England 2025

Whenever we venture to the northern hemisphere, every trip to date involves seeing  our family, usually in England and this time was no different, but it included the grandkids having school holidays, so some child minding would be keeping us busy, whilst their parents kept working.

First on the agenda of things to do with 3 grandies, the oldest 9, was taking them for an overnight stay down to Brighton.  

This meant trains to Brighton which they all enjoyed and sitting on a pebble rich… no actually an all pebble beach, the kids spent a few hours searching for special stones or hidden shells, or collecting items and throwing them into the ocean.

The famous pier in the distance

Now this is a beach and provides an instant bum 'massage'

The grandies enjoying the beach

In the distance the famous Brighton Pier was beckoning, somewhere none of us had been before and after paying the pier entry fee we ventured onto it, the kids eyes like tennis balls!  

Brighton Piers

Being school holidays it was busy, little kids dragging parents & grand parents every which way playing the games in a large halls trying to win something.

The rides peaked their interest and we promised 1 ride each.  The 9 year old was able to go alone on the ride of her choice and she enjoyed being flipped upside down and excelled at waving at us whenever this happened.

Our granddaughter upside down on
Brighton Pier and loving it!

The 6 year old twin boys had to be accompanied by an adult so there wasn’t going to be any ‘flipping’ going on, so we negotiated a more sedate haunted house ride which they had fun on.  

After an early dinner and back in our accomodation, showers sorted, they introduced us to KPop Demon Hunters on Netflix and the many songs they constantly wanted to sing along to.  We had a good time in Brighton.

We kept the next destination as a surprise and it was located in London.  More trains involved to reach it and we were soon standing in a queue at the ‘Mail Rail’ which is part of the Mail Museum… yes, all about letters and parcels!

The Mail Rail was a major surprise for everyone.  To learn more we needed to squeeze ourselves into mini tube like carriages, before being taken underground along very narrow tracks.

Squeezed into a tiny carriage underground on the Mail Rail

The deepest part of the track was ~20 mtrs with gradients rising up and down at each station to reduce the height of lift bags full of mail back to the surface and all the little trains were electric.

Original electric train used on the Mail Rail

Opened from 1927, it was used to quickly move letters and packages below London, when the city was badly congested above ground. It operated until 2003.  The network was 10.6 kms long and moved items between sorting stations before postcodes and was damaged by a bomb during WWII, but was back up running the next day.

    

One of the twins asked me, “what is a letter?”, a surprising question but understandable.

The rest of the museum was a wander down memory lane of how the handling of postage evolved over time with many interesting examples of how it was handled, especially using the UK’s extensive rail network, mostly at night.

Old UK mail van

Typically, we ‘disappear’ from underneath the feet of our UK family in their terrace house and explore other parts of the UK alone for 3-4 nights.

This time we decided first to go to the Isle of Man, a destination we had planned to visit during 2020 when practice week of the Isle of Man TT famous motorcycle race was on.  Covid put paid to that but here we were at long last, along with the rain and windy weather at this time of the year.

Buildings along the esplanade 
of Douglas on the Isle of Man

Who knew... the Bee Gees were born on the Isle of Man

The island has an interesting history involving the Celts and Vikings and is a proudly and independently a self governed entity.

Viking carvings in Manx Museum

Using a really well run and extensive bus network, we explored various towns like Douglas, Lakey, Ramsey, Peel and Castletown with Douglas being the capital of the island.  Each location had its own history, style and feel.

At various times, the bus travelled on sections of the 37+ mile course of the TT (Tourist Trophy) track, a race which has been run for 100 years on the island locals roads, quite often lined either side with old stone walls or buildings.  Having taken an interest in the race for years, all that can be said is that the racers are very brave and mad.

Sidecar display for the Isle of Man TT event

Big trophies for the TT event

Main attractions visited during our stay were the esplanade in Douglas, the Manx Museum detailing the islands Viking and Celtic history, the Lady Isabella Wheel, used to pump water out of the coal mines and the worlds largest still working water wheel.  The Lady Evelyn Wheel also used for pumping water out of a mine but since moved, Peel Castle, built over a 700 year period, starting in the 11^th century, and Castle Rushen, built 800 yrs ago for a Viking king.

Elegant buildings on Douglas esplanade

Lady Isabella water wheel

Lady Evelyn water wheel

Top & bottom are Peel Castle

Most of the attractions were closed however because it was out of season for the island and this included the Tourist Information Centre, but the island was still a delight and its people very friendly, especially when they noticed our accents.

The Viking Castle Rushen

We happened to be in London for Halloween, so we experienced the full gambit of activity from the purchase of pumpkins, carving them, grand children getting dressed up and Rob being coerced to join them as a witch before joining a larger group of parents and kids, hitting the streets trick or treating, mainly the latter.

A first... carving out pumpkins for Halloween

The final result

Rob as a witch with our
vampire granddaughter

We enjoyed some lovely warm mulled wine whilst it rained on everyone, well it is England in October/November of course, but we did enjoy the whole experience, and were intrigued by the mass enthusiasm of the English community to get involved.

The kids loved the whole thing

We loved the warm mulled
wine laced with amaretto 

Our final foray into new parts of the UK was a train trip to Lincoln for a 3 night stay.  Now we knew there was a Cathedral and a castle there, that wasn’t hard because those 2 structures are in many places throughout the UK but we were surprised with what we uncovered.

Like many English towns or cities there is an abundance of history to be found, and Lincoln is no exception. It is a city like many in England that was occupied by the Romans thousands of years ago and in fact in Lincoln there is a Roman archway, daily traffic still passes under and is one of the few locations in the UK where this happens.

Roman built arch road & traffic still pass through

Lincoln has a high street we followed which leads to Steep Hill, and the name certainly fits the reality of following an old cobbled road up a steep hill with very old narrow buildings on either side, most selling craft products to the undoubted tourists who visit.

Leaving the high street heading to the Cathedral

Its called Steep Hill for a reason!

Buildings either side at end of Steep Hill

As we walked up the hill, an old lady with a walking stick stopped us to have a chat as she headed to the post office. Very quickly she realised we were Australians and shortly afterwards we were learning all about her because she loved to talk.

She was proud of Lincoln and proud of its history plus she was a member of the Joseph Banks Society, Banks being a botanist and naturalist who accompanied Captain Cook on his voyage of discovery to Australia. Banks was also very influential in decisions by the English government to colonise Australia including with convicts. 

The old lady also told us about Matthew Flinders and his connection to the cathedral, as he was born nearby and recommended we look for the three military sections of the cathedral for the Air Force, army and navy where at depiction of Matthew Flinders could be found anchoring at Port Lincoln in South Australia.

Matthew Flinders is recognised
in Lincoln Cathedral

The Lincoln Cathedral is regarded as one of the four great cathedrals in the UK and it is massive. During our travels we have visited many churches or Cathedrals of various styles but it is unusual for us to pay for the privilege of these visits. We decided we would for this cathedral and enjoyed visiting its vastness.

Lincoln Cathedral

Small section inside Lincoln Cathedral

Another section inside the Cathedral for meetings

With a tourist map in hand we followed narrow laneways and roads to find a variety of old historical buildings and structures including Roman walls, buildings from the 15th and 16th centuries, an archway built around 200 AD and on top of it a 16th century building the Mayor lives in.

The arch is Roman built and the Mayor lives above it

Above the small river flowing through Lincoln is the High Bridge, which is the oldest bridge in the UK still with buildings on top of it, one of which we had lunch in that was built around the 1550s.

The High Bridge with buildings on it
and we had lunch in the black & white one

Almost adjacent to the Cathedral is Lincoln Castle, built from 1068, two years after William the Conqueror had taken Britain. The wall of the castle still exists, which we walked, but all of the original timber buildings built at the time are no longer.

Entering Lincoln Castle

Section of the castle wall

Two other buildings of bricks were built from the late 1700s namely the prison which is no longer used and the courthouse which is still used today to hear cases. We walked through the prison and visited the cells which were all designed as solitary confinement cells. The prison did have heating but prisoners were not allowed to talk to each other, so windows were kept shut, which led to a high incidence of prison fever.

Housed in a secure area within the prison, are two very famous documents we were keen to see. The first was the “Charter of the Forest”.  The "Charter of the Forest" is a 1217 document, issued by King Henry III, that restored rights to people who lived in or used royal forests. It granted ordinary freemen the right to access common land for grazing, gathering wood, and other purposes, essentially undoing many harsh restrictions from the previous reign of King John.

Were not allowed to photograph the Magna Carta or Charter of Forest
so this photo is copied with thanks from the 'Visit Lincoln' website

The second document we were keen to see was the Magna Carta, also created for use in 1217 after King John originally agreed to its contents but then later renounced it via a decree by the Pope at the time. The Magna Carta in Lincoln Castle is the oldest of four remaining original copies and Lincoln Castle is the only place in the world you can see this document alongside the “Charter of the Forest”.

Also in 1217 was the second battle for Lincoln Castle. This was a critical time in English history because it was when the French were defeated and this led to the French leaving England for the final time. It is considered as one of the major changes in the course of English history.

Lincoln Castle was also famous for a period for its public executions on the wall of the castle. Crowds of people at the time numbering near 20,000 would stand outside the wall to watch these events. Thomas Cook started his tourist business in part by organising groups of people from other parts of England to visit Lincoln to watch a public hanging, finally stopped by law in 1868.

We walked the castle wall including where
public executions were conducted

After having a wonderful time with our family in the UK and visiting new locations during this visit it was time to move on yet again and explore other parts of Europe.

CLICK HERE if you want to see more UK 2025 photos

Considering it was now mid November and the weather was changing where we were travelling to next, we were confident it would truly be an example of the now famous, Game of Thrones expression… ‘winter is coming’!