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An Unforgettable UK Family Road Trip with Debra Blazer · UK Travel Planning

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracy Collins.
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: In this podcast, 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.
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Join us as we explore the UK from cosmopolitan cities to quaint villages, from historic castles to beautiful islands, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Hello and welcome to episode 59 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: In this week's episode, I chat to Mum of Three, deborah Blazer, about her family's whirlwind 12-day road trip of England and Scotland.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Deborah started the podcast with a few questions for me before sharing the details of her trip plus tips for those of you who are planning a UK road trip of your own.
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: So, without further ado, let's have a chat with Deborah Anna.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: You want to ask me some questions, deborah, so go for it.
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, first of all, I'd like to know how you and Doug met and did the podcast.
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: Was it something you formed together, or was it something you started and he joined later, or vice versa?
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: How did that?
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: come about.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, doug and I have been married for, I reckon, nearly 20 years.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Oh, congratulations, yeah, I would say maybe I don't know 18, 19, something like that.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: I'm not really good at remembering.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: He'll probably and I usually forget the day as well, the date, because I wanted to get married on the 1st of April, april 4th, so that's the date I always think about.
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: So we met a long time ago and I've always travelled I've done my entire life.
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: So before I met Doug, I've got a daughter she's 27 now so I travelled a lot with her as a single parent and then Doug and I met and I was like you know, I love travelling.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: So, bearing in mind, I was kind of mid 30s, so at that point I'd done a lot of travelling.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: Doug hadn't he'd previously been married and was divorced and hadn't really done a lot of travelling really outside of Europe certainly not outside of Europe.
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: So he kind of got the travel book from me.
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: You just have to.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Really I just love travel.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: From a very young age it's been kind of my total love and obsession, and a lot of it is about the people that I meet, because I love visiting gorgeous places, obviously around the world, but for me, a lot of it is about the people that I meet along the way.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: That, for me, makes a destination.
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: I have an insatiable thirst to find out about how other people are living on this same planet as I am share.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: What's their life like?
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to know how everybody lives their lives, so kind of so.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: Then, to cut a long story short, because I could be on this podcast all day I started a website in 2016 called Tracy's Travels in Time, basically just to write about my travels and what I was doing, and that website still does really well.
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: I'm actually going to be starting a new podcast, which will be about global travel planning.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: That's going to be coming out soon.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: I'm going to I'm starting to put together episodes for that, and that, basically, is going to be me just sharing where we travel to, because obviously we we have a love of the UK and a lot of knowledge about UK travel, which is why we have UK travel planning, but we also travel to a lot of other destinations.
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: I kind of want to share how I planned those trips, what we did, what we saw, who we met and, hopefully, talk to people in a different destination.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: So I'm off to New Zealand in a few weeks time and then we're going to Japan yeah, japan in October.
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: So I thought, well, you know, fantastic, so jealous, so share a bit of that.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: So it's not the coming up.
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: So I started UK travel planning in 2020.
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: I'd just come back from the UK and obviously then COVID hit and I was.
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: I was very keen to start a UK travel plan and focused website, which is what I did.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: First, because I had the practice from doing Traces Travels in Time website and then the podcast last year.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: I figured really that the website's fine, but you know, to give a full of resource for people.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: Not everybody wants to read.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: Some people like to listen.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I know I like to listen.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I also like to watch videos, so that's something I'm going to be hoping to get more into making YouTube videos.
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: I'm trying to.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: It's just a matter of time Right.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: Oh, the podcast was invaluable to us.
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: I would sit at work all day and I listened to Spotify.
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: I often listen to audiobooks and I found your podcast and it was like finding gold.
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: You know what the podcast.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: I love doing the podcast because it also, you know, doing the website is one thing and it's a huge resource we've put together, but I don't necessarily know who goes on my website.
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: Well, I don't know who goes on the website and reads the stuff, but when I do a podcast I kind of get my voice out there, but I get other people's voices out there.
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: So, obviously, talking to you today, deborah, you know we can share your trip with people all around the world and we have listeners on every continent.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Yes, so people listen and they want to.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: They listen to the advice, they take the, the, the, the, the, the inspiration, but they want the practical tips and that's what we're sharing, but also not only with myself, a dub, doing the podcast, but also bringing in guests who are like specialists in different areas, like Sinead, who did the episode three about York, and also because we obviously were sharing a lot of our own travels around the UK as well.
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: So, again, up to date, practical knowledge that people are after.
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: And there wasn't really anything out there on the podcast world for UK travel planning really, so so I started it and I dragged Doug into it.
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: He's getting better he's.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: He also gets a little bit nervous when he does a podcast episode, but he's getting far better now because you know what you don't have to.
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: They don't have to be perfect.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: People don't expect perfection.
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: Right, that's what my family just kept saying have fun with it, just be yourself, you'll be fine.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, and you know this is going to be episode 59.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: I've done 59 episodes and you know, and even myself, which people think is the most strange.
• 6:17
  Speaker 2: I get a little bit nervous every time I do an episode.
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: So you know, and that's me on the phone and that's me on the 59th episode and I know I can stop and rewind and we can cut out and stuff, but it's still that.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: I just like I don't know if it's a bit of excitement as well, because I love doing them.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: So, yes, a Doug comes on the podcast and he'll.
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: His specialty is train travel in the UK, so anything with train travel.
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: Or he did recent episode because he did some time travel to Wales woman in the UK and he went to the White, so he did some episodes specifically about those.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Right, yeah, I do more of the talking, but he'll come on when, when it's something that I think, oh yeah, really good to get him involved with.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Do you have a favorite episode, deb?
• 6:56
  Speaker 3: Well, I actually learned about Glencoe through the podcast.
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: Had not heard of Glencoe before, and as soon as I heard you talking about it I was like, oh, we got to go there.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: And the Caledonian sleeper train was so insightful and so wonderful for us.
• 7:11
  Speaker 3: We were trying to fit so much in such a small period of time that taking the sleeper train back from Scotland to back to London bought us an entire day of travel.
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 7:24
  Speaker 3: We didn't have to drive that distance back, we could just sleep on the train.
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: That was just wonderful.
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: Brilliant, brilliant, and I'm glad that I dragged Doug in to do you know.
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: Well, we're planning our trip back over this Christmas, in January, and we've already talked about the Caledonian sleeper and because for me and obviously I mean I've traveled all over the world, but but you know, catching the Caledonian sleeper sleeper from London on on nighttime and waking up in Scotland, particularly when you go to Fort William, it's just for me it's like heaven, I absolutely love it.
• 7:56
  Speaker 3: There's something magical about it and I wanted to make sure to give especially our children.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: That was going to be an experience that I knew they would carry for the rest of their lives Absolutely.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: I'm so grateful we did that, so I was just thinking.
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: Deb, now we'll kind of a few minutes into the podcast and you've asked me a few questions about Self and the podcast.
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: Would you like to introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about it?
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: We went on the trip with and where you live in the States.
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: Yes, my name is Deb Blazer and we're from Florida, the United States.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: We live on a barry Island just south of St Augustine and St Augustine's actually our oldest city.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: It was founded in 1565, so we have a fort up there and it's 300 years old, which is nothing.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: Doesn't even compare to how old everything is in England and Scotland.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: So we were.
• 8:51
  Speaker 3: We were excited to get out and see the history.
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: And this is your first trip was that right abroad out of this is?
• 8:59
  Speaker 3: our first trip outside of the United States.
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: I've gone myself I went to Canada once and down to the Bahamas, but this was our first Family trip out of the US.
• 9:10
  Speaker 3: My my oldest son and I were actually supposed to go to Japan this summer.
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: We were signed up, scheduled to go to Japan with the school and he's actually in a accelerated program that's actually run out of Cambridge.
• 9:25
  Speaker 3: Wow, they do testing into the summertime and when the when the kids agree to be part of this program, they sign papers saying they will be there for the test.
• 9:36
  Speaker 3: And so his test Conflicted with our Japan trip.
• 9:43
  Speaker 3: So we ended up canceling that back in March and I said to them I said I got gathered, the family, and I said look, I'm going somewhere.
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: I don't care where we are going somewhere Because I think I've talked to you before that we, we have a, we have a business that we run from our home.
• 10:02
  Speaker 3: My husband and I work together.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So you know how it is.
• 10:05
  Speaker 3: You never get away from work.
• 10:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, absolutely.
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: The only way to get away from work is to travel.
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for you, travel is work, but I like that kind of work.
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: So I said we need to go somewhere and I asked the kids where they wanted to go and the first thing they said is let's go to England and Scotland.
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: And I said, okay, let's do it, and my maiden name is Baird.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: We're originally my ancestors originally from Scotland, so I always it was always a place I wanted to visit, so we knew that we wanted to include when the Baird clan was In our travels.
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: That was very important.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: One of the first things I did was sit down and just start looking at geography and Mapping out distances, because, being from the US, you have no idea how long it takes to drive from London to Scotland.
• 10:54
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and that's a really smart move and that's something we kind of recommend that people do like once you've got an idea where you want to go is Mapping out, yeah, that's the best way.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Then start planning from that point in terms of logistics, from getting from those A to B to C to D, and how you're going to fit them into the time frame that you had.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: So you were.
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: You were over the UK in June, so not too long ago.
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: So how long were you there all together?
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: We did 12 days.
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: I would have rather have done 14, but my my oldest son's a homebody and I was a little bit older than I, was 14, but my my oldest son's a homebody and he said I'll give you 12, right?
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: I said, okay, I'll take it.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: And that's where I said the Caledonian sleeper train Really was so helpful and being able to fit in everything we wanted to do.
• 11:45
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the other thing, it was a whirlwind.
• 11:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, we, we covered nearly 2000 miles and we didn't stop.
• 11:52
  Speaker 3: We, we stayed.
• 11:53
  Speaker 3: There were two times we stayed in the same place two nights in a row.
• 11:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, other than that, we were on the move.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: So we packed very light.
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: Like I said, we're a family of five and we have it's my husband and myself, our 16 year old, we have a 14 year old boy and then we have a five year old daughter.
• 12:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a family of five and we finished into three suitcases Excellent, well done, they were medium-sized suitcases and then everyone had a backpack perfect, perfect.
• 12:23
  Speaker 3: We knew we had to go from.
• 12:24
  Speaker 3: We had to be able to travel, yeah, and move easily.
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and the more that you have, the harder it gets, because the more that you're worried about and the more you're thinking about and you're like Where's that bag, where's this bag?
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: And then, especially because you were doing a lot of moving, you know one night here and Maximize you say it maximum two nights and only a couple places.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: You didn't want to be unpacking loads of bags every night.
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: It's just right.
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: Yeah, one thing that I got from the podcast and the Facebook group was Do the the compression bags.
• 12:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah for packing.
• 12:58
  Speaker 3: That was brilliant, so good.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: I was able to pack complete outfits and then I just labeled them.
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: This is Tuesday, this is Wednesday.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: It was perfect, especially with the five-year-old.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: I just put her clothes and my clothes together and we were ready to go.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: Perfect, they're brilliant.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I used compression bags this year and I've always used packing cubes, but compression bags Wow.
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: You could just fit so much more in as well, so you can.
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: Oh, it was great.
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: It's great.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: It's just obviously the way I came back from the UK, with my usual 23 kilograms on the dot.
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: So how did you get around?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: I guess that's the next question I want to ask.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: We knew we wanted to basically do a road trip.
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: Yeah, another thing that the Facebook group and the podcast taught me was make sure you book an automatic vehicle, because Everything just defaults to manual, which my husband was.
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: When I originally booked the car, he said oh, I can handle it, I'll be fine, I can drive manual.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: I said, honey, you've got enough to worry about you're just let's Rebook it, book the automatic and have one less thing to worry about.
• 14:00
  Speaker 3: Absolutely, and we're so grateful we did.
• 14:02
  Speaker 3: Yes, we flew into Gatwick and rented our car there and drove into London.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: I Do not recommend this.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: I would not do that.
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: I've I used to live in London and drive in London.
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't do that, but but oh my gosh.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: We survived.
• 14:25
  Speaker 3: But by time we made it to the hotel that night, our plane was running late.
• 14:29
  Speaker 3: We finally got the car worked out and we got to London.
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: We got to the hotel and I just turned to my husband I said I don't think we can do this.
• 14:38
  Speaker 3: I was like we have to turn around and go home.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: We can't do this.
• 14:41
  Speaker 3: This is, this is too hard.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Oh.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: So, but we got that.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: We.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: We got some sleep the next day, we felt better and we kind of got into our groove and but for the first couple of days, every little accomplishment felt like the biggest win.
• 14:59
  Speaker 3: It was like okay, we got from point A to point B.
• 15:02
  Speaker 3: Yay, go us.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, and I also recommend if you're gonna drive, make sure you have one person driving and one person navigating.
• 15:11
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: I had made an entire music Spotify list to listen to and the car I was gonna basically Play a whole bunch of old bands and and teach the kids what real music is, and we didn't listen to any of it because I was navigating and my husband was driving and I was looking at the Google Maps the whole time going Okay, honey, there's a sharp right up here.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: You're gonna need to slow down, yeah that's good.
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: That's that's really good to do.
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: And I know I know you didn't do the Trippi Ammo Resource, but I know you kind of regretted it afterwards.
• 15:51
  Speaker 3: Yes, I wish we would have done that, because we just threw ourselves right into it and it was that was.
• 15:56
  Speaker 3: That was rough.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, scary.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: So so where did you go?
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: Give us, tell us, tell us your itinerary.
• 16:02
  Speaker 3: Well, the first it we drove into London and we stayed right out of, right outside of Kings Cross.
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: We were right there, yeah.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: And then the next day we took a golden tours day tour from London to Windsor, stonehenge and Bath, because I wasn't going to go to England and not go to Stonehenge, mm-hmm, that was not happening and it was such a diff, such a diff distance to travel that I I didn't want to have to drive that part.
• 16:29
  Speaker 3: Okay, yeah.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: So, and I figured I thought we'll be tired from from flying over, because you don't, you don't sleep on planes no, I don't very well.
• 16:39
  Speaker 3: So I figured that day we could take this day tour and kind of relax a little bit.
• 16:46
  Speaker 3: And Windsor was just getting out of London and getting to Windsor was like a brush, it was like a breath of fresh air, yeah, and it was so absolutely picture perfect, it was gorgeous.
• 16:57
  Speaker 3: And I would have loved to do Windsor Castle, but it was closed that day because the Royal Ascot was starting the the following day.
• 17:05
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so the Royal Family was actually coming in pretty much right after we were in town and it was.
• 17:11
  Speaker 3: But, as Mayola's son said, it was really neat to be in Windsor with with them preparing for the arrival of the Royal Family, okay, and just to see how all that went down and see all the people lining the streets and their Sunday best and the guards, and there were news reporters the whole town was just buzzing.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so that was kind of cool.
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: We'll do Windsor Castle next trip.
• 17:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's fine, but bus tours are a whirlwind.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's go, go, go.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: You have.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: You have an hour to get out and run and go see what you want to see, and then you have to be back on the bus.
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's very like I said very rushed.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yes.
• 17:53
  Speaker 3: But I felt like that was the only way we were going to get to see those things.
• 17:57
  Speaker 3: So we kind of did a trade off and said, okay, let's do that.
• 18:00
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the other thing with bus tours is make sure you bring food and water for yourself, because there's not time to get anything.
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 18:08
  Speaker 3: We learned that from the first tour there's.
• 18:10
  Speaker 3: You barely have time to grab food and if you're grabbing food, you're missing, you're not seeing things.
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, because obviously there's quite, there could be quite long queues in the cafes and these places to get food.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: So Exactly Because everyone's on a bus tour and then you know when the bus shows in town, because the queue of the cafe is out the door and you're like, oh no, Exactly.
• 18:32
  Speaker 3: But so it's.
• 18:33
  Speaker 3: It's bus tours are.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: I kind of have a love hate relationship with them.
• 18:37
  Speaker 3: It was great we wouldn't have gotten to see those things without it, but I feel like I barely saw it.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I felt it was a bit, it was a bit rushed, and then so you went to.
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: You went to store Stonehenge.
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Did you go to Bath?
• 18:52
  Speaker 2: Did you stay on that as well?
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Yes, so that is a lot.
• 18:54
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my oldest son's very interested in the Roman history of England so we kind of focused on some of that and I wanted to make sure he got to Bath and saw the Roman Baths.
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: Okay, so you actually got to go in and see them.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: Yes, we did.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: It was I.
• 19:09
  Speaker 3: I wanted to go see the cathedral, but everyone else wanted to go see the Roman.
• 19:13
  Speaker 2: Baths.
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: Well, the Baths are happy.
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: They're right next to each other, but the Roman Baths are amazing.
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: I just took my mom a couple of last month for her birthday and it's the first time she'd been to see the Roman Baths and we went into that Abbey as well.
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: But she, she absolutely loved it.
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: She, she raving about it.
• 19:30
  Speaker 3: We have nothing like that in the United.
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: States.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's it's interesting, it's.
• 19:35
  Speaker 3: it's just, it's a once in a lifetime thing.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so then.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: So that was the day trips.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: Then you got back into, got back into London.
• 19:44
  Speaker 3: Back in London and we got the car and drove away from London, which was a happy day.
• 19:52
  Speaker 3: I love London, but I just don't want to drive in it ever again and honestly we highly recommend people that they don't.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: It's just not you've got.
• 20:03
  Speaker 2: You've got a congestion charge as well when you're driving in London.
• 20:05
  Speaker 2: It's stressful in London If you don't know.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: You know if you're driving on the different side of the road than you used to.
• 20:10
  Speaker 2: Anyway, that's massively stressful.
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: But I drive on the left hand, I left hand side, all the time and I would not drive in London again.
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: I've done it been the past before, when I lived there, and honestly it was like never doing this again.
• 20:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's nowhere to park anyways, so there's no point in it.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: No, you just waste a lot of time actually cause you're just sitting in a car, it's so you better off literally, and the subway system is so easy.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: Easy and cheap.
• 20:32
  Speaker 3: My kids loved it.
• 20:34
  Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: Well, we did have a little bit of a glitch when we first used the subway because we didn't understand that everyone needed a unique credit card and, having kids we had, I ended up just getting day passes for them.
• 20:47
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that worked really well.
• 20:49
  Speaker 2: Okay, well, cause you weren't in London a huge amount of time as well, so, right, that worked easier for you.
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: So you drove out of London and then you headed north.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, we went to Warwick Castle, which it's.
• 21:02
  Speaker 3: My son said it's better than Disney World.
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: He loved it.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: Warwick Castle is amazing.
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: It was always the destination that I'd take my daughter in the school holidays, because they do so much for kids.
• 21:15
  Speaker 3: It's so, it's so great and it's like a big Renaissance festival in a castle.
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: And my son loves the Trebuchet and they fire the Trebuchet and he thought that was amazing and it was just for our first castle.
• 21:29
  Speaker 3: It really set the bar high, yeah.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: Did you stay near Warwick for the evening or did you continue driving?
• 21:36
  Speaker 3: We were on.
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: We were at Stoke on Trent, we traveled up to Stoke on Trent and stayed at Caverswell Castle Okay, because I wanted to stay in a couple castles.
• 21:45
  Speaker 3: So we had a turret at Caverswell Castle up there, and then the next morning and this is another thing where I, like I said, I started planning probably late March, early April If I would have had more time I would have been able to better plan this but we wanted to get to Bolton Castle and do their falconry, which starts at 9am, which is three hours away from Stoke on Trent.
• 22:12
  Speaker 3: We were up at 5.30 in the morning and on the road again, but we knew we wanted to do the falconry because that's something you don't do in the United States.
• 22:24
  Speaker 3: They just don't have anything like that and it's something that I've always personally been interested in.
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: I wanted to give that experience to my boys and it was amazing because you imagine when a big bird is flying and landing on you, you kind of I always thought you kind of had a brace for it, but they land so lightly, yeah, you just stand there.
• 22:49
  Speaker 3: So that was an amazing experience.
• 22:54
  Speaker 3: And Bolton Castle is just picture perfect, beautiful.
• 22:58
  Speaker 3: It is a gorgeous castle and the history with how Mary Queen of Scots was held there, and it was just that Bolton Castle, I think, so far maybe my favorite castle that we went to.
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I just loved it, and you stayed in Yorkshire that night, didn't you?
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: In a college?
• 23:17
  Speaker 3: We went up to yes, we went up to Northumberland.
• 23:20
  Speaker 3: To Northumberland, yeah, we drove up through the Yorkshire Dales, which were amazing, yeah, Beautiful.
• 23:26
  Speaker 3: It was a really nice sheep.
• 23:28
  Speaker 3: We stopped counting and they really are on the road you honestly do have to watch over them.
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you have to be careful.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: And I'm really pleased with the next bit because you went up to the part of the UK that I'm from, so you went up to Northumberland, which is great yeah.
• 23:43
  Speaker 3: So that's one thing I wanted to ask you is where exactly are you from?
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: Okay, no-transcript.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: Okay, so near Whitley Bay, which it's so.
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: It's really on that, can it that?
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: The North umberland coast itself?
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: But my father was from Wall's End, which I guess you can tell is from the end of the wall.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: I'm great, yeah, and I was actually born very close to the wall, further into Northumberland.
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: I want to say the podcast, because I don't want to say where you were actually born, but it was a major town on a long Hadrian's wall, put it that way, yeah, so yeah, I was born at 50 something years ago, so I absolutely adore Hadrian's wall.
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: It's fantastic this.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: My sister lives in the same town or village where we grow up, and so we always do trips out to go and see the wall, and we went to House Steds and Vindalanda second time.
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: I was there last year as well, and I know you went to House Steds, didn't you?
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Yes, we actually didn't get to go through the fort.
• 24:48
  Speaker 3: We went to Vindalanda first and took all of our time there and then went to House Steds and the wall and by time we got there it was closing.
• 25:00
  Speaker 3: But we got to walk the wall, which was one thing my son wanted to do.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: And as soon as we were up there on the wall and in that space both my boys turned to each other and said we're coming back and we're hiking the entire wall.
• 25:13
  Speaker 3: Oh, fantastic, so they'll be back in a couple of years when they get a little bit older to hike the entirety of the wall, because it was
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: just.
• 25:21
  Speaker 3: It was peaceful and stunning and amazing and we just loved it.
• 25:25
  Speaker 3: But I also have to give a shout out to Janet.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: She runs an Airbnb and they have the cutest little garden cottage and lovely little dog and to this day when I ask my five year old what was your favorite part of the trip, she says the dog.
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: But it was just, she was absolutely wonderful.
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: She gave us homemade griddle of bars that we took with us and ate on for the next couple of days as we traveled, and she was just absolutely lovely.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: It ties into exactly what I was saying at the beginning about it's the people.
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: Yes, oh my gosh, and I think it's the people that you meet that make it so special, don't they?
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: They do, and it was.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: I'm so glad we got out into the country and got to talk to people and meet people and really see the countryside and see how everyone lives.
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: That was the best part of the trip.
• 26:26
  Speaker 2: I think that's important and I do try to encourage people to do that get out of London, stay in London.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, explore London is fantastic, but to actually kind of get to know the country, you have to get out of London.
• 26:39
  Speaker 3: My thought process of getting out of London, too, was that's going to be home base.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: We're always going to probably fly in and out of there, yeah, so over time we can catch all the London sites as we come back time and again.
• 26:53
  Speaker 3: Because you don't go to England and Scotland just once.
• 26:57
  Speaker 3: No, once you're there, you fall absolutely in love with it and you go back.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: It's true, you know we do itinerary consults and this year we're actually doing second time round itinerary consults for quite a number of people we do itinerary with last year who are also returning back to the UK this year.
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so it's really nice.
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: So yes, next we drove up to Scotland and we stayed in this little apartment in Edinburgh just one night, because you know that's how we roll.
• 27:27
  Speaker 3: So the next morning we actually I was under the impression that there was parking by Edinburgh Castle.
• 27:36
  Speaker 3: There's not we drove up there and we had to be up.
• 27:41
  Speaker 3: Our appointment time was 930 and we drove up there and it took us an hour to find parking and by time we got up to the castle it was 1030, 11 o'clock, but they were so kind and let us in and said, oh, don't worry about it.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: And so we didn't.
• 27:57
  Speaker 3: We didn't have as much time at Edinburgh Castle as I had hoped and it was raining and it was crowded.
• 28:03
  Speaker 3: So we we kind of, we saw the crown, jewels and did a couple of things and then we took off, because I also wanted to hit Balmoral that day, yeah, so we had to drive clear up to Balmoral.
• 28:15
  Speaker 3: We ended up getting up there.
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: It was nearly five o'clock.
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: And we were in the middle of four and they said go in the castle and talk to the people.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: And we ended up talking to this lovely lady that worked there.
• 28:28
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh, we talked to her.
• 28:30
  Speaker 3: We talked to her until it was closing time.
• 28:33
  Speaker 3: Wow, she was just full of information.
• 28:37
  Speaker 3: And she, oh she was wonderful.
• 28:38
  Speaker 3: But then they said you know the grounds don't close, so feel free to wander around.
• 28:44
  Speaker 3: So, because we got there so late, we were the only people on the grounds of Balmoral.
• 28:50
  Speaker 3: Wow, it was.
• 28:51
  Speaker 3: That was really amazing.
• 28:54
  Speaker 3: And I kept telling my daughter I said you're playing with real princes and princesses play.
• 28:59
  Speaker 2: So then, after Balmoral, where did you head?
• 29:02
  Speaker 3: We, we went up to Elgin and stayed in a castle gatehouse up in More.
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: One of the coolest things about this place is every morning and we stayed there for two nights and it was wonderful.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: And every morning and every evening, usually around five in the morning and around seven, eight o'clock at night, a pheasant would come into the yard to eat from the bird feeder.
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: So I.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I've.
• 29:27
  Speaker 3: I dubbed him Lord Elgin, lord Lord Elgin of More, and he would come visit us every day.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: So the next day we drove out to Pennon, which is where my ancestors are from.
• 29:43
  Speaker 3: At one point the birds apparently had a castle up there somewhere, but I believe it was.
• 29:50
  Speaker 3: It was pretty much in ruin and then in the 1980s, I think, they just got rid of it, right, uh, in our ancestral lore they actually speak of the cliffs of Penin.
• 30:00
  Speaker 3: So we definitely wanted to go there.
• 30:03
  Speaker 3: And another thing I was really grateful for was on the way to Penin.
• 30:07
  Speaker 3: It was kind of an easy day.
• 30:10
  Speaker 3: We stopped at an antique store in Cullen because I knew I wanted to pick up souvenirs, but I also wanted to get some really cool, authentic old things, especially for my close family members.
• 30:26
  Speaker 3: I wanted to make sure I didn't want to bring them home a magnet.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: I wanted to bring them home something thoughtful and special.
• 30:32
  Speaker 3: So we stopped in an antique place and talked to everyone there.
• 30:38
  Speaker 3: It's actually owned by a man and his grandfather, his father I think it's his father and we were talking to them.
• 30:48
  Speaker 3: I started talking to his father because his father sneezed and I said oh, bless you.
• 30:52
  Speaker 3: And he said thousands wouldn't.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: And I just laughed.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: I said I got to talk to you, You're interesting, yeah.
• 31:01
  Speaker 3: So at one point his son turns to me and he says are you driving?
• 31:06
  Speaker 3: And I said no.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: I said my husband's driving.
• 31:09
  Speaker 3: And he said you need a shot, a real Scottish whiskey.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: And I said OK, it's two o'clock in the afternoon.
• 31:16
  Speaker 3: Sure, well, ironically, I had woken up that day with a headache and he said oh, don't worry, this will take care of your headache.
• 31:25
  Speaker 3: I had a grand day.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: It was great.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: Sounds it.
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: So what did you buy?
• 31:31
  Speaker 2: I have to ask what you bought.
• 31:33
  Speaker 3: I got a toothpaste container from the Victorian era.
• 31:37
  Speaker 3: It's a little ceramic toothpaste jar.
• 31:41
  Speaker 3: And I got my mom a little pewter box my brother, because he feeds the squirrels around his house, so I got him.
• 31:51
  Speaker 3: I found him a little pewter squirrel.
• 31:52
  Speaker 3: And my sister loves Winnie the Pooh, so I got her an antique ceramic Winnie the Pooh frame oh, cute.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: And some other little things.
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Oh, I had gotten a foundry, a metal foundry sign from Aberdeen.
• 32:10
  Speaker 3: That was one of my favorites, yeah.
• 32:12
  Speaker 3: But the other thing I wanted to mention was I took a journal with me, thinking that I would have time to journal on my trip.
• 32:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I didn't have time to journal.
• 32:23
  Speaker 3: So what we ended up doing was we would pick flowers oh, that's an idea and plants from everywhere we went, and we basically just used it as a flower press yeah.
• 32:36
  Speaker 3: So now we can go back in and we oh, we got that flower from Hadrian's Wall and we got those from Balmoral and we have all these flowers that we collected on our journeys.
• 32:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's lovely, oh, that's lovely.
• 32:49
  Speaker 2: And then, after that, you went to Sky, didn't you?
• 32:53
  Speaker 3: You went to Alaskai and yes, we really quickly if anyone has a chance to go to Penin.
• 33:01
  Speaker 3: Penin was amazing.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: It was this little fishing village and then we're probably 20 to 30 houses and down this huge cliff and I honestly don't know how these people get out in the winter time.
• 33:12
  Speaker 3: They're just stuck there.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: I don't know.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: They probably grit the road, so they'll put salt on.
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: That'll be the only way, I would imagine.
• 33:21
  Speaker 3: It was absolutely gorgeous, though I'm so glad we went there.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: And then we took off the next morning.
• 33:27
  Speaker 3: We stopped I kind of added Elgin Cathedral in late.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, because I realized that we had to be out of the Castle Gate House at 10 am but we could not check into our room at the Highland Club until 4 pm and I think there was maybe two to three hours driving time, so we had some time to kill, yeah.
• 33:49
  Speaker 3: So I found Elgin Cathedral, which was just absolutely stunning.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: That was gorgeous, gorgeous ruins.
• 33:59
  Speaker 3: And then we also stopped at Brody Castle because they have the coolest play garden and, with a five-year-old, even the big kids were playing.
• 34:08
  Speaker 3: They were rolling down the hill too.
• 34:10
  Speaker 3: They all had a blast, but it was good to just let them run off some steam.
• 34:15
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: I mean they did well, because you're doing a lot of car travel.
• 34:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, our five-year-old, was a trooper.
• 34:24
  Speaker 3: She walked up and down all those castle stairs like nobody's business Brilliant, you don't realize how tight and I mean some of the castle stairs you're walking on, ruined castle stairs, that they were half way up her shin for each stair.
• 34:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and she would.
• 34:44
  Speaker 3: Everyone was so patient with her and she was up and down those stairs and she did really well.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: So then, what you stayed?
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: You stayed in the Highland Club that night and then next day did you take a tour from there, from the Allistery.
• 34:59
  Speaker 3: We stayed at the Highland Club because when else are you ever going to get the chance to do that?
• 35:03
  Speaker 3: We were going to get the chance to stay at an old abbey on Loch Ness.
• 35:06
  Speaker 3: That was just.
• 35:07
  Speaker 3: That was something.
• 35:09
  Speaker 3: And then the next day we took a day tour out to Isle of Skye because once again I knew we were doing so much driving and Isle of Skye was going to it's another two to three hours out and I thought let's just take a bus tour and give ourselves a break.
• 35:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, don't mind me.
• 35:27
  Speaker 3: So we went with Luke.
• 35:29
  Speaker 3: He calls himself Luke Skywalker Luketours is his Instagram and he was amazing, really personable guy.
• 35:39
  Speaker 3: He knew he taught us so much about the Jack-O-Bite, relian and all of that and Isle of Skye, and it was just, it was a good time.
• 35:50
  Speaker 3: We ended up having really good weather.
• 35:53
  Speaker 3: He said a lot of times when you go out there you don't see as much because it gets really overcast, but we had a beautiful day and you could see everything.
• 36:03
  Speaker 3: You could see all the mountains.
• 36:04
  Speaker 3: It was gorgeous.
• 36:05
  Speaker 3: The next day we drove and this is where I cannot stress enough to people to stay flexible, because I wanted to go to the Glenfinnan viaduct so badly, but it would have added another two hours driving time and by that point we were spent and I just said, okay, nick's that, forget that, let's just make sure we get to Glencoe.
• 36:28
  Speaker 3: Both our boys are big Monty Python fans, so we had to go to Castle Stocker and see that.
• 36:37
  Speaker 3: And if you're at Castle Stocker I don't remember the name of the place, but up on the hill Right you could there's a view of the castle and there's this wonderful little cafe.
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: I had the most amazing garden salad and it sounds ridiculous because you're thinking how can garden salad be amazing?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: But it, it was so good and they had the best coffee.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Oh my gosh.
• 36:57
  Speaker 3: Oh, that's good.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: That's good.
• 36:59
  Speaker 2: And did what did you think?
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: Because obviously that's somewhere that I I, because I love Glencoe, I just think it's so beautiful.
• 37:07
  Speaker 3: My younger son says that he's going to live there someday.
• 37:11
  Speaker 3: He, he loved it, he.
• 37:15
  Speaker 3: It was raining the day we were there so we ended up pulling off and there was this waterfall on the hillside and my son wanted to do a little bit of hiking.
• 37:25
  Speaker 3: So we hiked up to the waterfall while my husband stayed in the car with the little one and he kept saying oh, can't we just get out and hike?
• 37:33
  Speaker 3: And I said your sister's five years old.
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: We can't be running her all over the mountainside in the rain.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: It's like this.
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: Just we can't.
• 37:42
  Speaker 3: I'm really sorry.
• 37:44
  Speaker 3: Well, you'll have to go back?
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: Definitely, yes, yes he's.
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: He loved Glencoe was his favorite.
• 37:49
  Speaker 3: To ask him what his favorite part of the trip was Glencoe, hands down, loved it.
• 37:53
  Speaker 3: He just wanted to hike all over those hills.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: Very popular.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: I think they do absolutely and Then.
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: So after you went to a castle stalker and then you went down to drop the car back off it.
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Yes, but first we stopped at Done Castle.
• 38:11
  Speaker 3: Yes, oh yes, very quickly, because of Monty Python, we had to go there too, yeah, and then we drove down the Glasgow and drop the car and Waited on the sleeper train, which was an experience it's.
• 38:25
  Speaker 3: It's very small.
• 38:26
  Speaker 3: The rooms are Absolutely tiny, which I knew to expect Listening to your podcast, and I kept telling my husband I said you need to put, you need to pack an overnight bag because you're not gonna be able to get in the suitcase.
• 38:38
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, make sure you put we in.
• 38:41
  Speaker 3: Yeah, he didn't believe me and then we got on and he said, oh yeah, there really isn't Sleeping.
• 38:49
  Speaker 3: Telling you, that's it.
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: Honestly, the podcast and the Facebook group had me so well prepared and there were of course, there's still surprises, but I knew about turning switches on and off for outlets and ovens and I wouldn't have known that.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: I knew that there weren't outlets in the bathrooms.
• 39:11
  Speaker 3: I knew that there was an AC, things like that that I could prepare for.
• 39:16
  Speaker 3: I think it was.
• 39:17
  Speaker 3: It was one of the podcasts right before we left I was listening to and somebody mentioned that there weren't outlets in the bathrooms and I said, oh my gosh, okay, I need to grab a some sort of little standing mirror so that I can fix my hair in the hallway.
• 39:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, well, quite often you'll find mirrors and in in the halls anyway or in hotel bedrooms and stuff anyway, because, yeah, that it's not allowed for building regulations or safety regulations, they're not allowed to have the electric outlets near water.
• 39:49
  Speaker 2: It seems to have a lot of people from around the world by surprise.
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: But that's, I guess when you grow up in the UK you don't know any different to you cut, I get a bit of a surprise when I do see electric in.
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: Is that?
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: Okay, it was, it was just, it was so.
• 40:07
  Speaker 3: It was so comforting to be prepared for those sorts of things and not be surprised by them, and that's the I mean.
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: We had enough surprises.
• 40:16
  Speaker 3: On day two, right before we left London, our luggage broke.
• 40:20
  Speaker 3: Oh yes, my son had brought a full breastplate and backplate of armor In the luggage and I don't.
• 40:30
  Speaker 3: I don't think the luggage like that.
• 40:32
  Speaker 3: So day two, our suitcase busts open.
• 40:37
  Speaker 3: But we went to Tesco and got a new suitcase and I actually picked up a little suitcase just for Souvenir's, you know.
• 40:44
  Speaker 2: So you arrived back in London and he spent a day or so in London before you flew back to the States.
• 40:50
  Speaker 2: Is that right?
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: Yes, we, we kept.
• 40:52
  Speaker 3: We called it our London pickup day because our plane was late getting there.
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: We had hoped to go to Tower of London the day we arrived.
• 41:01
  Speaker 3: I had high hopes that got dashed repeatedly.
• 41:04
  Speaker 3: I Was trying to fit everything in so we had to go to the US.
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: So we ended up going to Tower of London on our London pickup day went there first thing.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: One thing I would do differently in the future, going back, is look into the UK heritage passes.
• 41:25
  Speaker 3: We had no idea how many heritage sites we would end up visiting.
• 41:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and we would have saved so much you would have saved a lot of money actually, and we do have an art without those, because we you know, doug and I have we have a national trust, we have English heritage, we have history, we have all of them, I think, because it just is just so useful when you're back to save, to save money.
• 41:48
  Speaker 2: So I will put a link to the article for anybody who's going over, who wants to know a bit more about that.
• 41:53
  Speaker 2: Because, yeah, you did visit a lot of places that it probably would have added up.
• 41:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you don't realize how many places you're going to go, that take those sorts of things Until you're there and they're asking you and you're going no, I don't have it, but we, just we.
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: We said you know what it's, it's a donation to these wonderful places and their upkeep.
• 42:14
  Speaker 3: Did you go to?
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: museums.
• 42:15
  Speaker 2: In London, I saw the National Natural History Museum in your.
• 42:18
  Speaker 3: We did.
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: We went to the natural Natural History Museum in London and we also went to the National Museum of Scotland when we were up in Edinburgh.
• 42:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, my oldest son wants to be a paleontologist, so we tend to go see dinosaur bones any chance we get.
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: So look at natural history museums.
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: Perfect for that?
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we're great exhibition.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: We did Tower of London in the morning and then we did the Natural History Museum in the afternoon, so it was a good day, and then we flew back home the next day.
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: So it was a really was a whirlwind 12, 12 days, or yeah, you had, you really packed it in, you had a busy, busy time and but it be, we will include, kind of will do a bit of a write-up of your itinerary, because we're putting some itineraries Together at the moment, because we get asked about driving Road trips around the UK and we're sitting talking about this today, other day saying we actually need to put some together.
• 43:11
  Speaker 2: So I'll, I'll use yours as well, if you don't mind, and put that.
• 43:15
  Speaker 2: It will do it in the show it's anyway, but I'll include it absolutely.
• 43:18
  Speaker 2: You know it works, you did it.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: It is a busy one.
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: The good thing about it being so fast-paced is I felt like we were.
• 43:25
  Speaker 3: We were in it, we were just in it, live in the moment, and my kids didn't pick up any kind of digital device the entire time.
• 43:35
  Speaker 3: The only thing was when we were driving our, our five-year-old was watch Bluey on her little tablet, but that's it.
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, we didn't even watch TV the entire time.
• 43:45
  Speaker 3: No TV, no devices.
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: I mean, we were just, we were in it.
• 43:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you were.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:51
  Speaker 3: I don't know if it would be the same if we, if we weren't going at the pace that we were.
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 43:57
  Speaker 3: So I'm grateful.
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: I'm grateful we did it now with the kids.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: Can.
• 44:01
  Speaker 2: It leads me into the last question, which is the question that I ask everybody is what is the one tip that you would give to anybody planning a trip to the UK for the first time?
• 44:11
  Speaker 3: I would say the most important thing is to really search your soul and consider what you want to get out of your Trip.
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: That's going to dictate how you plan.
• 44:21
  Speaker 3: The other thing is to just be flexible.
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: When your suitcase falls apart in the parking lot, go get another one.
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, don't let it ruin your trip.
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: Perfect advice and I think in this day and age it we, you have to just have that ability to kind of roll with things when Things don't quite work out exactly as you kind of hope they're gonna do, because things always go wrong.
• 44:45
  Speaker 2: Oh, oh, absolutely.
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: But I want to say thanks so much, deb, for coming on to a call.
• 44:50
  Speaker 2: You, deb was Deborah, absolutely.
• 44:53
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: This has been an honor.
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much, and I'm going to continue to listen to the podcast because I love it.
• 45:02
  Speaker 2: Thanks for tuning into this week's episode of the UK travel plan podcast.
• 45:05
  Speaker 2: Information on all the places Deborah mentioned, plus links to relevant resources, can be found at UK travel planning comm forward slash, episode 59.
• 45:15
  Speaker 2: If you've enjoyed this episode, you can support our work via the tip, your guide button, which can be found on the website, or you can even become a sponsor of the podcast.
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Whereas let us three US dollars a month.
• 45:28
  Speaker 2: More information about that can also be found on the podcast in the show notes.
• 45:32
  Speaker 2: We love having sponsors.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: We love it when people Support our work.
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: It really helps, or something.
• 45:39
  Speaker 2: We really really appreciate it, and also you can get a shout out on the podcast too.
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: Anyway, that just leaves me, though, for this week to say happy UK travel planning.