#103 October 17, 2022. Nomad Diary. Things I Didn't Know Before Living and Traveling in the UK for Four Months, and Outside the US for Six Months.

 Things I Didn’t Know Before Living and Traveling in the UK for 4 Months and Outside the US for 6 Months. I’m still learning as we have a month+ to go!

Bird on a roof in Swindon, England.

Canterbury Sky.

1.  I can’t know the future weather. Our first couple of weeks in England we were living in Tonbridge in Kent. I found myself looking at the sky and trying to predict the clouds and the rain. My predictions were so wrong! I had to stop wasting my time trying. I figured out that what I knew of reading the clouds and the weather from where I’ve lived in the US would not work for me here. 

It turned out that our time in England was recorded as one of the driest and hottest summers in their history. Everything that I expected about rainy England, was not our experience. We have had some rains, some drizzles, and mostly beautiful dry weather.

I came prepared for a vast array of weather. I’m living out of a suitcase for 6 months. 

We have an amazing itinerary: (May-June)Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Halifax, Canada; Iceland; Shetland Islands; English Channel; Norway up to the Arctic Circle; (July-October) England: Seaford; Tonbridge; Canterbury; London; Bath; Bristol; Cardiff; Milton Keynes; Newcastle on Tyne; North Shields; Housesteads walking East on Hadrian’s Wall; Edinburgh; Scotland Highlands; Ulverston; Lake Windermere; Lancaster; Liverpool; Conwy, North Wales; Snowdonia; Aberystwyth; Carmarthen; Bridgend; Newport, Wales; Eastbourne; Deal; Dover;(November) Belgium; Lyon, France; Barcelona, Spain; Cruise Ship for November including North Mediterranean then across the Atlantic back to Ft. Lauderdale on December 2nd.

Layering clothes is the way to go! I have worn out two pairs of wool socks and one pair of tennis shoes.

My favorite clothing for this trip is:

Wool socks with low ankles. My favorite brand so far is Smart Wool. Smart Wool has not worn out as other brands have. 

Wool tees both short and long sleeve. Wool base layer with a zipper at the front mid-neck. Merino Tech has been my most comfortable, breathable, and stylish long sleeved tee. Wool tees wash and hang dry quickly. Wool tees dry out quicker than cotton tees. They smell better longer than cotton tees and can be refreshed quicker too.  

A wool neck warmer. It is a stretchy tube that was made in Portugal. It’s easy to pull on and off and keeps me cozy and warm and blocks wind. 

My REI Rain Shell is like a short trench coat. It covers me to mid-thigh and has waterproof features that have kept me dry and covered my layers underneath.

Craghoppers brand water-resistant hiking pants. I bought these when we were in Ulverston and they moved into first-place! They look fashionable and don’t take on wrinkles. They are comfy and wash and dry quickly. 

When my Keen hiking sandals finally wore out in Edinburgh, I settled on a pair of Merrell water-resistant trekking shoes. I’m loving them as they are nice to my feet and keep me on the trails longer.

Sunrise over Conwy, Wales from the Wall.

2. I can’t know our complete calendar. We had a big idea of our travel direction and areas of England that we wanted to see as well as a rough timeline to follow. About 3 months before arriving we knew what we were doing the first 2 weeks after arriving in Southampton. 12 nights of that were booked at an Airbnb in Tonbridge. It was here that we were able to plan more of our calendar and we were looking forward to our next stop in London for a housesit with a cat. Darrell had completed the trustedhousesitters.com profile and found a housesit that we built into our calendar. While in Tonbridge, we were still looking at possible housesits during our weeks in England, and also plotting where we could stay in-between housesits. We used a map and web site of churches of Christ to see where we would like to worship on Sundays too. We have had some travel glitches with train strikes and with buses that aren’t running on full schedules. We currently have completed our calendar through arriving in Ft. Lauderdale on December 2nd. Traveling this way, allows us to build our calendar out and fill it in in unusual ways. It’s an interesting dynamic that gives us some surprises! So far, we’ve enjoyed how it comes together and what we experience.

Darrell getting Roxy ready for her walk in South Wales.

3. We didn’t know that we would become housesitters.  In June on our 34 day Iceland cruise we talked to several different people who mentioned being housesitters or using housesitters. We got a couple of apps recommended and Darrell checked them out. He ended up creating a profile on trustedhousesitters.com. While we were on the ship about a month from the date for our first housesit, we had a phone interview with a potential housesit in London. It all went positive and we agreed to arrive for the 2 week housesit. It was to be our first and we were initiated into the system with good remarks on both sides.

Through my Nomad Diary I have pictures and stories of our housesits while here in the UK. We are on our 4th sit currently and we have a 5th housesit before crossing the channel at the end of October. 

Housesit 1: Coco a siamese cat in a London Flat for 2 weeks.

Housesit 2: Smokey a chilled older cat in Milton Keynes home for about a week. (cut short due to host circumstances)

Housesit 3: Hamish the miniature Schnauzer in Edinburgh for a week.

Housesit 4: is now with Roxy a Shih Tzu well behaved small dog in Bridgend, South Wales for 1 week.

Housesit 5: a dog in Deal for 9 nights.

All of the homes we have stayed in have been quite nice and given us more room than we normally look to rent in an airbnb.  There is no money exchanged so we save on our budget and that’s always a positive. We have met lovely people who have opened and shared their homes and their pets with us. This has been an amazing experience that I had no idea even existed when we began planning our journey over two years ago.

Me, Darrell, My brother, Wayne and his wife Chris in our Seaford BnB after our 16 day Norway Cruise. Reconnecting friendships with so many.

4. We didn’t know or realize how many friends we would find along our way! 

In the US we have many friends and family that have hosted us and we have enjoyed visiting on our travels. Stepping out of the US has humbled me and stretched me to be a friend quickly and to enjoy the friendships that are here for me! 

We have met lifelong friends on cruises. On our most recent cruises we have new-found friends from Minnesota, Florida and Brisbane, Australia! In Wales, we were able to reconnect with Pat and Clive who we met on our 2015 South American Cruise, and visited in 2019 in their home in North Wales. 

I am using my contact list, Whatsapp, Facebook, and email to message and stay in-touch with my friends and my family. We have met and spent lovely times with airbnb hosts, church members, housesit hosts, and cruising friends.

I am pushing myself to make the most of introducing myself, having conversations– sometimes on my facebook posts, lol!-- and remembering people and their details. 

Finding our church groups in England and meeting the people. Some church people here know people we know! We were invited into a woman’s home who has hosted church people through her 80+ years. Another man became our instant friend and spent a whole day driving us to Dover Castle and the Cliffs and a little known beach! We found a couple with their 4 children from Alabama living and working in Newcastle on Tyne. He’s a chiropractor and we got treatments twice. His wife knew our daughter-in-law! We met tourists at church in Edinburgh who knew of our kids in Maine and had common friends with them! 

On our Iceland cruise, we serendipitously connected with friends from church in Huntsville, Alabama where we lived the last 14 years. 

We reconnected with my brother and his wife who came on our Norway cruise with us. We had talked about cruising together and it worked out this year. Darrell also had a work colleague come on this cruise too! We had very enjoyable dinner times!

A beautiful walk in the Lake District!

5. We didn’t know what it would be like to live without a car. 

This has been part of our game while living here: to use the public transit systems. Some have been easier than others, but everything has been a learning curve. Electronics and apps, maps and contactless payments have made this game way easier!! I’m reasonable with parts of all of this planning, tracking, finding, mapping, etc. Darrell has become an expert and the amount of time he puts in is incredible. These feats of using these systems take time and learning and effort. 

Somewhere, sometime I begged for us to just get a car for a week and drive around. I think we were in North Wales. Darrell talked me off the cliff because with renting a car comes a whole other list of issues. He didn’t want all those issues, and I didn’t either. So, I settled down and accepted that our limited views through the bus or the train or my walking path is satisfying for me. I’m grateful for us both to ride without having to navigate the roads, the different side of the road, the single lanes used for two lanes! There’s a lot going on. I can enjoy life with a car in the US. The trains and buses have been clean and mostly on time and schedule. The bus drivers are extremely helpful as are other passengers. Our experiences have been positive and we have the mobility to get in and out and up and down. I’ve dreamed about riding a coastal bus in England and I got to do it in Wales! It was fabulous! I’d do it again. Through it all, we have logged about 120 miles per month of walking!

The pink and rose colored sheep at the Eskdale Sheep Show! Random and amazing!!

6. We didn’t know what random amazing things we would see and do!  

The most impressive and random thing we got to be a part of was while we were in Edinburgh, Queen Elizabeth died in Scotland. We were at the Royal Mile with the huge crowd for her procession. We were too far back to see what was going on, but the crowd and the event was amazing. One of our nieces was in Edinburgh with a friend and we got to meet up with them and visit for a few minutes. They got up close and saw the procession and Royal family! So it felt like we had too! Lol!

The much lesser things that I have enjoyed is seeing public art in smaller non-tourist places. Unexpected art displays that were fun to see:

Dog mosaic outer London.

Mural art tunnel outside of Edinburgh.

Mosaic art in Newport, Wales pedestrian tunnels.

The Iron Men at the beach in Liverpool.

We have gone to lesser know properties and manor houses and museums.

We have enjoyed walks in local parks and flower gardens.

Being just off season as we came into September and October has been a plus for finding accommodations in apartments, hotels and restaurants.

Riding the ferry across the Tyne two times!

Enjoying milk in my tea!  Having a lot of cappuccinos with Darrell in cafes!

Scenic Bus and train rides.  Scheduled whatsapp calls with friends in the states. 

Also I have loved finding amazing trees, beautiful flowers, door knockers, details of architecture and design!! Darrell has been taken by doors and steps! 

Soup, Salad and Sandwich lunch at an Italian restaurant in Bowness on Windermere.

7. I didn’t know how much I enjoy English foods or what foods I missed the most from the US.

I have had plenty to eat and plenty of choices most of my time here. This plenty has meant that I have not been missing much. If I want something, I can usually find it. We have had some really fantastic restaurant meals and some not so great. It has been a learning curve to find what will satisfy both of us and suit our individual tastes.

Generally available here are lots of these cultural foods:  Turkish; Indian; Vegan; Italian; Spanish and English Pubs with food.  I’m laughing that I have Vegan as a cultural food, but it is it’s own culture here! Lol. We have eaten some of all of these. Some regions we have been in have had more of one culture available. Usually in all places we have found cafes with local products, produce, cheeses, butter, jam, preferred tea, and desserts. We have also been to a French bakery, and restaurants dedicated to Scottish, Welsh, English Coastal (Northeast, Northwest, South and Southeast), Hungarian and Thai. I’ve also seen Chinese and Vietnamese and probably everything else in London. Both Darrell and I have missed Mexican food the most. We generally tend to tire of Mexican in the US because it is so standard there. We have wanted hot and spicy and it’s difficult to find in most areas, but the Thai restaurant in Edinburgh gave us crushed red pepper on the side. It is possible to find some hot sauces at some stores, but we tend to eat such small amounts with specific dishes that we have not purchased it. This week we bought a small bottle of crushed red pepper, and we feel overdue for this and it’s our own doing. We went to a small plate place this week and one of our dishes was described as a chicken chili with a salsa verde on top. The salsa verde was basil pesto! We laughed because we were expecting tomatillo and it didn’t taste anything like that!

Breakfast is huge here and usually eaten late in the morning for us. We have mostly been cooking our own breakfasts here. The English sausages aren’t a favorite for either of us. Recently we had a couple of breakfast sausages left over from a huge Pub breakfast. I asked for a take-away for the sausages. The waitress said, ‘oh, these taste better cold anyway!’ Oh really? Well, she was right! We enjoyed the English sausages cold on the train trip! Bacon is more like thin ham here or meaty, hammy bacon. American bacon here is called Streaky Bacon. We haven’t missed it or purchased it while here.

It’s easy to get fried fish and chips (french fries) here. It is fast food and we avoid it, but have had our share of these meals. The fish is caught and cooked fresh. Darrell taught me quickly that I don’t have to eat all that fried batter!

There are a lot of chips or french fries here and often there will be a sweet potato option which I prefer. Soup of the day is offered with bread and butter as an appetizer. Usually it is Tomato or Mushroom. We have also purchased soups at grocery stores that are premade in the refrigerator section. The flavor combinations are different from the US. One I like is Carrot Coriander.

On our travels, we have enjoyed shopping and gathering fresh vegetables for a daily large salad. I make Italian dressing to go with it. Darrell has always enjoyed cheeses and crackers and I have eaten more milk and cheeses while on this trip than I do in the US.