London at the Last Minute

At this point in our time in the UK we had been notified that the company was pulling expats back home due to pandemic related issues.  We were very disappointed that our time was quickly coming to close and that the pandemic had nullified much of our plans for European travel.  However, there was also an overwhelming sense of relief to finally be going home, back to our family, back to America!  I don't recommend taking on a pandemic in a foreign country.  

A trip to London had been planned many times over, but the pandemic kept ebbing away at our opportunities.  Knowing that another lockdown was soon pending, we planned the trip, booked it, and waited cautiously ahead of the October break in hopes that we'd get to go.  In the week leading up to the trip the government announced that a new circuit breaker would be beginning soon, with the start date to be announced in the following days.  At this news, I contacted my travel agent and cancelled all the plans thinking that there'd be no point in traveling to London if everything was closed.  Just two days before the planned trip date the government announced that circuit breaker would be focused in the most affected areas rather than country wide.  No doubt, this was an effort to try to help keep a dwindling economy stumbling forward and not take another tremendous loss at the hands of another lockdown.  And as luck would have it, London was not scheduled to go into the circuit breaker.  I called my travel agent back that night and rebooked everything.  We packed up the next day and caught a nearly empty train to London!

English Country-Side Getaway

It's no secret how much I love travel and when we took this assignment I had dreams of making my way through as many European countries as possible during our time here.  Unfortunately, between the extended unexpected plant outage which was immediately followed by the four month covid lockdown, all my plans were laid to waste.  Over the course of the year I planned and canceled a fall Baltic cruise that covered Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden, a Christmas trip to Portugal, a winter break in London, and an Easter trip to Belgium and France.  My dream of a stamp-filled passport has fizzled! 

But!  My travel loving spirit would not be deterred!  Once we were granted access to the world beyond the four walls of our home, I booked a trip!  We were allowed to leave our homes, but not the UK, so I focused my efforts on all that Great Britain had to offer.  While I had originally hoped to do London, it had not fully reopened and still had it's fair share of the covid related restrictions.  Instead, I decided what better place to socially distance than in the English countryside!  

I've stated on this blog before that our family is not a fan of road trips.  I much prefer planes and cruising.  However, in an abundance of caution we decided to limit our exposure and drive across the country.  We split the trip into segments, both going and coming, and stopped off at attractions along the journey.  We left Edinburgh mid-morning and drove through south Scotland and into England.  Scotland is beautiful!  It's like driving through a Thomas Kinkade painting.  The little villages are nestled into the base of the rolling green hills with streams and wildflowers scattered about.  The further south you go the terrain changes and England doesn't have that same fairytale type feel.  

Five hours into our drive, we reached our first stop at Liverpool, home of the Beatles.  We stayed right alongside Albert Docks and were blessed with some amazing weather that allowed us to really enjoy all the shops and activities during our time there.  We took in some shopping at Liverpool One, which was exciting in itself since we hadn't done it in so long.  We enjoyed lunch out (that I didn't have to cook!), frantically raced to beat an Alice in Puzzleland escape room, and enjoyed dessert (and even breakfast the next morning) at Heavenly Desserts.  Liverpool was an interesting town to see and provided a great kicked off for our time away.