, and obviously I know you did the um you did that golden tours trip to um Hampton Court and then Windsor Pass Palace, and then you did the ceremony of the keys with walks. Um did you do any other tours while you were there?

SPEAKER_01 32:00

With walks, we did Westminster, um, which is is stunning. I'd been there once before, and I knew that you couldn't really do it without a tour because there's just too many things to do. But it was crowded enough and overwhelming enough that my mother, my daughter just sort of weighed and said, Mom, go go do your thing. Um, that was supposed to be with the changing of the guard, which we had no interest in doing, having already had the uh lovely experience of being trapped in it earlier, and it is very neat and very enjoyable, but I didn't feel the need to do it twice. So um the other tour we did was Cotswolds in a day. Go Cotswolds, and that was absolutely wonderful. Martin was a great tour guide, and it was a nice break from London.

Ceremony Of The Keys Deep Dive

SPEAKER_03 32:44

It is been I've been out with Martin before. I was actually talking to Lisa tonight because we're doing an episode all about spring, and obviously I've got to talk about spring in the cotswold. So I'm talking about different places around the UK, but um, I was talking to Lisa last night, and uh her cotswolds and a day tour, it's it's just fantastic, and it does give you a good taste of the cotswolds.

SPEAKER_01 33:05

I could live in Bybury, I don't know what I would do there, but it is just the prettiest little place on the planet. We just we got to see, we're standing there, and there's just a swan peacefully swimming down the water. Um just absolutely charming. And it like I said, it was a nice break because we had done Saturday, we had walked from Westminster to all the way back to um Kensington, and that was exhausting. And we did the tower tour and everything. I think between two days we did probably about 22 miles, so sitting on sitting on a bus and strolling through towns was lovely, and then the next day was Edinburgh, and I foolishly told her we were gonna walk to the hotel because it was only about a third of a mile, but you don't understand that you're going uphill and then somehow uphill again to get down. I just I don't and I kept counting the stairs because I needed to know in my head when I was gonna get to the top because we'd done that staircase four times, and she's going, What is wrong with you? Just don't make it work. But we were staying at the bottom of Granny's green staircase, so every time we wanted to leave, we had to climb it. Although I liked being in the middle of everything, I think if I were to go back, I'd stay in Newtown.

SPEAKER_03 34:24

Um I'm nodding vigorously because that's that tends to be that where we stay, we tend to stay in the new town. But then you know when you're gonna go with the old town, you know you're gonna have the you've got the stairs and the uphill. Uh so you know that's coming. Um, and I I think a lot of people don't necessarily understand that about Edinburgh. Like that the Newtown is flat. The old town is up the hill. You're going up towards the castle because it's on the volcanic plug. Yes. So it's like it's uh it's a it's uh a lot of stairs, a lot of walking. Um yeah, it's but it's it is lovely. I do love Edinburgh. I think it's it's such a it's such a beautiful city. And you did that kind of very a very popular route is that kind of London. Often people stop off in York and then and then go up to Edinburgh. That's uh we hear that very often as a um it's a great way to to get a a kind of taste of both the capital cities, really, of of um England and Scotland. And did you did you do any day tours from Scot uh from Edinburgh or did you kind of just base yourself in Edinburgh?

SPEAKER_01 35:24

I stayed in Edinburgh. We were only there two full days. So the day we got there, we did the gardens and I had booked McCars Mash Bar. I think I booked it four months out because that was the meal I wanted the very most while we were there. Um, and it is honestly one of the best meals I've ever had in my life. I got my daughter Haggis, and she we pretty much licked the bowl clean. It's very good. They have the best sticky toffee pudding we had, and we we gave it a try pretty much anywhere we could find it. And I I ordered a bottle of cider because I'm not a big drinker, and cider is probably one of the few things there I will drink. And I ordered a bottle because I didn't want a pint. Not only the bottles are pints. Because here a bottle is about half that. Right. So because she ordered a pint, I'm like, oh no, no, no, that's too much. Just bring me a bottle. I drank two of them. Um, this teacross cider is the most delicious thing on earth. I've got a trip coming up to Boston and I'm hoping to find it there because I know they import it to the East Coast to the U.S. Oh, so you gotta treat yourself, hopefully. That was um that meal was we brought the leftovers home and ate lunch in the hotel later in the trip because couldn't waste a drop. There the table next to us was three gentlemen that ordered because there's basically four main entrees on the menu at at and my daughter got the bangers and mash, and I got the lamb, and then we got the haggis meats, meeps, and tatties as the um appetizer, and we asked them at the end, because there's another one I think is roast chicken, and we asked them and they're like, What was the best? And they said, We think it's the lamb and the haggis meats and tatty. I was like, Okay, that's what we thought too. So we were we got the best of the world.

SPEAKER_03 37:16

Yeah, both. I hope you mentioned them. We should say, because I I don't know how many people um listen to the podcast and go to Macas Mash Bar. I keep I keep saying that I was like, I think we should get a free hat, I guess, and deep synthetics the next time I'll go because the amount of people that go, because uh oh, I just love it. I just I I really and also they do a small portion as well, which is really nice. So it's a it's a good appetizer, in case we hated it.

Art Highlights Across London

SPEAKER_01 37:38

Yeah. We've been to Scotland twice. We have friends with a house in John of Groats, and when we were living in Austria, it was a short flight, so we'd go over and and visit. So we'd explored most of Scotland, we've done the Highlands, we've done Northern Scotland, um, but we'd only done that that little brief visit to Edinburgh. And now that my daughter was older, I knew she'd enjoy the history more. I did subject her to quite a few um TV series that period TV series, like we watched Young Victoria, um uh Mary Queen of Scots to sort of delve in the history of it because that's that adds to it for me. We actually go into a room where we know Mary Queen of Scots was, which was fascinating, where David Rizzio was shot. It's lovely.

SPEAKER_03 38:32

I think that that's the thing in the UK. You know, you're walking in the footsteps of uh well, you have history. So I've just actually been to the cinema to watch Hamnet. Now I've been obviously at Stratford, probably millions of times. Um, but the excitement I feel, even now, actually having watched Hamnet and just putting some, you know, some of the history of things that happened to Shakespeare. I knew his son had died, but I don't know if you've seen the movie, but you haven't, you really need to go and see it. It's just just take tissues, um, because it's very, very sad. But but it I just love that. And and uh I actually though apparently it wasn't filmed in Stratford upon Ava, but I I don't, it doesn't matter. It still gives that you know that's where Shakespeare's from. So it's just amazing. And I actually just did a podcast a few um a few months ago all about um Jet Seton because everybody's want to go over because of Bridgetin, or um there's the new um movie Wither and Heights that's out, there's a new sense and sensibility sensibility movie. Obviously, Downton Abbey is so popular, so everybody kind of wants to go and go and and check out where these where these are being filmed, and you can walk around these castles and houses and the moors in Yorkshire where these things are done and actually see see the places, which is which is lovely. Um I'm gonna slightly pivot because you mentioned about food, so I have to ask you about your obviously you enjoyed your um haggis nips and tatties, but what what else did you try um on your trip uh that you really enjoyed? What other places would you recommend to go and eat?

SPEAKER_01 39:57

We went to Borough Market and we did it on a Saturday morning, which we know is a terrible idea, but we got there as ginger pig was opening. Um that is the best sausage roll I have ever eaten in my life. Uh we, of course, then had to hit Humble Crumble, and then we just wandered through the stalls with samples and some pastries in there. Um somebody made a mushroom pate that is one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten in my life. Uh we got the viral creme brulee donut from Bread Ahead. Uh the did a lot of we spent a lot of time in Prett for breakfast because it was easy just to grab a sandwich and go. Um went to, well, we were in Edinburgh, we went to Black Fire Friars Bobby pub. We discovered fried halloumi, which is not something they do here, and it's a sin that we don't have that here.

SPEAKER_03 40:58

Actually, it's really interesting because we just had an episode uh with Becky actually from Devour Tours, and she was talking about her favorite foods, and she loves Halloomy fries. And actually, I got a message from somebody saying they had to look it up because they didn't know what it was, because you guys don't have it, you need to get them because they're just delicious.

SPEAKER_01 41:16

There's some there's something wrong there. So then we got them every opportunity we could. Um there, yeah, the and sausage rolls aren't aren't done here. But you hear people talking about British food being bad, and it's everything that I think is beautiful. I mean, I guess if you're obsessed with salads, it's probably not the best food, but uh you can put gravy on it, I'll probably eat it.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, we do the best, I don't know, like sausage rolls and pies, and um I love scotch eggs. I don't know if you had a Scotch egg when you were there. I absolutely love Scotch eggs. Um, all of those things. Mox and Spencer's food haul.

SPEAKER_01 41:55

I did that at Portland Mason. I had a Scotch egg, and I didn't particularly enjoy it, but I found out 48 hours later I had COVID.

SPEAKER_02 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:04

So and I've had scotch eggs before, and it is something I normally enjoy. But the um we got a Knickerbocker glory there, which is also something Americans had never heard of, and that was the most fun ever. Um, they're in the Harry Potter books. Uh so we were always like, well, what is that? Well, let's find out. It's on this menu. I see, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 42:25

Grew up having Knickerbocker glories and uh yes, and and Scotch eggs and all of those delicious foods that I'm looking forward to to have them when I'm back. Um what about I know you mentioned yes, Sunday roast at Hawkesmouth, so um, and I do recommend that when people ask me about Sunday roast. Did you have any other Sunday roasts when you were in London?

SPEAKER_01 42:43

We did not. We had considered going to one in Notting Hill, but we were ill that day, so we we kept things kind of kind of calm. Um another big meal we had was afternoon tea at Portman and Mason, which was absolutely lovely. Uh I have a huge number of allergies. My daughter has most of the same allergies, so the manager actually brought all of our food out and managed it and checked in. And she was very charming, and she and my daughter hit it off and spent most of the tea visiting. She made our champagne sure our champagne glasses were were topped off at all times. The food was lovely, the experience is even better. So we were looked at many, many teas. And the other one I'd considered seriously was the shard, but I knew if we were on that side of town, we were gonna be walking a lot and we'd be in trainers, and I know that that's not allowed there, and I was not gonna carry around a pair of shoes just to make them happy. Um, Fortnite Mason, although we did dress up for it, would have allowed that. Uh, but we spent so much time there visiting with the manager that we closed the place because every time we tried to leave, she'd fill our champagne again, so we didn't get to do any shopping. So the next day, when I had planned on going to Notting Hill and possibly a Sunday roast, we went back to Fortman Mason to do some shopping and spent a couple of hours there. That was just wandering through everything. I came home with so much. We each had a different tea with each course at tea, and we came home with all six teas. Oh wow. And my daughter, one of them was such a smoky tea that it's been banished to her house. She's not allowed to make it my house. It smells like a campfire.

Edinburgh Choices And Pace

SPEAKER_03 44:28

Oh, that that is cool though. And it's nice, like I don't know, I think trying different foods and um they just all add to the experience as well, don't they? Did you try any of the because we we often talk to people as well about like doing meal deals because they're a great way when you're kind of here, there, and everywhere. Did you did you try any of those?

SPEAKER_01 44:46

We did that, we got a couple of those were sandwiches for like train travel. Um, we did sort of breakfast meal deals in the mornings. Um I I love a bacon bath. I don't know. Why why we don't do that here either. Although they kept asking if we wanted ketchup or brown sauce, and we kept saying no. We were just eating them dry, and then like one toward the end of the class, we're like, we're gonna try the brown sauce, and oh my goodness, that was a game changer. That was fantastic. I was gonna say you have to have brown sauce.

SPEAKER_03 45:14

Now I I don't know. In the in the UK, like brown sauce, uh, and I'm probably gonna have British people who are gonna shout me down for this, but but brown sauce is more northern, and tomato ketchup is more a southern thing. So I'm from the north, so I would have brown sauce on my bacon sandwich. Doug, now he's Midland, so he could kind of go either way, but he will have tomato ketchup. It's really funny. So you'll find that you'll find more people in the south will go for the ketchup and more people from the north. But again, I can hear British people go, well, that's not true. I always have ketchup when I'm from Newcastle or whatever. But um, yeah, I didn't, I was never really a big ketchup fan when I was a kid. It wasn't we always had brown sauce, but didn't necessarily have ketchup. Um, but yes, absolutely have the brown sauce. It's really good.

SPEAKER_01 45:57

We were really disappointed we hadn't figured that out earlier. But there were lots of breakfast sandwiches. Um, something I ran into, I'm allergic to most artificial sweeteners. And in the UK, even the non-diet versions of things are half sugar, half artificial sweetener. So my daughter would hand me a Dr. Pepper and I'd take a sip, and I'm like, there's artificial sweetener in that. She said, You're crazy. And then we'd read the label. So we were actually flipping things over and looking for the highest calorie count because that's how we were avoiding artificial sweeteners. So I mostly stuck to water and orange juice because those were the safe ones. And we we both with all of our allergies, I wanted to do a food tour, but there's no way to do that when you've got to provide a list a mile long. Um I think some of the places most of the restaurants were fantastic about allergies. We went to Deschum three times. Um we went when we had had our long wander and we spent an evening in Kensington Gardens after having walked 14 miles, and we were near the one in uh South Kensington, so we went there. And the best lamb samosas I've ever had, they make them with phylodgough instead of the usual pastry. Um chicken brianni is fantastic, their ruby chicken, absolutely amazing. And then they gave us, as we were leaving, they apologized because they had us write our allergies on the menu, circled the things we were considering, and then they actually took it to the kitchen and had the chef evaluate whether we could eat them. Well, we had wanted some bread with a dip, and we couldn't have the dip because it had eggplant in it. So as an apology, they brought us vouchers for a free meal. Oh, that's amazing. So while we were in Edinburgh, we went for breakfast. Which was also amazing. And then my daughter ordered chili pepper on hers because we come from New Mexico, we're home of the green chili. We have hatched green chili, we're famous for it. An Indian green chili is a very different thing. She touched it to her tongue, and then we had some mango lassie to make the pain go away. But that put us right next to Paddington Bear, so we got to see our second Paddington Bear there. Because the St. Andrew's Square is right next to the gym there.

SPEAKER_03 48:11

Yeah, that's my photo that I I use that one, and and me and Paddington travel all around the UK, and that's from that St. Andrew's Square picture, because it's a perfect, perfect one if you get. And of course you went and saw Paddington at Paddington Station.

Day Tours: Hampton Court, Windsor, Cotswolds

SPEAKER_01 48:28

We couldn't find it when we were there in the morning. I don't know how. And and I finally just Googled where is Paddington Bear at Paddington Station. They're like on platform one. Like makes sense. But we got to the I took Doug a little too seriously when he said get there early. Um, his idea of early and mine are probably very different. We were everywhere at least an hour early. Um and they were early morning trains too. So if you're taking a train at 5 45 in the morning, we were getting there as soon as they opened, but that gave us time to figure out where we were gonna need to be. And then we went to Pratt, or we went and got a breakfast meal deal, and we sat and ate, and people watched. Um, and when we came back in through King's Cross, coming back from um Edinburgh, one of the things I wanted to see was St. Pancras. So we walked over and wandered to St. Pancras. Um and then we had one of our most pleasant taxi rides from there, although he took us to the wrong hotel. Umrected. Our only other mishap is we said we wanted to go to Borough Market, and they dropped us off at a Primark on a high street not far from Kensington, and the guy kept arguing with us, telling us is where we were needed to be. And I'm like, okay. So we got out and I bought my favorite sweater at Primark. Oh it was meant to be.

SPEAKER_03 49:52

Meant to be, Amy. So you you know, you you we were in London, you went to Edinburgh, and you went back to London. So did you stay in the same accommodation in London both times, or did you change? You did.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

I I looked at some closer to like Temple Church, but I was so in love with the one that we booked the first time I wanted to stay, and they kept two-thirds of our luggage for us. Perfect, perfect.

SPEAKER_03 50:19

That's that's an that's a really smart move as well. And I say that to often people, if you're gonna be starting and ending in the same, and then leave if you don't need to take your luggage, don't take it, especially since you had a lot.

SPEAKER_01 50:29

Yes, we had a lot. We we were we are not light packers, but the staff at the hotel could not do enough for us, they were just incredibly charming. So, do you want to share the name of the hotel? It's the Gore Hotel. Yeah. And it's on, I believe, Queensgate, and it's right, I it's on the same block, right down the street from the entrance to where Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens meet up. So you walk across the street and you look right, and you're looking at the Royal Albert Hall and the Royal Albert Memorial. And one of the things we wanted to do was find the bench with Alan Rickman's name on it, which is right where those two gardens that's where we spent a lot of time sitting feeding our favorite squirrel. Um Alan. And then we managed to, and it was a very pregnant squirrel, so not so much an Alan. Um and then we wanted we went to breakfast at the brassery at the Sky Garden first thing in the morning, so we could get get a nice view of the sky garden without it being crowded. While we were there, we went to um the church ruins, St. Dunstan's in the east, and to Leadenhall Market, which we had all to ourselves. Yeah, perfect. Which was nice. Perfect. That was as close as we were getting to Harry Potter. We were planning on going to the Harry Potter studio until I realized she was going because I wanted to go, and I was going because I thought she wanted to go, and instead we went to the Cotswolds that day.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

Perfect.

SPEAKER_01 51:55

How did you get up to Morton and Marsh? Did you take the train from Paddington? Train from Paddington, which from where we were playing was very easy.

SPEAKER_03 52:03

Yeah, again, that's uh it's that's a good tip. If you plan to go out with Go Cotswolds, do exactly the same. You just stay where you were, which is perfect, and then head straight up to Morton and Marsh from Paddington, and then hop on their their coach and go out for the day with uh with Go Cotswolds. That's really cool. Now I have to ask you what you bought when you were over there because you mentioned you I'm sure you you uh you went with did you go with a little bit of space in their suitcases?

SPEAKER_01 52:28

Um not as much as we could have used. I came home with we came home with five mugs, um, a half a dozen tea towels, a bunch of magnets, lots of tea and cookies. Uh she and we both went close shopping there. I came home with three new cardigans. Um we we went to TK Maxx and HM, which are funny because we have those here. Uh, but she came home with a fabulous dress and jacket, which were ironically American designers. Um but I think I came back with 20 shopping bags from different museums and things. And I use a different one every week just because they're they're happy memories. And the museum shops are they just special? The ones from the VNA, the shopping bags from the VNA are gorgeous, and then we did buy lots of souvenirs. I think we bought the most souvenirs um from a museum shop from the the National Gallery in London.

SPEAKER_03 53:30

Yeah, I I I try to avoid them if I can, unless I know that I oh that VNA is my I just the this the museum shops are just fabulous, they really are. They're very, very good. So and I would say if you want souvenirs to be honest, the museum shops are probably the best places to look because you're gonna get nicer stuff rather than some of the shops can be have a little bit so a bit more tackier stuff, but the actual museum shops tend to be pretty pretty nice things that you can get. I think our biggest souvenirs we did go to the Islander purse store and make purses. I've actually written a whole article about that to review that because we've I've been asked so many times about that. Uh so I've got a whole article on the website. So if you want to check out what I made when I went and have a look at my bag, uh, because everybody wants to do it, it's so much fun. I think I might go back and make a lot. I've got the smaller bag, I might actually make the backpack, I'm thinking, when I go in in May, because I I just really enjoyed it. It's just the hardest thing is picking out what you want.

Food Memories And Allergies Managed

SPEAKER_01 54:24

It's like we both came back with extra flaps and straps for ours so that we can swap it out. Yeah, that's good. But we um that was the one thing she added to the itinerary. She's like, I know you got us down to the minute. Can you fit this in? I said, Well, it happens to be right next to the Museum of Scotland, and great, and she she loves cemeteries, um graveyards. So we went to several while we were there. Um we went to see, I think it's Clarissa's grave while we were in Edinburgh, and then we went, of course, we had to go see Grayfriars Bobby and wander that, and I have a bunch of fantastic pictures of her standing next to um stones that have Elizabeth on it, her name, and we are descendant from um directly from King James IV. So she actually found one with the name Elizabeth Stewart on it. Oh wow. Which is a beautiful picture of her.

SPEAKER_03 55:20

That's amazing. And it sounds like honestly, you just had the best trip. Which uh that Elizabeth also enjoyed it as much as you did, which is great. Um, I just love it. Mother and daughter trip is it's just yeah, it's just so special when you can do those trips. Um, I'm gonna try and get my daughter to do a trip with me. Now it's just she's she's nearly 30 and she's studying at the minute, which is really difficult. But any of the trips that we do are always so special together. So I'm actually taking my mum away on a um daughter mom trip uh when I'm back in May. And it's it's so special, and they're just lovely memories to make, aren't they? They are.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

And uh it was funny because she kept telling me I was sick, and I'm like, no, I'm fine. No, I'm fine. And then we're looking at the pictures of the last two days, and I'm looking at them going, I'm literally gray. And she said, I can Photoshop that. Yeah, but that was Rosie cheeks. We would wake up at five o'clock in the morning and head over to feed the squirrels because it was just it was right across the street. So that was just truly lovely. And I I had wanted to make it to more of the gardens, and we couldn't. And Notting Hill didn't happen. Um, Greenwich was a maybe we couldn't do, and then Q Gardens was definitely ruled out because the weekend we wanted to go was when they had the tube strike.

SPEAKER_03 56:34

As I say, it just means, Amy, that you have to go again.

SPEAKER_01 56:37

I have to go back, but it's yeah, we probably needed that time to rest. The tube strike might be my thought. Maybe God made it happen so that I get some sleep.

SPEAKER_03 56:46

Yeah, I honestly I I often say is like when when we're helping people plan, is that try and give yourself some downtime because if you don't give it to yourself, eventually you will need it. So it'll just happen. Uh because you do need to have because it's there's there's a lot and it's busy and it's great and it's exciting, and you want to do it. But um, I don't know. Sometimes it could be get a bit physically uh a bit more difficult than you expect. I mean, I I should be doing more walking than I am now just to prepare myself because I just know how much walking I'll be doing when I'm in London. Um now, Amy, you listen to the podcast, so you know the the question I always ask at the at the end. Um and and that would be the what would be your uh one tip that you'd share with anybody who's listening to your trip and listen to the things that you did um and thinking I want to go to the UK, I've not been before, but what would be the tip that you would share with them?

SPEAKER_01 57:32

Pick a hotel in an area that you're going to enjoy being in. That was one of our best things. The fact that we were right by the museums, we were right across the park. So even if we had made plans across town the day, when we got back mid-afternoon to regroup, there were still things that we could do that we really enjoyed that weren't big outings. So I and South Kensington is a fantastic little neighborhood. I don't like noise. There was no traffic noise in our hotel. There was I we did learn to watch out for bicyclists, but and crossing streets are a little challenging. But it was it was quiet, it was peaceful, it was elegant, and every time we went to the train to the tube station, we had to walk past the Natural History Museum and the VA, and it's just it's stunning. So pick some place that you want to be in, not just because it's convenient to other things.

SPEAKER_03 58:23

Yeah, no, that's a good idea. I think look at look at what you want to do and and what it fits where it fits in with what you're interested in doing and seeing. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much, Amy, for coming on and sharing your trip report with us. It's really good to catch up and um hear your enthusiasm and your love for oh, clearly you just had an amazing trip, which is always lovely to hear. Um, and I can't wait. I'm sure you'll be going back at some point. Maybe we'll get to meet up at some point when I'm back and you might be over there, you never know, which is always really good. Always love to catch up and have a have a cup of tea. No, we won't have any um Victoria Sponge Cake, don't worry, but we'll have can have a cup of tea in a chat.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Um if you do another trip in 2027, I I might um join in on that and do my first solo travel.

SPEAKER_03 59:12

Yeah, you never know, you never know. I'm actually meeting up in May uh with Melissa Jones, who I met in October 2020, what I think of the year is now, 2024. She was traveling solo and she sent me a message and said, Do you want to come and do some of this stuff with me? So I went and met her. We did a we went to Highclair together, we did the London in a day tour with walks together. Uh, we went and had Sunday roast, and I'm actually meeting her when she flies in in May, and we're going off to Edinburgh together, having some time in Edinburgh, and then we're going down to London, and we've got a week in London, we're doing all sorts of things that I've got planned. We've actually got Chelsea Flower show together before she flies out, so it's just great. So it might not be solar because I might show you.

SPEAKER_01 59:52

Thank you for everything you do. You really did give us the resources we needed for an amazing, amazing trip. Doug put um my worries at ease about the train travel, which we had done sonnum of in Europe, but it wasn't I wasn't responsible then. So I I watched his videos because he was like getting to the train station and getting to the platform. I'm like, I can do that now. So it's wonderful resources made the travel so much more pleasurable.

Markets, Teas, And Comfort Eats

SPEAKER_03 1:00:19

Oh, thank you. It's lovely. Well, he's working hard on more and more YouTube videos. So if you're listening and want to go and check out Doug's train stuff, it's on uh YouTube. I'm hoping to get some stuff on my own also on YouTube, but I think we're a great combination because he can bring up because I know a lot of people get a bit stressed about the traveling by train. So he's got that wealth experience and knowledge. So um I just think we're a great team together at UK travel planning. That's that's for sure. Uh thanks again so much, Amy. I'm just gonna end the podcast by just letting everybody know that you can find um some pictures from Amy's trip and it's links to the hotel that she stayed at, um, and I'll get the one for Edinburgh as well, and any of the places that she's mentioned in the show notes, which are at uktravelplanning.com forward slash episode 194. If you would like to sponsor us, which um Amy kindly does every week, you can do that from three US dollars uh a month. It's not very much, not even a cup of coffee. Um, but it really helps us tick over and helps us uh produce the podcast every week and help you plan your trips. Uh but as always, until next week, I will say from myself and from Amy, happy UK travel planning! Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanning.com. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you, and you never know, you may receive a shout out in a future episode. But as always, that just leaves me to say until next week, happy uk travel planning!