2020 UK Trip Pt 6 - London

Final post of the trip. The whole day was dedicated to stomping around old favorites as well as exploring some areas that we haven’t really seen. We started off going straight to our old neighborhood and favorite area, Shoreditch.

If the previous day seemed quiet, this was even quieter. No surprise that many businesses ended up closing down after the week had ended.

A great spot that I never managed to visit before was Bike Shed. They now have a location in SoCal as well, but I couldn’t imagine it looks as great as this under-bridge lair.

Since we were so close, we decided to swing by the old building that we stayed at several years ago. It’s since been renovated to a much nicer apartment complex, but the streets still look and feel the same as they did back in the day.

Finally saw the infamous “MI6” building.

And so we end the night and trip grabbing one last order of boba (of course) and head back to the hotel for an early flight the following day. We were VERY fortunate that not only had the flight back been mostly empty and without any issues, but that we didn’t experience any symptoms the following weeks when we were home. \

As I mentioned in the beginning, it was a very strange trip. With our previous Asian trip we made a relatively-last minute pivot from Hong Kong to Tokyo due to the protests and looking back that was clearly the right call at the time. This time wasn’t quite as clear, but a lot of it had to do with pure luck in timing. The experience was incredibly smooth and easy, but the stress of the world shutting down around us ensured that this was something we didn’t want to experience again.

2020 UK Trip Pt 5 - London

One last day of driving. Waking up in Lake District and grabbing a quick breakfast, we eagerly got back on the road.

Finally in London, the last stop (and close to the airport). With two nights to spend here, we mainly focused on dinner for the first night and taking it easy, especially after the string of days on constantly traveling. We also tried to stay mindful of the number of times we would take public transportation, so we tried to stick with one area, and this round we chose to hang around Covent Gardens.

One thing for sure, it was really REALLY quiet during the whole stay here. With exception of Christmas Eve and Christmas day, I don’t think we had ever seen the city so empty.

2020 UK Trip Pt 4 - Lake District

To ensure that the longest drive of our trip didn’t eat up all of our day, we took off early in the dark and started heading out of Scotland.

Great thing that we did too, because what we didn’t anticipate was the amazing sunrise that greeted us as we drove though the Highlands.

The rest of the morning’s drive was just one amazing sight after another.

And now for something completely different. The “gloom” seemed to only stick around Scotland as the moment we got near Glasgow (where this was taken) the skies became a lot brighter.

This little village was one of several peppered around Lake District. It was pretty clear that the area was friendly to hikers, as well as being unfriendly towards cars. Some of the tightest roads I’ve driven were here.

The drive to this castle was particularly nerve racking, as in addition to being a single-track, two way road, the old stone walls that squeezed at the car’s sides ensured there was zero room for moving aside as well as turning every turn into a blind one for cars shorter than a lifted Defender. Genuinely been on hiking trails better suited for traffic. To add insult to injury, we arrived only several minutes before the castle closed, so we didn’t get a chance to look inside. But at least the view from the lawn was nice.

After a genuinely full day of driving, we checked into our hotel, grabbed a quick bite, and settled in a for an early night. The following day would be the last on the road as we return the car to Heathrow and wrap up the trip in London itself.

2020 UK Trip Pt 3 - Isle of Skye

Despite the cold, rainy weather the night before had turned into, the following morning was bright and welcoming. We took off early and pushed into the furthest point of our trip: the Isle of Skye.

Our fun little rental (thankfully manual!) allowed us to venture a little off the larger M and A roads and explore via the smaller and tighter B roads that cut through Scotland.

The driving on this day was easily my favorite. The landscape, weather, and roads drastically changed every half hour or so. After driving through some properly twisty roads through forests, we briefly stopped for some breakfast at a little town called Ballater before heading off again.

Snow sports are snow sports and I’d happily spend all day on these slopes (especially given the current shutdowns) but driving by these runs makes me thankful I live so close to the Sierras.

This section was a little dicey, with a fairly long stretch of road narrowing down to a single lane and plenty of blind corners.

Eventually though we made it to the Skye Bridge, a simple but vital bridge that connects Skye to the rest of mainland UK. Despite taking longer routes, we still have plenty of time left in the day to explore the area, so we decided to drive around the island and see what Skye had to offer.

Turns out what it offered was probably the most surreal moments of our trip. Isolation is one thing, and the Scottish Highlands offers its flavor of beauty that I’ve never encountered anywhere else, but Skye had a touch of the familiar to me.

Maybe it was the more modern wooden architecture of this community space/cafe we found, but if someone were to explain to me that I were looking at an unmapped section of western America, I could believe them. I knew I hadn’t been to anywhere like this place before, but it didn’t feel alien to me. Or maybe I was just a sucker for the dramatic sky. Either way, after some delicious chocolate cake and coffee, we headed back towards our AirBnB to swing by a nearby attraction with hopes to catch it before it closed.

Of course it’s a castle! There are genuinely so many scattered around countryside that it’s kinda hard to not see one (this was the 2nd we saw today, the first being that white grain elevator looking structure in one of the earlier images). Not many of them look that amazing though, and so despite not being particularly rare in this area, this was still pretty fantasy-looking to us. The sunshine/rain weather that was slamming us helped make things look magical as well. Sadly it had closed up early probably because of the drop in tourist traffic with the COVID epidemic quickly approaching, but it looked great from the shores.

As this wasn’t really an area with many dine-out options and we were pretty tired from the all-day drive, we grabbed some microwavable dinners at the local market and headed to our tiny little AirBnB shed. It was clearly on the small side, but actually a pretty nice place to stay.

After our routine wipe down of all the surfaces, we settled in for an early sleep as tomorrow would be the longest leg of our entire trip. Next stop, Lake District!

2020 UK Trip Pt 2 - Dundee

Next leg of the trip was Dundee, just about an hour north of Edinburgh. The bulk of the drive was not too different than the drive to York; expressways across grassy hills. There were plenty of sheep, this one known statue, looming mountains in the distance, and some nice bridges, but otherwise pretty uneventful.

We arrived just after noon and immediately went off to grab some lunch. To our surprise, we stumbled on a Kiwi cafe which happened to have some of that Supreme coffee that we recognized from Tokyo. It’s like this brand has a thing for small islands around the world.

Afterwards we went to the McManus Gallery, a museum housing much of Scotland’s historical accomplishments as well as some of their older art. The best part was, like most museums in UK, the entry was free.

Fun fact; Lemmings and the original GTA video game came from here!

2019 UK / Ireland 2

Last day and last post of the UK trip, this time a whole day in Dublin. Being in Dublin, had to play tourist and visit the Guinness brewery. Also swung by Trinity Library and saw Brian Boru's harp which dates back to as far as 14th-15th century.

2019 UK / Ireland 1

As we wrap up our time in London, we traveled over to Dublin, Ireland for the last leg of our trip. While one of the less eventful days with the flight occurring in the middle of the day, we were at least able to end it on a high note with a dinner at O’Neills Pub. A very interesting building that felt like a cluster of rooms tied together, the buffet style Irish food was exactly what we needed that night.

2019 UK / London 2

Our second and only full day in London, we first traveled to our old stomping grounds around Shoreditch and Brick Lane. Later we went to Mercato Metropolitano to meet with Marcel and one of his owners while wrapping up the day at the nearby Tate Modern museum. Gonna try to cram everything in one post, so early apologies for the length of this one.

One thing I really appreciated about London was the popularity of traditional neon signage. I do wish they were more common here in the States, though some of the language that was used should probably stay in UK…

Some good ole guerilla marketing along with an amazing book store, will definitely need to remember it next time I go back.