After much anticipation, our adventure is underway! After a tearful goodbye at the airport (many thanks to two of our friends for dropping us off!) we boarded the nine-hour overnight flight to London. Despite some effort on my part, no sleep was had on the plane, but I did enjoy watching King Richard (highly recommend!) and a few episodes of Friends kept me occupied while we waited for our gate to free up after landing.
Switching between terminals at LHR isn’t ever a fun time, but we had significantly more faff than expected as our bikes were not transferred to the next plane and were instead waiting at baggage claim (I’m so grateful we spotted them there before carrying on!). We proceeded to cart a bike box and a bike bag through various barriers, elevator and train doors, none of which were wide enough to fit the trolley with bikes on. Each time we needed to remove the bikes from the trolley, pull the bikes, trolley and our carry-on bags through whatever obstacle was in the way, and then re-load. We were enormously grateful to reach the oversize baggage check by the end!
We were picked up at Manchester airport by Jacob’s parents and whisked away to where they are staying in Hayfield, a small village in Derbyshire. A shower each and a tasty dinner later and we were ready for a nice long rest.
Since arriving in Hayfield, we’ve had the chance to explore several walking trails (which would probably be classified as “hiking” in Canada, but here everything is considered “walking”!), including up Kinder Scout, the highest point in the Peak District. We’ve also had some lovely meals courtesy of Jacob’s dad and a sampling of some of the local pubs. We’ve also come across lots of lovely sheep, which I exclaim over and no one else seems particularly interested in (my very best sheepie friend is pictured below!).
Here are a few lists of culinary explorations and other observations I have made in my first few days here.
British food I have tried thus far:
- Pork pie
- Bakewell tart
- Parkin
- Staffordshire oat cakes
- Roast dinner (feat. Yorkshire pudding)
- Beans on toast
British food I have yet to try:
- Pasty
- Cream tea
- Full English/Scottish breakfast (feat. black pudding)
- Haggis
Things I have learned about the UK (the countryside, at least):
- The roads are very narrow, and people drive very fast. There is little room for parking, so drivers often park half on the sidewalk and half on the road (in either direction, regardless of which side of the road they park on!). There are few sidewalks.
- People ask you “Are you all right?” as a greeting, in the same way I might say “How’s it going?” It took a bit of getting used to as I would generally ask someone this if it looked like they needed help (e.g. on a hike)
- All pubs have one of several names: the Pack Horse, the Bull’s Head, or the Red Lion
- Daffodils are absolutely everywhere! What a lovely start to spring.
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