As it was wedding season recently, we had a couple of weddings to attend back to back in the UK. With the first wedding being up in Scotland we decided to make a holiday out of it. I lived in London for eight years and I did explore some parts of the UK, but definitely not everything I had wanted to see. Often for a long weekend it was easier to hop on a flight or train to another country than explore within the country. So now when we go back to visit I want to try see some of the places I have not had a chance to go to yet. This time we covered a fair bit of ground for only a week. We started out in York, made our way to Durham, then Newcastle, and a quick stop at Bamburgh Castle before heading to Scotland. There we had a brief stop in Edinburgh, stayed in Perth and hiked in Loch Lomond, and finally spent a day in Forgandenny for the wedding.
It was a great trip, however it was very exhausting. We packed a lot of sights into a short period of time, and then had a few days in London and another wedding in Hampshire before heading back home. It was a bit crazy, but I am glad to have seen all of these places now. The North of England is really a hidden gem. There are so many charming medieval towns, castles, cathedrals, and just so much history to explore. I loved everywhere we went and would really like to go back. I think August is definitely a good time to go up North weather-wise, especially with heat wave everywhere else; it was nice having warm but not crazy hot weather the whole time we were up there.
The other big highlight for me was the food. We had loads of delicious meals everywhere we went. Lots of very nice, fresh seafood, and haggis in Scotland was a big highlight, so yummy! We even had some very impressive sushi in Perth.
The London leg of the trip was very brief, managed a couple quick dinners with friends after work, all in a mad dash as we had back to back appointments and errands. But it was really nice to see some friends and attend the lovely weddings. I always say next time we go to the UK we’ll try and have a more ‘relaxed’ trip, but I have now learned after the last six trips back that no trip back will every be relaxed, as we always have way too much to do and too many people to see (and food to eat!). Food-wise I try to go for the more exotic cuisines because this is what is hardest to get in Switzerland.
Next time we go to the UK I am hoping we can tack on Cornwall as I have never been and it looks beautiful. And I would still really like to see the Lake District on a future trip as well. There are of course still a lot of places I have not been, but these two are probably top of my list. This year has turned out to be a lot more travel heavy than I intended, and we still have 3 trips to go until the end of the year, so it’s a bit crazy, but I guess after COVID we had to make up for lost time.
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