Travel Tuesday: England
Last summer, our grandma "Andy" passed away from a heart attack. She was one of mine and Katy's best friends and biggest idols, so we were, of course, completely shaken.
So was Andy's best friend, our Aunt Trish, who lives in England. The two of them were like Katy and I — basically sisters. They would travel to visit each other all the time, so when 2017 came along and we were all facing our first Andy-less year, Katy and I decided to take up our grandma's travel torch (she was one of the most well-travelled people I've ever known) and fly to England for my 25th birthday in May.
Visiting Trish and seeing "the motherland" was a very precious and important experience for Katy and I, and we know Trish enjoyed having us there in her BFF's place. We're so blessed to have had her, THE best tour guide in all of England, by our side — at least for half of the trip!
BOSHAM: We landed at 10 a.m. England time on my birthday. After spending about an hour in the customs line (this was just a few days after the Manchester attack), we took a train out of London to Chichester, a little town close to the even littler town where Trish lives, Bosham.
A very worried Trish was waiting for us at the Chichester train station — we'd taken a wrong turn despite her careful directions and were about 45 minutes late — and it felt so awesome to fly into her arms. And it felt bizarre to sit in what should have been the driver's seat of her car as she drove us into Bosham.
Katy and I were almost speechless during that car ride, because the scenery was like nothing we'd ever seen in Canada or the U.S. It hit us very quickly that England is much, much older than North America.
Everything we passed, every house, pasture, shop, pub — it was all picture-perfect, quaint and adorable, and as we verbalized our awe Trish assured us that not every corner of England looked like that, but we were still impressed. Even moreso when we reached Bosham.
My dad had told me all about Bosham, where he and Andy would summer with Trish when he was a kid, and it matched his description perfectly: a gorgeous seaside town dotted with people as charming as their houses, Katy and I decided within an hour that we never wanted to leave.
We arrived at Trish's abode, "Reed Bunting," where she had prepared a very Instagram-worthy birthday breakfast. This is where my obsession with roses and elderflower blossomed.
After a long walk through the Bosham countryside (WE SAW SOME COWS AND RUINS), Trish took us into the tiny town for my birthday dinner and, when I went to buy us all drinks, I quickly learned that tipping is not the custom in England.
We closed our first English night off with a stroll through the very ancient centre of Bosham, ogling at the church — one of the oldest in Sussex — and at the sun as it set over the incoming tide.
HANHAM COURT: Our sort-of relative, Richard (Trish's step-son) and his wife Julia live in a historic estate near Bath called Hanham Court. While it's a private residence that's not always open to the public, Trish brought us to Hanham to help with the National Garden Scheme Open Weekend fundraising festival that happened to be taking place there on the weekend of our stay. We were very lucky to have spent two days in this paradise with Trish, Richard, Julia and some members of their lovely family, and to meet the close-knit team that keeps Hanham Court and its sprawling gardens as beautiful as ever.
Katy and I volunteered in the tea room, which was basically a crash course in dealing with pounds (and in how seriously the English take their tea and cake, my God). We made some new friends in there and were given tons of advice on where to go when we eventually made it to London.
When we weren't trying to decipher the difference between a pound and a pence in the tea room, we were exploring Richard and Julia's gorgeous estate, soaking in every sight and sound of the natural and architectural wonders that splayed out in all directions.
BATH: On one of the rainier days at Hanham Court, we were urged to take the train to Bath, since it was so close by and we wouldn't have the chance to see it otherwise. So on our third day in England, we raced to the historic city and spend a whirlwind four hours spinning in its rain-soaked beauty.
Following the checklist given to us by the Hanham Court team, we lit a candle for Andy in Bath Abbey, stopped by the Circus (we were so confused, apparently "Circus" in England means just a bunch of homes arranged in a circle with a park in the middle? At least in this case? Still cool tho) and stopped for coffee on a very damp patio, where we people-watched the masses of tourists. The lines to get into the actual baths were too long for us to bother, but even from the outside they were magnificent. We also took the standard tourist photo in one of the red telephone booths we stumbled across, which was full of garbage and reeked of pee. Yay!
LONDON: Oh, London. We arrived in the north end of the city in the late morning and, consulting a fold-out map Trish had gifted me for my birthday, walked towards Camden, which we had heard was a good thrifting destination. On our way there we were enchanted by Regent's Park (why can't Bellwoods look like that?) and literally ran into Sherlock Holmes' house.
After checking out the Sherlock Holmes Museum at 221-B Baker Street, we did eventually break into Camden, which was indeed the ultimate thrifting destination. I found a cool pair high-waisted, light-blue trousers for 4 pounds (so like, $7?!) at a tiny music store selling cassette tapes and vinyl records that had a little collection of vintage clothes in the back. (I think in that moment I truly earned my hipster stripes.)
At the end of the day, we took our first double-decker bus ride (!!!) to Peckham, the neighbourhood where our first Airbnb was located. We were actually staying with some friends of Trish's who we'd met while volunteering in the tea room, and Jo and Dirk ended up being the most delightful hosts.
We spent our second day in London trekking into the heart of the city, to Soho, where our second Airbnb was. We didn't realize when booking that our specific location was right in the middle of "Sex Town," so our loft was surrounded by sex stores. It was interesting.
That day we continued to thrift and were super successful in it. A LESSON FOR YOU ALL: LONDON HAS AN AMAZING THRIFTING SCENE. MUCH BETTER THAN TORONTO. SCREW THE TERRORISTS, GO THERE NOW AND THRIFT.
After visiting the Millennium Bridge upon Jo's suggestion and enjoying its awesome view of St. Paul's Cathedral on one side and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre on the other, we spent our evening drinking at various Soho haunts and eventually stumbled unknowingly into a lesbian bar. When a girl tried to sweep me off my feet we quickly bolted, only to discover that bars in London close at midnight?! That was a bit of a boner-killer, but we were still happy to crash into bed.
On our final day in London before returning to Bosham, we visited Buckingham Palace (and mounted a large fence to take some illegal selfies), Big Ben and King's Cross Station, hoping to get a picture with Platform 9 3/4 but there was an enormous line so we just admired it from afar.
CHICHESTER: We spent our final ~English days~ in the fairy tale towns of Bosham and Chichester. Trish took us to Chichester Cathedral, where one of our ancestors is buried — he was a bishop there in the 1300s, v. cool, we said hi to him — and to a play at the very renowned Chichester Theatre.
It was with the utmost depression that Katy and I boarded our flight back home on the seventh day of our trip. I'd had my best birthday yet, hands-down. One week definitely was not enough time to get intimate with England, but it was enough to skim its radiant surface. We can't wait to go back again and get to know it even better — maybe for Katy's birthday next year!
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