Wednesday, January 3, 2024

We left Louisville at 4:45 on Tuesday, December 19th. I taught until about 1:30 and asked a teacher to cover my 6th period (I had covered a class for her several times a few years ago and never cashed in on her reciprocal offer and Erica covered my 7th period (Tom was off all day doing the last minute house preparations for the dog sitter and Jack was home, too) and then I rushed home and took a quick shower (travel is dirty and gross so I wanted a fresh start!) and then the three of us headed to the airport. We had a quick flight from Louisville to Atlanta and a very short one hour layover and then left from Atlanta to Manchester, England. We only had a total travel time of about 9 hours – one hour from Lou to ATL, one hour layover, and then a 7 hour flight across the pond due to the jet stream being in our favor. That’s how I like it. I would pay a bit more money to have a quicker travel time with less waiting around in airports and fewer connections, you know? But, our tickets were about $1100 each – economy and no checked baggage. Well, when we got to the gate at Louisville they said they didn’t have enough overhead storage on the flight and they gate checked our bags for free. The bags arrived in England with no problem and it was fine. We all had our personal items – Tom and Jack had backpacks and I had the crossbody that hooks onto the handle of your rolling carryon suitcase. 

Also, I had to take all three of my personal days to make this happen – we were still in school Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I have never done this before and I planned well and provided a project for my students to work on. It was a bit stressful, but it worked out. 

The flight was ok and we did have lots of leg room because we were in the bulkhead, but the seats felt pretty uncomfortable and I did not sleep a wink. 

We arrived at 8:11 a.m. England time – early! Do you like it when you have to climb down from the plane into the open air? I do! Then, we had to board a bus to get to the terminal. 

We collected our bags, cleared customs, and had a train reservation to take us about 30 minutes to our first destination of Liverpool. 

I was so tickled that our first airbnb had a Christmas tree! 

We had a happy reunion with Mason who had checked in the night before. He really liked the apartment and had room to spread out after 3 months in a tiny dorm room. He had planned to go to the grocery for us but ran out of time. Such a sweet thought, though! Liverpool and Manchester are the closest big cities to the tiny college town he was in, by the way. 

We freshened up and went out exploring. The airbnb was in a really great walkable location. We were even able to walk from the train station to the apartment. I was so excited and taking pictures of everything! 

My first need was coffee and we were all hungry, too. Mason suggested a pizza place and it hit the spot. 

After we ate, we found a church that had been bombed during WWII and toured it. 

We walked around a bit more but Jack started fading fast. He had the most trouble with jet lag. I think Tom was also done but he might have just offered to go back with Jack to keep him company. But, Mason and I stayed out. 

Mason and I found the Liverpool Christmas market and wandered around, then we went to the grocery and Ubered back to the apartment because we had bags to carry. I love going to the grocery in other countries so much! My family is a family of snackers and I knew we needed to have stuff on hand, too. We Ubered a lot and it was super easy and cheap. It was actually cheaper for our family of four to Uber than to take the city bus most of the time. 

I fell in love with the tiny milk! 

We had some snacks in the apartment and tried to order food because we were all just too tired to go out, but the Uber Eats guy dissed us and said he couldn’t find the apartment so we just gave up. 

So, Mason made us omelettes for dinner and we couldn’t get Jack to wake up. Tom, Mason, and I watched tv and played cards. It was kind of nice because we got Mason all to ourselves to tell us all the details of his semester. He was super chatty and I was just so happy to be sitting next to him on the couch!

See how the cute apartment mugs say “Be Happy”? I must have said “I’m so happy” one hundred times. 

Our little dinner of omelettes, crumpets, pistachios, and cheese: 

We all went to bed early and then by the next day we felt almost back to normal! Jack definitely felt better! 

We headed to the train station around 9:00. I was able to make coffee in each airbnb each morning which is a requirement for me, but sometimes I also got a coffee in the train station. I loved their lattes and flat whites. 

And, we all ordered bacon cheese rolls for breakfast. 

Our plan for the day was to visit Ormskirk and Edge Hill University which was about a 30 minute train ride. Mason was explaining something to Tom while waiting in the photo below. Mason splurged and bought the famous umbrella when he was in London and he loves that thing. Ha! 

We got off the train in Ormskirk and had about a 15 minute walk to the campus. It was a lovely crisp day! We walked through a little park and a landscape worker came over to tell us all about a monument we were looking at. We found everyone to be super friendly and we really didn’t see any other Americans anywhere we went. I was surprised! 

Campus: 

My first sighting of the postal boxes: 

This was my first time to visit the UK and everything was new and exciting and everything warranted a photo! 

I saw so much growth in Mason through this experience and it makes my heart so happy that he was willing to take the risk to do it. I wish Jack would have wanted to, as well, but he has a different personality and it wasn’t something he wanted to do. My semester abroad during college was life changing and I am so glad I did it. As hard as it is for us as parents, encourage your kids to do it! 

After visiting campus, we strolled around the adorable little town of Ormskirk…

Mason had a restaurant in mind for our lunch – Nordico Lounge. I felt like I was in a dream with the amazing people watching and just feeling like I was in a movie most of the time. 

Throughout the whole trip, dogs were everywhere. They are allowed in the grocery, pharmacies, restaurants – everywhere. We often saw them wearing their Christmas sweaters. Humans and dogs alike were so festive!

We all really enjoyed our lunch. I ordered 3 tapas from the tapas menu. We noticed several Spanish restaurants throughout the trip! The ketchup came in a bottle shaped like a tomato! 

I was just enthralled with this quintessential English couple on the couch near us. The way he looked at her was just so sweet. Yes, I am a creeper according to my kids. 

And, then we headed back to the train station. This was a regional train and we didn’t have reservations. We just bought the tickets at the station when we wanted to leave. 

We arrived back in Liverpool and Mason wanted to show us the art museum and a quaint little book store. 

Liverpool is really lovely! 

For dinner, we popped into a place I had read about called Ma Egerton’s next to a theatre. It was really something out of a movie! 

Jack ordered a flat bread and…

the rest of us tried Liverpool’s signature dish – scouse – which is like a beef stew. I loved it! I think I will try to make it here at home. 

We wanted to do more in Liverpool, but the time just went by too quickly! We also basically lost a whole day due to jet lag! I had typed up a 5 page document of our itinerary and things we could do if time permitted. I took pictures of it for my phone, but also enjoyed having a hard copy to refer to and write on. 

The next day we had tickets for the train to York, England so it was time to check out of our Liverpool apartment…

I brought a reusable grocery bag that said Merry Christmas and that was our “food bag” and we carted it from one apartment to the next. 

I had made egg bagel sandwiches with bagels I bought in Ormskirk at a cute little bakery and we ate those on the train. 

We almost always had the seats with a table and two of us would face forward (me – all but once!) and two of us would be backwards. 

I love train travel and we saw so much beautiful landscape out the windows. I had a book, but the scenery was just too good! Tom and I would look at the Google map on my phone to see all the places we were passing. I had the international plan on my phone and everyone else just used WIFI. It is almost a must to have a smart phone to travel these days. So many things were on my phone – the Airbnb app, the train apps, etc. Most of our train tickets were kept in my Apple wallet. 

Our next host in York let us meet him at 1:30 instead of 3:00 and he personally gave us a tour and handed off the keys. This was my favorite airbnb! It was a converted convent and it was so charming. My kids had said they wanted places that felt like the UK and not modern flats that could be anywhere and this place delivered. It turned out to be my favorite of all 5 airbnbs. This one even had two bathrooms. We also had two bathrooms in Edinburgh but one was just a half bath. Most of the apartments had a queen sized bed in one bedroom and two twins in the other bedroom. I think there were two that had a double or queen for Jack and Mason to share but they were fine with that. 

Roof windows were so cool! 

Jack and Mason were tired and wanted to rest, so Tom and I went out to explore our surroundings. I had told Tom going in that it would be ok to split up sometimes and that we didn’t all have to do everything. It turned out that we rarely did split up, but I think it’s important to manage expectations and be realistic. 

We were all surprised at how tiring the getting to the train station with all of your luggage, riding the train, getting off with all of your luggage, and the Ubering to your next accomodations can be! We liked to have an hour or two to settle in at our new places before going out. 

And, that’s where I will leave you for now! We arrived in York and settled in, and then Tom and I went out alone around 2:00! 

Amy