[Throwback] UK Trip Final Thoughts

Here is a summary of links to United Kingdom trip blog posts:

Vacation in the UK
London Landmarks Part 1
London Landmarks Part 2
London Experiences
Stonehenge, Bath, and Lacock Village
A Day in Newcastle
Edinburgh Sights and Landmarks
Edinburgh Experiences
UK Trip Final Thoughts

Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace

Normally, as I wrap up a series of travel posts, I share a lot of travel tips and suggestions based on my experience. I can't do that here though since my trip was so long ago that even some of the companies I booked tours with are no longer in operation.

The Roman Baths in Bath

As I went through my photos and started remembering the details of my trips, I started to wish I had today's technology back then. I would have loved to take more photos, especially of the day I spent with Dave where I got to eat in the House of Commons and watch a World Cup qualifying match at a sports pub.

Tower of London

This was my first international trip that was purely for leisure. My Belgian boss at the time, Els, recommended that I get a travel book to help me figure out what to do and how to get from one place to another. I bought a Rough Guides book of Britain and Ireland and I found it very useful and informative. Up until my last trip to South America, I would always purchase travel books - usually Lonely Planet - of the countries I would visit. I have a decent collection of them now and while they are quite expensive, I never regretted buying any them.

St. James's Park

I can't really remember many of my dining experiences when I was there, which probably means I ate at a lot of fast food places (translation: cheap) which makes sense because I needed to make sure my money would last the entire time I was there.  That said, I did write about eating at Planet Hollywood and in the House of Commons. I also got to have Fish and Chips, Guinness, and a bit of haggis. My daily breakfast while I was staying at Holland House was a traditional English breakfast. It was also during this trip that I got to try Ben & Jerry's Phish Food for the first time and I have been a fan ever since.

Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, as seen from the London Eye

I spent eleven days in three different cities in the UK - London, Newcastle, and Edinburgh - and to date, it remains my third longest international holiday (only my trips to South America and Russia have been longer). I think that I've gotten better at doing travel research now so I would definitely love to visit again and do more things that I didn't get to do, such as walk among the stones in Stonehenge and join the Harry Potter Studio Tour which was not available back then. If I do go back to the UK, hopefully I can bring some other members of my family with me.

St. Margaret's Chapen in Edinburgh Castle

As I started writing about my trip to the UK, I realized that I really enjoy blogging about my travels. Even if I wrote about a trip I took so long ago, I found the walk down memory lane to be extremely enriching and gratifying. I went on quite a few trips that I never blogged about and I am now looking forward to writing about those too.