UK Travel Planning

UK Trip Report with Michael Goldsmith - Titanic's Legacy: A Personal Journey Across the Atlantic

• Tracy Collins • Episode 164

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Michael Goldsmith shares his deeply personal journey across the UK, inspired by his family's connection to the Titanic, and fulfilled through a carefully planned itinerary that combines ship, rail, and coach travel. He explains how research and personalised travel advice helped him create a meaningful trip that connected him with family history and distant relatives.

• Taking the Queen Mary II across the Atlantic in honour of ancestors who boarded the Titanic
• Visiting Southampton, Stonehenge, Salisbury, and Rochester to explore historical sites and family connections
• Meeting previously unknown relatives from his great-grandfather's family in Rochester
• Experiencing London through a specialised "Discover Real London" cab tour
• Navigating unexpected train cancellations with flexibility and assistance from pre-trip planning
• Exploring Inverness and Loch Ness despite travel disruptions
• Receiving VIP treatment in Belfast, including finding his great-grandfather's name on the Titanic memorial
• Staying at the Titanic Hotel in Belfast and touring the dry dock where the ship was built
• Planning a return visit to spend more time in favourite locations like Rochester and Belfast

Looking to plan your own UK adventure? Check out the show notes (link below), plus our Guide to UK train travel ebook, and details about our itinerary consultations.

⭐️ Guest - Michael Goldsmith
📝 Show Notes - Episode 164 

🎧 Listen to next

  • Episode #124 - 3-day itinerary for Belfast
  • Episode #138 – Exploring London’s Iconic Sights with Discover Real London’s Black Cab Tours
  • Episode #86 – London Like a Local: Unmissable Black Cab Tours with Discover Real London

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Speaker 1:

In this special episode, doug chats with Michael Goldsmith from Ohio, who shares the emotional journey behind his UK trip, inspired by a deep family connection to the Titanic. From crossing the Atlantic on the Queen Mary II to reconnecting with long-lost relatives and navigating the UK by rail, michael's story is filled with meaning, history and thoughtful planning.

Speaker 2:

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. 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 1:

Hi and welcome to this week's episode of the UK Travel Planet Podcast. Today I'm handing over the reins to Doug, who's chatting with Michael Goldsmith from Ohio. But first a quick thank you to one of our podcast supporters, tina Liu Lang, for her ongoing support of the show. Thank you so much, tina. If you'd like to support the podcast and help us keep it running each week, you can do so from as little as three US dollars a month. Just check in with the link in the show notes and we truly appreciate you and you could get a shout out in a forthcoming episode. Now anyway, hello, doug, you're here for this episode.

Speaker 3:

Hi everyone, Great to be here.

Speaker 1:

So now, michael recently returned from an unforgettable trip to the UK, and it wasn't just any holiday. This journey was inspired by his powerful family connection to the Titanic. Was inspired by his powerful family connection to the Titanic, so he and his wife started with a transatlantic crossing on the Queen Mary II and went on to explore places like Southampton, rochester, london, inverness and Belfast. So in this episode, you'll hear how Michael used our e-book podcast and a one-to-one itinerary consultation with Doug to help plan a meaningful and memorable UK trip filled with personal discoveries, surprise moments and a few unexpected challenges that he handled like a pro. So let's get started Over to you, doug.

Speaker 3:

Welcome, Michael. Can you start by introducing yourself where you're from and a bit about who you travelled with?

Speaker 4:

Hi, I'm Michael. I'm from Ohio in the USA and I took my wife to the UK.

Speaker 3:

So your trip has such a meaningful story behind it. Can you tell us a bit more about your family connection with the famous Titanic and how that influenced your travel plans?

Speaker 4:

And his family boarded Titanic at Southampton. Originally they were from Kent, a little town called just across Manchester, so we go to take and visit you and Titanic to their order and so trip on and we landed at Southampton and we went from there.

Speaker 4:

Wow, that's certainly a long time in making what made 2025 the right time to go well, last year I found out that the Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean minor that is still making the crossing across the Atlantic and, researching that, I found out she is 20 years into her service life. My wife and I are in our late 50s and we're healthy enough to do a lot of walking, so I just thought the time is now, if we're going to go by ship, and so I booked passage. As you know, um in the process of paying that off is when I discovered your podcast and set up the consult with you and tracy and did all the research as far as where we wanted to go, how we were going to get there, and, again, utilizing your ebook for rail travel, I plan to discover and utilize all the different forms of transportation Ship, rail coach service called the hand coach, and then, of course, flying home.

Speaker 3:

So literally, I suppose you could say, using English expression, all your ducks were in a row for 2025. Everything just sort of came together. You saw this, you saw, saw that you had this plan, you did that. And it just literally came together in, you know, and just seemed right for 2025 to be the time to go. And I'm glad you mentioned that about your health as well, because that's an important factor, because these types of trips can be pretty tiring and pretty draining, can't they?

Speaker 4:

yes, they can. We were lucky. We didn't over plan anything. We planned travel time, which came in handy, and I'll tell you about that later, but we planned days of travel, we played relax time, we did do two tours that we planned. My friend in belfast had plans of her own and I'll tell you about that as well that's really good.

Speaker 3:

So, yeah, you mentioned the itinerary console, which we both thoroughly enjoyed as well, because you and I hit it off first time we met, didn't we really? And we were in contact quite often as well, which, again, I will mention that later as well. But what were you hoping to actually achieve from the console, and did you achieve that?

Speaker 4:

number one. I wanted to advice on rail travel because I know you. You worked with rail service for many years, so gaining insight on a one-on-one basis was a need that I can't get from an e-book or from just doing research, because questions might come up, such as the need of travel, how to plan in case something goes wrong, which did happen. Something goes wrong, which did happen.

Speaker 3:

I pretty much had our itinerary kind of set, but I didn't have the expertise to overcome any obstacles so it's just a question of tweaking what you had in place and really it's a good advert for needing the personal touch. So with electronic devices and electronic information and I'm going down the AI route here You're proving the point that the personal touch is still needed and there's still a place for it out there.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, exactly, I'm a firm believer in personal touch, as you've seen since our console, keeping not only that personal touch going but letting you know how it was going as we went through our trip, so that you could see the results of your efforts not only in the ebook but consultation and your podcast.

Speaker 3:

oh, thank you for that. What were the key things you found most confusing or challenging when it came to uk rail travel before the consult?

Speaker 4:

if you can just remember exactly the details on that, because it's a while ago since we actually did the consult- well, for for me, being that I had spent time in berlin for three years, the rail travel came kind of easy.

Speaker 4:

I didn't know which route to take that would be best to suit my need, and that's where the consult came in handy, because you gave me three different choices a backup plan I'm a firm believer in having a backup plan and you helped with that as well. You mentioned getting a two-together rail card, and for us we weren't constantly on the move but we had planned travel dates, and with the two-together rail card it allowed us to get a lower fee and it gave us time to where we weren't rushing in the morning, to go catch a train before rush hour, and we didn't really have fight crowds the one time we did have to use a tube for one stop. And even the console and your rail guide helped with that, because you told me what apps I need put on my phone and what to expect really, and it just fell into place. You know, even when a bump happened, it was like, okay, I knew where to go. And it turns out that, as we'll see later, I actually helped another american couple that's good to know.

Speaker 3:

I mean that, that's life. You learn something, then you pass that knowledge on. So I'm all in favor of that one. So on to the next question. Let's talk about your destinations, your roots now. So you arrived by sea aboard the queen mary too. What was that experience like?

Speaker 4:

well, uh, given my family history with transatlantic travel, it was very, very, very emotional for me, and as well my wife too, when we first saw the ship and we boarded in in brooklyn it was. It was just indescribable, the feeling that we're going through. I actually took pictures of my family that were on Titanic and I had them set up on my desk in my room. I don't know if I showed you that picture or not. If I didn't, I would send it to you. So it was like they were traveling with me. And the funny part is I think I slept through when we were near the Titanic site. We passed about 102 miles north of the office pole but I never saw it come up on the screen. I guess I was sleeping during that time period, but emotionally it was like the circle had been completed. And then we arrived in Southampton and we went to Stonehenge, salisbury, passed through London to go to Rochester and then back to London, to Inverness and Belfast, before flying home from Dublin.

Speaker 3:

That's really good. So you say Southampton, stonehenge, salisbury, just a quick overview of the experiences of those places. Did you enjoy it? I mean, southampton was obviously a starter, but you've got a friend there as well, which makes it nice and welcoming when you get off the boat as well. So Stonehenge and Salisbury, just a quick overview of those.

Speaker 4:

Well, my friends picked us up at our hotel in Southampton the first day. They showed us around Southampton all the Titanic sites and the Mayflower site. There's more of the Mayflower in Southampton as well. Then the next day we checked out of our hotel and they took us to Salisbury, to the New Forest. My friend's husband was a taxi driver so he knows all the back ways in and out of every how to get there. So we had a durable drive through the new forest, saw, uh, cottages with that, roads and so forth.

Speaker 4:

Uh, stonehenge was very busy but the way we went, uh, we went kind of the back roads so we encountered very little traffic on our ways. And it was very impressive because when you first get to Stonehenge the main building there and it's like a little museum to tell you the history, the known history of the site, and then you go through that and you go outside to a mock of what a village would look like back then and if you want, you can try and move the stone the way they think they moved the stones back then. Then you get on a bus that takes you about a mile up the hill to the Stonehead site as you look out across the plains around it. You can see the burial mounds of the people that probably built the site. You just see small humps and they're actually burial mounds.

Speaker 4:

And then from there we went to Salisbury Cathedral. I wanted to see Magna Carta. Now inside the cathedral you've got a reflective pool right as you look at the altar, down the main part of the hallway, and so I ducked down and I got pictures of the blue glass blue stained glass behind the altar, looking off that pool, that little pool. It looks like a table, but it's actually a fountain. That was very cool, very nice.

Speaker 3:

Well, thank you for sharing that.

Speaker 4:

We'd spent two nights in Rochester and so I visited Rochester Castle.

Speaker 4:

I have a postcard that my grandfather gave me and I'll send you a picture of it, so I got updated photos.

Speaker 4:

The picture on the postcard was taken about 1920 or so, and then I have an updated photo of our visit, and I took some in the evening when the sun was hitting it just right, and I went back in the morning, and the morning one is a colored photo but it looks black and white because of the shadow, the sun coming from the opposite direction, and while we were there we met cousins of mine from my great-grandfather's side of the family.

Speaker 4:

It was supposed to be, but three generations showed up, so we all had plants and then later that evening we went to see the home where my grandfather lived, and I was able to see that because there's a picture of my family that I thought was taken out from the street view, but it was actually taken in the back garden and we discovered that when we visited the street and the house and I actually spoke to the neighbors who knew my family's story because her daughter had lived there and had researched it I said, yeah, I'm, I'm the grandson, so that that was very interesting. We got pictures the street and then we went and had another pint with my cousins at a working man's house and that was a hospital where my grandfather was probably born at the time.

Speaker 3:

Wow, that's amazing. Yeah, you made special memories, you know, meeting up with the family down in Rochester. You know that's just such a personal story there and I thank you for sharing. It must have been great and really emotional to meet all the family with the connection to Rochester as well. I can only imagine how that was. We left Rochester and went up to meet all the family with the connection to Rochester as well. I can only imagine how that was. We left.

Speaker 4:

Rochester and went up to London and we took a Discover Real London cab tour we had Mark Ollie was great during the process. Mark was fantastic. He showed us a lot of Titanic stuff. We went into the Fitzroy Hotel and Fitzroy Dole did the architecture of the hotel. His designs were on Titanic and Olympic and their assistant pretend there's a dragon in that hotel and his name is Lucky George. Unlucky George is still down with Titanic. That's why he's unlucky and Lucky George is in the hotel. So that was a surprise. I didn't even know anything about that hotel. But Fitzroy Dole is where the expression all doled up comes from, because he was very fancy in his design. So next time you go to London, look up Fitzroy Hotel. It's a very, very posh hotel, but we were allowed access to certain areas. He also showed us where the Churchill war rooms are. He showed us where the courts are. He showed us a Roman wall, one of the original portions of the Roman wall that surrounded London when it was under Roman control.

Speaker 4:

And then that night we hopped on the Caledonian Sleeper. We only made it to Birmingham because there was a storm had come through and lines were down and my wife woke me up and said we're stopped and I'm like, okay, it's probably for a freight train. And I went back to sleep and I woke up and I looked at my phone we're back in London. And I was like what? And something garbled came over the loudspeaker. So I went and found a crew member and she said, yeah, we had to come back to London, but we have transportation for you to go to Inverness on a train over Kings Cross. I think we're supposed to get getting on a train, but we end up on a Zumo train that was leaving just as we got there.

Speaker 4:

The funny part is I mentioned an American couple that I helped there. The funny part is I mentioned a an american couple that I helped. I had navigated not just my wife and I, but that american couple that we met on the train. We actually had drinks with them the night before on on a caledonian sleeper, but I got all four of us to the train. The wife from the couple that we met found found a train going to Inverness, so we all hopped on that. It was a Lumo train, so we were only. We missed maybe six hours of time in Inverness, but we got there in plenty of time because that was a travel day. We did not plan anything that day. We had a tour planned for the next day.

Speaker 3:

So just backtrack a slight All those places you've got to visit on your next, uh, your next excursion to the uk, or newcastle and york and annick in london as well, um, discover real london is really good, and anybody listening who wants information on that, the details are on our website and there will be in the show notes as well. So, yes, I know about the, the caledonian sleep experience you had because we were in contact during that time. The storm that came in um, yeah, it's bordeaux head, lying down a tree fell onto the line, so that took quite a while to get it sorted as well. So you found out how quickly it is to walk up the euston road to king's cross, and the azuma service is run by LNER, it's one of their flagship services.

Speaker 3:

So, but proves your flexibility though, michael, you know you went with it. You had the, the apps that we suggested and you knew exactly how to modify your plans. But you know I'm sure this is reflects you as a person is the fact that you know you didn't panic. You just went with the flow. You looked at all the other resources, you had the consult. So we know you didn't panic, you just went with the flow. You looked at all the resources. You had the consult, so we give you some sort of information as to, uh, what to do as a backup, as you say you do like a backup plan as well. That's the military side of you, I'm sure. Um, so it's quite an experience. So you, you find your way into scotland and all the way up into Inverness. So tell me about Inverness.

Speaker 4:

We stayed in Inverness. Okay, we stayed at Glencairn. It's a property that's on the other side of the river, from the train station, up the street from the I think it's the Inverness Cathedral. It's in a quiet neighborhood. It's a few minutes from the guest house down where we were meeting our tour. The next day, and we met the tour, we did a tour around Loch Ness. We flew to Fort Castle, a boat ride on the loch. It was kind of a tour, but it wasn't a tour. It was more like, oh, just give me a ride up the loch. But that was great.

Speaker 4:

The weather was a little chillier and a little wetter than what we thought, but we got to see some amazing things. Um, we got to see a waterfall that you had to hike into and hike out back. Um, I have a picture of the sign. I can't remember the name of it. But then, like I said, we we went to york court castle. We met Stephen the Nessie hunter. He's got a little place right on the beach, so we bought a souvenir from him and then we went to the Nessie Museum, or whatever they call it. We had lunch there at a restaurant right next to it and then toured that and then got back on the bus. And the Rebby's tour was neat because there was only 16 people on the bus and it was basically an all-day excursion. You got back about five o'clock and you went to Joe Fox's and then the next day was a travel day. We traveled down to Glasgow and spent the night and then the next day we caught the Henry Kirk from Belfast.

Speaker 3:

And finally, your journey ended in Northern Ireland. So how did you find traveling to Belfast and then tell me about you know what you got up to there? Considering all of your planning, it must have been quite a moment to arrive.

Speaker 4:

Well, we left Glasgow on the Hannon coach. I wanted to get to Morning Run but I couldn't, so we left at noon, which put us a little late getting to Belfast. But plenty of time, because I just let the hotel know ahead of time that I need to change my dinner reservation. Um, so we got on the hand coach and took us on the ferry and, as we're crossing the irish sea, getting ready to go into belfast low, I got a picture of a whale from the ferry. So that that was awesome. Uh, just one single whale just happened to come up fairly close to the ferry and I just happened to be out there with my camera and I was like, oh, maybe I can get it. And sure enough, I did get it. Then we landed port in Belfast and, emotionally, I knew that those were the waters that the Titanic had had, or she trailed on, and that she had gone in and out of Belfast Low before arriving in Southampton. So I was excited and it was very emotional because you had been there and you had shared some things that was on my, that were on my itineraries. That is, the Belfast Memorial Gardens at City Hall.

Speaker 4:

But the short version is we stayed at the Titanic Hotel in Belfast, which was our most headquarters and that is where Titanic was designed. Unfortunately they put us in one of the new rooms so we didn't get to stay in the original building itself, but where we stayed overlooks where Titanic was built. The slipways are there, but they're outlined in light so they light up at night. And then right there as well is the Titanic attraction. People tend to call it a museum, but it's really just an attraction to tell you a little bit about the history of Belfast as far as the industries that were there and shipbuilding and Titanic. So it's not really solely based on Titanic, but it is based on Belfast as a whole, the people that worked the shipyards, the people that worked the textile mills, the whiskey making and so forth.

Speaker 4:

So all that is included in that history. It's like a small history of Belfast, but I have a friend in Belfast as well and she set up an itinerary the next day that she kept secret from me, and it turns out that he took us to the city hall and we toured the memorial gardens outside there. We found my great grandfather's name on the memorial, as you did, and then the surprise was he was the High Sheriff of Belfast and a personal tour of the of the council chambers upstairs that the tourists don't get to see on their tours. So we got to see the High Sheriff's private little bathroom, sort of toilet and it is set up the way a first-class room would have been on the Titanic Same woodwork everything same pattern and carpet, very beautiful.

Speaker 4:

We got some photos in there and then the high sheriff was telling us the history and a little bit of this and that, just to tell them along the way how they would share my family's story and my family's connection to Titanic with her. Her name is Fiona. She's very, very nice. And then following that, there was a tour guide that was dedicated to my wife and I and my friend who was there with us, and then later that day we had a personal tour of the Titanic attraction. It was already set up for me and we were able to go down into the dry dock and stand there and say, wow, you could tell how long Titanic was once you were in there, and I have pictures from that too.

Speaker 4:

Our last night in Belfast we stayed in Travelodge and the next day was another travel day, and that's where the second hump happened On my phone. We had tickets for a bus service from Belfast to Dublin to catch our flight, but it kept taking me to the new bus station. So I ended up scratching off that and buying a ticket for a TransLink bus and we made it to Dublin and flew home no problem.

Speaker 3:

So, overall, looking at the trip now, sort of tips and reflections sort of section, if you like. What was it like traveling across the UK? Any surprises other than the fact that you've mentioned anything good or bad?

Speaker 4:

It was very, very easy and I think that's purely through research and my own experiences in the past. I lived in Washington DC for four and a half years. I lived in Berlin for three years. It felt like home really more than you would think Because neither my wife nor I had been there. But we both felt like home really more than you would think Because neither my wife nor I had been there, but we both felt like home and I really don't think I had a bad experience. I mean, everything was even the Caledonian Sleeper. They refunded our entire fare almost right away 45 minutes at the most and they made sure we were good to go all the way where we were going. So that's all good.

Speaker 4:

As far as the experience, I don't think there was anything bad about it. I really don't. We got to see a lot. We didn't get to see everything we wanted. She wanted to see the Kelpies and, like you mentioned, I wanted to see the wood fromies and, like you mentioned, I wanted to see the wood from the Ironman's Olympia. We were generally surprised by our time with Mark in London, the four hours that we were able to spend with Mark. We got to see Lord Nelson's statuary at Trafalgar Square. We got to see what used to be the White Star offices at oceanic house. I don't think we had a bad experience. I really don't. Anyone we encountered were more than happy to help us if we need help that.

Speaker 3:

That's really cool to hear. I know you and I were in contact quite often, particularly around the the caledonian sleeper experience there, and I was honestly I think I said this to you more than once I felt. I felt at times I was there with you. I know you kept your own records as well as like a diary as you're going through. But, looking back on your trip, is there any one specific sort of meaningful or memorable moment on your journey? Well, there, were.

Speaker 4:

There were several. The most memorable, I guess, would be meeting distant relatives I didn't know I had in the camp. One of the first memorable moments was when we left New York by ship. We met a lovely couple named Amy and Jeff on the ship and we ended up spending a lot of time with them at different points during our seven days at sea. I was able to let them know hey, when we leave New York we go right underneath the Barrazano Bridge and there's very little clearance, so we got to share that with them. But I knew that through research. So the next memorable thing would be me friends in Southampton and being shown around very personal Meeting my family in Rochester. That held a deep meaning. That is different than, say, meeting friends and then, as you noted, being honored at a VIP in Belfast. Those are the most special memories that anyone could ever ask for oh, that's brilliant.

Speaker 3:

thank you, michael. So is there anything you'd do differently if you're planning a similar trip or your next trip?

Speaker 4:

Hopefully have more time for the different places. That would be very different. Like we're planning on going back in a couple years but we're going to be more selective. Like we want to spend more time in Rochester, where we met my family. My wife loves that town. Rochester is also where Charles Dickens wrote A Christmas Carol and he has a Swiss chalet there that I hope to see refurbished. So my wife Rochester Belfast as well as well oh, that's brilliant.

Speaker 3:

Thank you so much. So that sort of wraps up all the questions, and thank you so much for sharing all your personal experiences there. One final question what is your one tip for someone visiting the uk for the first time?

Speaker 4:

research, top of the line research. The second along with that I would say get a consult with you and Tracy, because then you have personal experience to say maybe you should do it this way instead doing it that way. It'll be easier on. That's top two tips.

Speaker 3:

I could ever do. Well, that's wonderful. Thank you so much, michael, for being on this episode of our podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure to meet you. It's been a pleasure to be in touch with you throughout your trip and it's been a pleasure to do a podcast with you.

Speaker 3:

So thank you very much I mean, I really enjoyed it thanks so much to michael for joining me and sharing his incredible journey, from honoring his titanic family legacy to navigating the uk with confidence and even helping fellow travellers along the way. It's been a real pleasure to hear how meaningful this trip was. If you'd like to plan your own UK adventure, like Michael, don't forget to check the show notes at uktravelplanningcom. Slash episode 164 for links to our UK train travel ebook and details about our itinerary consultations. Thanks for listening and for me and tracy happy uk travel planning.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning in to this week's episode of the uk travel planning podcast. As always, show notes can be found at uktravelplanningcom. If you've enjoyed the show, why not leave us feedback via text or a review on your favourite podcast app? We love to hear from you and you never know. You may receive a shout out in a future episode. But, as always, that just leaves me to say until next week. Happy UK travel planning.