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While I always carry 100+ books on me via the reading app on my phone, choosing a paper book or two for a trip is a very. serious. matter.

Like agonize-over-the-decision-for-days kind of serious matter.

I have a history of making poor book decisions, as recently as France when I was stuck reading a romance book that was good for the first 10 pages and terrible for the remaining 300+. It put me in a bad mood every time I had to read it.

This time, I decided not to take chances. I spent the first few days finishing a book I started at home. So I knew I liked it. Then I brought an Anthony Horowitz book I had saved for this very occasion. I knew I would like it because I like all of his books. But I also ended up buying and starting books that I got on the trip, including the first Ian Moore, Murder and Croissants. Safe reading choices that made me happy.

How do you choose what you read on a trip? Do you leave it to chance or plan it out carefully?

So… the rest of the trip. We did several really cool things. Due to COVID, we decided not to move around a lot. Instead, we stayed for two weeks at the same hotel in London and used it as a base for day trips to Oxford, Cambridge, Canterbury, etc. Some of the cool experiences were planned. Some just happened to work out because our family tradition aligns with the Queen’s jubilee year celebrations. So we always happen to be there when special exhibits and such are happening.

Tower of London

We went twice. Once in the morning when I deeply connected with one of the ravens. It was one of the times that I took off my mask outside because we weren’t around people, and I had a lot to tell the raven while we stared into each other’s eyes.

And then once at night for the Ceremony of the Keys. It’s a ritual that has been going on for over 700 years without a break, and we got special tickets to get to watch the ceremony with a small group because we’re members of Historic Royal Palaces. You cannot have your camera out during the ceremony — it has never been recorded — but our Yeoman Warder let us stay for another 45 minutes after the ceremony and told us stories and let us photograph the Tower at night.

Stonehenge

We also got special tickets to go to Stonehenge after it closed for the day with 50 other people. We were given an hour in the inner circle. We were told we could do anything (as long as we kept our clothes on) EXCEPT touch, hug, or lick the stones. Apparently licking the stones is an issue. I actually kind of get it. Lying underneath the stones made me sob.

The coolest part about being next to the stones vs. on the walkway is that you could see things like how Sir Christopher Wren chiseled his name INTO THE STONE in the 1600s.

Windsor

The Queen was at Windsor the day we were there thanks to Boris Johnson’s announcement, but we didn’t see her. What we did get to see was her Coronation gown, which was temporarily on display (the third time in 69 years!) at the palace. It was INCREDIBLE. We were also outside Buckingham the day they were going OBEs and MBEs, and we got to see the people come out. Those two things were just random timing.

Canterbury

It didn’t look like our original plan to walk the pilgrimage path to Canterbury, but we did make it to the Cathedral. And I cried there, too.

Church Services at Westminster Abbey

I dragged the twins to midday communion at Westminster Abbey. We didn’t take communion, obviously, but I wanted them to attend a service. And I don’t think you can get any better than Westminster Abbey.

The Southbury Child

One of our favourite actors is Alex Jennings, and we got to see him in The Southbury Child at the Bridge Theater. I like to think that he noticed us while taking his bow and appreciated that we were working to keep him safe with our tight-fitting KN95 masks.

Other cool things: ChickieNob had a research slot at the British Museum to work with royal medals from the 1500s. And because I had to go as her chaperone because she’s under 18, I got to put on nitrile gloves and hold them, too. THAT was freakin’ awesome. Thankful that I got a chance to watch ChickieNob in action doing research for her capstone project.

We also loved seeing the Corpus Clock and Chronophage in Cambridge when we were out there for the Centre for Computing History. We also had a good time recreating all of our old photos from 10 years ago around London and Oxford. It’s fun to see them side-by-side. Hampton Court Palace was fantastic, as were the sunken gardens at Kensington. Plus we got food from our favourite restaurant, Da Mario, a bunch of times. Along with great takeaway meals, we also once had to get Pizza Express and eat it on the ground in an alleyway after kicking aside broken glass and cigarette butts.

But it’s the memories, right?

If we were going to be in England, I decided to get myself a pair of steel-toed DM Chelsea boots. It’s not that I couldn’t get these shoes in the US, but I wanted to get them over there. A memento from the trip.

So we went to Camden Town and went to the Dr. Martens store. I did a loop, looking to see if any other style appealed as much as the Chelsea boots, and then went to the salesperson and told her what I wanted.

“Steel-toed Chelsea boots,” she said. “We stopped selling those years ago.”

“I’m certain that you still make them,” I told her. “All my DMs have steel toes, and I just saw them online last night.”

She kept repeating that they hadn’t made steel-toed shoes in years (but my last pair of boots was only… oh… 11 years ago), that anything I saw online was probably used (it wasn’t), or — she finally conceded — overstock sold outside the UK (maybe). “We don’t make steel-toed shoes anymore. Your shoes are… vintage.”

Vintage. Old. Ancient. Bygone.

Another salesperson stepped in and told me that I may like non-steel-toed boots if I gave them a chance. He understood that they had a different shape, but I could make myself happy with a good polishing from time to time. They were comfortable — as comfortable as my lace-ups but ten times faster to pull on.

And all of my other shoes now marked me as old, and I didn’t even know it.

I don’t know why the salesperson words got under my skin; made me feel old and grey and out-of-touch. But they did. It took me a long time to make a decision to get the boots. I’m glad that I did. And I’ll be gentle with all of my existing DMs knowing that I can’t get them anymore. But it feels like the end of an era. And I’ll have to get accustomed to walking in lighter shoes.

Every ten years, for Josh’s birthday, we do the same(ish) trip to the UK. The twins came on the last one when he turned 40, but I realized when they were born that they would be in late high school when our trip for his 50th rolled around. I dreamed that we’d do a three-day walk into Canterbury, reading Chaucer along the way.

But then COVID happened.

And the company that ran the three-day walk shut down.

And we weren’t certain we should go on the trip at all, especially since we hadn’t left home in years due to the pandemic. But we talked it out and decided that we were all okay with the restrictions we’d need to put in place (masks, takeaway meals in parks or in the hotel room, curtailed plans) to make the trip happen. So we stuck with our tradition and hit the UK for Josh’s 50th.

One afternoon, the ChickieNob and I Googled how long it would take to go from London to Paris on the Eurostar. It was too far for a day trip, but as we played on the site we discovered that Brussels was only two hours from London. We started campaigning for day trip to Brussels, which became a family joke for a few days.

Until Josh bought the Eurostar tickets and we were locked into a 7 am train to Belgium. Which meant we needed to leave our hotel at 5 am to get to the station on time. Suddenly it didn’t seem quite as funny.

But it turned out to be one of the best days of the trip. Not just the endless waffles or stocking up on French books. We did very little research before we left, so we spent the day wandering up and down streets, poking into cathedrals and parks, and just watching the city unfold in front of us. As someone who overplans, it was a nice change to have a day somewhere unknown with no agenda.

We somewhat spontaneously took a trip to Europe. Everything the newspapers say is true and NOT true at the same time. We ended up having a relatively uneventful trip after a lot of worrying, but your mileage may vary.

Check Your Flight

We made a flight. We congratulated ourselves. We planned the trip. Six days before we were set to leave, we checked our flight due to all of the news articles out there about canceled flights. And ours had a big, red canceled notice on it. No one notified us. If we hadn’t checked, we would not have known this was the case. So first bit of advice: check your flights daily leading up to the trip, and keep up with the news for where you’re going. We also checked our return flight every day of the trip, but that one remained scheduled. Huge sigh of relief.

Things Will Take a Long Time

Or maybe they won’t. But go into it thinking it will take a long time. We downloaded a few audiobooks for stories I already knew by heart. This gave me something to listen to while we were in line or waiting. Choosing something happy that didn’t tax my brain gave me an opportunity to mentally escape. Things we thought would go quickly didn’t. Things we thought would take a long time didn’t. You never know.

Travel Insurance

We were probably able to keep calm in some situations knowing that we had travel insurance. Even if you don’t end up needing it, it’s well worth the cost for the peace of mind.

Think Before You Pack

Pack as much as you can in carry on. We packed a lot of our clothes in carry on, and anything that would be difficult not to have for the first few days. Bring extra medications in case you get stuck. We had watched friends deal with missing luggage via stories on Facebook, and we saw the pictures of Heathrow with the suitcases piled up. We made a spreadsheet of everything packed and took photos so we knew which bag contained which items. We also made an audio recording as we packed, talking out what was in each suitcase. We didn’t end up needing these photos and audio files, but they would have been handy to have if things didn’t work out.

Fly Direct

If you can, fly direct. Every story I hear about missing luggage includes a connecting flight.

BYOM

Bring your own masks and tests. We masked everywhere — any time we were outside the hotel room, including outside while we walked around. (Yes, we have lovely mask tans.) We didn’t eat at restaurants. We brought our own breakfast and lunch and did takeaway for dinner. It worked well because the weather was nice. We brought tiny crackers and granola bars for the flight that we could eat without removing our masks. We brought reusable straws and a sponge so we could drink without removing our masks. We took COVID seriously because it’s still serious. No one gave us grief for wearing a mask or looked at us strangely, but only 10 – 20% of people were still masking. We came home COVID-free, though we’re continuing to test.

Buy Tickets Beforehand

Even better, if you’re going to multiple sites, see if they’re connected by a common membership pass. We were able to get a year membership to one place that allowed us to enter five different museums/sites. This gave us a place to call if we were having trouble getting in that day. Plus we got perks such as going back to the Tower at night for the Ceremony of the Keys, which was held for members only.

That’s all the advice I have to give. Would we do it again? Probably. If we hadn’t purchased the tickets before everything started to go downhill, we probably would have delayed the trip. But once we had the tickets, we decided to go full-steam-ahead and we’re glad we went. Even happier that things worked out and we’re home again.

Our heart goes out to people weathering the heat wave right now. We had warm days while we were there, but nothing like what is going on right now.