Where do I even begin?! This trip was definitely one to remember. We miss our family there so much already and we’ve only been home 12 days!
We began our adventure by Visiting the little town my very own Grandfather was born in, Little Brington. It was just by chance our Aunt asked where he was from and a quick Google search later took us only 15 mins down the road from their place. We couldn’t believe it! The local pub had photos with my Great Grandfather in them, and we lost count of the Family headstones we found. It was an amazing day discovering some of the families past, a day I’ll never forget.
We soon met up with our best friends Ash and Drew in London. We played tourists for a few days while they showed us around. It was so awesome catching up with your best friends on the other side of the world!
Then on to Bath where we immersed ourselves in a bit of Roman History. What a beautiful town this was. If you ever have the opportunity to head down this way then we can highly recommend it. Being Christmas time the streets around were surrounded by beautiful little Christmas Markets and festive lights which made it even more magical.
We made our way through Wales next, soaking up all the green, hilly, views until we came to Caernarfon Castle which was an amazing look into history, then later onto Conwy Castle.
As we approached England again we began to see what we had been waiting for. Those snowcapped mountains! They were just ahead as we came up to The Lake District. This is where we found our first Hike of the trip. We found snow, waterfalls, creeks and peaks. It was so beautiful, as you will see.
The next day we had arrived in Scotland. Where we found bigger Mountains and much more snow. There was so much snow on Ben Nevis, as we stepped I sunk almost up to my knees. But the views up there were magic and the Hubs didn’t mind seeing where the Downhill World Cup is held too. It was 0 degrees, the roads were slippery and the car had to be scraped of ice, but it was one of the most beautiful places we had seen and definitely up there with the favourites.
We made our way from there over to Edinburgh Castle. We read about a lot more war history, walked through the Prisons and Dungeons, saw the Crown Jewels and the 1 O’clock gun. It’s definitely an experience for sure. On our way back to the car we walked through Edinburgh Christmas Markets for a bite to eat and a little browse before heading to the airport for our flight to Ireland.
After landing in Dublin at 10pm and realising we had no coins for the Parking Meter, we began our late night walk about through Dublin City. We were on the hunt for an ATM and then a corner store to change 20 euros into coins. Not our finest adventure, but an adventure still.
The next day we began our big drive of the South of Ireland. We started heading straight through the Wicklow Mountains which was quite picturesque. A lot of the rest of our trip through the middle of the South was foggy and hazy and slightly eerie, but beautiful non the less. Making our way through Cashel, Cork, Killarny, Sneem, Portmagee & more - We did as much of the Ring Of Kerry as we could fit in our trip. Then made our way to Galway and then straight across to Dublin, ready to fly home for Christmas. This was a lot of driving in 4 days, thank goodness for the full insurance on our hire car with the way Bryce was gunning around.
We made it back Christmas Eve ready to Celebrate with Family. Being welcomed in with open arms and leaving with full bellies. We couldn’t have had bigger grins on our faces. These are the memories we will cherish for a years to come. Christmas night we were introduced to ‘Gavin and Stacy’ The Christmas Special, lets just say we’re now a little bit hooked since we found it on Stan in Aus ha.
At some stage between Christmas and NY (you know that time where you have no idea what day it is) we did some local exploring in Stoke Bruerne was a perfect way to walk off all that extra Christmas food and wander the cutest little boat town.
Then came NYE and our Uncles 50th. It was the best way to end our trip. Surrounded by friends and family in a house filled with love and laughter. This definitely made it so much harder to get up and go at 5am to catch our flight home. But we know this isn’t goodbye, just see you later Slatters x
