In our first UK trip in recent history (two trips in late teen/early 20’s), some of the fondest memories I have are of the unknown and unexpected. It’s got me thinking about my current (over?) planning.
The trip was 19 days, York to Glasgow to Cotswolds with 2 free days at the end. I planned the trip entirely on my own (meaning no forums to bounce ideas off of because I hadn’t discovered the forums). The plan for the Cotswolds, however, was to allow Cotswolds Walks to plan it for me. It was an eight day Best of the Cotswolds walking tour with lodging booked for us, luggage transfer, maps and walking instructions. I read through all the materials fairly carefully. They included some ideas for dinners, some suggestions of things to see along the way. But once we arrived in Moreton-in-Marsh and got some laundry done, we were totally caught up in the walking and the experience and did not go back and look at suggestions.
There was probably a mention of Hailes Abbey on the way from Winchcombe to Stanton but if so I didn’t remember it. We were focused on walking and it was a lot more walking than I had understood. We were focused on whatever amazing scene popped up before our eyes. A sign directing us to Hailes Abbey popped up and we decided to take a look. Had you suggested that I take a detour (extra steps!!) to see a ruined abbey, I might have passed. We had a lovely experience. It was unlike anything else we had seen so far. A friendly, knowledgeable visitor centre staff gave us a free booklet because he had been to our state recently. We were the only visitors there and we wandered among the stone ruins, imagining what each space was and what activities would have taken place in that area when it was a functioning abbey and thinking about the forces that came into play when it was destroyed.
The two free days at the end were delightful as well. We had not planned anything between finishing the Cotswolds walk on a Friday and flying out on a Monday. We randomly decided to take a train from MiM to Cheltingham (my husband later told me he had an inclination to just stay on the train and keep going and that’s kind of what we did). When we got to Cheltenham, we were less than enthralled. It was one of the wettest days we had had yet and there was some mix up at the hotel that took some sorting. We ended up going to the movies and eating at the hotel.
In the evening we looked at maps and train routes and decided to take a day trip to Cardiff the next day. We knew nothing about Cardiff. When we got there, we did a combination of phone research and “stumbling upon”. What an awesome day of discovery we had, museums, churches, alleys, pubs. We finished the day in the Cardiff Market, bought food for the train ride back to Cheltingham and arrived at our hotel thoroughly content and pleased with ourselves.
The next day, I wanted to head for Cornwall but it seemed like too much travel since we would be taking the train to Heathrow Premier Inn that evening and had our luggage with us. We decided to go to Torquay. In Exeter, we got on the wrong train. We were headed down the eastern coast and decided to get off in Dawlish because someone we knew had mentioned it. We trudged along from the station, wondering what to do with our luggage. We saw a B&B and were gutsy enough to go in and ask about leaving luggage. The proprietor told us it was fine to leave it with her. We offered to pay her but she declined. Then she told us she “would be locking up before we were back, so here’s a key”. We were stunned and very appreciative. We had a lovely, unburdened day in an English seaside town, walking along the Dawlish Water where families and ducks were playing. The weather was quite nice until late afternoon when it began to rain and we decided it was time to go pick up our luggage and get our train to Heathrow.
I’m going to try to build some more “stumbling upon” time into our upcoming trip.