From Liverpool to London & Beyond - UK Trip Report with Vernetta and Therron

In episode 98 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast, Tracy chats with special guests Vernetta and Therron Thomas to hear about their fascinating trip to England. From experiencing the highs and lows of transportation and lodging to sampling local cuisine and uncovering unique cultural experiences, Vernetta and Therron share their honest and insightful trip report. 

With candid tales of their adventures in Liverpool, London, and beyond, join us as we delve into their journey, learning about their delayed honeymoon, attending a Liverpool soccer game, and immersing themselves in the magic of the English Christmas markets. 

Listen in as they reveal their favourite sights, offer essential travel tips, and showcase the personal connections that made their trip unforgettable. So, sit back, relax, and let Vernetta and Therron take you on a captivating travel journey through the UK.

⭐️ Guests - Vernetta & Therron Thomas
📝  Show Notes - Episode 98

Listen to these episodes next:

• Episode #3 - Visiting York
• Episode #4 - Tips for first-time visitors to London
• Episode #29 - Beatles in Liverpool

Our UK Itinerary Consultation service is now open for limited bookings. Whether you need help with a general UK itinerary, UK train travel, or a London-focused plan, we’ve got you covered. Benefit from personalized advice to make your trip seamless and memorable.

Visit our website to learn more and book your consultation today:
UK Travel Planning Consultation
Global Travel Planning Podcast is filled with travel inspiration, itinerary ideas, real life adventures, practical tips and insights to fuel your wanderlust and help you make your travel dreams a reality.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Welcome to the UK Travel Planning Podcast. Your host is the founder of the UK Travel Planning website, tracey Collins. In this podcast, tracey 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, and from the picturesque countryside to seaside towns.

Speaker 2: 0:42

Welcome to episode 98 of the UK Travel Planning Podcast. So this week we have a lovely trip report from Vinita and Theron. It was based around as Theron's going to explain his lifelong passion for Liverpool football team. The first thing I did ask, though, was for them to introduce themselves and tell us whereabouts in the States they're from.

Speaker 3: 1:02

We're from Bloomington, Indiana, which is in the middle of the Midwest.

Speaker 4: 1:07

So my name is Theron Thomas. I spent 30 years in the US Army, grew up here in Bloomington, indiana. Retired I went to work for the Navy full time. I work now as a recruiter for the federal government. 58 years old, like I said, grew up in the local area, actually dated her 40 years ago and tried to get her to marry me back then and she wouldn't Got divorced. Several years ago Ran back into her. You know we connected and finally got my dream. So yeah, oh that is so lovely. That's pretty much me.

Speaker 2: 1:39

That was meant to be Vinita.

Speaker 4: 1:41

Yeah, and I got her blushed.

Speaker 2: 1:43

I was going to say if you listen to the podcast you won't tell. But actually Vinita's gone. She's blushing, which is really lovely. So, vinita, you're from the same area then, so you were born and brought up in the same area of the state.

Speaker 3: 1:54

Yes, I was Like he said. We met when I was in high school. I was in my last year of high school. Things didn't work out. I went into the military and after I got out I married. Someone else also got divorced, and when we reconnected, you know, we talked about things we would like to do, and going to the UK was one of them, so we didn't expect a pandemic and other things to happen along the way.

Speaker 2: 2:28

Yeah, you know that that impacted so many people's travel plans. So when did you make it over to the uk and how long were you there for?

Speaker 3: 2:36

we went in early november. We were there for two weeks, or two weeks and a couple days our travel plans really revolved around Liverpool soccer.

Speaker 4: 2:45

Honestly, I've been a Liverpool fan since I was like six years old and when we talked about going I said well, you know, the Tower of London is not going to move, you know, these other things aren't going to move, but there is a soccer schedule and I wanted to get a game at Anfield. So we kept making our plans and they really didn't solidify until about June when I was able to purchase our tickets and then we had a date and that's when we really kind of set everything in stone and decided to make the trip.

Speaker 2: 3:15

So that's fantastic. I have to say, I don't know if you're aware, but Doug's a massive Liverpool fan since he was a child as well, so that will make you partying make yeah, he absolutely adores liverpool. Actually, if I could swing the camera around, we've got we've got some uh liverpool, uh, memorabilia in the room, and he's a big cricket fan as well, so we've got cricket stuff we'll send you some pictures.

Speaker 4: 3:35

We have your email address. I'll send you a picture. I have an entire liverpool bar just on the other side of this wall.

Speaker 2: 3:40

Oh, yes, you send that, doug would love it absolutely, love it Absolutely love it Absolutely so that was fantastic. So you kind of had something to go on. You had your date, you could look at the Liverpool fixtures. So give us a brief overview of what your itinerary worked out to be.

Speaker 4: 3:54

Well, I think I would say first that when we made our itinerary, unlike a lot of people, we didn't use a travel agency or anything, because, you know, because we're both disabled, we have a lot of mobility issues and things, you know, and what we had planned was is that we wanted to do something every other day and set that in stone, you know. So we started planning like that. It was like, well, let's, you know, and we can fill in, we can do all kinds of things in between if we were able. But we thought every other day is not bad, right, and we can set that in stone. If we get feeling bad, then we're not going to miss something we really want to see. So we really didn't buy any tickets for anything or anything other than our transportation and that game, and everything else was pretty much on the fly, right.

Speaker 3: 4:39

We had the tickets for the game, we had our Liverpool and London hotels reserved, we had a London pass and we had the Brit rail pass. Yeah, oh perfect.

Speaker 4: 4:51

So so we we just a quick overview, I guess we we landed in Manchester and that was really because we flew on points and when I went to go buy the tickets, uh, with my credit card points, there was a little bit of a variation and, and actually a lot of people had told us that flying into Manchester might be a little easier because it's a smaller airport, you know that type of thing. So we landed in Manchester, we got on the train and we went to Nottingham. And the reason we went there is because my friend well, our friend, andy Henley, and his wife live right outside of Nottingham and they had invited us to come and kind of start our trip. So when it's not again, they came and met us. We went to York, we got done there for a couple of days.

Speaker 3: 5:34

We went to.

Speaker 4: 5:34

Liverpool.

Speaker 3: 5:36

I went to York on the one day that the Minster was closed. That was horrible.

Speaker 4: 5:40

The.

Speaker 3: 5:40

Minster was closed that day. It was terrible.

Speaker 4: 5:43

Yeah, but we got to see the shambles and many other things. It was really kind of cool. But yeah, it was just bad. We walked up wanting to see the Minster and it was closed and then we went to Liverpool and we spent four or four days.

Speaker 3: 5:58

Four days, five days, something like that.

Speaker 4: 6:01

Went from Liverpool down to London. Went from Liverpool down to London. I took a day trip to Leicester because, again, my friend Andy and I play an obscure table soccer game called Sabudio and his Sabudio club was meeting, so I went up and played with them. We spent six days in London.

Speaker 3: 6:18

I think, yes, yeah, we went to Westminster Abbey. It was the King's birthday. It was not supposed to rain, so we left our rain jackets and umbrellas in the room. So of course it rained. We were about to Scotland Yard when it really poured, so we bought an umbrella and realized we needed to.

Speaker 4: 6:41

So then we left from there. We had a couple of other places we thought about going, but we ended up going back to manchester, and then andy and his wife met us again and drove us to wells. We went to conway castle and uh visited there for a day. It was lovely and uh and then went back to manchester and spent the last uh day and a half or so there. Um, and it worked out. Honestly, I think our trip worked out perfectly.

Speaker 4: 7:05

It was just you know, there was no rush to anything. We weren't on someone else's schedule. We could take in things as we saw them. And I tell you, you know, if you know, one piece of advice I would give to anybody who's doing this for the first time is you have two choices. You can either go stare at something for hours and maybe get bored of it, or you can stare at whatever you want to as long as you want to. And you don't.

Speaker 4: 7:28

You know, and, and that's kind of the way we took it, we were you go to the tower of London, we'd look at a statue, we'd. You know I I can't tell you how many, uh, probably, hours I spent taking pictures of. You know, there's a, there's these chains in Liverpool with locks all over them. I just was fascinated by them, you know, and I didn't probably never saw those things other than just walking by them, you know. So so yeah, it was kind of a just do whatever we want to do, trip with things like we're going to go to Westminster, or you know we're, we're going to go to the tower of London, we're going to go see whatever.

Speaker 3: 8:10

We were going to go to Hampton Court Palace and also to Windsor, and I looked at him when he got back from Leicester. I didn't go with him to Leicester, I needed to rest. It was just too much. I was done. And I told him, if we do that, I'm good, I want to go and see those, but I won't be able to do anything else. The rest of this trip and also I think, while we were in the middle of our time in Liverpool, I had figured out ways we could do this trip again and see more and do more. So we made the decision that to save with the health, that not to go to places, and I think that's that's a piece of advice that I picked up from someone in the Facebook group and I thought, oh, it can't be that bad, oh it was. So you know. Just, you know also, people need to be prepared to maybe not do it all.

Speaker 4: 9:06

Yeah, and your group was just phenomenal. I mean, you know, like that train pass is the best thing ever. I'm just telling you right now, anybody who's planning on going by we got a first class pass. We could hop on that train anytime we wanted to go anywhere we wanted to. It was fantastic and also I've told this story. I said if you're a single person, you want food, get a first class train train ticket, hop on, because nine times out of ten they'll let you take anything you want from the cart. You can get your entire day's meal by running a 15 minute train ride up the road, you know. So, yeah, it's. That was phenomenal.

Speaker 2: 9:39

The the train pass was fantastic I think you guys did an amazing job of planning your itinerary, bearing in mind your kind of need to rest and take your time to do it, and I think that's really important for Nita as well. You know is, I don't think people sometimes realize just how tiring it is. It can be phenomenally tiring, you know, whenever you do on a trip, because I think sometimes people as well put the pressure on themselves to try and see everything. I've got to see everything, I'm in london, I'm going to try and see everything and actually, you know, if you do that and you do get tired, sometimes it does take some of the joy out of it it does.

Speaker 4: 10:18

Yeah, yeah, and being on someone else's schedule too, you know, again I go back to some people were cut out for that, absolutely. And if that's your, your, you know, bag of chips, that's what you're going to do, you know. But but at the end of the day, uh, that wasn't us, you know, we didn't want to be. Oh, we've got, we've got a half hour to look at this and back on the bus, let's go.

Speaker 2: 10:35

We didn't want to do that at all and it was fantastic and I think part of the part of the reason that we started doing what we do with the website and the podcast and all our resources, is to enable people to plan it themselves, so that if a tour isn't for you but you're feeling a bit daunted about, okay, how do I put this together? Um, you know and I was actually talking to somebody in the facebook group yesterday was asking me about a particular tour company and I was like, yeah, you can, you can use that, but we've got a lot of resources if you actually wanted to put it together and we understand some people haven't got the time or inclination, but if you have got the time and inclination, we've got so much out there for you to use to do it.

Speaker 4: 11:13

So we joked, when we first started this, you know, being in the military she said we didn't get a passport. And I was like, oh, that's right, yeah, we get a passport. You know, and I joked, I said the last time I went on a plane trip like this, I had a rifle and hand grenades going to Iraq, so I didn't need a passport, you know. But even that was kind of intimidating. Never getting a passport. I was like, oh, my God, what's this going to entail, you know? So just take it as it is and take the entire thing as an adventure. Honestly.

Speaker 4: 11:38

And you know, uh, money was a big concern. I was freaking out because we tried to buy some things with my credit card and it kept getting rejected. And it was a problem with our bank. It took them two months to rectify it. Every time we would try to do something, it would reject. They'd fix it quote, unquote, fix it. Next time we'd do it again. So I went and got us each like $400, 400 pounds to take with us, because I was terrified that we were going to get there and the card would be messed up. We were, you know, five, six hours difference from the bank and in retrospect, none of that was a worry. Like honestly, I think everybody was so friendly and things were so available that anything could have been fixed.

Speaker 4: 12:18

You, know, and and so. So yeah, I think a lot of people probably have those similar worries. Yeah, you know it should remain a concern, but it shouldn't worry you is the way I think I would tell people. You know, just go enjoy Absolutely, and things will work out.

Speaker 2: 13:15

So when you were in the UK, obviously you used the train the majority of the time to get around.

Speaker 4: 13:19

And then when you were in London, how did you get around in London? A combination, we got some cabs uh, the cabs were pretty expensive, really, you know. And then you don't, you don't know where you're going. We, we absolutely going back to liverpool. We undoubtedly got took by a cab driver. Okay, uh, no doubt we the the cab ride that we took over to. We went to uh to watch the tram and rovers, um, on the suggestion of a waiter one night, and the trip over took quite a while and I can't remember what it was. It was like 40 pounds or something for that cab ride which we paid On the cab ride back, it was like 14 pounds. And we talked to that cabbie and he said, oh well, the guy realized you were Americans, right, and he just drove you around the block a few times. Yeah, okay, well, you know what happens, right.

Speaker 3: 14:00

But also back to Liverpool. Google Maps said that the hotel was eight-tenths of a mile from the train station and by the time we walked this way and walked that way and around this building and that turn, it was a mile and a half. Okay, so from London Euston Station to the hotel was supposed to be three miles, and by that time we thought we could do that, and it was getting dark when we arrived in london, so we took a taxi and the country's lovely.

Speaker 4: 14:31

I mean the walk honestly and just talking from a united states perspective, right yeah 90 of United States, that walk would not have been nearly as daunting because our country is so new that it's based on a grid pattern, number one, number two we don't have cobblestone sidewalks and things right. So for people with disabilities, you know that the whole country was developed over such a long period that the streets are not necessarily like they are in the States. If you go 20 feet this way and turn and go, uh, you know, 400 feet down that way and another turn and and the cobblestones and things, so it was, it was just daunting. You know it was different than it was here in the states. So things you don't think about. You know when you go to another country that you just assume there's going to be smooth sidewalks everywhere, and you know.

Speaker 4: 15:15

And then there's not, it's beautiful and the place is beautiful, but it's certainly uh for someone with disabilities, uh, dragging some luggage and you know the tube and everything was really easy once we figured it out. You know, we're from indiana. We don't have subways here. If I was, maybe from new york or washington, maybe I'm used to it, but it the first time I went to go get on, uh, the underground there. I was just blown away.

Speaker 4: 15:39

I was looking at this giant map of you know a hundred different names and all these arrows, and it looked like a bowl of spaghetti with Froot Loops. You know what I mean. I was just. I was like my goodness, this is terrible. And finally someone saw I was in distress and stopped and said can I help you, mate? And I said well, yeah, I said I don't, I don't know what I'm looking at. I said I'm trying to get here and I see that. And he was very helpful. This gentleman said well, mate, all you have to do is look at the color. He said you find this the place you're going to go and you follow that color all the way to the end and that's the one you want to get on. And I was like, oh okay, that's way simpler, but I hadn't know, yeah, so that was way better once I learned that.

Speaker 2: 16:19

It's lovely as well that people and you'll find that people will stop and help you if you look like you're not sure where you're going or what you're doing.

Speaker 4: 16:25

People will help.

Speaker 2: 16:28

It's like, okay, just need a bit of help with this, so I'll tell you.

Speaker 4: 16:30

I told her I wasn't going to say this, but I'll tell you and I'll rephrase it the way I normally. But I'll tell you, this was our impression and she can disagree, you know, but we got there and our overall impression was that the people of England were, as a whole, much more standoffish than I would have expected as a group, but individually, some of the nicest people I've ever met in my life, Absolutely.

Speaker 4: 16:55

It's a very unusual culture where you just feel almost like an imposter almost all the time. You know people will bump into you and they just don't pay attention. And then you'll stop and say, hey, can you help me find a sandwich shop? And they'll go buy you a sandwich, you know, and it's like, well, wait a minute, like it's such, a such an odd contrast. You know where you just kind of feel like my God.

Speaker 2: 17:14

You know like these people aren't friendly at all, but individually fantastic I think perhaps you've kind of just described, uh, encapsulated there in a few sentences, the kind of uh impression of english people has been a bit standoffish, um, and I think if you're in a big city, you're going to find that, for example, in london, you might sit on the tube and nobody will make eye contact, that sort of thing. But honestly, if you stop and ask anybody for help which obviously you've experienced they will help you and they will. It doesn't matter if it's a in London or in Liverpool or you know, in a big, any of the big cities. People will help you out. But as a collective, people do kind of like the personal space and keep to themselves, and I just think maybe that's a kind of cultural thing that we just are maybe a little bit more reserved.

Speaker 2: 18:04

Yeah, perhaps let's change the subject slightly and we'll talk about accommodation. So you stayed with friends for part of the time, which is really lovely because that's a fantastic way to experience the culture. But what sort of accommodation choices did you make?

Speaker 3: 18:20

We stayed at the Staybridge Suites in Liverpool, at the Albert Docks, which, interestingly enough, was half a block from an area where my late grandmother had a picture taken in 2007. So we were able to recreate that picture. We stayed at Tower Hotel in 2007. So we were able to recreate the that picture. Um, we stayed at tower hotel in London. This was our honeymoon, you know, three, four years delayed because, you know, thanks to the plague. Um, and that was amazing and fascinating. We in london an extra day because we found out they only did the bridge lift on saturday and sunday. So we stayed an extra day so we could see the bridge lift oh, that's lovely.

Speaker 2: 19:09

I love that you had the flexibility to do that. That's amazing, and did you enjoy that?

Speaker 4: 19:14

oh, yeah, absolutely yeah, it was yeah, there there were a few highlights about accommodations. That one of them was and we'll go back to the interesting interactions. The very first day we got there, she was not feeling well at all and we went into the Staybridge and Nottingham.

Speaker 3: 19:30

No, premier Inn Premier.

Speaker 4: 19:32

Inn, premier Inn and Nottingham and I went up to the clerk and I said, hey, is there any way we can get an early check-in? My wife's not feeling well. And he goes, absolutely not. No, we don't do early check-ins. I was like, oh okay, thanks. So we sat in the lobby for about four and a half hours, went and got her a sandwich which she couldn't really eat. She was sick, it wasn't really good. So I look over and there's another guy working and I thought you know what I just can't believe they don't allow early check-ins. So I went over to that gentleman and I said you know, is it like a premier in wide policy that you don't allow early check-ins? He goes I don't know what you're talking about, mate. He goes, I can get you an early check-in. And he clicked. And he clicked and he's like here's your card. It's like go, are you kidding me? So anyway, again, it's just personal right. Anytime you add people into something, it's going to be different.

Speaker 3: 20:20

That was the only issue we had at any hotel. The entire time was just that one rude gentleman.

Speaker 4: 20:28

Otherwise everybody would have been over backwards to help us. It was incredible. The place we stayed in Liverpool was fantastic and just by the second hour we were there, half the staff seemed like they knew who we were. You know, and they, it was just yeah, just just, just lovely the, the lady who added our additional day at tower hotel.

Speaker 3: 20:45

We told her she's like are you staying for any reason? And I said I want to see the bridge lift and she said, oh, that's common that's not a problem. That's common.

Speaker 4: 20:53

We hear that a lot, yeah yeah, the view out of our hotel was spectacular. It was I, honestly, we, we. She wanted to see the bridge, so we paid a little extra to get a view of the bridge Right. Being an American being the way I was raised, I fully expected to go in and, you know, press my face against the glass and you know, sort of see the bridge over there, you know, and let her take a turn, pressing her face against the glass. We threw open the blinds and it was like a painting. It was just absolutely spectacular. The bridge was lit up and we could see the wheel and it just, it was just absolutely. We stood there for 45 minutes staring out the window, not moving, Like this is incredible, you know.

Speaker 3: 21:34

So one of our granddaughters on video chat and said look at this, this is our hotel and yeah, it was lovely, yeah, so.

Speaker 4: 21:42

So a quick, you know, sort of side story related to accommodations was one is laundry like, uh, the place in liverpool had laundry and and it was free, except you had to buy, you know, laundry pads if you wanted those and and we had taken some things with us to do that. But then there was no laundry, you know, at the Tower Hotel. So you know, we kind of got some dirty laundry accumulated and when we went to Manchester one evening she was ready to go to bed. I said I'm going to go do laundry. So I looked up to see if there was a coin-operated laundry, which are pretty common in the United States, and I found one two miles away, three miles away, got on a bus, went there and when I got off the bus the guy's like hey, mate, this is kind of a dangerous neighborhood, what are you doing? I was like well, I'm going to go do laundry. And he goes, okay, so there's a police station right over here. If you need anything, you just be careful. This is a rough neighborhood. Okay, no problem, thank you.

Speaker 4: 22:37

So I get out, I follow my GPS walking or my phone, and I walk, you know, across the street and I'm standing in front of a pub and I was like, oh, this says this is a laundry, you know. So I make a lap around the pub and I go into an alleyway behind the pub and there are two washing machines and a dryer under a little overhang in an alley behind the pub. And I was like I guess I'm doing laundry in an alley, you know it was outside, and so I put money in and we did the laundry. I went inside the pub and had a beer which is also a strange experience and it was like Peaky Blinders night at the pub, so everyone was dressed in costume and stuff. It was just almost surreal.

Speaker 3: 23:14

In Manchester wearing a Liverpool FC hat and shirt.

Speaker 4: 23:18

Your husband would appreciate that. As I was getting ready to walk in the bar, I realized I'm wearing my hat and a shirt, so I zipped it up to my neck, took my hat, shoved it under my arm, under the jacket, walked in and pretended I was you know, don't like Liverpool here, you know and had a couple of beers. I did my laundry. It was a whole experience, you know, but yeah, so laundry is a thing you know. When we were in London we actually found a cleaner's that was right back behind the Tower Hotel, but they wanted $7 or 7 pounds for underwear.

Speaker 3: 23:51

Yes, so it was crazy 7 pounds for one pair of underwear.

Speaker 4: 23:55

It was insanely expensive. I told him I could wash underwear Like the amount One pair of underwear it was. It was insane.

Speaker 3: 23:57

I told him I could. I could wash underwear in the sink.

Speaker 4: 23:59

So so I guess my point is saying all of this is, if you're going to go over there and you pack light like we did which we can talk about a little bit more in a moment that laundry is certainly different than it is in the United States is to to us it was very difficult to find and when we found it it was overly expensive. So, yeah, just a you know planning uh point. So yeah, I think that does come up.

Speaker 2: 24:21

Quite a lot actually, people are saying about, uh, trying to find a laundromat in in the uk and I think that that they still exist and they are still there, but they are. They're less common than they were in the past. I think so and I know obviously sometimes you stay in a hotel and the amount that they want to charge for doing any laundry can be exorbitant.

Speaker 2: 24:42

So it's definitely something, if you're packing lightly, that you're going to have to consider. I mean, I do try to like you, Vinita, I try to wash certain items in the sink and hang them up. We've got a portable washing line which we take with us which is brilliant which sticks on either side. We can fit that in so we can do the kind of smalls that way. But yes, it can be an issue finding laundromats. I think I'll have a look and see if there's actually an app, because I'm sure there's going to be an app about where you find them. I'll have a look because that might be something you do Right, maybe there is yeah.

Speaker 2: 25:14

Maybe there is. Yeah, that's brilliant.

Speaker 4: 25:15

There may very well be.

Speaker 2: 25:16

Because that does come up quite often. I mean, we've stayed in quite a lot of B&Bs and they quite often will let you do that or they'll say, yes, give us a laundry and we'll do it and help out. And I know Doug stayed in a hotel in Wales last year and he was down there on his own doing some work in Wales and again it was lovely. At the hotel they went, oh, just give us a laundry, we'll sort it for you. So sometimes it's worth asking as well If a guest at a bit of a posher hotel probably not as easy to get it done that way but if a B&B or kind of you know a guest house, you can do it, potentially get it done that way. So tell us what your I'm sure liverpool match is going to come into this, but what?

Speaker 2: 26:00

were some of your favorite experiences and places that you visited liverpool cathedral was gorgeous.

Speaker 3: 26:07

They were setting up for an event inside, so we couldn't really see a lot. Westminster abbey, wet feet and all um. We were not the only people who had soaking wet feet that day at Westminster Abbey.

Speaker 4: 26:22

Yeah, that was fascinating. You go in and she's way more well-versed on all of the history of England and those things. When I walk into a place and I see Richard Kipling's grave, right, I'm like I'm already fascinated. So I could have spent three days in that place walking around, looking and finding all the famous people and things you know. That was really neat.

Speaker 3: 26:45

We were there. We got to London. Well, the Liverpool game was remembrance Sunday, so all the poppies and everything were still out. He was able to, uh, get across with a poppy on it. There was a section right outside of Westminster Abbey that was for American service members who were lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, so he was able to place a cross with the name of his soldier he lost in Iraq, outside of Westminster Abbey.

Speaker 3: 27:18

Yeah, that was wonderful yeah, the tower of london um was fascinating. Yeah, we, we sponsored a block in the in the tower for in memory of our daughter that we lost in early 2020, so you know we could stand and look. Look, there's her stone, which obviously we couldn't see, but we know what side of the tower was you know, we could stand and look. Look, there's her stone, which obviously we couldn't see, but we know what side of the tower was. You know, we know where it's at.

Speaker 4: 27:43

So yeah, there was. There was a lot of little things that happened, as you said. You know, I cried like a baby when I went into Anfield I'm not ashamed to admit it at all the first time I walked in and saw that field, after you know, 57 years on the planet wanting to see it, I was. It was emotional, being able to touch the, you know the sign, you know as you walk out. Those things were all memorable.

Speaker 4: 28:06

But, honestly, the things that really more memorable to me was just our chance meetings, and I'll give you a few examples. One of them was our cab driver when we went to go take a tour of anfield. Ended up being a player from the 1984 tier 2 liverpool team and we talked for 30 minutes. He got on the cab, we talked, took pictures and stuff. It was fantastic, you know, um, when we left the game, uh, we were walking in the rain because you're not going to get a taxi. We didn't realize, you know you're not going to get a taxi. We didn't realize you know you're not going to get a taxi anywhere near Anfield you know, after the game.

Speaker 4: 28:40

So we started walking, we got a cab and there were two ladies that were like hey, can we share the cab with you? And I said, absolutely, jump in. You know, one of the ladies' husbands was the founder of the radio station that that tower in Liverpool is from. Wow, and it was just, you know, just another chance meeting to meet somebody you know and just hear her talk for 15 or 20 minutes on the as we rode and there were several things like that that happened while we were there. They were just, absolutely just fascinating.

Speaker 4: 29:12

And I got to tell you I'm I have an artistic side, right. So what she didn't know was I was taking pictures like crazy, like every time we come across a sign. I love signs, you know, I take pictures in alleyways and graffiti and you know portions of sidewalks and stuff. And she kept, you know, I know, in her mind she was like what in the world is this person doing? Why is my husband taking pictures of stuff person, why is my husband taking pictures of stuff? And uh, but when I got back, uh, I had a website and I was able to take a map of England and it and it took the 745 photographs that I had taken and took, made a collage that is shaped like a UK and uh gave it to her as a birthday present.

Speaker 3: 29:55

I figured out he had been some of those pictures he had taken of me. We were in Westminster Abbey and I was standing fascinated, looking at the tomb of Mary Queen of Scots. We have a Stuart relation and part of my family, so I'm just fascinated and amazed that I'm seeing this in person and he's standing behind me taking pictures of me standing there, you know, and you know, fascinated to to see all of it.

Speaker 4: 30:22

So, yeah, there's, you can make whatever you want to make out of the trip. It depends. You know what I mean. There are some people who are cut out, that are only going to be fascinated if they see Big Ben. There's people like me, and I think her also, that we went, we were, we were coming back from York and what's the name of the place where they filmed the?

Speaker 3: 30:40

Chatsworth. We stopped at Chatsworth.

Speaker 4: 30:42

Let's stop at Chatsworth and it just you know, it was just fascinating there was a statue of a horse. You know this. This is so many little things. You know little street corners and phone booths and things that just absolutely.

Speaker 3: 30:53

We have the Life 360 app on our phones. It's a safety tracking app. We have that. My sister sends me a picture.

Speaker 2: 31:10

When we were at Chatsworth she had taken a screenshot that showed where we were at and asked if Mr Darcy was home. It's lovely, chatsworth is because I lived probably about 20 minutes, 25 minutes drive from there for 20 odd years. That's where Doug's not too far from there. Yeah, so when we were back in December, january, we like to go. Chatsworth is lovely at Christmas. They do a themed Christmas trees throughout. I don't know, was that?

Speaker 4: 31:31

They had just opened the. What do they call it?

Speaker 3: 31:34

The holiday Christmas mart. What do they call it, the holiday Christmas mart? And one of the guides, I guess, said they were still getting the house decorated. Yeah, I get it. We were there like two days after they had opened the Christmas mart. Yeah, that was fascinating. You know, here in the state Christmas starts the day after Thanksgiving and there we were in. Novembermber and all the christmas markets were open yeah, they stopped, so that was, that was really fascinating beginning of november in london.

Speaker 2: 32:05

You get the lights on and the christmas markets start. So you get all over and like, bath will have one and york will have one. We actually went to the york one last year just before christmas, so they kind of start different times, but really sort of from mid-November onwards to just before Christmas you'll get all of the Christmas markers. So did you enjoy having a wander around there, vinita?

Speaker 3: 32:28

Yeah, they were closing so we weren't there very long, but it was you know.

Speaker 4: 32:35

We hit a couple. We hit the one in Manchester, yeah we went to one in London.

Speaker 3: 32:39

We met a friend of mine, a Facebook friend of mine, that I finally got to meet in person. She's in London, so we met her and she had us, you know, get on a bus and we're going to take a tour of town just on a regular bus, not on a hop-on, hop-off bus regular bus, not on a hop-on, hop-off bus and we got off at Trafalgar Square and then walked back part way and walked through one of the markets there and walked through the markets in Manchester and it was just yeah, it was really fascinating so did you.

Speaker 2: 33:10

I know you went to places like you know Westminster Abbey and, um, uh, I don't know if you did any other tours. Did you do do a tour of Westminster Abbey or just a tour of London Westminster Abbey? Was that just a ticket and go in and look around yourself, or did you do any tours when you were there?

Speaker 3: 33:26

We didn't do any tours. We took the tube into London one day and went to Regent Street because I wanted to go to Liberty of London and get fabric and we found an Asian fusion restaurant there and we walked back to the hotel and discovered all kinds of things discovered everything. Walked past St Paul's completely and totally by accident.

Speaker 4: 33:52

The only tour we took the entire time was an Anfield. That was the only like we took a stadium tour.

Speaker 3: 33:56

a stadium tour at Anfield. That was the only like we took a stadium tour at Anfield.

Speaker 4: 33:58

We took a stadium tour at Anfield. That was the only thing that was arranged like that that we did, that's really popular to do that.

Speaker 2: 34:03

I think that's something. I don't know if Doug's done that yet, I know that would be on his wish list he usually tries to get to a match with Because one of his best mates in the UK is also a massive Liverpool fan, so the two of them tried to get up to see a match when they're back. Did they win, I have to ask you, did Liverpool win?

Speaker 4: 34:19

They did yes. As a matter of fact, they won and the Tranver Rovers both won 3-0. So they had great games.

Speaker 2: 34:25

Brilliant. So just talking about you mentioned a bit about food there, finding that Asian Fusion restaurant. Did you try any British foods? Did you have any kind of favorites, any favorite places that you ate?

Speaker 4: 34:35

yeah, well, okay. So I'll tell you what I didn't like was the brown sauce. I wanted to try it, so bad, you know, and the very first day I tried it and I was like okay well, I'm over that horrible just I became quite the fan of eating beans for breakfast.

Speaker 4: 34:49

That was something I was like I've got to try this. I tell you honestly, I was a big fan. It was very, very good. We were told by so many people. It's like, oh, the food foods are gross, it's bland, it's this or that or the other. I'll tell you honestly, there wasn't a bad thing we ate, other than the brown sauce, the entire time we were there.

Speaker 3: 35:06

we found it, Chip shop in. Liverpool, that was really good.

Speaker 4: 35:11

A piece of fish of a you know folder it was gigantic, you know and we stopped at a Mushy Peas.

Speaker 3: 35:18

Yeah, Mushy Peas. Our friend Andy was telling us about Mushy Peas. Those were not bad. We stopped at a place.

Speaker 4: 35:23

We had some Mushy Peas and they warned us. Andy and Julia had warned us. They're, like you know, the uh the sauce that I ended up buying. Uh, the um oh, the pickle stuff yeah, pickle um, I'd never had it before huge fan love.

Speaker 2: 35:53

it was that, uh pickle. Which one was it? Br Branson pickle? Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4: 35:59

Yeah, you know, a slice of cheese and some lettuce and tomato and some pickle. Great sandwich.

Speaker 2: 36:06

Yeah.

Speaker 4: 36:06

And I'm kind of a guy I love it. But yeah, that was wonderful.

Speaker 3: 36:10

Andy introduced him to Iron Brew.

Speaker 4: 36:14

Iron Brew. I still have my friends. I found Iron Brew at a market here in the states. We have a place called uh jungle gyms and we went over there and it's like a big international market and I found some. So I this past weekend I had my friends trying it because I was like, listen, you need to tell me what it tastes like because I'm telling you. There are huge arguments on reddit and everything else, people going back and forth about what this tastes like yeah yeah, uh, so yeah.

Speaker 4: 36:37

So I'm a fan. I really like iron brew oh, yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 36:41

It's a very popular scottish drink, so it originates from scotland, so, uh yeah, I became a fan of instant coffee as well oh my, my grandmother.

Speaker 3: 36:51

Um. Last spring, early spring, early summer, when we finally got our passports, I drove to where my grandmother was in a nursing home. I was like, Grandma, I finally have a passport. Look at this. She said, Vernita, you are going to love England, but they drink instant coffee. You won't like that. I'm thinking to myself. It's been about 20 years since she's been there surely that's coffee's, not a thing anymore.

Speaker 3: 37:23

I I learned grandma was correct and we drink instant coffee without a problem because I'm too cheap to pay 10 pounds for a cup of coffee every time I wanted a cup of coffee in fact, we, we, we got to the point where, when we came back, we bought a uh, a boiling pot electric kettle yeah uh, and some different teas and things, because we you know we don't both already like tea, but the instant coffee we it's upstairs right now.

Speaker 4: 37:51

We still brew coffee on a daily basis, but we're kind of a fan of the instant coffee. Okay, that's cool.

Speaker 2: 37:57

I don't. Personally I don't drink coffee, so it's never. When I go to the UK I know that a lot of Australians will say, oh, the coffee in the UK is awful awful because they say they have the best coffee in the world. I can't judge because I don't drink it at all, so I don't know.

Speaker 3: 38:12

We did keep Costa Coffee slightly in business.

Speaker 4: 38:20

Tesco and Pret also were right right by the london hotel so we helped with their business and I tell you that's going back to the way we traveled right, enjoying, enjoying what you can enjoy and finding things and just discovering. You know it was fascinating to go into a tesco and, like every day, we would buy a new bag of crisps I keep calling them chips, yeah, of a different flavor, because they don't. It's stuff I've never seen, ever, you know, and take it back to the hotel room and be like these are god awful, or you know, wow, I wish I had these in the states, but but just simple things. You know, you.

Speaker 2: 38:51

You have to take that opportunity to discover, you know and I love the fact that you guys have have done that. I mean, it's a great thing to do.

Speaker 2: 39:33

We love to go. Wherever we go in the world, we like to go in the supermarkets because it's just a big window into the culture of what people eat and enjoy. And yes, in the UK there's like 75 billion different types of crisps, so whenever we go up there there's always new flavors to try, so it's always amazing. So I know you've already kind of covered this, but I don't know if any. If you answered this question, so I'm probably going to land this with you if there was one tip that you would give to anybody planning to travel the UK for the first time because obviously for you guys this was your first trip what would you say would be your top tip?

Speaker 3: 40:04

I I'm back to be prepared to not be able to do everything yeah take, take lots of pictures and and be there in the moment and take your photos, but be prepared that that you may not be able to do everything I think mine probably would be.

Speaker 4: 40:24

I'm trying to say think out a word. This is do your preparation in advance. Pack light. We. We took a literally a small carry-on and a backpack apiece and that was plenty. That was plenty.

Speaker 4: 40:37

But what we also had planned on and we actually ended up doing more than we expected was we knew we wanted souvenirs. We knew we were going to collect some things while we were there. So we went and bought a suitcase, right, and then we ended up buying a second suitcase and we paid for those to come back, right, yeah, but we kind of uh planned to make sure we weren't going to drag those all over the country the entire time, right, we? We knew that that if we bought those on the last four or five days we were there, we'd be able to go hit some souvenir shops, go, go back to the shops we had seen before that type of thing. So you know it's, it's just, it's really easy to overpack and I'll tell you that you know it's. It's amazing how many wears you can get out of. You know you need, you know I'll just tell you change your underwear every day in your socks, right, but at the end of the day, as out how you're going to get to your next hotel or whatever.

Speaker 4: 41:35

There is so much to discover there that I think we could go back 10, 15 more times. We'd never see all the things we'd like to see, but we liked the things that we're able to see. Right is the thing we spent the time that we wanted to spend seeing the things we wanted to see as long as we wanted to, the time that we wanted to spend seeing the things we wanted to see as long as we wanted to. And again, that's probably the I think, the number one thing we would tell anybody is just go enjoy yourself and don't, you know, try to pack it in, don't, don't, don't do what everybody else does, just because that seems to be the thing to do. Because you can't walk a hundred feet in England without finding something fascinating, especially when you're from a country like America. Right, you know, we see things that are that are 175 years old and we think they're old. You go there and there's literally roman walls crossing the sidewalk in the middle of a park and it's just fascinating.

Speaker 2: 42:25

If you have any appreciation of history at all, it is just simply stunning and uh, yeah, it's amazing well, I just have to ask you one question, um, because you're just because you mentioned about the souvenirs and what you bought and you brought suitcases back. So do you have a favorite thing that you bought?

Speaker 4: 42:43

yes, we are.

Speaker 3: 42:44

I collect souvenir spoons. I have collected souvenir spoons since I was air spoon, since I was nine or 10 years old, um, so I came home with two dozen, I think. Um and I I wanted a Paddington bear. We got to London and there's Paddington's everywhere and I saw the price and I said absolutely not. And we were in the airport in Manchester ready to come home and we still had British pounds. So I have a Paddington. There's my story behind how. I came home with a Paddington.

Speaker 4: 43:25

So this is going to be a somewhat lengthy explanation, but I have to tell you the story to make you understand why I appreciate the things I want to tell you about. On the flight over, I was wearing my Liverpool hat and a stewardess came by and she said oh love, are you from Liverpool? And I said no man, we're just. I'm a Liverpool fan, you know. And over the course of the five and a half hour flight she came back by several times talking to us and toward the end of the flight she knelt down and she she had a sick bag and she said I'm going to put down a number. She said this is my friend who is a general manager of a restaurant chain and she'll take care of you.

Speaker 4: 43:57

You tell her that Jen sent you blah, blah, blah. And here's my dad's number. Here's another number. She wrote down two or three phone numbers. She said these people will take care of you, etc. She gave me her phone number. Then, to our amazement, somehow she materialized a full bottle of champagne, because we had told her it was our honeymoon and she gave us a full bottle of champagne on an airline. So we were already like wow this is an incredible trip.

Speaker 3: 44:23

We landed in Manchester with me holding a full and open bottle of champagne in my lap.

Speaker 2: 44:28

Do you want to shout out which airline that was?

Speaker 4: 44:30

Virgin Atlantic yeah.

Speaker 3: 44:32

Virgin Atlantic, yeah, virgin Atlantic.

Speaker 4: 44:35

But it gets better. So the next day she sends me a message and she says oh love, I found out that my friend's dad is the general manager of hospitality at Anfield and he wants to make sure that your trip's really special, so he's going to take care of you. So we went on the tour and it was fantastic, but nothing special happened outside of what everybody else did. So we were like okay, whatever, you know, it's, it is what it is, you know. Um, that evening I got a message from her and she said my, my friend's father is so upset because he gave some things to his staff and they forgot to give them to you, so he's going to meet you at the game tomorrow to make sure that you get the things that he wanted you to have. It's like okay, you know. So, uh, we show up to the game and he's there and he recognizes us immediately because I guess she described as whatever he said come on in. And he gave us two bags filled with merchandise and things from Liverpool and inside there there was an autographed book with Ian Callahan's signature on it. That was just shocked me. I mean, for anybody who doesn't know, that's like getting an autograph of Babe Ruth or, you know, michael Jordan. I mean, it's just, it was just absolutely incredible and probably a couple hundred dollars worth of merchandise. It was just absolutely stunning. And simply because I was wearing a Liverpool hat on the way over. You know, and I'll tell you, that's not going to happen to everybody.

Speaker 4: 46:02

But to get to the answer of what you said, there were several things that happened like that on the way over. So I have to tell you there are two things. One of them is that book with the Indian Callahan signature on it just absolutely a treasure for me. The second one is when we went to Tranmere, the steward the main steward we got talking, learned that she sews and he said oh, I'm so proud of this. He said my wife embroidered the Tranmere logo on my steward jacket. Here we were complimenting it and everything right. And at the end of the game he come over and he said stick around for a minute if you can. He. The game is almost over. Would you stick around, yeah?

Speaker 4: 46:40

absolutely. The crowd cleared out and the man took his steward jacket off and gave it to me as a souvenir. Dumbfounding that that happened for multiple reasons. Number one, that the guy would even give it to me. Number two, he gave me a steward jacket which seems like it's probably illegal. I don't know, you don't like there's. There's a hundred reasons why that's just shocking. But that's probably the most treasured thing I got while I was there, because the gentleman even put a little tag on the inside with a safety pin with his email address on it. And uh, and I've corresponded with him since I got back and just it's. I never in a million years expected to get something like that just taken off of someone's back and given to me.

Speaker 2: 47:14

That's amazing, both those stories. Honestly, just the generosity of both those people is lovely. I have to say that was a lovely way to end the podcast, guys, and I just want to say thank you so much for coming on and sharing your experience of your trip to the UK. It was brilliant.

Speaker 4: 47:32

Thank you for having us Very much Thank you. And really honestly thank you so much for having the sites that you do and all the information, because I tell you we probably would have been lost without it.

Speaker 3: 47:42

Well, we found you through the podcast. We found the podcast, then we found that you had the Facebook group, and then I found that Doug had the train travel group. And that was how we traveled. We used your advice even while we were there.

Speaker 4: 48:00

We were using your advice. Yeah, absolutely so. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3: 48:04

Thank you so much for everything.

Speaker 2: 48:06

Oh, thank you so much, guys for coming on to the podcast this week. It was really lovely to have your trip report and I will put photos and links in the show notes for this episode, which you can find at uktravelplanningcom. Forward slash episode 98. That just leaves me to say until next week, happy UK travel planning.