Our travel reflections

Emma's reflection

My reflection is this entire blog! I started working on it in July 2025 in the lead-up to our trip to the UK on 18 September, and I completed it on 13 April 2026, six months after arriving home.

With hundreds of photos, over 140 pages and posts, and around 35,000 words, it has been a huge project! I have thoroughly enjoyed reliving each place we visited to keep the memories of our trip alive.

I've always wanted to go to the UK, so it sometimes feels a bit surreal that we actually went. It's nice when little reminders pop up in day-to-day life unexpectedly, confirming that we did actually go! This blog will serve as a reminder of so many of the little details that would otherwise have been forgotten over time.

Further down this page is a list of places to visit the next time we get to go to the UK - better start saving!

Don't forget to check out our favourite photos, travel map and trip statistics too.

Sienna's reflection

Since returning from the UK Sienna has handwritten a journal reflecting on our trip with hundreds of photos and souvenirs like coins, tickets, receipts and postcards. Below are a few pages - check out how thick it is!

Bridie's reflection

Bridie has posted lots of photos from our trip on her various social accounts, but my favourite is her adventure.with.arlo.the.dragon account - below are some images of Arlo. Arlo is a dragon plushie who travelled around the UK and to Paris with us, as well as to Canada with Bridie in mid 2025.

Places to return to

On our travels we took note of places we'd like to come back to. Some of these we had planned to visit but ran out of time, others we found along the way. This list will be a great starting point for our next trip to the UK and Paris!

  • More exploration of London, including the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, Sky Garden, Tower of London tour, Regent Street Christmas lights, ride on the London Eye, climb Big Ben, London by night bus tour, Underground tour, British Museum, Bridget Jones apartment filming location, London Transport Museum, Millennium Bridge, Royal Observatory Greenwich (the drime Meridian line), Postal Museum, Charles Dickens Museum and the London Archives
  • More exploration of the UK and Europe by rail
  • More exploration of Paris, including visiting landmarks along the River Seine and climbing the Arc de Triomphe
  • More exploration of Cambridge
  • Kings Lynn and Lavenham – family history locations near Bury St Edmunds
  • More exploration of Colchester, including the Sutton Hoo archaeological site (The Dig movie)
  • More exploration of Brighton
  • Canterbury
  • Royal Tunbridge Wells (family history place)
  • More exploration of Cornwall, including coastal walks, St Ives, Port Isaac (Doc Martin filming location), Merry Maidens Stone Circle, Carn Euny Ancient Village, Mousehole and Truro
  • Glastonbury Tor and Chalice Well
  • Cheddar Gorge (site of the oldest human skeleton discovery)
  • Uffington Castle and Whitehorse Hill
  • More exploration of the Bristol area, including a look inside the SS Great Britain (family history location)
  • More exploration of the Cardiff area
  • Roman baths at Bath
  • More exploration of the Cotswolds area, including Bibury, Upper Slaughter, Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water, Stow yew door, Gloucester and Stratford-upon-Avon (Shakespeare’s birthplace)
  • The Beatles locations and tours in Liverpool and London
  • Peckforton Castle (Worst Witch filming location)
  • Chester
  • Lake District
  • More exploration of Glasgow
  • More exploration of the Greenock area, including Paisley and Houston and Killellan Kirk (both family history locations)
  • National Wallace Monument
  • Ride in a narrow boat on the Falkirk Wheel and travel around UK's canal system in a narrow boat
  • Linlithgow Castle
  • More exploration of the Scottish Highlands, including Glenfinnan viaduct and the Jacobite steam train, Loch Ness, Eilean Donan Castle, Skara Brae Prehistoric Village and the Isle of Skye
  • More exploration of Edinburgh, including seeing inside the Writers’ Museum and climbing Arthur’s Seat
  • Melrose Abbey (the resting place of Robert the Bruce’s heart)
  • Walk the Lindisfarne causeway to Holy Island
  • Hadrian’s Wall walk
  • More exploration of Whitby, including 199 steps, Captain James Cook Museum, Whitby to Robin’s Hood Bay clifftop walk
  • More exploration of York - including Jorvik Viking Museum, York Ghost Merchants, city walls, ghost tour, York Minster
  • Knaresborough
  • Yorkshire Dales, including Grassington
  • Map image adapted from Location map of British Isles by Paasikivi on Wikimedia Commons

    Map pin adapted from publicdomainvectors.org

    Traveller's Pen compass logo by Stockcake

    All other images by Traveller's Pen